March 2009 - Posts

• Free chain adjustment and lube

  I see so many owners of motorcycles have to prematurely replace their chain and sprockets due to the fact they couldn't do there own weekly chain maintenance. At around $300+ for a sports bike chain and sprocket kit it's a part you don't want wearing out before it's due. A majority of these riders tell me that they knew their chain needed attention but they just didn't have the correct stands to jack the motorcycle up in the air or the know how to do the job. To solve the problem Everything Two Wheels are offering a free chain adjustment and lube service. All you have to do is ring us to book the bike in and we'll put your motorcycle up on the hoist and adjust and lube the chain and it won't cost you a cent! To book in for this unique and free service ring Everything Two Wheels on 03 9077 7312.   Posted Mar 29 2009, 09:13 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Free chain adjust and lube

• Michelin Motorcycle and scooter tyre sale!

  The Michelin motorcycle and scooter tyre sale is on right now at Everything Two Wheels. All Michelin tyres on sale come with free fitting. Prices are as follows: Michelin Pilot Road2 120/70/17 $220 Michelin Pilot Road2 180/55/17 $299 Michelin Pilot Road2 190/50/17 $309 Michelin Pilot Power 120/70/17 $220 Michelin Pilot Power 180/55/17 $307 Michelin Pilot Power 190/55/17 $311 Michelin Pilot City 120/70/12 $73 Michelin Pilot City 140/70/12 $84 Grab yourself a bargain. Ring Everything Two Wheels on 03 9077 7312. Posted Mar 29 2009, 01:13 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Michelin Tyres

• Suzuki GSXR750 fork seal, tyre and service

  What a busy day Saturday was! I normally don't get so many people walking in off the street just coming in to say hello and have a look around as I did today and what a day they picked to do it. I had a full day booked with an 18,000k service on a Suzuki GSXR750 that also needed a fork seal replaced and a new front tyre as well. I started off with the fork seal repair. Once the Suzuki was jacked up and safe to work on I pulled the fork leg off and went to work on replacing the seal. Pulling the fork leg apart on the GSXR is an easy job even though some guys will tell you that up side down forks are a pain to work on. Having the right tools is a big help and the Racetec fork vice I use is one of those tools that I just couldn't live without. Once down to it's individual components it was off to the degreaser bath for a full clean before reassembly. Bleeding the internal damper rod is a task made simple with the use of my Motion Pro bleeding tool and once it was bled up it was back on with the fork cap and we were done. Once the leg was back on the bike it was time to fit the new Michelin Pilot Power in a 120/70/17 to the front wheel. The owner is a track day junkie and what better a tyre for lapping Phillip Island than the Michelin. With the front end sorted it was on with the rest of the service. I expected this would have been finished around 3pm but with the amount of chatting I did to riders today it was close to 6pm before I finally managed to wave good bye to this one and close the doors on the shop. What a day.     Posted Mar 28 2009, 11:20 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Suzuki

• Italjet Torpedo

  It really was a tyre fitting day today. Wendy a longtime customer of Everything Two Wheels dropped by on her Italjet Torpedo in need of a rear tyre as well as a minor service. Although the parts are getting harder to find for this brand of scooter it all about who you know in the trade and where to look to find the required parts. Luckily enough the guys at GPS Imports are the people to see when in need of items to service this one. There also the Australian distributor of Sava scooter tyres too and what better a tyre to fit than a Sava MC26 in a 110/80/14. With the service done and the tyre fitted it wasn't long before Wendy was here and back on the road again. Posted Mar 27 2009, 04:04 AM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Sava tyres

• Pirelli scooter & motorcycle tyres

  We're now stocking Pirelli tyres on the shelf and ready to go for everything from a scooter to a sports bike. Yvette was here today on her Vespa LX125 and what better a tyre to fit than the Pirelli SL38 in a 120/70/10. Once she'd turned up it was a case of whip the old tyre off and fit the new one on. All in it took about 20 minutes from start to finish and she was back on the road and on her way to work before she knew it. If your scooter or motorcycle needs tyres and you want to fit Pirelli give Everything Two Wheels a ring 03 9077 7312. Posted Mar 26 2009, 10:58 AM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Pirelli tyres

• VTR1000F Headrace bearing replacment

  This is the same VTR1000F that featured earlier in the blog with the ‘nearly' snapped chain. After speaking to the owner once the chain was done he asked me what I thought of the bike. I gave it a check over and apart from a good service to make it feel fresh again I told him it also needed the headrace bearings replaced as it tended to weave along the road and wouldn't hold a straight line. He ok'd the repairs and it wasn't long before a new set of after market taper headrace bearing were here ready to be fitted. The taper bearings seems to give the bike a more stable feeling on the road and also only cost about a third of the price of the original Honda items. It's a straight forward repair and once the front end was removed all I had to do was insert the new bearings and it was ready to go back together. I finished off by doing the rest of the service and it was time for a road test. Replacing the headraces is one of those repairs that when you get on the bike for the first time after the work is done you think ‘wow, how was I riding the bike with the headraces so worn out'? It really does put the new bike feeling back into the bike. Posted Mar 25 2009, 02:01 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Honda

• VTR1000F Lucky escape

  Paul a new customer of Everything Two Wheels rang me Friday and said there was something wrong with his bike. He said he was riding along and there was an almighty crack sound and from there onwards something was making a crunch noise as he limped the bike to work. I told him to get it over here and I'd have a look to see what'd happened. A few hours later it appeared on a trailer out the front of the shop. Even as I wheeled the bike in the shop the crunch sound indicated something was very wrong. Once on my bench I couldn't believe what I saw. The rivet link that holds the chain together had burst open but upon closer inspection I discovered that the reason it had burst was down to poor installation when the drive chain had been replaced. Who ever fitted the chain had forgotten to rivet the joining link at all and it was only a matter of time before the chain would snap. Paul was lucky that the chain didn't come off and get caught up in the front sprocket breaking the engine cases open or worst case scenario is the chain could have got caught up in the rear wheel and caused him to crash. I fitted a new rivet link and made sure that it was installed properly. After quick test ride to confirm all was good I rang Paul and told him the news. This really was a very, very luck escape for the rider. Posted Mar 21 2009, 04:05 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Honda

• Not one Suzuki DL1000 but two!

  It's been Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom week this week at Everything Two Wheels with two of them here for services in the past three days. The first one was a new customer wanting a full 24,000k service and it got the works. The second one was a long time customer of Everything Two Wheels who was here for his 30,000k service. The DL1000 is a very nice bike to work on and I do enjoy these coming through the shop. They come apart with ease and removing all the bodywork, radiator and rocker covers to check the valve clearances is no problem at all. There's also an adjustment to the throttle position sensor that can be done to these that makes all the difference to the way the bike picks up in the lower rev range. Customer number 1 was so happy with the service he received when here for his service that he re-booked to come back and have a set of Metzeler Tourance tyres fitted today. If you want your Suzuki serviced and serviced right ring Everything Two Wheels on 03 9077 7312. Posted Mar 19 2009, 05:18 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Suzuki

• Bug Orion flat rear tyre

  I think we're starting to get a reputation as the premier scooter service center of North Fitzroy. The owner of this Bug Orion was in distress due to picking up a nail in his rear tyre. Being a shift worker and the scooter being his only mode of transport he was concerned that he couldn't get to work this afternoon. After trying most of the local scooter and bike shop in the area without any luck he ended up here at Everything Two Wheels. I had a Continental big wheel scooter tyre on the shelf and ready to go. It was a simple case of whip the wheel off and fit the new tyre. Half an hour later the scooter was all done and ready to be returned to the owner. The owner was impressed with the speedy service and very appreciative that he was going to make it to work on time.  All in a days work at Everything Two Wheels. Posted Mar 19 2009, 11:51 AM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Bug

• Second owner, 20,000k's & 2 years old. Is it warranty?

  Kent is the owner of a Sym HD200 that I serviced a few weeks ago. While it was here I noticed the water pump had a leak from the mechanical seal. I noted down the VIN number and gave the guys at Sym a ring to see if this was covered under warranty. With Kent being the second owner of the scooter and being a 2007 with nearly 20,000k's on the clock I wasn't sure if it would be covered. The news came back that Sym were more than happy to cover this issue and bare the full cost. The very next day the required parts were on the door step and ready to be fitted. From there it was just a case of booking the scooter in and replacing all the parts. A couple of week later and the HD200 was back and ready to be fixed. Later that day Kent was here and keen to get back on his way. And not only that, he didnt have to pay me a cent for the repairs. I think this is another example of Sym scooters and their excellent after sales service. How many brands out there would be willing to bare the full cost of a warranty claim on a scooter that's second owner, 20,000k's on the clock and 2 years old. Not many.      Posted Mar 14 2009, 10:56 AM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Bolwell

• Goodridge brakes lines for the Yamaha R1

  What a busy week it's been at Everything Two Wheels. It's been a good mixture of road bikes and scooters this week too. During the week Matt a long time customer of ours was in with his new R1. He'd decided that his 1995 CBR900RR was getting a bit long in the tooth and it was time to upgrade. And this Yamaha R1 came along at the right price and the right time. Matt wanted the bike given a full check over plus a service to bring it up to spec. One thing Matt did complain about was the soft feeling front brakes. Being a track day junky Matt wanted the brakes sorted and sorted properly. The best thing to do was fit some Goodridge braided brake lines. A quick call to the suppliers and the lines were here the very next day and ready to be fitted. After fitting the brake lines and doing the service it was time for a test ride. With the new lines fitted you could get the bike to stand on its nose using only two fingers on the front brake lever. Go the Goodridge. Posted Mar 14 2009, 10:33 AM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Goodridge brake lines

• Honda @125

  Honda make the best bikes and scooters in the world. Ok, yes I'm bias toward the brand being an ex-employee of Honda in Australia. But the quality built into a Honda is second to none and it's very evident when you take a close look at their models. The @125 here for a service is a good example. There may be other scooters in the market that cost half as much but you just don't get the same build quality that you do with a Honda. To make the point take a look at the service schedule. On many of the none Japanese made scooters the longest you will get out of a drive belt is around 10,000k. On the Honda you only have to replace the belt every 24,000k. This same quality and reliability is something that is ingrained right throughout the @125. In my opinion it really dose makes sense to pay the extra dollars at purchase time to ensure hassle free reliable riding. Posted Mar 05 2009, 05:27 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Honda

• Honda VTR250 36K service

  The last week in February was a quiet week indeed. It was one of those weeks where I kept picking the phone up to listen to the dial tone just to make sure it was still working. But now it's March and the phone is ringing again. Through the shop today came a Honda VTR250. These bikes really are the ideal city commuter. This one was here for a 36,000k service. We gave it the works. Also in need of attention were the bald rear tyre and the worn out chain and sprockets. Tyre wise there is limited options for the VTR. The best one to go for is the Bridgestone BT45 and after a call to the guys at Eurotread one was delivered on the next day's courier run. While we had the back wheel out we also fitted a JT chain and sprocket kit supplied by the guys at Link Accessories. Once this one was serviced I took it for a quick spin around the block to make sure everything was ok. It felt like a new bike again. Posted Mar 05 2009, 03:14 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: Honda

• Mr Natural's TGB Transcoot

  I wonder how many businesses there are around Melbourne running TGB Transcoot's? Since the collapse of Stoney Creek Power Sports I've had more and more commercial users of TGB's ringing me for servicing and repairs. Many owners have told me that the dealers they were using in the past either can't get hold of spare parts or have just simply washed their hands of the TGB brand leaving owners high and dry. The TGB Transcoot here today owned by Mr Natural Vegetarian Pizza was in due to the rider loosing the keys. After whizzing out in the van and collecting the stricken scooter it was a pretty simple case of fitting a new lock set which I had on the shelf and the scooter was ready to go. When the owner turned up to collect the scooter I told him what I do for other commercial users of TGB's and showed him around the workshop. He was impressed with how the operation was set up and how fast we'd repaired his scooter. If you're the owner of a TGB Transcoot and you're having problems getting it serviced or repaired, give us a ring. I'm sure we can keep your fleet on the road. Posted Mar 04 2009, 03:04 PM by E2W with no comments Filed under: TGB