[mh09ad5578]

I'm a recent owner of a pre-worshipped superlow that I got last month from a fellow Bhpian @Dust_Harl. I'm using it as a daily driver in my small town (Chitradurga) and have already logged 800+ km on it.

The bike is in great condition but the other day while riding the rear wheel just lost air rapidly while driving luckily I managed to stop it. Got the puncture guy (i thought it was flat) but on inspection, he found that the tyre had weathered completely at one place and simply given way! on his advice, I drove the bike back to my home at about 10kmph (he said since it's a radial it was perfectly safe unless I hit the potholes which could damage the alloys and the bearings).

Back home (was really a nightmare trying to control the bike-it was just swaying this way and that- about 2kms) I called up Arvind (@Dust_Harl) and told him about the incident. He was surprised that the rear tyre gave way this soon but immediately shared his RSA no. so that the bike could be towed to Bangalore and briefed me about the possible costs involved.

I called up the service manager Hemant and he said that tyre burst/damage is not covered under RSA and unless the vehicle has mechanical/electric faults causing its immobility the RSA would charge me the towing charges! so the final tally I was looking at according to him was-

Rs 18000/- for the scorcher 11 tyre

Rs 2000/- Tyre changing charges

and Rs 10000/-odd as the towing charges!

Needless to say, I was shocked and miffed at the total amount and having to spend more than a day to get 200 km to Bangalore and back.

Researched a bit on YouTube and Google and found that there were more tyre options and that though the procedure was complicated to change the tyre, it was not impossible. Downloaded the tyre replacement and wheel alignment videos and went to my trusted car mechanic and showed him those and asked if he could do it. (he's pretty skilled in cars) He agreed.

Then started hunting for tyres both online and offline. Found that though there are a few options online (cheaper by Rs. 600- Rs. 1000) it would take about 15 days to deliver the tyre to my place. Now I wasn't willing to wait that long. So decided that I would put the MRF RevZ 150/60/R17 use it in the city and drive down to Bangalore when time permits and switch to options from Michelin or Pirelli.

The MRF dealer that I first visited was closed so moved to another place where I found that the dealer dealt in multiple brands and he has a catalogue which listed the Michelin Street pilot 150/60/R17 at an MRP of Rs. 6,600/-. This spiked my interest as the Michelin speed rating was an H (210 km/h) against the W (270 km/h) of the scorcher 11 and the risky T (150 km/h) of the MRF. Also, the load rating on it was the same - 300 kg for the scorcher 11 as against the 200 kg of the MRF. So decided there to go for the Michelin and asked for the final price and whether it would be available the next morning. The dealer didn't confirm the price but assured delivery the next day.

The next day (a Sunday) went to collect the tyre but it had not arrived from the transport office. So I drove down to the office and got the tyre (also got the original bill for it there!) The dealer price for the tyre was Rs 4055/-! he wanted to charge me the full MRP but I argued and settled the bill for Rs. 5600/- which was also the CSP on the list (customer selling price) the MRF was for Rs. 3700/- (online Rs. 3100/-).

On the way picked up my car mechanic Mr Praveen, his assistant, the hydraulic jack, tools and the torque wrench. We did a quick rewind of the videos and set-up.

-jacked up the bike on a hydraulic jack using a plywood piece in between as a spacer. (ideally, two jacks are needed and one in them should be for bikes- we didn't have these)

-stabilized it on a jiffy stand

-removed the first slip-on (needed to nut on support bracket and on the slip-on. also needed to loosen the bracket on the upper pipes and in the process needed to remove the upper and lower heat shields of the first slip-on)

-removed the upper metal and lower plastic belt cover( realized later the lower cover could be removed by only loosening the bolts and sliding no need to remove all the bolts)

-removed the brake calliper (supported it on the rear foot-peg-not to be kept hanging)

-loosen the safety pin and loosened the axle and removed the drive belt.

-removed the axle and slowly lowered the tyre.

-had to remove the brake disc and the belt sprocket.

-took the tyre to a wheel alignment centre and had it replaced and air refilled

-unfortunately nowhere in Chitradurga bike wheel balancing is available so had to skip it.

-redid all the steps in reverse to refit the tyre.

-greased the axle and using the torque wrench tightened it to 60 pounds per inch.

-using a steel tape did the wheel alignment

-checked the belt stiffness using the 45 degree technique (I think the belt is a bit loose though)

and Viola! it was done!

The entire process took two hours +1 hour for tyre replacement! but the bike was on its feet! My mechanic charged me just Rs. 500! Though I offered him more he just refused. I know two skilled people 3 hours in no place equate to 500 bucks but that's the beauty of living in small towns.

So for 6K my bike was up and running. The grip feels amazing and I have already finished the customary 100 km break-in period.

Another amazing thing was, Arvind called up and stated that he had arranged a Metz tyre and could drop it on the way IBW goa in the next two days! Now, who is this thoughtful? I thank him profusely!

Realized a few things in the process-

-Buying and maintaining a Harley (or any other high-end bike) are two entirely different things (like in a luxury car).

-A Harley can be fixed outside (provided you have the parts. Though it looks complicated there are tons of references on the net.

-Getting the external people to be careful while working the chrome can be tedious. We need to be on our toes or they could easily scratch the bike.

-Tyre dealers have huge margins! (1.6k on 4.05k! Even more, if i had paid the MRP)

-I made a great friend in buying this bike. A big shout out to fellow Bhpian @Dust_Harl. He's been amazing taking time, having patience and going out of his way to have things sorted even though he's part of the deal was over. Thanks a ton, mate!

And it's a long long post hope you guys don't mind. Posted here in Dhiraj sir's excellent thread as didn't want to create a new thread. Any inputs from the seniors are most welcome.

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by mh09ad5578

and Viola! it was done!

What a fantastic job mh09ad5578. Hats off to you mate., This is the beauty of forums like TeamBhp that we 'share' and let more people come into the fold. There is nothing like our great Indian 'jugaad' to fix these imported vehicles rather than pay exorbitant sums to the dealerships for a job that may be done worse than what you did.

Cheers...

[mh09ad5578]

Hi guys, ran into a problem today and need your inputs. Wanted to convert to single seat so finally removed the seat and was shocked to see rust and paint wear on the rear fender and rear seat bracket. Cleaned up and applied duct tape to the affected parts. Need suggestions from you

- should the entire fender be removed and repainted? If yes what's the approximate cost involved?
-should I do temp respray using aerosol paint cans?
-if yes what should I do to treat the rust?
-where can I get the fender seat nut with retaining clip in India and the costs involved? Need this for fitting the single seat when needed. Saw this online abroad but though it costs only 3$shipping charges to India are in range on 40$.

Used the harley boot mark remover for some rubber debris on the exhaust and must say it works really well though is pricy at 700 rs for a small bottle. thanks in advance

[dkaile]

Originally Posted by mh09ad5578

Wanted to convert to single seat so finally removed the seat and was shocked to see rust Need suggestions from you

- should the entire fender be removed and repainted? If yes what's the approximate cost involved?
-should I do temp respray using aerosol paint cans?
-if yes what should I do to treat the rust?
-where can I get the fender seat nut with retaining clip in India and the costs involved? Need this for fitting the single seat when needed.

Things look a little bad from your photos and that is why I suggest that in future you should clean the under seat area every month. Now the worst affected and visible part I see would be the rear seat attachment area which has a lot of rust damage. What I suggest you do is clean the whole area thoroughly with WD40, then you can repair the whole area carefully with a little black enamel paint, only touching up the affected area and leaving the rest untouched. Let it dry thoroughly for a day or two and then neatly finish it off with a square piece of black tape that is used to make number plates and has great sticking power to give it a neat look. You are lucky to have a black bike which can easily be repaired this way. Repainting the entire fender will be a costly affair especially if you want the original look. Get the fender seat nut and retaining clip from the dealership and should not cost more than a couple of hundred bucks. All the underseat rusted parts can also be repaired by black enamel paint as they will not be visible.

Cheers...

[mh09ad5578]

so quite a late post, but did a little touch up on the rear fender and i did convert it to a single seat conversion. looks super cool. planning on a complete custom paint job later this or next year.

Also installed a LED headlight i got from ali express for 3.7k shipped received it in 4 days flat, fixed it myself was a 15 minutes job, looks neat and through is almost near the orginal HD day maker that costs 38k+installation. (doing good already 6 months past, 8k kms through)

Got a headlight frenched ring from JP cycles and a seat mount hardware too. The seat mount nut fits loose, think i need to source a original HD one. Cost was 30$ for the ring and 5$ for the nut but the shipping and customs killed it cost me almost 2 times their original price.

Also installed a genereric RAM mount with charger i got from ali express for 1k. Installed it myself but i need to get it done proffesionally. For the time being i have connected this directly to the battery but will change it to accessory port the next time i get serviced at X torque. great to use for the price has a separate power switch and 2.1 amps, did my 4k kms WHR 16 kutch ride and a 1.5k konkan ride using it and its holding up good no complaints.

will share my first 8k service, front tyre upgrade and battery change details in the next post.

Running good already 15k+ on the odo since i brought it and the next service is due

[mh09ad5578]

Hi folks! some new updates on the bike-

Replaced the stock spark plugs with NGKs sourced from the alto K10 old model @ Rs100/each. extreme VFM. have the run the setup for around 2k kms (one 1250km ride to Udupi, one 450 kms ride to Bangalore and 500kms locally) running pretty great. i get one miss fire per ride when running slow dont know why, i got this even on stock but very very rarely. Maybe because i dont have a ecu remap. Guru's your thoughts? Bike running great on this though.(Thanks @dkaile for the idea)

Sourced the quick release sissy bar with luggage rack from ebay USA. Cost was 200$ but customs and shipping was Rs10,500/-. That totally killed the deal, almost 24k but quality is great and i can quickly take it off. Its very convenient. Plan to add a separate solo seat to make the conversions very fast.

Sourced the chrome eyebrow from the sale at 2 rivers Harley pune. Cost about 3.8k shipped great value. But ran into trouble when i couldn't reach the headlamp nut with any of my tools available. finally my car stepny spanner fit good! But the nut was jammed, applied zorik spray and it was worked. The new chrome hardware was metric!shocking i brought a imperial allen set for the harley and it wouldn't fit the new bolts!(surprisingly the old hardware worked on the imperial allen keys). Looks great but it was a lot of effort.

Also sourced an Stanley imperial tool set for the harley from amazon.i- pricey at 4.5k! i'm sad that i have still not used it on the bike though.

Got the bike serviced at Domons Customs bangalore last fortnight, report of which i shall post next. Bike nearing 49k kms on the odo!

[mh09ad5578]

Hi folks, updates after a super long time.

Did a pretty unique ride this Sunday. My longest single day ride. Started at 2.30 a.m. reached back at 9.00 p.m.. more than 15 hours of saddle time. 873 kms, through highways, country roads, offroad, no roads, fields, forests, hills and mountains!

This was the route
-Chitradurga
-Bangalore
- Mulbagal
- Ramakuppam
- Vaniambadi
- Alangayam
- Jawadu Hills
- Pathiri
- Chengam
- Krishnagiri
-Bangalore
-Chitradurga

Covered three states Karnataka, Andrapradesh, then Tamil nadu and back to karnataka. Jawadu forests are really beautiful👌👌

It rained cats and dogs in the morning and evening. Hats off to Vijay and Sharath (my riding buddies)to ride without any rain gear on such a long ride. Had an awesome time!

Bike performed beautifully. I've covered 40k kms on it these years. Lots of sweet memories, I'll keep posting the various maintenance and service related posts coming. Current bike odo stands near 70k kms.

[mh09ad5578]

So, changed my bikes fork and dust seals last Saturday. This was done locally with help from my car mechanic. Was almost half a days work and a lot of elbow grease. Problems we ran into were-

- the top fork screws are size 34 spanner. This was unavailable with my mechanic or in my kit. The last size he used was size 32. Tried with a truck garage and they had size 36 and up, no size 34. It took an effort to use an adjustable wrench to unscrew this.

- No graded fork oil available locally! Online recommended grade for fork oil was 10w, though people have used 7w to 15w depending on usage/ setup. I didn't anticipate this and had not sourced it. Finally put in Royal Enfield fork oil. There's no grade recommended on this but guess it's 7w. Working fine for the moment. Forks working softer than normal. I can live with these.

- The mech assembled back everything when I was not present. Though he told me he torqued everything to spec, I don't believe him. Will do a retorque before the next ride.

Went on a 30km test ride, bike working fine
This is my third set of fork seals in pretty short time. The first and second set were changed at 48k kms and 60k kms and hence decided to do this myself this time as I don't trust their workmanship. The manual says change at 80k kms , and my riding buddies say they should last at least 40k kms in Indian context.

The cost of seals was 1.5k shipped from the US, these were not available at Bangalore asc. The Fork oil was 300 rupees and labor was 900 rupees. Not bad at all.

Only issue was I was planning to ride to Chikmaglur for coffee at coffee barn at Shantaveri and the lockdown put a spanner in that

PS- Shocks are Showa's , nice, I didn't know that.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by mh09ad5578

So, changed my bikes fork and dust seals last Saturday. This was done locally with help from my car mechanic. Was almost half a days work and a lot of elbow grease.

Take a Bow Sir!

When it comes to premium machines most people do not take the effort to do due diligence and then go on and on and on, whereas people like you get down and dirty to get the job done, such experiences really are a breath of fresh air, especially in this segment.

The cost of seals was 1.5k shipped from the US, these were not available at Bangalore asc. The Fork oil was 300 rupees and labor was 900 rupees. Not bad at all.

That is dirt cheap in comparison to what Bajaj charged me once I'd handed them one of my motorcycles due to work commitments, for a complete front end rebuild I had to pay about 3.5~4.5k.

Also since you'd clocked 80k on the odo why not change your head bearings as you'd anyhow already disassembled the forks?

As for fork oil, Bajaj recommends 10W20 Grade as per the service manual, and you can buy it from their spares outlet.

P.S. You can get individual sockets from wholesale/retail tool shops, last time I checked retail price for sizes over 30 was around 200/- per piece.

Cheers!
A.P.

[mh09ad5578]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Take a Bow Sir!

Thanks for the kind words

since you'd clocked 80k on the odo why not change your head bearings

I have changed the steering bearings at the ASC 20k kms back next changed planned at 100k, same with wheel bearings. This is pre-emptive maintenance as these are bound to fail after 50k kms and have seen quite a few riders stranded due to wheel bearing failure on a touring Harley. Only I'm worried about the swing arm bearings which needs specialized equipment for changing and the ASC claiming they have never ever changed these on any Harley

and you can buy it from their spares outlet.

Didn't know this, thanks for the info will check it out.

P.S. You can get individual sockets from wholesale

The problem with Harley is mostly it uses an imperial toolset. Also size 34 seems to be an odd size unavailable on retail in my small home town. But if I plan to do this again planning to get it and also a new set of upper and lower stem bolts as they seem to be good for only one more change.

[mh09ad5578]

So Sunday morning well spent! Washed and polished the bike. Also cleaned the air filter and the butterfly valve and the breather tubes. Fun and simple little wrenching. Alas lockdown blues, no riding.

[mh09ad5578]

Went on ride Saturday morning towards hospet on the still fresh off the oven NH13 stretch between Chitradurga and hospet. Did 120kms loop. Beautiful weather and beautiful roads, a Harley at 4500 rpms is ethereal, like meditation.!

[mh09ad5578]

Went on a breakfast ride towards sira on the NH4. Met my riding gang riding down from Bangalore. Was nice meeting up everyone after a long time. Again beautiful weather. Harley=Highway!

[mh09ad5578]

Got new fleece lined cover for the bike. Tarmac brand for 2.5k rupees plus 200 Rs shipping. Pretty good quality, has elastic straps with elastic lining at front and rear and mounting holes for additional ropes if needed. Also comes in a storage bag and extra reinforced seems.

Also sourced Turtle Wax chrome polish from Amazon, will polish hopefully this coming weekend and update the results.

[mh09ad5578]

Went on another awesome ride with the gang to the hills. Beautiful weather. Bad roads and really GS country but the superlow is pretty light and agile on the bad roads and managed just fine in GS company. The ride keeps bringing in the smiles