VStrom DL650 - new pads and stainless steel brake lines

At my last safety inspection, I was told that the rear brake pads were getting a little thin and that I should consider replacing them soon.  The motor cycle is a 2006 and I had not changed the brake fluid or replaced the brake lines as of yet so this seemed like a good opportunity.

Here is the rear brake line - comes with the banjo bolts and copper washers and an installation DVD.

Here are the front brake lines.  I went for the 2 full line version instead of OEM.  A full line goes from the master cylinder to each front brake cylinder.  There is a double banjo for the master cylinder. No particular reason behind choosing the full 2 line kit - just want I found first.  I did buy the optional twin banjo with bleeder but have not installed it. 

Here are the new brake pads.  I went with upgraded front pads and OEM equivalent rear pads.  I did have some reasoning behind these which was driven by some advice on a VStrom related site.  Since the rear provides comparatively little brake power compared to the front brakes - I didn't want to promote locking up the rear so a normal set of pads was a logical choice.  I do feel that a bit more brake power at the front would be useful so I went with a minor upgrade but didn't want to get something which would wear through the rotors excessively fast.

Here is the left front line (and pads) installed.  Not much to look at but I feel a bit safer now that the old lines are gone.

Here is the rear line installed.

Here are the lines at the master cylinder.

This was my first motorcycle brake line replacement ever and first brake maintenance needed on this motorcycle.  I did take about 3 hours to replace all 6 pads and 3 brake lines + fluid.  Some of that was spent scrounging for tools and such.  I ended up using a couple hex wrenches (4 & 5mm I think), 3 or 4 socket sizes (broke a 14mm socket - not a quality item), flat blade screw driver, phillips screw driver, 1/4 clear tubing + tiny hose clamp (for bleeding brakes), a torque wrench - I have 2 but one really didn't seem to cut out when needed and I think I am fortunate nothing appears stripped out. 

Be careful routing the hoses. I did reuse some of the rubber grommet like things from the original hoses and existing hardware where possible.  I did use the piece supplied with the kit that attaches to the triple tree.  I faced that clamp piece towards the throttle - I didn't like the outcome when I tried going the other direction with it. 

Sliding miter saw stand

Garage floor space is at a premium so I decided to stop using my current saw horses as a permanent stand and design and weld together a stand with a smaller foot print while leaving room for some future enhancements.  My first pass at a design was larger and had more feature rich but I finally had to make the call between immediate benefit, time to build and cost.  I ended prioritizing space savings and low time to build over all the fancy stuff even though the fancy stuff would have been fun to build.

Here is the basic but completed frame. Still need to cleanup some welds and  paint it.  I am thinking about adding some hangers below the top rails to hold blades. I'll save that for the future for now.

And some pics of some details.  Nothing fancy - did go with some larger wheels for this after finding the smaller ones were such a pain to use on my welding cart.

Used the square tube as a guide for a 6" bolt which is used as an adjustable foot.  I probably should top the tube to keep debris out of it - it would be hard to clear out once in there.

Here is the nut welded to the tube.  These are galvanized so I had to be careful to stay out of the fumes - a slight breeze was helpful.  I made the tack welds with the bolts in so the bolt was able to act like a heat sink which I do think helped.  

Here is the result with the miter saw on top and some 3/4" plywood in the bottom.

This was a pretty easy project and did help me recover some floor space.  With a few add-ons like blade holders, it should help organize things even more.

The main challenges with this project was accurate cuts and keeping things square during welding.  I suspect I will continue to struggle with accurate cuts until I purchase something more appropriate than a 4 1/2" angle grinder.  I will say that I think the angle grinder could work better if I had a large stable platform to clamp to while cutting.  If I somehow can clear out and rearrange the garage someday maybe.

As for keeping things square, that also involves an appropriate platform.  My homemade welding table/cart did ok for building the top and bottom separately but I found it quite challenging to keep the verticals square.  My mix of square tubing and angle iron didn't make it easier.  I like some aspects of using the angle iron (gives a little extra weight down low) but it was more challenging trying to get it clamped just right.  For this project, I ended up  using some aluminum squares and a piece of flat bar - the flat bar was used as a temporary vertical stop for the vertical rails and the 2 squares were clamped on the 2 edges of the base  (did same for top) to maintain 90 degrees between the leg and top/bottom.  If building more than a few things like this, it would likely be worthwhile building or buying some type of jig to get decent and repeatable results.

Other future enhancements may include folding side extensions.  This would be useful when cutting longer moulding and and such.

Hope God blesses your day.
Scott

Electrical wiring project for RV & Welder

We recently bought an RV and I was not real happy with running an extension cord from a hard to  reach standard 15a outlet.  At the same time, I have been wanting a 240v outlet for my welder - was hoping it would reduce the tripping of the 15a breaker I was on in the garage (also sharing same outlet for RV).

I bit the bullet and picked up the materials I needed and got working on it.  Sadly it took about 5 hours total but a good chunk was fighting the wiring through the flexible conduit.  I would have bought the rigid plastic conduit if I had known how painful it would be.

Anyways, got my 240v 1 phase outlet with 50a double pole breaker installed (Yeah!).  I ended up using some 6 awg 3 conductor wire and surface mounting it in using the flexible conduit.  I know I didn't need 3 conductor wire but I may reuse it as part of a future detached garage where it may be useful.

The 240v outlet is only needed for my Thermal Arc 211i at the moment. I have hopes for a couple other tools in the future so may need to do more of this again later.

Did a  little welding with using the 240v and it could be my imagination but it does seem to work a little better in general.  Here is the 240v outlet compatible with my Thermal Arc 211i.  I put this near the edge of the garage door since I do most of my welding outside and this gives me the most reach.

I also installed a 120v RV outlet and 30 amp single pole breaker.  I used some 8 awg 3 conductor wire I got from my father recently.   Other than the pushing wire through conduit it was pretty straight forward.

Be aware that 6-8 awg wire is plenty stiff and can be challenging to weave through the breaker box.

The receptacles, box, conduit, wire and breakers were all at Lowes. 

For reference, here is a site with NEMA plug types.

NOTE: I am not an electrician but am somewhat handy and spend money and time making sure I can safely do a project.  If I don't think I can do something safely then I pay someone to do it.  Please be safe - electrical mistakes are not forgiving.