Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

Topics

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

7/7

obisteve
22 days 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
22 days 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 😁👍

Hilly
9 days ago

Had a bit of energy this morning and finally got the front end back together, made up some fancy little brackets so I could stick a set of 103 stock breakout mufflers on it for rego, they are not that quiet but quieter than the straight through ones.
Took it for a shake down blat along the fire break to check it all works, I forgot how tall 1st is in these jigglers, had a smile a mile wide, it's like a bigger version of the old 70's XL500's haha.

obisteve and Merv like this post

obisteve
9 days ago

Nice one Hilly. It's looking good. 1st gear too high? 50% wheelspin effectively lowers the gearing!

Hilly and Stuart like this post

speedzter
7 days ago

So the Sporty feels a heap lighter to throw around than your Softail ?
I'm guessing the power to weight is similar ?

Hilly
6 days ago

It's way lighter in feel, even just moving it around on the concrete in the shed it makes the slim feel like a short fat cow haha.
First gear is tall but once it's underway it spritely enough, I don't notice the weight of the slim when it's moving, different animals for sure though.
I just purchased a permit to take it to town for a roadworthy, went to line Geoffrey up to get it done and the wife tells me he is away for a week! she works with his mum an it came up in conversation last night, that'd be bloody right, oh well, permit is good for all of next month so that bit is ok.

speedzter
6 days ago

That's a good comparison photo.
The Hippo vs the Giraffe 😁

Hilly
6 days ago

Quoting speedzter on 23 Feb 2026 11:55 PM
That's a good comparison photo.
The Hippo vs the Giraffe 😁

Haha, sums it up 👍

Topics

7/7

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

obisteve

Hilly

Hilly

obisteve

speedzter

Hilly

speedzter

Hilly