Baghira newbie...

[breakwellmz]

That`s interesting, thank you.
It was quite an eye opener to see the inside of a pair modern USD forks (on the Puzey) with rebound and compression damping, i think they are Showa copies.
Wirth Federn (The MZ progressive spring manufacturer) recommended 700ml of SAE10 in each tube by the way.

Cheers

[Malcvtr]

I love this guy’s careful approach to removing a Baghira’s fork seals...

https://youtu.be/97qLAPVXz9E

All in German, but you can see what’s happening

[homebrew123]

Yes I have seen the video before, that's not the way I go about it, but I have seen some folk that do lol

[Malcvtr]

Well, she's arrived at last:

A few issues:

I'm guessing there should be a bottom to that airbox...

Wiring hacked. Left indicators flash a bit too rapidly.

[Malcvtr]

Previous owner decided to remove the Dzus fasteners and put bolts in instead. Will try to reinstate Dzus bits.

Good tyres:

[Malcvtr]

There appears to be no way to reinstate the Dzus fasteners. It looks like bolts have been cut down to make studs and epoxied into the recesses formally occupied by the Dzus sockets. Not a disaster. Will just have to look for some nice-looking nuts...

[homebrew123]

Yes there should be a large lump at the bottom off airbox with a mudflap attached to it to stop shit going all over the shock, and the air filter is the wrong way up, and there is a rod that goes into a hole at the bottom of the airbox that has been cut off and it goes in the hole and then attaches to the round hole in the middle of the filter and hooks onto an eye that should be at the top that is missing. Also some of the early bikes didn't have Dzus fasteners they had a brass bush bonded into the tank and a threaded stud about 20mm long sticking out, and holding the seat on is something that looks very much like an m6 sleeve nut from a furniture fixing bolt with a 4mm hex allen button type head and that sits in a large approx 20mm OD with M8 hole, alloy washer with a countersink or a recess for the head of the sleeve nut that you can buy off ebay for motorsport or karting applications.

[homebrew123]

It will make a good bike with that mileage on it and yes there are a few small jobs to do, notably it needs a new airbox, but that was a good price, and I would have payed that price without even seeing it lol, like I sad before I could have bought your bike from the owner before the chap that you got it from and then again when your chap was selling it, but it was just too far for me at the price he wanted, which by the way was more than you got it for, but by then he had well and truly f***ed everything up. I can't believe that he actually cut the frame to lower it, why not just make a pair of stainless steel dog bone suspension links like I did for another bike recently, it took me half an hour to knock up a pair, including drilling the holes accurately, and they cost me £5 for stainless.

[Malcvtr]

Yes there should be a large lump at the bottom off airbox with a mudflap attached to it to stop shit going all over the shock, and the air filter is the wrong way up, and there is a rod that goes into a hole at the bottom of the airbox that has been cut off and it goes in the hole and then attaches to the round hole in the middle of the filter and hooks onto an eye that should be at the top that is missing. Also some of the early bikes didn't have Dzus fasteners they had a brass bush bonded into the tank and a threaded stud about 20mm long sticking out, and holding the seat on is something that looks very much like an m6 sleeve nut from a furniture fixing bolt with a 4mm hex allen button type head and that sits in a large approx 20mm alloy washer with a countersink or a recess for the head of the sleeve nut that you can buy off ebay for motorsport or karting applications.

Thanks Jon. So the air filter itself is the correct one? Looking on Graham’s Motorcycles, I thought the whole shebang was wrong!

[Malcvtr]

It will make a good bike with that mileage on it and yes there are a few small jobs to do, notably it needs a new airbox, but that was a good price, and I would have payed that price without even seeing it lol, like I sad before I could have bought your bike from the owner before the chap that you got it from and then again when your chap was selling it, but it was just too far for me at the price he wanted, which by the way was more than you got it for, but by then he had well and truly f***ed everything up. I can't believe that he actually cut the frame to lower it, why not just make a pair of stainless steel dog bone suspension links like I did for another bike recently, it took me half an hour to knock up a pair, including drilling the holes accurately, and they cost me £5 for stainless.

Ah, now I understand what you were saying about buying it two owners ago The last guy certainly has made a meal of things. I checked the oil level tonight - way over full. Hopefully, I’m not going to find anything horrific as I work my way through things...

By the way, is it normal for the clutch to engage in the last centimeter or so of travel?

[homebrew123]

Yes clutch is normally long way out, but just check that you have some free play in the cable, the lever should move a little, maybe 5mm possibly a bit more before it starts to move the actuating arm on the top of the clutch casing on engine. The air filter is the right one and it should be mounted on a metal cage. Best thing to do is try and get another airbox secondhand. I know that B.A.Bikes in Durham have got some airboxes, but I think I may have had the last filter holding rod off him with the filter cage the other day, but he has several boxes complete with eye at the top, because nobody ever needs one, so don't let him rip you off. Grahams have got a metal filter holding rod in for £16 which is a bit steep, or you could make one. But thinking about it, the chap should still have the rod and the eye, so you could get them off him. And the filter is the wrong way up, and it is angled on the cage, and fits properly the other way when held by the correct rod.

[Malcvtr]

Thanks very much Jon. I really appreciate all your help

[Malcvtr]

...why not just make a pair of stainless steel dog bone suspension links like I did for another bike recently, it took me half an hour to knock up a pair, including drilling the holes accurately, and they cost me £5 for stainless.

Sounds like a good idea. I've got a bit of 3mm stainless in the shed. Thick enough? And what distance between the holes did you have? I read elsewhere that 130mm works. If I do this, I'll have to drop the forks through the yokes when I reinstall after changing the seals. Any suggestions about how much to drop them would be gratefully received, as always

[homebrew123]

Hi, if you drop the back end by 3" then do the same with the forks, but the adjuster knobs will hit the handlebars, so fit a pair of cheap £9.99 handlebar risers and it also gives a better ridng position at the same time. The standard links are 118mm between holes centres, and the ones that I made were to the standard size because the bike had been lowered and I wanted it back to original height. But the ones that were fitted were 130mm and I also have a set of 125mm and they do drop the bike a decent amount. I think the longest that I have seen for sale have been 135mm between centres from a place in Germany. And I would recommend to use 30mm wide stainless strip, either 3mm or 4mm thick and I just rounded the ends. If you want to be fancy you could shape into dog bone shape, but I figured they would be stronger with more metal, and use some new cobalt drills or similar and go up in sizes and keep the tip cool and the speed of the drill slow, or the stainless will work harden and you will overheat the cutting edge.
When I said about the tank studs to hold the seat, they are 20mm long in total, with only 10mm sticking out from the tank and that's why they use a short sleeve nut, to reach through the seat hole onto the stud. If you have any old furniture fixings with m6 sleeve nuts then they would be perfect, failing that they are very cheap off ebay, and then have a look at the recessed or countersunk large OD m8 aluminium washers that are on ebay as well.

[homebrew123]

This is the set up for the early seat/panel/tank fixing, this is one that I made up out of a furniture fixing m6 short sleeve nut and an aluminium large load spreading washer approx 25mm OD, 4-6mm thick with an m8 hole in the middle and a countersink, but if you can find them, the original sort are a similar size with a squared recess for the head not a countersink, but to be honest the ones I use work just as good if not better than the originals. It was only the first Baghiras and Mastiffs that were made that had this set up, and the fuel tanks are normally a strange green colour not black like the later ones, also these tanks were not made by Acerbis, unlike the later ones that are marked Acerbis underneath, the old ones were made by a German company in Hamburg. Hope all this helps, and if you use the seat fastener set up, make another couple of new 20mm long m6 studs to screw in the tank bushes, if you can get the old ones out that is. I have just had to drill the studs out of the brass bush on both sides of a tank to be able to use it again, because the sleeve nuts were seized solid and the bush was just turning in the tank recess when I tried to move it, but not loose enough to pull out at all. So I drilled the studs out, picked out all of the old thread left inside them, and ran a m6 tap back down the bushes to clean the thread up again and screwed 2 new studs in as tight as I could because it still started to turn in the tank again, and used the fasteners pictured to finish the job, and it works and looks perfect, probably better than the later Dzus fasteners lol