[4N099]

After getting tires mounted Saturday I put the rims back on the bike and decided to flush the urine samples that were in the front and rear reservoirs. Mainly because after pulling some bodywork I noticed the rear was pretty much sitting on the lower level, which may have been the reason for a slightly mushy rear pedal eh?

After running about 5 fills on the rear and 12 on the front I had some clean stuff in the lines so I took it for a ride and while the back was much improved the fronts were almost dangerous.
They improved a bit during the ride but not enough.

The mech who mounted the tires wiped everything clean with something from a spray can which he said was to remove the agent he used to help break the bead which was also applied with a spray can.
I took a clean rag and a bottle of alcohol to the rotors this morning before I left for work and removed quite a bit of black crud from them, set the lever at 1 instead of 2 and had good front brakes again. I don't know what he used but I don't think it cleaned anything so beware.

 

[CharlieS]

Glad you caught it without having an accident. Don't you think there are enough curves and surprises in the road without a tech from the shop throwing them at you, too? That's just crazy that they would do that. That would be like cleaning the rotors up with silicone to keep them shiny.
Thanks for the heads up on that one.

Try to keep cool........

---Charlie

 

[4N099]

First ride on new tires so I was taking it pretty easy anyway. First couple of brakings seemed like the old feel but first hard application with front only on a flat and there was minimal slowing no matter how hard the grip, rear worked great so I kept on until I got to a known steep downhill and voila, seemed like the fronts were better.
After the wipe down Monday morning it was like night and day. I was beginning to think the purge of the factory pee didn't make any difference and was considering new pads.

Kind of curious now as to what the guy used and I'll probably ask the next time I am up there. He seems like an amiable guy and after talking to him he appears to be a knowledgeable mechanic. Never used this shop before. Did a bang up job on the tire mount!

Hey, how's the service up there in St. Louie? I am smack dab in the middle of the Triumph Golden Triangle with El Dorado to the West and Engle's in KC and the St.L dealer to the East. They are all about the same distance give or take a few miles or half an hours time.

You stay cool too, it's going to be a sweaty one.

 

[4N099]

It also pays mucho dividends to check the air pressure in your new tires before you ride 'em if you don't mount them yourself, the dude that mounted them had them jacked to 40 in the rear and 42 in the front, cold max was 42 on both. I did some web searching since Michelin didn't seem to have a section that had the info without an inquiry and found a couple of bike sites where guys had emailed them on the manufacturer's rec'd specs for the PR2ct's and came up with them saying 32/35 so I set them at 33/36 on the first ride. Did about 50 miles on a hot day and checking the rear when I got home and it was sitting at 42 lbs and pretty damned warm to the touch. I dropped them down to a pound under the rec'd specs and rode them two days in hot temps and tonight after about 40 miles they were warm but not too hot and the rear was reading about 37 lbs.

 

[CharlieS]

Hey, how's the service up there in St. Louie? I am smack dab in the middle of the Triumph Golden Triangle with El Dorado to the West and Engle's in KC and the St.L dealer to the East. They are all about the same distance give or take a few miles or half an hours time.

I can't really answer that question for you. There's Donelson Cycle in St. Ann (stl suburb) and there's RPM on the Illinios side in Belleville. I haven't had service done by either. I do know that Donelson is about 20-25% higher on parts. They are a big shop that work on Ducatis, Triumphs, Yamahas,Hondas. I've even seen an MV Augusto getting picked up from their shop. RPM is a nice friendly little place with a loyal following. I bought my first Sprint ST from them back in December. It was a 2000, and they had it running very nice. I had a battery problem shortly after buying it, and one of the Steves ( there's two) set me up with a YUASA for half price. I thought that was very nice of them.
Sorry I'm not much help with that, but it's a fairly long drive for you either way.

---Charlie