[MikeS]

Clean with kerosene and lube the chain every week (you are?). Buy a DID chain (you have). Fit a Scottoiler, if you can live with the oil fling. Or all three.

Doubt that you can stop rust as you have such high qty of salt on your roads. Be interested to know what happens to your DID chain.

There appears 🤔 to be no such thing as a rustless or rust free drive chain that can be neglected.

Or, visit Fowlers Parts and buy the shaft drive conversion kit (avoid BMW Motorrad as their shaft drives seem to be built to fail), but it will ruin the look of your very pretty motorcycle.

well .... it depends what you mean by neglected 🤔. I do clean the chain with paraffin and lube but it's not 'every week'. That is done every 1000 miles (600 in winter), and intermediate lubing is done as required. On the Africa Twin there is a countdown Tripmeter which no-one has found a use for. You can choose a trip mileage up to 999miles, enter it, and as you ride this counts down to zero. It would be nice if it gave a nice dinging sound when it got there, but instead it just keeps on counting negatively below zero. So on my Africa Twin with gold plated DID chain, this countdown tripmeter is what I reset whenever I do a clean and lube.
Yeah the shaft drive doesn't sound good but the belt drive is tempting
Mike

 

[SteveJH]

well .... it depends what you mean by neglected 🤔. I do clean the chain with paraffin and lube but it's not 'every week'. That is done every 1000 miles (600 in winter), and intermediate lubing is done as required. On the Africa Twin there is a countdown Tripmeter which no-one has found a use for. You can choose a trip mileage up to 999miles, enter it, and as you ride this counts down to zero. It would be nice if it gave a nice dinging sound when it got there, but instead it just keeps on counting negatively below zero. So on my Africa Twin with gold plated DID chain, this countdown tripmeter is what I reset whenever I do a clean and lube.
Yeah the shaft drive doesn't sound good but the belt drive is tempting
Mike

Your photo of the DID chain on the Honda was revealing. Very nice condition. I am still using the original plain OEM chain and sprockets on my very low mileage T100 (I have two other bikes so rotate their use). The slightest wiff of damp and the chain spots with rust if I forget to apply copious amounts of the Wurth Dry Chain treatment. I occasionally use a soft brass bristled brush to polish off the rust after cleaning the chain with kerosene and a chainbrush. Seems like new now, but I admit that I avoid riding in bad/wet or winter weather. The roads around here have so much mud dropped by farm tractors that I gave up winter riding. We get salt too, but not as much as you do.

I did think about that word, before I used it. Not meant to point in any direction, nor any offence meant or implied. Maybe using the dreaded quotation marks would be helpful and "low maintenance" or "zero maintenance" would be better. Or perhaps not.

 

[MikeS]

Your photo of the DID chain on the Honda was revealing. Very nice condition. I am still using the original plain OEM chain and sprockets on my very low mileage T100 (I have two other bikes so rotate their use). The slightest wiff of damp and the chain spots with rust if I forget to apply copious amounts of the Wurth Dry Chain treatment. I occasionally use a soft brass bristled brush to polish off the rust after cleaning the chain with kerosene and a chainbrush. Seems like new now, but I admit that I avoid riding in bad/wet or winter weather. The roads around here have so much mud dropped by farm tractors that I gave up winter riding. We get salt too, but not as much as you do.

I did think about that word, before I used it. Not meant to point in any direction, nor any offence meant or implied. Maybe using the dreaded quotation marks would be helpful and "low maintenance" or "zero maintenance" would be better. Or perhaps not.

I did like that wurth dry chain lube for summer use. Very non-messy. But it seemed to be instantly water soluble so it was gone the first time I went out in the rain.
I've just put the Thruxton up on the bike lift, and double checked the number of links in the standards chain - for the record it's 100 INCLUDING whatever link you use. I wanted to double check because I have bought a 102 link gold DID and am now going to cut 3 links off it (They supply a rivetable link with the chain).
But I'm going to do a bit of work each day on the back end so it's back to pristine. Then R&G shock socks are going on, the DID chain is going on and all the exposed swingarm is getting sprayed with Waxoyl (and probably the inside of the rear wheel hub where the paint seems to have been damaged by the salt. I'm also thinking of masking off the swept area of the brake disk and spraying it to with Waxoyl or XCP, as some areas are showing red rusty - unlike the Honda's disks which are pretty immaculate after 32k miles and this their 3rd winter. Might take the rear abs ring off and do that too - it's looking like it has white corrosion on it, but I need to clean it properly to see. The rims and spokes are holding up incredibly well though which is great news.
Mike

 

[CafRacer]

But I'm going to do a bit of work each day on the back end so it's back to pristine

I know I've mentioned it before but if you've rode it in the salt I would definitely add check/clean the rear caliper to the list, the pistons are plated (or stainless) but mine still had some corrosion present, not to mention the pins. you'll have to remove the rear wheel but I'd do that anyway if you want to clean everything properly, while its off check the spindle is corrosion free and lightly greased, remove the chain adjusting screws completely, check for corrosion and refit with Copaslip. Also check the shock adjustment collars, they are only painted ally, I originally thought mine were just corroded from (previous owners) clumsy C spanner use but found they were rotten inside, I stripped the shocks and resprayed them.

The salt killed the plating on the rear sprocket as well, left it in white vinegar to remove what was left and resprayed it black, never thought it would last but two years later still looks perfect.

Not sure I'd apply Waxoyl or XCP to the unswept areas of the disk, with a bit of heat and centrifugal force it could easily migrate to the working surface. Saying that, I know what you mean about the ABS rings, mine had sort of a mottled look so I think I did wipe them lightly with ACF50 to restore the finish.
Glad your wheel rims and spokes are holding up, they are probably the hardest (and most expensive) things to restore if affected by corrosion, I just wish my bikes previous owner had been a bit more diligent with his cleaning and
protection routine.

 

[MikeS]

I know I've mentioned it before but if you've rode it in the salt I would definitely add check/clean the rear caliper to the list, the pistons are plated (or stainless) but mine still had some corrosion present, not to mention the pins. you'll have to remove the rear wheel but I'd do that anyway if you want to clean everything properly, while its off check the spindle is corrosion free and lightly greased, remove the chain adjusting screws completely, check for corrosion and refit with Copaslip. Also check the shock adjustment collars, they are only painted ally, I originally thought mine were just corroded from (previous owners) clumsy C spanner use but found they were rotten inside, I stripped the shocks and resprayed them.

View attachment 774651 View attachment 774650 View attachment 774652

The salt killed the plating on the rear sprocket as well, left it in white vinegar to remove what was left and resprayed it black, never thought it would last but two years later still looks perfect.

Not sure I'd apply Waxoyl or XCP to the unswept areas of the disk, with a bit of heat and centrifugal force it could easily migrate to the working surface. Saying that, I know what you mean about the ABS rings, mine had sort of a mottled look so I think I did wipe them lightly with ACF50 to restore the finish.
Glad your wheel rims and spokes are holding up, they are probably the hardest (and most expensive) things to restore if affected by corrosion, I just wish my bikes previous owner had been a bit more diligent with his cleaning and
protection routine.

aaaargh - that's horrendous on such an expensive pair of shocks. Mine seem like new at the moment, and since I won't be moving the collars ever, I'm going to slather them in grease - hopefully they will be under the sock-shocks.
Yeah I was going to do the rear brake after what you said previously.
I've decided against waxoyl having read some horror stories of people trying to get it off. So I think it will be xcp and acf50 and I will just have to do it a couple of times this winter.
Yes - in fact the sprocket on the Africa Twin (and the bolts that hold it on) are poor compared to the plating and materials Honda have used everywhere else so I bought a new one and applied plenty of xcp. I'm not really sure how that one is holding up under the gunge but if they corrode then I may take them off and paint them.
Mike

 

[SteveJH]

What are you using on your rims and spokes to keep them free of corrosion? What materials are they both ?

That is the one area on my T100 that needs close attention all the time. I tend to use a lot of Autosol (for chrome, steel and stainless steel) on my bikes. But not on the Suzuki Bandit. It never rusts anywhere. Use ACF 50 too (never spray it on, and only paint it on with a narrow long-handle brush), but nowhere near the brakes or disks of the T100 or R1200R.

 

[MikeS]

What are you using on your rims and spokes to keep them free of corrosion? What materials are they both ?

That is the one area on my T100 that needs close attention all the time. I tend to use a lot of Autosol (for chrome, steel and stainless steel) on my bikes. But not on the Suzuki Bandit. It never rusts anywhere. Use ACF 50 too (never spray it on, and only paint it on with a narrow long-handle brush), but nowhere near the brakes or disks of the T100 or R1200R.

hmmmmm .... maybe I'd better take a closer look then, but they seem ok by comparison to the spokes that Honda originally fitted to the Africa Twin. They ended up horrendous within two or 3 weeks of riding in the Uk. Their rims were fine as they were/are anodised. I think the rims on the Thruxton R are simply bare metal - the Rocket 3 rims are bare metal and have been very difficult to keep looking OK, so it is surprising that the Thruxton's have coped. I wipe then every now and then with an acf50 cloth, and I haven't put any soap near them since I got the bike.
Mike

 

[MikeS]

I've been cleaning up the back end before fitting the plated gold chain so I thought I would report back on the state of the components (after two longish trips on wet salt laden roads). Firstly yes I am a bit alarmed that the painted top collars of the Ohlins units may well blister. (I can't look back in the thread at the moment to see who pointed it out) - one of mine is showing early signs.

IMG_0545.jpeg

• MikeS
• 4 mo ago

But the wheel is, as I said above, holding up extremely well. I haven't even cleaned it in this picture - just wiped it with an oily rag. Now you may think the sprocket doesn't look very nice, but I can assure you that it is. Underneath that yellowish coat of xcp there is no evidence of black tarnishing which happens quite quickly on my Honda africa Twin. However, you can't see it in this picture but there are the first signs of rust on the cut-outs of the rear disk - Honda's disks are absolutely brilliant and show no rust even into their 3rd winter.

IMG_0548.jpeg

• MikeS
• 4 mo ago

I thought I'd end with the most disappointing aspect. The inside of the swing arm is already quite badly damaged by what looks like stone chips. Those black marks will not clean off. However, I think the resilient nature of hammerite might well resist stone damage, and there's an obvious area to mask off to paint. I'm going to use the hammered finish paint-on stuff so I can get it on quite thick. This approach worked really well on one part of the Africa Twin downtube that they forgot to paint.

IMG_0546.jpeg

• MikeS
• 4 mo ago

IMG_0547.jpeg

• MikeS
• 4 mo ago

I have cleaned up the shocks and coated them thinly with acf50 and fitted the R&G shock socks. These will stay on until May - but they do spoil the looks of the bike.
Mike

 

[CafRacer]

Firstly yes I am a bit alarmed that the painted top collars of the Ohlins units may well blister. (I can't look back in the thread at the moment to see who pointed it out) - one of mine is showing early signs.

That was me, if they are showing signs from the outside odds on they'll be much worse inside, if you want them looking perfect then stripping them down and respraying is the only real option.
I've had mine apart twice now, once to respray the collars and then again to remove the scraped up black plastic shrouds, I see yours has the clear ones already, my spring removal method, copied from someone on here, was a bit heath robinson using a ratchet strap but its not that difficult.

You can remove the shocks one at a time just on the stand or both together with a scissor jack on the rear wheel for support.
I definitely couldn't live with the look of shock socks, not on a bike like the Thruxton, but if its just for the winter they may do a job, or might just keep the damp trapped inside.

I've also got the same marks in exactly the same place on the inside of the swingarm, like the shocks and a few other things these were present when I bought the bike @ 3 yrs old, whenever I have the wheel out I'll wipe it over with ACF50 and they haven't got any worse in the last 2 1/2 yrs, but apart from the first year I don't ride in the winter any more and because they're not visible from the outside they don't worry me that much.
I haven't tried touching them up as I don't think its painted originally, may be clear anodised over the cast finish, but I suppose an exact match isn't important if its not visible and is just for protection.

 

[MikeS]

That was me, if they are showing signs from the outside odds on they'll be much worse inside, if you want them looking perfect then stripping them down and respraying is the only real option.
I've had mine apart twice now, once to respray the collars and then again to remove the scraped up black plastic shrouds, I see yours has the clear ones already, my spring removal method, copied from someone on here, was a bit heath robinson using a ratchet strap but its not that difficult.
View attachment 775207
You can remove the shocks one at a time just on the stand or both together with a scissor jack on the rear wheel for support.
I definitely couldn't live with the look of shock socks, not on a bike like the Thruxton, but if its just for the winter they may do a job, or might just keep the damp trapped inside.

I've also got the same marks in exactly the same place on the inside of the swingarm, like the shocks and a few other things these were present when I bought the bike @ 3 yrs old, whenever I have the wheel out I'll wipe it over with ACF50 and they haven't got any worse in the last 2 1/2 yrs, but apart from the first year I don't ride in the winter any more and because they're not visible from the outside they don't worry me that much.
I haven't tried touching them up as I don't think its painted originally, may be clear anodised over the cast finish, but I suppose an exact match isn't important if its not visible and is just for protection.

Strangely it looks to me like the side arms are spray painted silver but the big chunky part of the U looks like bare metal.
the spring compressor looks impressive but I would be worried about the bottom end eye slipping out of position when under load.
yes there is the risk of trapped moisture in the shock socks but I have found a neat way of getting acf50 around all the curved surfaces. A long strip of floor mop microfibre soaked in it then twiddled around everything. There are vent holes in the sock as well.
I bought a platform scissor jack for an amazing £25 and it’s been brilliant I can lift either the front or the back of the bike in seconds, and it was perfect for holding the back wheel in position for removing and replacing the rear wheel spindle
Mike

 

[CafRacer]

the spring compressor looks impressive but I would be worried about the bottom end eye slipping out of position when under load.

It was sat in a little hole chiseled out of the wood, although you do have to keep pressure on the top to keep it vertical as you compress the spring.

How was the brake caliper, pistons ok?

 

[MikeS]

It was sat in a little hole chiseled out of the wood, although you do have to keep pressure on the top to keep it vertical as you compress the spring.

How was the brake caliper, pistons ok?

Still to clean the caliper
Mike