disassembling wheels

[RichMaund]

Folks

I had a bunch of "fun" disassembling the wheels of my V11S for powdercoating last night and all of this morning.

Hints:

Don't even bother trying to remove those little allen headed fasteners with a allen bit on your impact driver! 2/3's of them will simply round off due to the red Loctite used on installation and the high torque values. Just go ahead and grind a 1/16" wide slot into the head with a pneumatic grinder. That will heat the fastener and help fail the Loctite. Then using a wide flat tip bit in the impact driver and a 2 pound short sledge, you can knock it free and remove it. The fasteners are basically single use anyway. Eliminate the middleman, in this case Mr. Frustration, and go to grinding right away!

I busted my precious 18 year old $5 K-Mart impact driver as well as ruining two flat tip bits! Being a cheap bastard, I really hated to spend $10 on a new impact driver set!

The coater will p/u my wheels and backrest bracket at the local Triumph Dealer tomorrow after they remove the old tires. Hopefully, I'll have the new "red" wheels back with new tires for the weekend! Wish me luck.

 

Temporarily bikeless in Virginia!

[docc]

Rich, had a buddy experience night mares with wheelbearings after powdercoating some wheels from a Honda VFR. Apparently from the heat affecting the roundness of the seating surface for the bearing.

 

Hopefully you'll have none of this but just keep an eye on those bearings.

 

i'm jealous! Red wheels? What color is your sport and won't you please treat us to a picture when it is back on its tires?

 

Look well ahead, docc

[RichMaund]

Docc

My Sport is a 2000 silver model with the red frame. It also has the silver Stucchi fairing and my homemade luggage system and custom seat and passenger backrest. I already polished out the valve covers. Now I want red wheels! I loved the look of the original V11S prototype shown at the Intermott show in the late 90's. That's the style I want for mine! I should get them back friday with new Michelin Pilot Sport Touring tires fitted as well! Pics will get posted when it's all done!

I have heard stories about heat distorting cast wheels. But I haven't any first hand experience with that problem, so I hope it to be a rare one. The biggest problem with powdercoating is keeping it away from the surfaces you don't want coated! You have to carefully mask the bare areas with heat proof SS tape. The coater I am using is a pro with much experience with bike parts. Hopefully, it'll go well!