So how did the R65 do otherwise?
Yesterday was designed to be a test of the new front end more than anything else. the day started badly as I had to stop every 10km or so and clear one or both carb float needles. The cause of that problem was me, about 3 two weeks ago I did some work on the carbs and then left them dry until last Thursday. I've had this problem before with BMWs and the only thing you can do is persevere until eventually the crud runs through the system and it doesn't happen any more - between departure and our coffee stop at Paronella Park I stopped 11 times. Strangely, after being upended at Paronella Park everything behaved itself and it ran like a Waterbury watch the remaining 200km home over the Atherton Tablelands.
As to how the front end went.
I continue to be ecstatic about the brakes, the combination of the 12mm master cylinder and braided lines is amazing. I have put up with what some people would regard as "dangerous" brakes on the R65 since I rebuilt it, all my own work as I had the hose made far too long and the loop over the rear of the headlight bucket meant that there was a small amount of air in the system I could never get rid of - I got used to having no brakes until the lever was near on the bars at the first application and then near normal brakes for any subsequent application within the next few minutes. It's funny what you get used to, the one and only time my wife rode my R65 she went around the block, came home, swore at me and refused to ride it any further.
Yesterday I was daydreaming and arrived at a T intersection a lot faster than I should have. It was a pleasure to be able to use one finger to keep the front wheel just at the point of chirping, and Man, did it slow down quickly.
I miscalculated the damping fluid in the forks badly, I mean really badly. I purchased a set of 2nd hand cartridge emulators when I was rebuilding the forks. I asked the owner what fluid he had run and he said "Bel Ray 10". I now know he was lying, or he only ever rode it on billiard ball table smooth roads.
He looked about 80kg wringing wet in his Facebook profile photograph so I went with a 50/50 mix of Castrol Fork 10 & 15. The front was horridly over damped with almost zero compliance and a nasty tendency to skip on encountering any bumps mid corner.
By chance our ride yesterday took us over some truly ordinary bitumen roads and by the time we had covered the worst of them I well and truly had my hate on.
It's downstairs now with the fork fluid draining and I intend to refill with a 60/40 mix of Fork 5 and Fork 10. If that doesn't give me the ride I'm looking for I will pull the springs out and weld a Phillips-headed screwdriver shaft to a piece of reinforcing rod and adjust the damping in the emulators, however I am reasonably confident that the above mix will be well in the zone of what I want.
Aside from the over damping the front end was impressive, the combination of the larger diameter forks and the brace meant that on smooth corners it tracked like it was on rails.
The final part of yesterday's test was the tyres, some time ago I bought a pair of Shinko 712s - 100/90 front and 110/90 rear.
Both tyres fitted well, I had intended to run them tubeless but I could not get the bead to seal on the front K100 sourced rim and gave up on the Tubeless idea and put tubes in both front and rear.
Let me say this. Shinko tyres (well at least 712s) are unmitigated, unadulterated CRAP! For several years I have been running Pirelli City Demons on the bike and even with only a 3.25 front they were fairly confidence inspiring and hung on beautifully and predictably. I would have happily fitted City Demons again but the larger (4.00 * 18 is large???) sizes have been deleted and they are now only made in lightweight bike sizes.
I decided to try the Shinkos because, well, they were cheap and available - finding quality tyres in old sizes in Australia is becoming increasingly difficult, I knew the 100/90 would fit the K100 front and Shinko themselves said that the 110/90 would fit an R65 rear.
They are without the shadow of a doubt the most "wooden" tyres I have ridden on in recent decades, they give virtually no feedback at all and start slipping at very low lean angles (and yes I did wash as much of the mould release wax as I could off them before leaving and I didn't press them until nearly 200km had been covered). I expected the front to be "heavy" as a 4.00 is a pretty wide tyre to have on the front of an airhead, but I just could not get used to the lack of feedback.
I'll give them until I've run up 500~600km and I will play a bit more with pressures (presently running 34/36psi), but unless they impress me a whole lot more than they do now, they are coming off as soon as I can find a pair of something decent.
