Sunday, September 8, 2013

One Thing After Another

Summer has come and is nearly gone, the sun dawns later and will be setting sooner as the days get shorter and fall approaches. This means I'm already commuting to work in the dark and soon enough my commute home will be the same. I have the gear to handle such daily slogs but my bike is lacking a bit of kit. The stock headlights are fine until I encounter oncoming traffic, then I'm pretty much riding blind, I have to hope and trust I don't come upon any roadkill (raccoons, possums, nutria, coyotes) or other hazards in the road such as shredded truck tires, mattresses or a 5 gallon bucket of oil strewn across two lanes of a busy corner. (Thanks for the warning Andy).

To combat this I visited ADVMonster and placed an order for their Model 30 Spot Light and Model 44 Flood Light to mount to my crash bars.

Now all I had to do was wait. I ran the bike low on fuel as I knew the tank had to come off to run wiring for the lights. Friday came and my lights were still in transit so I removed the tank and proceeded to do a radiator flush and coolant change. Triumph designers brilliantly placed the fuel tank on top of the radiator cap so to flush the radiator one must remove the battery to remove the tank, drain the coolant, flush the system, fill, reinstall the tank and battery to run the engine to operating temperature, let the bike cool, remove the battery and tank, drain, fill, reinstall the tank and battery, run the engine, let the bike cool, remove the battery and tank, drain one more time before filling with coolant. So this procedure took up all of Friday morning and the garage smells of fuel and coolant, but this service was done.

My lights came in Friday afternoon so like a happy boy I skipped down to the post office to fetch them.

They look like very nice lights at a reasonable price, I read many good reviews on several different forums. I watched YouTube videos of riders demonstrating their newly mounted lights and I was anxious to receive mine and get 'em mounted... but how?


Spot on the left/Flood on the right
ADVMonster LED Lights
I pondered how to mount these and drove all over town buying several different pipe, conduit, cable, wire and bar clamps before finally discovering ground clamps! They gave me a good solid base and a perfect pivot point to attach the housing bracket.



Lowe's online photo







I spray painted them black and attached them to my bars. Mounted the lights and ran the wires up into the dash to power and a new switch I picked up at Napa Auto Parts. I relocated my Hot Grips switch to access the factory blank in the dash so it looks stock.

I installed the battery, checked and double checked the wiring making sure everything worked then decided I better check the air filter while the tank is still off. Got it cleaned, re-oiled and installed.

Now to button everything up, I put the tank back on one last time, plugged in the fuel pump and attached the fuel lines...... SNAP! What was that?!?


I knew what it was but I was afraid to look.


$($%(*!$*^%)@)$%*)$#*%^%(#!#)@$%! A broken fuel fitting!


The bottom fitting is not so fitting.

If Triumph has an Achilles' Heel, it has to be their plastic fuel fittings. There was a recall and they would replace the male elbow fittings but not the female fittings in the tank itself. So when they break, you're in for a bit of surgery to get the plastic threads out of the metal flange. You can read the surgery procedure and what I'm in for at The 520 Chain Cafe. Thanks for the write up Joe C.

I'm in search of the metal fittings now and since the bike is out of commission for another week or so while I wait for the parts to come in, I have an email into my friendly local mechanic to see if he'll fit me in for a valve adjustment. With my luck recently, I'm not going anywhere near the inside of the motor. I already have one bike in pieces, I don't need another one taking up space.



Bad is never good until worse happens.  ~Danish Proverb

27 comments:

  1. Troubadour....Brad, damn that is a tough break, the fitting breaking. I wonder if the folks at McMaster-Carr had something similar that is metal?

    Sounds like the designers at Triumph went to the same school of "ease of maintenance" design that the Suzuki folks did. I have to remove the fairings, seat, tank to get at the air filter! Oh, and if you want to get at the top valve covers to check clearances, more has to come off! In some ways, URAL and the airhead Beemers are way easier to work on! Then again, with URALs, that's a good thing! ;0

    hope you find the fittings.

    dom

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    1. Thanks Dom, I found the fittings at QuickCouplings.net and I placed an order hoping they'll be here by Friday. I'll definitely bookmark McMaster-Carr's page, looks like they may come in handy the next time I touch something.

      I figured since the bike was torn down all the way to the air box, I may as well have the valves inspected and save some re/re labor. My next bike just might be a (gasp) BMW.

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    2. I can't speak to the modern BMWs, I hear they're so modern you really can't work on them but other than hearsay.....now a pre-95 Beemer I would highly recommend!

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    3. I'm about done working on bikes, so modern is a good thing, it keeps me from thinking that I can work on it.

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    4. Troubadour:

      I don't do any of my own work. Like you, I tend to over torque and break things. I found an independent mechanic who knows Beemers so Maintenance is a bit more as you have to do the "spline Lube & brake fluid flush" every two years or you "may" have problems. Oil changes are 10,000 kms using full synthetic oil

      I had zero problems on my trip and it was very nice to not have to lube my chain every day

      bob
      Riding the Wet Coast

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  2. Troubadour:

    I can't understand with such a weak part why they don't have a replacement "in stock". Hope you get your part in a week and that they don't back order it.

    Those look like nice lights. You can never have enough light during the dark season

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Our local shop may have it in stock but they are closed until Tuesday and I'd hate to wait until then to find out they don't, only to order them online anyway. This way I'm two days ahead, besides I can't get down there until Friday at the earliest.

      I'm looking forward to the illumination.

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  3. Don't you just hate that. Damn cheap plastic.

    Whats wrong with triumphs engineers when they make something that difficult?

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    1. Bikes have to be esthetically pleasing to the eye; if bikes were designed as function over frosting then we'd all be riding Urals.

      I'm starting to wonder if the ethanol in the gas made the parts more brittle than normal.

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    2. Oh you use ethanol fuel, you naughty boy. Nothing but premium hi octane fuel goes in my bike.

      That shit will eat out all you hoses and plastic parts.

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  4. Too too bad about the fitting breaking. I think some of the hard plastic they use get brittle with age and are somewhat flexible when new (during the warranty period). Those lights look pretty good. Are you putting in their dimmer with the high beam bypass? That looks like a slick system.

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    1. I thought about the dimmer and read about the highbeam bypass but I want them on full power with my low beam. I bought the spot to mount on the left side and the flood on the right with the idea to aim the spot forward and low while the flood is aimed at the shoulder/ditch.

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    2. I'd be really interested on how that combination works out. I had just ordered LED fog lights since I wanted something that I wouldn't have to dim for approaching drivers. I may want to supplement it with something like you installed for use with the brights.

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  5. Triumphs eh? We had a certain 800 break down on us on Saturday so I discovered a little about some silly design decisions. But then I guess that's not just a Triumph thing.

    Interested in how the new lights go when you have everything sorted!

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    1. All bikes have their idiosyncrasies and we just learn to live with them.

      I'll do a write up on the lights in the next couple of weeks or so.

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  6. Bummer. The lights however look awesome. Did you also change the bulb of the headlight? Back on the Wet Coast I had H4 on my Vespa and it made all the difference in the dark commute. Of course it is illegal in Germany as it may disturb texting drivers.

    Up for the Beemer cool-aid? Guido has also gone from Triumph back to the dark side.

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    1. The previous owner had 80W H4 bulbs in the bike but I had to replace them with 55W bulbs as they would draw too much power once I added heated grips and my heated liner. That is why I had to go with LED lamps, to keep the draw down.

      BMWs do look tempting....

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  7. I wonder if I can buy these lights in the UK?

    QD fittings = quick destruct....

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    1. I think I read somewhere on ADVRider that the lights are made by another company, Cree sounds familiar. Check ADVRider for auxiliary lights, lots of information on there.

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  8. Sweet lights! I'm looking forward to hearing how they work out for you.

    Man, does that suck about your fuel fitting though. I hope that repair is as painless as possible.

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    1. Thanks Lucky, I'll get on the repair soon and do a write up.

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  9. That's too bad about the broken fitting. I am curious about how well the lights work for you. Be sure to keep us informed after a couple of late night rides. I'm looking at adding either HID or LED lights to my bike. I would either need a custom bracket up by the mirrors, or mount them down on a front fender bolt/bracket.

    I'll have to do a little research on that brand of light..

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    1. Check ADVRider, lots of reviews on several different lights. I'll let you know how these work out.

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  10. Well that sucks!!! The lights look pretty though.

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    1. It does suck, but it wouldn't be me if something didn't go wrong.

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  11. Hope you are back in business soon (another reason not to do any work myself - thank you.)
    Am interested in your opinion of the lights when you are back on the road.

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    1. I have the bike at the mechanic's getting the valves done and fresh fork oil. It was best I stopped while I was ahead and let someone else work on it for a while.

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