Author: jeff

Is TheRideStop.com Reputable?

Posted on | By jeff | No comments

I was looking for an EBC rear rotor for an RD04 Africa Twin, a bike which was never imported into the USA. No online shops in the country sold them, except, seemingly, one: TheRideStop.

I put the item in my shopping cart and was shocked to see a shipping price of several hundred dollars. This alerted me that the site might be a scam.

A few days later, I happened to look at the site again. This time, adding an item resulted in more normal fees. Something still seemed fishy, so I did a search on the name. I found only this:

DON’T use the Ride Stop! I was just ripped off by them and am having my CC co. charge back the money.

Also, this thread mentions:

Unlike the folks at theridestop.com where I ordered some W&M bags. It’s been a week now and I still don’t have a tracking number, let alone my bags!

To boot they stated (after I complained about the lack of shipping confirmation) “you paid less than anywhere else so this is the trade-off I guess.” Go figger.

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Seating Tire Beads

Posted on | By jeff | No comments

I was putting new tires on my 1977 CB750. The rear tire went on and the bead set without too much difficulty, but the front tire was proving more troublesome.

Previously, I had been running the Comstar wheels without tubes — something not officially endorsed until, I believe 1982 — and had used a bit of tire sealant to help the bead seat. Over the years, this liquid sealant had hardened into a concrete-like state, and despite my best efforts I believe a bit of it was impeding the process of seating the tire bead.

I tried all the usual steps to get the bead to seat. I lightly inflated the tire, then methodically bounced the wheel against the ground. I wrapped a tie-down strap around the circumference of the tire, which deforms the tire and forces the bead outward. I even tried inflating the tire as high as 80psi, all to no avail.

Incidentally, do not inflate tires to such high pressures, people really have been badly injured doing this.

After more than an hour, I gave up and left the tire overnight with around 50psi in it. The next day, I was happy to see that the bead had seated itself.

Sometimes the solution is simply to have patience.

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1995 Grand Cherokee Track Bar Replacement

Posted on | By jeff | No comments

In an effort to eliminate a front-end clunk when steering, I installed a new Moog track bar. The toughest part of the process is removing the ball joint from the frame mount. The ball joint is pressed into a tapered hole in the bracket, and this bracket makes it impossible to use a pitman arm puller.

Instead, a pickle fork (or “ball joint separator”) must be used. I found that the only way to get sufficient impact was to use wire cutters and snip away the rubber boot. Then, by either removing the driver’s side wheel or turning it to the left, it’s possible to get the pickle fork at a good angle on the joint. This gave me enough room to get the four-pound sledge hammer up to speed, and the joint popped free after a couple of whacks.

When installing or removing the trackbar, it’s important to raise the body of the vehicle, then adjust the relative height of the axle using a jack. This allows you to align the axle-side mount correctly, avoiding unnecessary interference and friction. Without this step, it will be easy to snap the bolt.

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