wanted - moto giro bike

About 20 years ago I had a bike tyre (18" rear - I forget what make) that wouldn't seat its bead. I got up to about 80psi before I chickened out. I took it to a tyre fitting shop to see if they could get it to seat. The tyre bloke took the guts out of the valve so he could connect a hose and inflate/deflate it remotely. Then he put it in a safety cage and cycled it up to around 120psi and back a few times before it eventually seated with a loud bang. But then we found it was so far out of balance that it needed about half a kg of weights, so I got them to take it off again. I came to the conclusion that it was a faulty tyre that somehow fell through the cracks of the quality checking process.
 
Vince said:
I think they use cages for truck split rims, human head removing work.
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Bloke in Brisbane blew his hand off, inflating a wheelbarrow tyre at a service station near my home. Seems the wheel was off the barrow and the two halves of the rim separated and one half went straight through his wrist.

:unsure: Now I’m wondering how he used the wheelbarrow after that.
 
The safety officer when I was an apprentice showed us a photo of a bloke who used Oxy to blow the lug nuts off a wheel, it exploded and took a fair bit of his head off. Live if your lucky and learn.
 
both new tires seemed fine, they both took a lot of pressure to seat the bead on the rims, and both were easy to balance with minimal weights. The new Raedelli rims have a very different bead profile than the original rims, I think it is the rims.

In any event, no one was hurt in the process other than blowing a hole in a new tube. Has me thinking though that would be tough to change a tire at roadside, I am wondering about pouring some tire sealant stuff into the tubes? Anyone got any expereince with tire sealant in motorcycle tubes?
 
Paul LeClair said:
both new tires seemed fine, they both took a lot of pressure to seat the bead on the rims, and both were easy to balance with minimal weights. The new Raedelli rims have a very different bead profile than the original rims, I think it is the rims.

In any event, no one was hurt in the process other than blowing a hole in a new tube. Has me thinking though that would be tough to change a tire at roadside, I am wondering about pouring some tire sealant stuff into the tubes? Anyone got any expereince with tire sealant in motorcycle tubes?
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Waste of time and money, and you'll definitely won't make any friends at the tyre repair shop you go to for replacement. Carry a spare tube and you won't suffer a flat. Leave it at home... Murphys Law.

piet
 
Dellortoman said:
There should be a chapter on Murphy's law and other superstitions in the owner's manual.
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Haha I carried a spare headlight bulb around for years and never needed it, until one really nasty windy wet night, and found the flamin’ thing didn’t work.
Broken filament. From bouncing around in my tool kit for 20 years…
🤣🤣
 
I've suffered quite a few flats on vacation trips, only once I started carrying a spare tube did that stop... since going tubeless and carrying a puncture repair kit and CO2 bottles, punctures have avoided me like the plague. ;)

piet
 
I usually carry a can of tyre foam, as a last resort from back before mobile phones and lots of solo rides to remote spots. I have never actually needed it on those rides over the years except once about a year ago when Tom hit a 4inch bolt and it didn't help much in that catastrophic damage. The only time it did help I was 4ks from home with a flat rear and I couldn't even get the bike on the centre stand it was too far down to deadlift it up onto the stand. I rang my brother who brought the can and it got me home and went flat again 15 minutes later. So probably not worth shit but when you're desperate.
 
Tyre sealant, don't get me started......... commuter suzuki bandit has 4 repairs from punctures on the way to work, if i pick up another nail, i think i will put a new tyre on it. Thats what you get commuting in sydney.

I love the guys who put sealant in their tubed tyres , as if.... just makes a smelly sticky mess.
 
chrisk said:
Bloke in Brisbane blew his hand off, inflating a wheelbarrow tyre at a service station near my home. Seems the wheel was off the barrow and the two halves of the rim separated and one half went straight through his wrist.

:unsure: Now I’m wondering how he used the wheelbarrow after that.
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Finilec saved me one time. At the Alpine Rally with my new SF2, rear tyre went flat while we were camped. Got out the tube, checked it in the creek - bubbling out of the bloody valve core not nipped up enough ffs. The I went and pinched it getting the tyre back on, had to keep pumping it up. We stopped with a group of rally goers on the way out of the dirt track, and hearing of my tyre, said there was a can of Finilec chucked down the embankment beside the road right there, a guy had tried it to fix his puncture and it hadn't done the job. Retrieved it and put what was left into my tyre and it worked fine, stinking mess to replace the tube on getting back though.
 
In the bicycle shop I refused to work on tubeless tyres that had sealant. Just too freakin messy - hate the stuff. But great when you're in a bind - I remember Lee's flat after the Alpine Rally well - I broke s clutch cable and rode iced roads without one and once out of the high country, all the way back to Melbourne IIRC.
 
one step forward, one step back.......

one step back - painters wife contacted me this evening to say my bike frame etc will NOT be ready for pickup tomorrow as promised, didn't ask what the issue is, just told her that my expectations of the finished product is high......

one step forward - brand new pair of valves, pair of valve guides, new valve springs, collets and valve caps, arrived from Italy today. Amazing what can be found and purchased over the internet....:cool:(y)

still looking for a 55 + inch Veglia speedo cable, Wolfgang told me yesterday he may have someone who can make one for me.....
 

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another step forward and another step back

took the new valve guides etc to the machinist. He hands me the finished cylinder bored to the new oversized piston, with the news that the rings supplied to me with the new piston are undersized and not useable....... bloody hell:rolleyes::rolleyes: this could be challenging finding proper sized piston rings.

EDIT - I just spent 45 minutes searching the internet learning how much I don't know about piston rings, how to specify them, and where to get them from, bloody hell - anyone?
 
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Interesting Gilera Paul. I found this 106SS near Edmonton a couple years ago, didn't reallly want it but it was cheap and I was able to find most everything I needed for it in Italy. This one has no Sears tags on it and was originally yellow / black, I don't have any history on it so no idea if it was a Seras or not but I refinished it as a Sears type. The engine cases on the bike were original hammer tone silver, refinished them to match, looks like the same seat as you found (also form Italy).




I am building a 61 Ala Verde 250 for my Giro bike, I hope to get to Nakusp one day for the Giro hill climb.



Also building a Benelli 200 Sprite (Motobi), may get this one done first



If you ever get up to Edmonton give me a shout
 
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Paul LeClair said:
another step forward and another step back

took the new valve guides etc to the machinist. He hands me the finished cylinder bored to the new oversized piston, with the news that the rings supplied to me with the new piston are undersized and not useable....... bloody hell:rolleyes::rolleyes: this could be challenging finding proper sized piston rings.

EDIT - I just spent 45 minutes searching the internet learning how much I don't know about piston rings, how to specify them, and where to get them from, bloody hell - anyone?
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Using a good set of calipers, measure the ring grooves widths. They are likely to be 1.5mm considering the period - but could be wider. Oil ring groove could well be 5.0mm.
Tell us the bore size too. Then those of us with cross-reference literature will have a look.
 
In the early 80s I was able to go into Repco's head office in North Melbourne (had a Repco Brabham V8 engine in the foyer - nice) and they let me scour their books until I pieced together a set for the SF - I went with a 3-piece oil ring but decided to discard it all for a std factory set of rings. I'd only started the motor and ran it for about 10 seconds - my shaved head and smaller base gasket caused the pistons to tap the head.

The Repco rings were good quality and cost practically nothing from their head office - but i just wanted to stick with stock as they'd served me so well for about 250,000km (not the one set!). I'm sure you'll be able to source rings Paul.
 
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