Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

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Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

7/7

obisteve
19 hours ago

It gave me the shits to get a parking ticket, we'd been feeding the meter for several hours, with my girl keeping on doing it while I rode her XS650 to a local bearing supply after I punched the dry stuffed bearing out with a 12mm/10mm tube spanner, bought a replacement bearing and some grease.
The road became a clearway after 4pm? so I finished the job creating a traffic jam and giving drivers the shits as they came on 2 bikes at the kerb blocking 1 lane of busy traffic.
The idea of the grease nipple was to be able to make sure there was some grease in the bearing, the one that started squealing then seized was pretty dry.
And yes, it was my wake up you silly bastard moment about wheel bearing maintenance.
We all have some blind spots with maintenance schedules. Don't believe me? How long since you checked tappet clearance on your lawn mower?
I used an angled grease nipple you could easily get the grease gun tip on without pulling the wheel. W2s were an old design, and my '68 one had felt bearing seals under a tin cover, not rubber seals. I left those on as well. Pumping grease in did push some past the in bearing seals, but it worked well enough to leave it until I got rid of the bike 5 years later.
It was just after the Australia day weekend, 1984, and we'd been at the Narara music festival, and were looking to stay the night in a motel to get clean and have a good feed before riding back north. We were covered in mud, stunk of beer and dope, and I was pretty grubby with grease.
Guess who went into the motel to book the room?

Hilly
18 hours ago

I hear ya, had an EH when I left school, thought the steering box was stuffed, turns out king pins need grease..... go figure 😁👍

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7/7

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

obisteve

Hilly