This is my annual journal of what life with my 990 has been like. The good and the not so good as far as maintenance and repair. With only passing nod to travel and play.
This years planned big ride is to base out of 3 Step Hideaway and ride day loops around the area.
01/06
Cleaned up front wheel spokes as best I could.
Then serviced the forks. Oil level was low from standard, so a larger air column by maybe 30-40mm. I reset to 100mm, 5wt Maxima.
Once I had the forks back on the bike and wheel installed, I reset all the damping settings. 25 clicks out for all the clickers at both ends, no preload and the high speed compression damping at 2.5 turns out. I’ll need some time and dry lake play to get a better handle on where I want these.
A test ride with a fresh tank of fuel I parked the bike then checked the sag.
Sag was about where I wanted it with no preload. I could get closer at either end but I measured with no luggage or gear so I figure I’m good to crank back in preload to regain ride attitude.
Another street test riding session will get me closer to some of the damping baselines.
Street testing digital navigation and the ECU mappings another problem cropped up. Hard starting.
Then one morning, no starting. Investigating this revealed the quick disconnect coupler for the fuel line had been dislodged. The big release button can too easily bang on the frame that is too close and release the connectors. The hose keeps the connection together enough nothing moves too far for a while. But, eventually it moves enough the fuel stops flowing. When I pulled the let tank fasteners and lifted the tank off the mounts while balancing it on my leg and checked the connection with one free hand, I didn’t notice it being loose.
I hung the tank back on the top mount and threaded the fixing screw in a few threads to hold it in place. More fiddling and checking things revealed nothing, but once I decided to dig deeper and remove the tank completely I found the connection backed out by nearly half an inch. By that time I had drained the battery enough it required a charge to continue.
This is where the combination of small print and haste collide to create yet another problem. I set the charger up figuring I have it on charge, (spoiler alert, it isn’t) and park the bike back in the. garage for the night. Next morning I open the door and check the bike to fire and not much from the battery. I get two half hearted cranks then lots of dash cycling odd partial character displays and secondary butterfly cycling. Stuff I’ve never seen the bike do. A multimeter reveals the battery is down below 12vdc, so now a more careful read of the instructions on the machine are required. I push the charge button once. It lights up. Then again and it is still lit, but not quite right yet since both lights should blink. a third push or was it 4th? I finally have blinking lights and with the multimeter can confirm the voltage is rising in the battery.
I leave the bike parked back in the shop for most of the day. Much later that evening I check open the garage door, turn the key on and give the starter a poke. I get one bark from a cylinder briefly firing.
I’ve solved the mystery I figure so retire for the evening to resume the battle come morning.
Come morning I breakfast and with a second cup of coffee head down to the shop. I roll the bike outside and after a bit of fiddling get it running. I warm it up, then shut it down to set the TPS voltage I had noticed was slightly off. My messing with it got it further off. But after a bit of back and forth it is all good. A 15 minute idle after the bike cools then a test ride to first fill the tanks which only take 4.4 gallons and the bike runs perfectly.
A short test ride confirmed all was right with the world.
I’ll be ordering a Powercell Performance fuel coupler and replacing the fuel line.
The next part of this adventure is upgrading the hand guards. Highway Dirt Bikes were chosen. They arrived and as I already knew the Kaoko throttle lock won’t work, but I am missing the OEM bar end mount. No, I don’t want to tap the bars with a huge tap and then add a big 5/8″ screw. I’ll end up using OEM mounting and do some bending of the guards to make them fit like they should have in the first place.
OEM mounting parts arrived Saturday from KTM Twins as we returned from a roadtrip in the car. A few minutes work on Sunday and the guards were fitted. I still need to move the bike out of the garage and adjust the steering stops, but that will wait until after our serial storms run out.
The mounting for the HDB guards uses a 5/8-11 tap. I had trouble getting that to start squarely and really didn’t want to have to add a 9mm hex wrench to the tool kit. Instead I ordered a set of KTM Powerparts guards with the OEM quill mount at the bar ends. This works fine with the OEM bushing fitting perfectly into the HDB guard. I may end up trimming all the excess material off the ends of the guards, it looks pretty chunky.
I lose the Kaoko throttle lock with this set up, but the throttle pull was never a big deal. I could go with the Atlas, but I’m not ready for that yet. The Rottweiler Performance quick flip mirrors can be fitted as well, but nearly $300 is a bit steep. Even for a garage queen like this.
Guess what I found?
The HDB hand guards don’t allow the key to be inserted. This will require some modification.
Some work with the hacksaw.
Then the files come out and finally sand paper.
A couple of hours fiddling with hacksaw and files. Rotating the bars back a bit allowed the fork lock to engage. I just need to pull the fairings and adjust the steering stops now.
Atlas Throttle Lock installed.
Ordered and received a new quick disconnect for the fuel tank supply from Powercell Performance.
Ordered a new front tire to match up with the Motoz rear, Motoz Tractionator Dual Venture. That arrived quickly.
With even Tulare Lake reappearing my days of dry lakebed practice are shifted further into the future. I’ll. wait on swapping the tires until I’m closer to the take off date for this summer’s travels.
Well, tire swapping began Sunday. The front is done.
Rear mounted as well.
Motoz Tractionator Adventure.
Test rode the bike for a little over an hour to burn off some fuel to allow the QD replacement. I found the fueling was really bad, everywhere. Lots of loud backfires on deceleration from any speed in any gear. When I got back to the garage, I checked wiring and connections. Nothing out of order. I plugged in Tune ECU and found no problems. I went ahead and loaded the Zuber 9A map to the ECU and went for an another test ride.
That was the ticket. Perfect throttle response. My previous experiments with this map were with the TPS well off of spec. The TPS is set perfectly now and has not drifted at all. I’m very happy with this mapping now.
The next item to be addressed was the fuel line quick disconnect. I bought a Powercell Performance unit a while ago and only now got the tanks empty enough and the time to deal with it. It was short work.
With the proper tools this is a quick and secure change.
The OEM plastic connectors were replaced when they leaked. At that time I used the Beemer Boneyard parts. There is a groove worn into the connector that rides across the locking tab and likely why this connector kept releasing when installed. The larger diameter connector was trapped between the tank and frame.
Home from my trip into the heat dome. On that trip my coolant boiled over in Vegas traffic. I’ve got fresh coolant to replace and I’ll change oil.
Tires worked well. And looked to wear well too. 2,100 miles.
One of the things that stopped working was my old fix of the 4-way flasher. The turn signal relay part of that switch became intermittent, so I bought a new switch.
The other issue is just visible in the above photo to the top right. The Mode button on the instrument pod has cracked.
I re-installed the old tripmaster switch. But, I had to fab a new mount.
I’m going to address the front wheel imbalance and look into removing the preload spacers in the forks and see if I like that. since I’ll have the forks apart, they will get fresh fluid.
I removed 22mm of spacers below the springs in each leg. I’d left these in when I swapped the heavier and shorter springs for the longer OEM, softer springs. As long as I was there I changed the fork oil. It really seemed like it took me longer to get things ready, digging out tools and oil than it did to actually do the work. I had to break the bead on the front tire to rotate it for balance. That meant the Rabaconda came out of its bag. What a game changer that tire changer is. Quickly broke both beads then rotated the tire on the rim with a little added tire soap to help. All balanced with only three weights and the test ride confirmed all was smooth as butter.
Then an hour test ride in the heat on Sunday proved the suspension is good. Now, I need to fiddle all the damping.
I found a fueling issue I’ll need to figure out, but that will wait for another free weekend. I’ll get the oil and coolant changed out as well.
Some fiddling with the throttle cables may have fixed my fueling problem. I found I’d forgotten to tighten the locking nuts on the lower, return cable at the throttle bodies. This meant each nut slowly loosened even more until there was zero tension on that cable. I’ll know next time I ride the bike. I ever so slightly adjusted the balance as well.
A set of race fueling caps replace the keyed OEM caps that had begun sticking while traveling even with lubrication. The latch slides in plastic exposed to fuel. The plastic wears and with years of use, sticks. These won’t. I also took a day and changed both coolant and engine oil, including all the filters. Now the bike is ready.
But, wait. A starting problem, so a quick check found the battery down a good deal. It was then I remembered that while I was changing coolant, I’d left the key on. Only noticing when I went to crank the motor to charge the oil filter while re-filling the oil. Back out came my Shorai charger and more laying on the floor to gain access to the battery. A few hours on charge the bike fires instantly. Perfect.
Not so fast. I noticed if I wiggle the key I get the dash to cycle like turning the key off and on. Hmmm. I’ll be tearing the ignition switch apart this weekend for a more complete cleaning and inspection. I suspected the hard starting issue was down to some electrical connection, but only after the ignition switch became more flaky did I begin to consider it’s the source. Those pesky ignition wires soldered in strain to the switch. Designed to fail.
Today I sorted it.
When I attempted to desolder the severed wire, the solder bulb came off the connector. I had to break out the big Weller iron and heat the connector and wire from the contact side.
The contact side was a mess as well. Both the static side as seen above, (two contacts to the left are what matter).
But, the rotary piece was filthy. This is where I got the contact, no contact with a wiggle of the key.
I cleaned up both sides of the contacts, but only remembered to take a photo of the rotary side.
Heating the solder joint from the contact side yielded a solid joint. I buttoned it up and tested the fix.
Good to go. Wiggling the key yields no changes. Installed back on the bike and I’m ready for the next adventure.
My first ride with the Acerbis racing fuel caps had fuel sloshing between the tiny seal all over me and the bike at freeway speeds in traffic. I was not impressed. I looked at the design a bit more, but the venturi created by the small leaks in the seals acted to pretty much suck half of the fuel from the tanks. I was able to ride back from Mike’s without more fuel and after I had checked and rechecked the seal position. But, I still didn’t have any peace of mind with these caps. I went back to the OEM locking caps. If I were going to use racing caps, I’d design a neck/adapter to go from the OEM neck to the cap adapter and seal at both interfaces. That would make the racing caps work more like the OEM cap. For now, I’ll carry my Finish Line dry lube spray.
Ended he year with 91,612 miles on the clock.
Still ticking over like a clock. Happy New Year all.
Along The Way 