October 2008 - Posts

• Silkolene Oil Stockist

  I’m now stocking Silkolene oils and products throughout the workshop. The Silkolene range of motorcycle products is one if the largest available. They have everthing from engine oil for 2 and 4 strokes, chain lube, fork oils, filter oils and a vast amount of other workshop products. Whatever type of motorcycle or scooter you have and whatever you use it for there is a product suited to your needs. Check out the product range at www.silkolene.com Posted Oct 20 2008, 05:50 PM by E2W with no comments

• Airbox speed holes!

  Airbox speed holes? What a crock. I wasn’t going to enter this one on the blog but after seeing a post about the subject on the forum I thought I’d give my 2c worth. I’ve never ever seen speed holes work in over 20 years of fixing motorcycles and scooters. Also the claims of some of the manufacturers of ‘Hi-Flow’ air filters make about their product border on false advertising. A Honda VTR1000F was in the workshop last week. The owner had bought the bike on a whim and was regretting the decision after finding that when the bike was hot it ran like a pig and would only to 80 kilometers to a tank of fuel. After talking to the owner the decision was made to give it a minor service to fix some of the run of the mill issues with the bike plus this would give me a chance to have a closer inspection of the bike with the body and panel work off. As soon as I started looking over this bike I found it had been a victim of internet born ‘go faster’ modifications that I’ve seen on way too many websites. The airbox was like Swiss cheese, a ‘hi-flow’ air filter was fitted and someone had put duct piping from under the headlight to the entrance of the airbox. I sealed up all the holes in the air box, removed all the ducting from under the fairing and fitted a standard genuine Honda air filter. The owner collected the bike around 5.30 that evening and rode away from the shop to make his way home. First thing the next morning the owner was on the phone asking what I had done to the bike? The bike was riding great, ran very smooth, had power right from low in the RPM range and was so much nicer to ride. In reality all I did was give it a service and put the airbox back to standard. Airbox speed holes just simply don’t work. Trust me!   Posted Oct 19 2008, 07:03 PM by E2W with no comments

• Conti's on a Beewee

  It seems to be a Yamaha Beewee owner thing! In recent months I’ve fitted lots of Continental Twist scooter tyres to Yamaha Beewee’s that have only had a few hundred K’s on them. Talking to the owners who’ve replaced the tyres they tell me the original fitment Chengshin’s seem to make the scooter vibrate when you ride along. I think the vibration is down to the fact the original tyre has a knobby style tread pattern. After fitting a set of Continental Twist scooter tyres the Beewee seems to ride much smoother. The Conti’s are also better equipped for dealing with the hazard of Melbourne’s tram lines. Posted Oct 18 2008, 10:46 AM by E2W with no comments

• Piaggio Fly 1st Service

  My blog has been pretty quiet of late. With the move to the new shop, moving house and still trying to do bikes and scooters between it all I really haven’t had time to sit in front of my PC at all. The dust has now settled and were back into the routine of fixing stuff again. One of the new Piaggio Fly 100 was in for a 1st service today. From a technicians point of view these things are great to work on. Nothing was a drama to adjust or remove and the way the main panel came off with just 3 screws gave superb access to check the valves. On the road test I was well impressed the way the Fly pulls away. You open the throttle and the thing does really fly. I think Piaggio are on to a winner with this scoot. It’s pretty nice. Posted Oct 15 2008, 03:52 PM by E2W with 1 comment(s)

• Not so super glue!

  I really have seen the worst in people over the last week or so. Last week it was a dodgy builder ripping me off big time with the renovations at the new store and then a couple of days ago the owner of the Domino’s pizza stores who’s scooters I take care of rang me and told me someone had put super glue in the ignition barrels of six of his scooters out side one of his stores. Who does this kind of sh*t? The only option was to replace the barrels with new items. On a positive note the guys at Stoney Creek Powersports did a top job on supplying the parts. When I rang them and told them the situation and I needed spare parts fast to get the stores scooters back mobile again they processed the spare parts order for the new barrels super quick and put them in an overnight bag to be with me in Melbourne the very next morning guaranteed. It’s nice to know that there are still some decent people out there in the world. Posted Oct 09 2008, 10:54 PM by E2W with 4 comment(s)

• What a week!

  What a week! The move to the new shop didn’t go to plan at all. The builders doing the renovations to the shop managed to cause more damage than the actually fixed. The tell tail signs were there I just don’t know how I missed them. The first clue was the builder’s names. I mean who would want two builders in your shop that were named Tex and Gringo? Then the way the pair of them would shout ‘YEEEHAAAAR’ and fire their guns in the air at any give chance plus instead of saying hello when they turned up of a morning (and I use the term ‘morning’ very loosely) they would greet me with ‘howdy partner’. But the biggest give away was the way if anyone else walked in the room the old ‘Fist Full of Dollars’ music would start up, you know the music that has that butch voice in the back ground going “HOO HA, HOO HA”. Yes I should have seen the signs that I’d hired cowboys that would put John Wayne to shame. Never mind. The builders have now been run out of town plus, the nice man from Optus was able to restore the phones (after 4 days without them) and the even nicer plumber (who charged me $2000 for the repairs) managed to stop the water from the burst water main that one of my highly skilled (and I use the term ‘highly skilled’ very loosely) cowboy builders managed to puncture causing a massive flood that pretty much destroyed the shop. On a positive note it did increase my street cred with the neighbors. I mean who else in Fitzroy has a 55 square meter indoor swimming pool? On a serous note the phone and power are now back on in the shop and Im sorry for the guys who have tried ringing or emailing over the past 5 days and got no responce. We are now back up and running and able to repair bikes and scooters once again. If you rang me over the past few days and couldn't get through please ring again. Cheers Pete  Posted Oct 07 2008, 10:28 PM by E2W with no comments