this is gettin silly now !

[rybes]

Bob, you just made it sound really easy
well, looks like its finished but what a pig of a job that was. wernt so bad gettin the cup thing out of the frame like i was expectin. gotta love homemade tools for doin the job properly. in this case was a modified axle stand strut.
gettin the roller bearin in tho was another matter entirely. if you want to do the job yourself make sure you have a spare bottom yoke and steerin stem to hand that you dont mind throwin away. tried the usual method of flat plate and a very big hammer but no joy. so bob come up with the idea of puttin in a steerin stem and tighten the lock nut down and bangin the stem down n tightenin up the nut as we went. took a while, .5 of a mm at a time i spose its goin too.

this is the bearing we fitted finally in.


this is bob modellin the old bearin and the cup from the top of the frame. one or 2 good hits and it was out.


heres the steerin stem after we got the bearin in. couldnt get the top nut off as it was solid after constant beatins with a big copper hammer so it had to be cut in half. if you look closer at the part with the nut on, its blown out from all the hittin. you can also see the lack of threads were the top nut was.


even had to cut the top nut off as the threads were stripped off and it wouldnt come off
.

so now the tiger has a top bearin the same as a 955 set up but cheesus christ was it a hard job.
havnt had the chance to get out on it yet but as it stands there seems to be no knockin or play in the top bearin.

thanks again for today bob wouldve struggled without ya 

[Bixxer Bob]

For others, a long, substantial bolt and a couple of big flat washers would avoid the need to wreck a steering stem, but you have to work with what you've got.  We tried tapping the bearing into the housing without any guide or support but the housing was slightly out of true and it was having none of it so the tension and tap (read f**ck off big wallop) method eventually worked.

Even with a bolt and washer, you'd have to watch out that the washer didn't dish and put excessive pressure on the inner race. 

Next time bring the bike to me Rybes, at least that way I'd be able to turn up a fitting tool like the one in Mustang's photo.

[rybes]

cheers bob i will. does this mean you got a good toy box ? 

[Bixxer Bob]

Not as good as some, better than most....

[Bixxer Bob]

Got it all back together yet mate?

[rybes]

yeah all back together mate. aint managed toget out on it today tho cos i been at a stick fight competition. im uk champion now  never won nuffin in me life so to win this im well chuffed 

[rf9rider]

Well done on the stick fight thing mate!

Did you and Bixer figure out the problem with the bearings?

[rybes]

been out on the bike today




cheers Bob 

[Bixxer Bob]

Well done on the stick fight mate!!!  Brilliant when a rank outsider walks away with it

RF9:  the problem turned out to be all the taper bearings Rybes bought were a rubbish fit.  They all dropped onto the stem and rattled a bit too.  The top ball-race that we fitted last week was a good tap-it-on fit on the stem and a welly-the-f****r fit in the frame.

[rf9rider]

So you reckon the bearings were of poor quality?

When i did the conversion on mine, the genuine Triumph bearings on the Legend stem was a really tight fit, took a really good beating to get it on, never had top bearings that took so much effort to fit on.

Glad it`s sorted now.

[Bixxer Bob]

Dunno about the quality but fit-wise you could play hoop-la with them. 

What we learned from using the redundant stem to fit the new bearing was that - if you whack it enough - the stem balloons until the sloppy bearing does indeed fit.  The stem, which may have been weakened in the process, certainly was when we took a hacksaw to it... 

[rybes]

thanks for the congrats on me win  im still shocked by it now

so glad its all sorted now tho, coome to think about bob, you got a point. we shoulda just fitted the bearin in and hit the top to make it fir the bearin, woulda saved so much greif lol.
bike feels so weird to ride now, feels nice n tight n handles so much better. goes round cornerslike a train. tried that elbow tuckin in thing too bob you said about. damn  can i get round bends now 

[nightrunner]

Possible stupid question here as I have not done this adjustment.  But would it not solve the adjustment problem to insert some sort of 'ring' spacer under one of the bear races to increase the distance between the bearings and thus allow the nut to be snugged down where there is no slop?

[rybes]

i did try that scott but the problem was from a very slight differnce in sizes from the steerin stem to the hole in the bearin. even with a spacer there it still wouldnt tighten up enough.