Maintenance on Nanikore

Air Filter Replacements

Sun, 25 Sep 2016 01:10:58 +0000

Maintenance time. One of the side benefits of motorbike ownership are the odd bits of maintenance which need doing. You can get a garage / shop to do these bits of course, but quite a few checks and changes most people can do themselves. Even I can. One thing which I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks was to replace the air filters since they were due and it’s a simple task. What’s been annoying is that since I bought the new filters on Amazon JP, every day has been rained out.

This morning it was finally sunny, so out I went to get those filters swapped! There’s two parts to be done - the first is the main oval / cylindrical filter box, which is a metal mesh frame with the usual folded paper as a filter. The second part is a small sponge-foam piece, which sits in a nearby bracket. (In the Japanese documentation, they’re air cleaner boxes and sub air cleaner elements.)

On my CB400SF, it’s simple, and takes about 15mins, unless like me you were cleaning other parts since I had access, and most importantly, drinking tea.

Firstly, unclip the fuel hose just under one side of the tank, and then unclip a cable on the other side. You then have to remove the seat, and a couple of plastic panels, which are both held on by single screws - these cover the coolant tank on one side and some electrical cabling on the other on my bike. Then, remove the main bolt under the seat, and lift that whole fuel tank off. I always think the bike looks really odd without the tank.

As you can gather, this isn’t a how to - there are plenty of good examples of those on YouTube and other places, and I doubt I could add anything beyond pauses to drink tea and to answer questions from passing kids about why the bike looks odd.

On the photo below, I’ve clumsily labelled the main air filter and the smaller filter. After you’ve replaced those you can give it all a quick clean and reverse the process - just remember to get the tank sat correctly around the 2 nubs on the main frame, and not on top, though it’ll be obvious when you’ve gotten it wrong.

The second photo shows the old and new. I don’t have a picture of the sub-element as it somewhat fell to pieces when I I removed it, which shows it was definitely time to be done.

So that’s another job done, and this post is to remind me and anyone else to not forget the unsung air filters, and that it’s so simple even I can do it myself.

Batteries are, and are not, on Sale

Thu, 05 May 2016 22:33:44 +0000

It’s that sinking feeling you get when you haven’t been on the motorbike for a week or two, and you pull the cover off, turn the key, watch the rev needle pulse across, then hit the ignition button to hear a whelp and that empty clicking which tells me that this battery is not holding charge how it used to.

Actually, I’ve known for a while this day was coming, partly because when I put it on the Optimate at the end of December it didn’t give it a great rating, and partly because it’s now four and a half years old.

What to do? Well, what to do is to push the bike a hundred metres on the flat to the top of the hill near where we live, sit on it, trying to appear like just a normal, average biker, then start rolling the bike down that hill, let it get some momentum up and then drop that thing into second gear and hear it roar!

Perhaps not roar, but turn over for sure. At the very least.

This never fails - except for that one time when it did fail, when I’d had the previous battery, when I’d left it for far too long before replacing it, that roar moment never arrived, and I had to push the bike back up the hill to our house, where I then sat grumpily drinking tea for an hour wishing I was out on the road. Good exercise for sure, but not actually fun, per se.

The other times when it does work, you can then ride off and enjoy yourself and blissfully forget about that battery issue until after the next non-ignition, and another rolling start.

Not this time! No pushing motorbikes uphill again, I would actually do something about in a matter of days, not weeks this time.

I went off to NAPS to see what a new battery was going to set me back. NAPS is a motorbike superstore of sorts, selling clothing to tyres to mods and doing general maintenance works.

I’d done my homework of course - Amazon Japan had the battery model I needed for 10,500yen, but would take a week to ten days to be delivered, but I like buying local, and according to the NAPS website, I should come into their shop to check out the deals on batteries!

Indeed, deals there were. As long as you wanted Furukawa batteries. There were great deals on many Furukawa batteries. The only problem was that I didn’t want a Furukawa battery - they do make great batteries, they really do, but they’re expensive, and even with a 30% discount they were 20,000yen for my bike, when what I wanted was more of what I had - a basic GS Yuasa unit. Alas, GS Yuasa were not included in the great battery sale really, meaning my battery would cost me a little over 15,000yen. I don’t believe in using shops as a showroom and then buying online, but - it’s a battery, there’s an identical one in my bike already, and sadly 30% is a bit more than I’d usually pay for buying local.

Given the notes on Amazon, I expected to have to wait for a week at least. The battery actually arrived two days later. That’s pretty good service to be fair.

All that remained to do was pull the old one out, and put this new one in. On my model of bike it’s really simple - take the seat off, remove one screw, pull a flap down, then remove the battery and put the new one in. It’s as easy as that - literally a five minute job, depending on tea requirements and neighbours asking what you’re doing.

The moral of this story then is to perform regular battery maintenance (the Optimate has always been good it seems), and to buy a new battery when you need to. And yes, my bike is over a decade old and has this thing called a ‘carburetor’, having a flat battery with more modern injection systems can be more complicated.

I actually felt a little let down by NAPS. Their website, by not giving me a price on the GS Yuasa item, and recommending to go to the shop was a little false as there was no sale on that item. That said, this is business, and it’s always nice to browse in NAPS, and I did remember to pick up some chain cleaner I needed anyway. You got me.

Vehicle Scratch Woes

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:15:05 +0000

Not my usual type of post, and not really my area of expertise, as you’ll soon realise, but I have vehicle scratch woes.

We own two motor vehicles. First is my 400cc motorbike which I love getting out on and occasionally hug when I think no one is looking. I still maintain that if you want to see a country and meet the people, get on two wheels and off the beaten track.

Our second is a small Toyota Vitz (called the Yaris in many places) which we bought used last year. It’s basically the family runabout, and is used and abused around town and on longer runs.

The problem is our car - it’s picked up a few minor scratches, but thanks to someone in a car park who then fled the scene, there is a deep scratch around the rear passenger wheel arch which went through to the metal. After it happened, I quickly sanded the section down and got some paint from the local shop to just cover it to avoid rust.

At first I wondered how much a professional respray would cost, so I went to a couple of local places like KaKombini and Autobacs, and quotes were upwards of 50,000yen for the work (as usual, they wont put it in writing with a scope, sigh). For a seven year old car we bought quite cheaply last year, I doubt it’s worth it at this point.

I asked a car otaku friend what basic ingredients I would need for some patchup work, and went shopping for filler, rubbing compounds, paint polish, masking tape and such) and the right paint from Autobacs (one can and a pen touch up made by Holts) and some clear coat (specifically for metallic/pearlescent cars like ours). I think that cost about 4000yen.

First off though, a week or so ago I tried to get the main scratches filled with the filler, let it harden and sanded it back down smooth - this takes a couple of iterations, so be patient. For the less severe scratches it was just filler and fine sanding with masking tape to protect the other paint to prep it, then use the small brush.

I had a crack at spaying it on a morning off work last week, and this last weekend. That morning it was fairly warm, no wind, and with most of the car taped and covered in paper, including the wheel, I had a go at spraying, after making sure the whole area was clean.

I went with nice even strokes leaving a mist across the target area and remembering not to attack the worst places directly, but layer it up and though not perfect, it covered evenly and there’s no white filler visible so at a passing glance, doesn’t look too bad. (Note: the paint isn’t like a jet from 20-30cm away, so it’s important there’s no wind or you’re shielded.) The blend to the body colour isn’t perfect though obviously, since I didn’t spray too far from the main scratch on the wheel arch as that would have meant doing part of the door and I didn’t want to get that far with it, but I’m told that’s the better way to graduate the colours.

I did use the compounds though to smooth the transition line to the body colour, but since its a 7 year old car, that main body has faded, and its a ‘pearlescent’ (?) / metallic type paint, and it looked a little darker in places.

I then got the clearcoat on top at the weekend, and blended it a bit into the normal paint (and buffed it again a couple of days later). Don’t underestimate this topcoat and buffing - it made the whole thing far less noticeable, making the spray job appear lighter in colour - don’t skimp on this. Really, this was a step I hadn’t really thought about, but it really improved the whole look.

I definitely learned a lot though, so when attacking some other scuffs, hopefully I’ll get better at it, and keep it looking decent until we upgrade to something bigger in 2012.

I have to say as well, I was impressed with what I could hide / cover / ‘remove’ with the rubbing compound and the polish.

So why put these amateurish stumblings on my blog? Well, one because it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be to do, which often stops us trying things, and two, because I really think I learned something. There are hours of web video how-tos on this, but I found many were aimed at the enthusiast, or pushed certain products, but they do have some tips so look around. All comments appreciated.

(And yes, it’s good enough that it passed the main driver seal of acceptability).

\\ Note - sadly, no truly before and completely after pics, though I’ll post an after photo in a couple of days after I take one!

Waxing the Board

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 08:34:06 +0000

I just got in from almost an hour and a half on the balcony tuning and waxing the boards so we can send them to Kiroro tonight, in time for next weekend’s three day trip.

Standing on a chilly balcony may not sound like fun, but it’s worth it, partly because maintaining the boards is important, but also because for some reason I quite like it; I think it’s fairly therapeutic - I get a bit of fresh air, listen to my iPod at loud volumes, and check up on my favourite hardware.

Waxing and ’tuning’ a snowboard isn’t too difficult, although I suggest that doing it well takes a lot more effort and practice than I can contribute. There are lots of guides on the web though.

Today then I spent a lot of time on my board, and more specifically, my edge. The board is six years old now, and has become something of a war-horse. The edges are scratched and burred a little, and despite regular cleaning and drying after use, I’ve noticed little rust pits appearing in a few places. I decided then to break out a fairly small gauge file and get some of the pits out that the little red rubber-and-sand block wont. That took a while, but the edge gleams now, it looks brand new.

Whenever I wax my board, it’s like a trip down memory lane. I can remember where I got pretty much all the marks on it: the gouge I got three days after I bought it in New Zealand, piling down Temple Basin, only to snag a rock barely below the surface of the snow. Fortunately we filled it with plastic quite well and I haven’t had any more issues with it. There’s also the scrape along the top side, where an out of control beginner slashed across behind me and I lunged out of the way, only for her to rip my rear binding strap off, and leave a small hole in my trouser bottoms. It might not sound good, but had the timing been any closer, I think we’d have both ended up in hospital with broken limbs.

So the boards are now done, and I can double-check the binding angles, put them in their bags, and the great people at Seven Eleven will hopefully make sure they get to Yamato/KuroNeko and off to Hokkaido. Roll on Friday.