Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1162341
34 Trail Rider Teardown went excep onally well given the fact that there was li le corrosion. Even the swing arm pivot bolt slid right out with minimal effort. Amazingly the swing arm bushings were s ll well-greased and ght as new. Our first order of business was the rolling stock. With res the consistency of dinosaur dung, they had to go. Since this bike will see a fair amount of camp/logging road use, we elected to go with a set of Vee Moto VRM109s front and rear. We've been running this com- bo on several of our vintage race bikes over the last sev- eral years with fantas c success. The compound lends itself well to New England rocks and roots; the fact that they look period correct is the icing on the cake. Those who've had the pleasure of removing decades-old knobbies are familiar with the chore. If you're handling this task on a regular basis, ask Santa for a Kauritmoto TMT5 Tire Moun ng Tool. We've featured Kauritmoto's innova ve products in the past, and this one's worth its weight in gold if you're handling a lot of re chang- es. Incredibly, the original chrome rims were in pre y decent shape for pushing five decades. Even the wheel bearings and brakes s ll had life in them, but no one likes to do things twice and we elected to replace all consumables with new. As for the new bearings, we like to pull the grease seals and pack 'em ght with Maxima wheel bearing grease. Emory paper worked wonders cleaning up the old drums. The brake backing plates were stripped of the old shoes/springs, along with both brake cams cleaned up on the wire wheel, greased and reinstalled. As for the chain and sprockets, we elected to replace them and gear it up for some high-speed cruising with a 15/39 combo. With the rolling stock done, it was me to concentrate on the bones of the beast. Let's be clear, this ain't no restora on. Basically, what we did here was stripped down an old bike, inspected all components and replaced anything and everything that either looked red or should be replaced if one ac- tually intends on using the bike. As the motor appeared to be sound (shi s fine, clutch works, along with stout compression), we elected to leave it in the frame. As for the resourceful Mainer that who'd owned this bike, it was clear he'd never been introduced to oil forums and their gurus. To our surprise, he'd been burning waste oil in the injec on tank! Now that's a first! The carcass was hauled out to the back yard where it was degreased and pressure washed thoroughly.