bigmac72

Want one, have one, need one, no need for one, silly idea, dumb idea, great idea... opinions are like sphincters - everyone's got one. Now it's time for me to loosen my mine and tell my story. I had a nasty step off but was lucky to walk away with mostly superficial injuries after a tank slapping episode while swerving and pulling up hard over some rough bitumen. It had never happened to me before. The front end of the bird is very stable and true to line (just like many will tell you) however the fact is it happened. I had a multitude of things checked out like steering head bearings, tyre pressure and condition and front forks etc etc... All that aside I decide to install a Hyperpro bracket and a WP damper down the left side of the frame. I'd started to wonder if I'd done the right thing or wasted my money too. A few nights ago I had a close call with a feline just round the corner. I wasn't doing more than 50km/h but I reacted way too quickly and pulled up hard with way too much front brake. The front tyre skidded, the back tyre skidded (of course) but the bird stayed true to line. On an aside two other issues: - I'm really happy with the grip and wear on my Michelin Pilot Roads. I'll never go back to Dunlop even if they were free. Excellent performance in the wet and when still cold. Apart from silly fitment problems that took ages to sort out with Hyperpro. Not so much an issue with Hyperpro but more so the Australian Distributor is staffed by a bunch of tools. I eventually solved these myself by re-manufacturing the bracket and the bike's frame a little (shaved a little out of a bolt hole). My dealer was very helpful and offered to accept the product back for a full refund however that wasn't what I wanted. I waited months and months to get it so I wasn't about to give up easily.

Riding around the block...? I'm sure that the environmentalist persons might not be too pleased with all that glycol splashing out around your place... I suppose I'm lucky that our local government has free (paid for it somewhere I guess) liquid waste disposal centres. I got myself a Haines manual that explains it every detail. All with pictures and simple words for a knob like me.

Thanks for all your replies. It is a gummy muck. I agree with all of you that splitting to clean or replacing the tank is too drastic. Surely one would think that if it can go in then it can come out.

My bike has been back and forth to my dealer a few times in only so many months to have the carbs cleaned and the tank flushed. It seems that I may have put in a load of bad fuel from somewhere which has left in some contaminant that is proving very difficult to flush out. The muck is blocking the jets on the carbs and starving the engine of fuel. We have tried a range of fuel system cleaners to clean out the tank. Now my dealer has turned around to say "whatever it is it seems like its not going to come out - you need to buy a new fuel tank..." Surely this can't be right. Just to square it away - I don't use jerry cans, I changed fuel company and service station hoping this would help to prevent re-occurence. Any suggestions?

I'll second that. Installing an automatic oiler is for trouble free operation and long-life. Without an oiler on this bike I maintained my stock chain every fortnight with a full kerosene clean, dry and re-oil. I managed to get almost 33,000km out of it.

Not for the faint hearted and exercise extreme caution. Depending on what made the stain (chances are you don't know so you might need to try a few different methods). Oily stains can be removed with ordinary kerosene or petroleum. Petroleum products can be found in most waxes and polishes on the market. Try soft rubbing with bicarb and water. Not only great for battery terminals but also good with unknown stains too. If the stain is from hard water calcium deposits are best removed using acids. Start with vinegar (acetic acid) first and progressively work through to stronger acids like lemon (add fine table salt for a little abrasion if necessary). I actually use a week solution of phosporic acid. You can buy it from a hardware store. If the parts come off you soak overnight in Coca-Cola (it contains weak phosphoric acid amongst other things). Very good on aluminium (I'm from Oz) and stainless. With unknown stains you can try a non-acid wheel cleaner (but also use caution as although its not acid its still an alkali and will do a lot of damage if left on too long). Laundry powder (also alkali) in a just wet fashion can be softly rubbed on the stain. Autosol and Autosol fine are great for uncoated metal and so is metal polish from Meguiars. I have used all three in the showroom. The best method is to try a little and repeat often rather than pour on a lot which can lead to a lot of heartache.

I use two polishes for the bare metal on the bird. Autosol and Autosol fine. And Meguiars. (sorry, that's three). They will take out minor scratches and boot marks (even if nice and heavy). If you want that nice mirror finish afterward thats what the Autosol Fine is for.

Some pros Will make the surrounding area cooler Warmer exhaust is a better performing exhaust (according to my old physics prof who races a street car - he had a very technical explanation that I'll never remember - physics was never my strong point) = slightly better horse power. Cons Warmer metal won't last as long Wrap tends to hold moisture in after rain and washing and extra dew which which helps to rust out the underlying metal Conclusion: My brother and I wrapped the exhaust on an MR2 with turbo and whilst there was some better output we found ourselves replacing the exhaust after 4 months due to accelerated corrosion. Maybe we had bad luck, maybe it was our weather, maybe we didn't wrap properly maybe the orginal metal was crap. Maybe its just not worth it.