Race bike maintenance & thank you Amazon!

Hey friends! Doing my level best to keep the momentum from my last post going by getting another one out this week. Maybe not as exciting as other posts I've done, but it precedes some other news that guarantees to be much more exciting. This week I have been a busy little beaver after work. Pour yourself a glass of something cold and follow along as I take you along the fluid filled journey of race bike preps on the CRF450R Flat Tracker!

It was a quiet weekend this past Saturday. I didn't get out on either bike as it was just too hot to want to ride. I had my fill of riding in hot weather from my post fireworks flat track practice on the 5th. I did do some shopping for the CRF450 however. In the pic above you can see a bunch of the goodies I picked up for what will amount to a spa day for the old Honda.

I have put about 7 riding hours on the Honda since picking it up and starting this flat track adventure back in February. My manual has two sets of maintenance schedules. One for MX racing and one for trail riding. The race schedule is very aggressive requiring a lot of fluid and parts changes. The trail schedule is very light on maintenance. I decided to do something in-between the two. I've wanted to do this since I purchased the bike. By really getting into the bike this way helps to ensure I know what is happening with the bike. My flat tracking has been in hot, dry conditions so I figure it couldn't hurt to get rid of all the old fluids and freshen the bike up a bit. The coolant change made the requisite mess that it always does, but all of the oils and other random fluids were changed without incident, with one exception I'll detail later.

I also wanted to get a quick peak at how the engine has been running. One way to do that it by changing out the spark plug. Changing the plug is an easy thing to do once you remove the cowl plastics and fuel tank. You can see the difference between the old plug and the new one. The decision to change it out was well worth the price of the plug. I also put a flashlight down the plug cavity to see what I could of the engine. All I got a glimpse of was a lot of carbon build up on the piston which matches the carbon covered plug. I may have to check out my carb jetting to see if I'm running too rich.

My one exception to the smooth flow of work was this casualty. After changing out my rear brake fluid and replacing the rear master cylinder cap, I inadvertently cracked the master cylinder cap. Several curses and hand wringing ensued until I could calm enough to finish up the other tasks I wanted to get done that night. I spent another hour after dinner searching for a replacement. Luckily enough my wife's Amazon Prime account came to the rescue and I was able to get this nifty little red anodized aluminum replacement cap with two day shipping. Since I don't have a front brake, making sure my rear brake is 100% is a top priority.

Another tiny bit of shipping drama was getting my hot shoe back from the fine folks at Lightshoe. You can see in this pic that I was burning through my hot shoe at a very quick pace. This pic is a bit older, but it wouldn't have been long before I put a hole in my steel shoe. I got it in the mail quick, but the post office delayed the arrival to Lightshoe by a precious day. Gary and Kellie at Lightshoe got the shoe repaired and back in the mail super fast. I was supposed to get it Friday afternoon just in time for Saturday, unfortunately the Post Office came through again and decided to send my shoe all over SoCal. If you are looking for a steel shoe for flat track, give Lightshoe a try, they are great people.

Just in time for what you ask? Well the big secret is that tomorrow night, I will be making my motorcycle race debut at Round 5 of the SCFTA races at Perris Raceway. I am nervous and excited and can't wait to actually get out and test myself on the flat track. Of course I will have pics and a post for you as soon as I can following the event. Well friends, I have lots to do to get ready. Ride safe!

Blue