| Author | Message | ||
     Ratbuell |
OK, my disclaimer - I'm still injured. They've told me I can walk without crutches (and I actually *can*, albeit slowly). I still have a torso brace on for the ribs and vertebrae I cracked, but I can sleep without it so the strength is returning. My right rotator cuff is still hurting like a SOB but I'm getting strength and range back on a daily basis. Elbows down I'm perfect on both sides. I cut 2 acres on a riding mower last week. I'm tired of being inactive, non-productive, and BORED. So...I'm considering pulling the header off my Uly and wrapping it. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but didn't want to give up riding time (not that it's an issue at this point, LOL). My question is, how difficult is it in terms of flexibility and stuff? I have a stool I can sit on next to the bike and plan to remove the O2 before the header because of the rotation issue I've heard about. I've had the headers off tubers many times in the past and have my S1W header wrapped...but never tried to remove an XB header before so I'm trying to figure out if its something I can handle at this point, or if it'll sit there for weeks and weeks, half-removed because I hit a barrier. My real goal? Using this as a method of building my strength and endurance. Laying flat on your back in a hospital for six weeks is a great way to kill your endurance, and treadmills / nu-step machines are BORING (I need to start bringing my iPod to PT...). Stuff I used to be able to do for hours on end, I can do for about six minutes anymore...but it's getting better daily  Anyone have any input? And for those wondering...I'm not restricted by the docs, I'm allowed to work "to my tolerance" as far as pain / endurance goes | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Hi Ratbuell, Glad to hear you're recovering well. If I may ask, what happened? John | ||
| Ratbuell |
I wish I knew. Hurt myself bad enough the brain decided to delete from the night before the accident, to about 12 days after. From the police report and the obvious condition of my body, it would appear I was in a motorcycle wreck. How, why, all the details are gone forever, though...and no, nothing untoward involved - it's just my brain protecting my body from remembering the pain, I suppose, but no chemicals, alcohol, sleep deprivation, etc. were involved. Just a fluke of some sort. Whether it was me, or the bike, or something in the environment (sand/gravel, stray dog, car cut me off...)...well, I'll never know. <shrug> It'd be nice to know what to avoid next time, but I guess I can't really worry about that now. | ||
| Froggy |
Your bike knew you were thinking about trading in for a CR... | ||
| Ratbuell |
nah...I was "smart" enough not to be on my own bike, lol. | ||
| Strmvt |
Only issue I see with taking off your header is the rear clamp/flange on the studs taking it off was a little bit of a pain when I put on my Mircon I used a long flatblade screwdriver from above to help it off the studs. I didnt even take out the O2 sensor thought be a good idea to (Message edited by strmvt on September 07, 2008) | ||
| Svh |
I too am thinking of doing this. Do you need to rotate the engine or can this be done with it in normal place? | ||
| Strmvt |
IMHO rotating the engine makes it alot easier on you and the bike it's not hard at all to rotate the engine if you have a service manual if not I can scan and send you the procedure | ||
| Froggy |
Even if you had a few scanned pages i would still get the whole manual, as you might run into a snag and need to read something else. | ||
| Stevem123 |
I've heard that you can remove the headers by taking out the cooling fan to get to the rear header flange bolts without rotating the engine. I have not tried this myself though. I did rotate the engine to install my ceramic coated headers and I did run into a problem getting the large front isolator bolt to come out. It had corroded to the threaded insert that is in the frame and would not turn. After a lot of cursing and slamming of tools, I was finally able to wedge a tool between the frame and the insert to hold the insert solid enough to break loose the bolt from it. It would have been a fairly quick job to rotate the engine had it not been for the corroded isolator bolt issue. Upon re-assembly, I re-locktighted the threaded insert into the frame and applied liberal amounts of anti-sease to the offending isolator bolt. Hopefully it will come loose easier next time. BC Steve | ||
| Jjg0324 |
Stevem123, this may have been asked before but did you perceive any heat reduction after coating your header? I am considering coating or wrapping mine as a winter project. Hoping that the benefits are beyond cosmetic. | ||
| Stevem123 |
Yes the sterling (looks like polished aluminum) coating does reduce the heat coming from that side of the bike. Great stuff! I have about 20K since the change and the coating still looks as good as new. Well worth it in my book! BC Steve | ||
| Unibear12r |
Hay Rat, do you know if it was stormy out? Same mental thing happened to my brother once while riding. He got hit by lightning! Lucky he was at very slow speed at the time. If his son had not of seen it no one would have known. No burns and just a couple of small scrapes falling off. He was awake the whole time but the jolt shut down the connection between short and long term memory that occurs after about five minutes. He spent a few days living life five minutes at time thinking that he just woke up from sleeping. When the connection came back all was well (and has been for many,many years now) except that he has no memories from sometime before the accident to a few days later. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Nah, by all accounts it was clear, sunny, etc. My guess is all the trauma kinda made the brain turn off for a few days. Still wish I knew what the hell happened, other than an apparent case of sudden deceleration LOL. | ||
| Ishai |
Hey Joe- maybe with some help standing-by you could avoid getting stuck- call me and I'll gladly come over and help . (need to do this on a day off).Call or pm if this solves the problem. Disclaimer: I have never done this but I do have the manual and not afraid to use it.... |
