Boulevard C50

Yesterday, I went out shopping for a bike, something that would fit my sweeties. Things didn't go quite as expected. We found a small Boulevard, a 650 banger, that seemed that it would fare little better than the Maxim. Found a Shadow Aero 750 which almost fit, but the forward controls aren't so great with short legs.

On a lark I sat on a Suzuki Boulevard C50 in the showroom... and liked it! So I took it home.

This is a 2005 Boulevard C50. Only 16k miles, new tires and service. Has a windshield and a pair of supplemental lights. The headlight gets surprisingly good coverage, especially in high beam where it illuminates to the side but doesn't leave front-and-center dark.

It's heavier. The seat feels lower even though it's not. But it feels really good. My feet are forward and resting on platforms, and my back is laid back. It doesn't feel as nimble as the Sportster, but I've not really laid into it yet.

I'll put it through some paces during the coming weeks, and let you know.

Almost there!

The test ride didn't go entirely well. I put on 3 miles, heard a bad scraping sound from behind, and found my brake rotor burning hot. Hmmmmmmm.

The right-hand side of the rotor is touching the caliper bracket.

Brake pads were on overly tight, but after removing them entirely I found the real problem: the brake rotor was scraping against the caliper bracket.The inner surface of the rotor is actually touching the inside surface of the caliper bracket; not the caliper, but the bracket that holds in place on the swingarm.

Somehow, between the spacers and bearings and all, the wheel is about 1/16"too far to the left.

Left-hand (outside) of the rotor has visible clearance.

Possibility 1: I got the wrong left-side spacer. Maybe this specific bike, as opposed to all other 2008 XL883Ls, needs a left-hand spacer of 7/16" length instead of 1/2" It sounds stupid, but I have on my desk a 2008 XL883L axle which is 1/16th" wider than the axle from my 2008 XL883L, won't even fit through a 6205 bearing...

Possibility 2: Steve down at Fred's Honda points out, that perhaps the bearings weren't mounted flush. Makes sense: If the left-side bearing were 1/16" from flush, the spacer would stick out that much further, dragging the swingarm and the caliper bracket out to touch the rotor.









I dropped the wheel and took a good look at the bearings. I also looked at the spare wheel I have here. Looks like Steve was right. The bearing races are 1" deep on both sides, but the left-hand and right-hand bearings aren't precisely at the same depth. If you take the difference and divide by 2, it's just about how much too wide the spacer seems to be... Looks like the bearings weren't quite even, so the wheel is 1/16" off center. Not enough to see with my eyes, but enough that metal scrapes.

So, a quick trip back there, Steve hammered down the bearings to be even. I got it home, mounted it up, and it's perfect! Clearance on both sides, the caliper centered, and the brake pads dragging only gently against the rotor as usual. Looking good.

Tomorrow morning I'll refill the rear brakes, and that should get me back on the road!

Thank you so much, Steve at Fred's Honda!

Back (wheel) On The Road!

After three weeks of downtime, yesterday saw my bike's first test run on the new bearings.

Last weekend, Sasquatch came over and looked at my trashed wheel. Turns out it wasn't as trashed as I had thought: the wrecked metal was the remains of the bearing, but the race had only minor scratches which came out with a Dremel. Thanks to Sasquatch for noticing this and helping me to salvage a $200 (used price) wheel, and thanks to Duane at Bob Forrest Auto for yanking out the old bearing. And thanks to Tina and Laura for schlepping parts, holding things while I lifted, and generally being great moral support.

On Friday, the day after fixing my old wheel, my new wheels from eBay got here. I don't need them now, but I figure I can sell them at a small profit as I got a good price on them. Between the two new ones and the one 2004-era 3/4" wheel, I have a small stockpile of Harley wheels to slowly eBay away.

Installing the refurbished wheel had two surprises:

1. The brake caliper wouldn't line up with the brake rotor. I even took a photo of the caliper to show that it's completely impossible to fit anything larger than a sheet of cardboard in there. The issue, was that I had put the new pads in while the caliper was in the slid-out position. The caliper slides side to side to create space for changing the tire, and I had installed the pads in the slid-out position (I had just removed the tire). Thus the caliper only seemed to slide back inward into position, and wouldn't go fully and line up properly.

When installing brake pads, have the caliper in the "slid in" position. If you have it slid out, it will seem to seat properly but will leave you with this impossible condition.

I figured this out after an hour of examining my photos and checking Google, removing and reinstalling the pads a few times. The pads really do fit in well, the pin holds things properly, but the damn rotor just won't line up.


Moral of the story: Slide the caliper out to allow the tire, then back in before installing the pads.

2. I had purchased a new axle, as it was the only way I could find exactly the correct left-side spacer (remember it was welded to the trashed bearing to form a melted, ragged cylinder. very modern art). The new axle would not fit into the 6205 bearing, even with plenty of coaxing.

Not sure what the issue is there. The new axle is obviously slightly wider, but we can't see the difference with our eyes, and the spacers leave exactly the same little light when placed onto both axles.

Fortunately, the spacers are what I needed, and they fit perfectly onto my old axle which was in fine shape anyway. Despite the apparent, invisible difference in the axles' widths the spacers fit just the same.

Moral of the story: two 2008 Harley XL883L motorcycles can have identical axles... that aren't the same size. I'm baffled as to how that happened.

Anyway, it's all over now. It's been almost tragically stupid, how many wrong parts I've gotten, how many times I've had to carry my wheel down to Fred's on my bicycle, ... but in the end it's been educational and I'll be glad to be back on the road.

Changing Rear Brake Pads

As long as I have my bike apart for a new wheel, I took the opportunity to check out other stuff. And yeah, the brake pads are two years old. So I changed them with some new ones, and decided to keep a photo howto. This is for my H-D Sportster (2008 XL883L) but maybe it will be beneficial to you too.

First, an overview. On the left-hand side of the rear wheel (removed in a previous blog post) you'll see the brake caliper and brake pads.

Center: The brake pads inside the caliper.

View from the left. Note the brake bleeding cap, and the cap covering the retaining pin.

The pads are held in place by a pin/bolt that runs through them. So, let's remove the pin. First, remove the plastic cap. Then, get an Allen wrench and remove the pin. It was torqued down pretty good, so I had to use my socket wrench extender as a longer handle. Eventually, out comes the bolt and the two pads fall right out.

The Allen bolt was quite tight, so I needed a longer lever.

The plastic cap and the Allen head of the retaining pin.

Now we need to squeeze out some excess brake pressure, to make room for the new brake pads. After all, the new brake pads are much thicker than the old ones. If you try to squeeze the pads in now, there's probably not enough room, and definitely not enough for the brake rotor too.

A new pair of pads would completely fill the space, leaving no room for the brake rotor. So we need to go the extra step of squeezing out some brake fluid.

This technique worked well: The caliper assembly isn't bolted into place, so I could set it on to my toolbox. I used a metal rod (again the extender from my socket set) and simply leaned on the ppiston. I had an assistant (thanks, Laura!) with the 10mm wrench open up the bleeder screw to let fluid out, then tighten without letting in any air.

It's very important that you not let air back in to the brake caliper. When I was about to stop pressing on the piston, I had the assistant tighten the valve shut as fluid was still coming out. Don't stop squeezing, or you'll suck air into the brake system.

Squeezing the caliper with a trusty metal rod. Bottom-center is the bleeder valve. An assistant with a #10 wrench loosens to let brake fluid out, but tightens again before I stop squeezing so as not to suck in air.

Eventually the piston was flush with the caliper body, and left sufficient space for both pads and a good-looking space between them.

As the saying goes, installation is the reverse of removal. Seat the new pads just like the old ones, put the pin back in, tighten down what you loosened.

The new pads and the retaining pin. From here we just tighten things down.

The pads will only go in one way, but it's easy to forget. If you get confused as to the orientation of the pads, look at the old pads; they have clear markings on them which should clue you in.

Which way do the pads go? Check the old one. The circle is from the piston, the two dashes are from the C-shaped side. The holes are of course for the pin, so now it's pretty clear.

The inside pad (the one not against the piston) fits in to a little space at the bottom. You will feel it fit in to its slot, and the whole thing won't fit together unless you do it right.

So there you have it, a photo guide to changing out your rear brake pads. The process for front pads is nearly identical, just a slightly different set of nuts and two extra nuts for the fender.

2005: Harley Changes Axle Diameters and I bought the wrong wheel

So continues my education.

I got my new wheel and new bearings a few days ago, and ran it down to the shop to get them put together AND the new tire put on for good measure. Bad news: The bearings don't fit deeply into the socket and I'm sure there aren't any spacers there, and the axle doesn't fit. WTF?

I looked very closely and found that the bearings in the new wheel (559339, 3/4" wide and 3/4" internal diameter) aren't the same as the ones in my old wheel (6205s, 1/2" wide 1" internal diameter). Obviously this is the wrong wheel, despite having the exact same measurements, fitting the same tire, having the same 5 holes and thread for the rotor and sprocket, ...

In 2005, Harley changed the Sportsters from a 3/4" axle to a 1" axle, so this wheel obviously was not from an '08 but from pre-2005. In retrospect this is very well known, but the axle size wasn't something I knew to specifically ask about (feels like asking whether a light bulb will fit into a fixture inside a house wired in 2009 versus 2006, who thinks of that?). I have to return or resell this wheel, and find another one.

Aside: I'm told that the change from a 3/4" axle to 1" axle, was to solve some problems of bearings wearing out. The wider surface area, you know. I did play with the idea of buying new axle adjuster eyelets and an axle, but if the change was to solve a potentially fatal problem, no thanks.

New Wheel and Bearings Coming

I had a devil of a time finding a 2005+ wheel, unless I want to pay $1100 for gorgeous chrome or pay $507 for a brand-new one from HD. Troubador up here at Ride44 found one on eBay which I somehow missed, and I won both front and rear for $160. Not too shabby: my next best hope was $265 for just the rear. Thank you, Troubador!

I also bought a new set of bearings, as the ones I got last week have been installed and removed and I must presume them to be damaged. This time I'm spending the extra $6 for SKF brand, due to a recommendation from (again) Troubador.

That other chunk of metal?

I examined my pile of parts here, and noticed that I also need a new left-side (brake side) axle spacer. This spacer was pretty well ground down and welded to the bearing I was throwing out, so I didn't even recognize it as a part at first. Lesson learned: when making up a shopping list, in a situation where parts may be missing or destroyed, carefully examine the fiche to account for every part.

The left-side spacer has its inner side ground down and smooshed by the weight of the wheel as it tilted, and the heat has welded it to what's left of the bearing.

Turns out it's quite tedious to find a spacer that's exactly 1" ID, 1.5" OD, and 0.5" depth. I found one at Colony (part 2237-1) but it's only available within a $40 kit. I have a lead now on an eBay auction which is a whole axle, spacers, and nut for $40 -- if I'm resigned to paying $40 for one lousy spacer I can at least get a bunch of spare parts. But tomorrow I'll give a call to some local shops to see if they have this one spacer, hopefully for $5.

Another two weeks

At this point, it looks like I could have my wheel and bearings by March 11. The spacer is pending, but if I can get it at a repair shop then maybe, just maybe, I can be back on the road next week. Like I said last week. :)