Special tools......

Before I head South for a new Years pilgrimage I needed to do the
steering head bearings. Not too much of a mission apart from hanging the

How do you know they need doing?

When you can no longer make them tight and still have smooth movement?

The bike wasn't holding a line through a corner and sometimes 'dropped'
itself into the corner if I did try to change line. It was easy enough
to 'ride around' once i knew what it was going to do.
Then the front end would give a pulsing feeling when the front brakes
were applied which slowly got worse until it was shuddering.

How can you be sure it wasn't merely observing your usual
riding habits ? :-)

Because I have had other Aprilia riders (much better than myself) take
it for a hoon while I rode their bike. I preferred the bikes that
tracked straight and true!

When I lifted the front end off the ground and pushed and pulled at the
front wheel, I could feel the play.

I see. My V-65 Magna has been prone to headshake at about 45mph
with the throttle cut. Never used to do that. New tires helped
but didn't cure it completely. The head swings smoothly from stop
to stop and I can't feel any play. I've done a few wheelies with
that bike, and not all them landed as smoothly as I hoped...
Maybe I should take a closer look at the head bearings.

That's usually a simple adjustement.

I have already tried that, but to get rid of the play I had to
over-tighten them and they feel notchy when rotated past the centreline
of the bike.

As an ex-Japanese track day bike, I assume it's been thrashed and I'd
rather replace stuff than continue to ignore it and hope it cures
itself. :)

I'd say the streets are probably very hard, too, on steering head
bearings. Especially around here! I try to keep mine nice and tight,
to avoid excessive wear and damage.

At $265 for a pair of bearings, a locking tab and freight, I hope they
will last a while! The bike has done 50,000 km so it's not really
unexpected. Iv'e been meaning to do them for a while now, but since I
picked up the KTM, Iv'e been getting my riding fix and the Aprilia has
just been sitting in the shed (shame on me!).

Too many hobbies, too much work. :)

bike from the roof to get the forks off.......and the F#ck'n special
tool needed for torquing up the bearings.

I needed a four pronged flat nut doer upper I could put the torque
wrench onto. I ended up getting and old 1/2" drive socket that had an ID
that matched the ID of the four notches and marked,hacksawed and ground
out until it fitted.......it only took 1/2 hour stuffing around.

Ayup. I made one of those for my ST1100 to get the swingarm bolt off.
I think Honda wanted something like $40 for their tool.

I had a look in the manual and there are three pages of 'special tools'

There are benefits to having friends. The motorcycle club where I work
has bought some tools with their company budget. Any member can use
them. Members of the ST owners club (online) have made/purchased some
special tools. They get sent around the country when needed.

and stands I should have if I want to strip the bike! You would think by
now that manufacturers could make things to fit normal tools (OK ,some
are needed to get into fiddly places).....but I suppose that wouldn't
encourage people to take their bike to the dealership.

Feel better now?

:) Not until the fairings are back on and Iv'e taken it for a ride.
Iv'e been riding around the sloppy bearings for a month or so now and
the novelty has worn off. It started as a vauge 'dropping into the
corner' feeling which slowly got worse until I could feel a shuddering
when the front brakes were put on. Fingers crossed it's cured.

Not sure if this would have helped in your case, but it
looks like a useful little gizmo even if it's overpriced.

It wouldn't have helped with the Aprilia steering head bearings, but it
would be ideal for the head bolts on the old square case Ducati.

Silly question for the day......with that adapter, wouldn't the torque
settings change depending on how far down the spanner it was mounted?

Yes, a bit. You'd reduce the desired torque setting/reading by a factor
of (1 + L/x), where L is the length of the torque wrench's beam, and x
is the distance from the center of the bolt head to the center of the
square drive hole on the special tool.

Whoops, I meant (1 + x/L), and this assumes the extension is in line
with the torque wrench's beam... if it's at 90 degrees as shown, the
factor is sqrt(L^2 + x^2)/L.

If the adapter was at 90 degrees to the wrench, I'd figure
the difference would be minimal. If it were in-line, you'd
have to caclulate and adjust for the extension.

Special tools? Yeah, tell me about it, Brian. Here's what I had to
resort to, replacing the seals in my front forks this past spring:

Rest of page (showing how the home-made tool was used):

Well, at least *I* don't have to hang my bike from the roof! ;)

It is called progress.

Progress into my money pocket! :)