Cheese metal sprocket

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keithj
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Cheese metal sprocket

Postby keithj » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:44 pm

Greg's article reminded me of this photo from my dad who did a trip around India on an Enfield 350.

He says: "This brand new replacement rear sprocket had done just 2 days and 480 kilometres."

Leh, India Sep 07 380.jpg
cheese metal?


Keith.

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gmcdesign
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Re: Cheese metal sprocket

Postby gmcdesign » Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:29 pm

Hey Keith,

Good to see someone is actually reading my articles and taking note.
A friend of mine owns a Enfield 500 Bullet (Indian made) with about 700 klicks on the dial and it already has a worn sprocket and has a frame developing surface rust.
The sprocket shown in the article pic is one of several that my friend Clyde Tucker has collected at his bike shop. A complete lack of maintenance could've been pretty much all the problem, but probably they were cheesy (gouda or colby) stock items. Of course, correct maintenance is mentioned in the article.
And speaking of cheesy, do you remember old steel bars? My brothers and I spend have out childhood trying to straighten bars that were never the same after one off. Mind you we did a lot of "offs".

Cheers, Greg


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Re: Cheese metal sprocket

Postby David Lahey » Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:52 pm

The story about Keith's Dad's Enfield reminded me of someone I came across a few years ago who truly was living to the ethos expounded in "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance"
Wendy and I were living in our 4WD and travelling through the Northern Territory. We had just set up for an overnight camp at the Burke and Wills roadhouse on the Barkly Highway. It was getting dark when I heard a two-stroke bike approaching. When I saw it was a Vespa scooter I was amazed because the nearest fuel stop is a long way away.
The rider set up camp near us so I couldn't resist having a chat. He told me this was not his flash touring Vespa, being only his "Australian" Vespa. His "good" Vespa was stored in Malaysia for when he got back from the Aussie section of his round-the-world trip. His flash model Vespa had done 40,000 km so far and he reckoned it would easily get him all the way back to the UK. He bought a Vespa especially for the Aussie part of the trip because importation and transport costs were so high from Asia.
I quizzed him about the fuel distance from the previous fuel stop because I know that an XR600 with 23 litre tank only just makes 350km and I know that Vespa tanks are pretty small. He said it was no problem because he straps on a 5 litre black plastic Rheem jerry and travels at about 60km/h. I just did a calc on that and from his last stop, he must have been getting over 100MPG.
As we were talking he started getting tools out from somewhere and proceeded to take the head off and give it a decoke (in the campground, by torchlight). No probs mate.
The other thing was his tyre renewal schedule. Because Vespas and scooters in general were not thick on the ground in 1993, he had to carry a new tyre with him for quite a while. The one he bought in Darwin was strapped on alongside the fuel container and by the look of the tyres on the scooter would probably not be needed for another couple of thousand KM.
Way to go hey, if you really want to see all the sights


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