... or why I will never again throw away something that is potentially
useful.

While fettling my latest SOB ('92 GSF400N Bandit 400) I decided, since
the forks were off for new oil seals, I might as well remove the top
yoke and steering stem and inspect and regrease the bearings.  The lower
bearing and race looked fine, but the upper race showed the unmistakable
telltales showing that the rollers had imprinted themselves on the race,
and the fingernail test confirmed that the marks were just deep enough
to cause an almost imperceptible notchiness.

While pondering whether or not to reassemble the bike in this condition,
I went looking for a spanner to adjust the round-nut-with-four-slots,
when what should I find but a brand new Timken 32005X bearing still
sealed in its plastic envelope.  Evidently I had bought this bearing for
another bike (I'm thinking it was my GL1200A) but found it wasn't the
correct one despite having the same base bearing number.  Being frugal I
couldn't throw away a perfectly good bearing, so it sat for a few years
until my serendipitous discovery.

I was litterly giggling like a loon.  Perhaps you had to be there to
appreciate it. My missus, who the SOB was purchased for, was looking at
me a bit askance, probably thinking rightly that I was about a gnat's
eyelash away from being called to the nut hut.

On 29 Sep, 14:06, Mark Olson <ols...@tiny.invalid> wrote:
> ... or why I will never again throw away something that is potentially
> useful.
>
> While fettling my latest SOB ('92 GSF400N Bandit 400) I decided, since
> the forks were off for new oil seals, I might as well remove the top
> yoke and steering stem and inspect and regrease the bearings.  The lower
> bearing and race looked fine, but the upper race showed the unmistakable
> telltales showing that the rollers had imprinted themselves on the race,
> and the fingernail test confirmed that the marks were just deep enough
> to cause an almost imperceptible notchiness.
>
> While pondering whether or not to reassemble the bike in this condition,
> I went looking for a spanner to adjust the round-nut-with-four-slots,
> when what should I find but a brand new Timken 32005X bearing still
> sealed in its plastic envelope.  Evidently I had bought this bearing for
> another bike (I'm thinking it was my GL1200A) but found it wasn't the
> correct one despite having the same base bearing number.  Being frugal I
> couldn't throw away a perfectly good bearing, so it sat for a few years
> until my serendipitous discovery.
>
> I was litterly giggling like a loon.  Perhaps you had to be there to
> appreciate it. My missus, who the SOB was purchased for, was looking at
> me a bit askance, probably thinking rightly that I was about a gnat's
> eyelash away from being called to the nut hut.

Heh. With me, recently, it was servicing the 400 Four and discovering
I had a complete set of brand new NGKs that I'd bought with one of the
several basket case bikes I've bought over the years. I'd just shoved
them in a tin along with over 400F bits[1] and forgotten all about
them

[1] Including a new oil filter, which I remembered I had and was the
reason for me heading for the tin in the first place.

TOG@Toil wrote:

> Heh. With me, recently, it was servicing the 400 Four and discovering
> I had a complete set of brand new NGKs that I'd bought with one of the
> several basket case bikes I've bought over the years. I'd just shoved
> them in a tin along with over 400F bits[1] and forgotten all about
> them
> 
> [1] Including a new oil filter, which I remembered I had and was the
> reason for me heading for the tin in the first place.

Since you mention that, I was also inordinately pleased to discover that
since the Bindit puked its fork oil all over the brake pads[1], I needed
another set of pads.  Lo and behold, the two still-useful pad sets I removed
from my ZG1000 are an exact match to the Suzuki's pads[2].  And even better,
they also match the EX250.  Since the 250 and the 400 probably won't do
all that many miles these pads will probably last a year or so where they
would have given out pretty quickly commuting on the underbraked ZG.

[1] Wouldn't have been too terribly bad but the dimwit rode a fair few
miles that way and cooked the oil into the pads, ruining them.  I hope
the piston seals aren't shot.

[2] Single (large diameter) disk variant.

On or around Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:42:42 -0500, Mark Olson
<olsonm@tiny.invalid> enlightened us thusly:

>[2] Single (large diameter) disk variant.

speaking of which... saw a couple of recent Buells down at the caff on
Sunday, and feck me, that's a big disc.
-- 
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