| [ Friday - May 15, 2020 ] I've had the Galfer R1200GSW rear brake rotor for a while now. Even before I move to the new house. Now it's time to deal with the situation since the rear DP brake pads are so low and the the rotor is pretty much shot. Not to mention the rear brake reservoir wants to fall off of the GSW. Apparently, the Neslon Riggs half bike cover does an excellent job of protecting the upper part of the bike, but the rear brake reservoir is below the cover and exposed to UV light for the last 7 years. It's brittle and about to fall off. Before I had to take the GSW in for rear brake reservoir change, I want to change out the rear brake rotor. 1, 2, 3, 4 the brake rotor bolts came off with relative ease with a bit of heat. I learned this from changing the front rotors a while back. It's all good until I reach the 5th bolt. Wait, what's this, it's moving too easily. Let me heat it again. What the heck? That's not right. I shine the flash light on the remaining bolt only to find it stripped. Oh man, this is the last one. It doesn't look like Torx at all. The bolt looks more like a partly messed up hex bolt. Arg... not good. Why does it have to always be the last bolt that's the problem. So I tighten everything back up, minus the thread lock because I can't find where my thread lock is. Arg.... I called Brown Motor Works to let them know I need assistance with a stripped rotor bolt. They said they can help me out with that. |
| [ Saturday - May 16, 2020 ] I bring in the GSW for the rear brake reservoir replacement and to get extra rear brake rotor bolts in addition to replacing the stripped bolt. While there, I asked them to replace the tires too because the Anakee 3's are looking a bit sad. They asked where the rotor was... I didn't bring it. Doh!!! I'm kicking myself. When all is said and done, I took the GSW home and tried to remove the rear brake rotor bolt. The first one I try, I can tell it's start to strip. Right there and then I said, "NO! that's enough. I'm not going to mess this up." I then called Brown and asked them if I can have them replace the rear rotor for me. They agreed. Another hour later and another $120, the bike is all done. With that I said to them, "OK. From here on out, I'll handle the front, you handle the rear." I ride home with a new rear rotor and brake pads. What I've learned from this lesson is that don't even bother with shallow Torx bolts if you don't have the right tools nor procedure. Just let the folks with the right tools do it. I've been told by Brown a couple time over, "removing the rear brake rotor is very tricky. You have to have a long Torx 30 in one hand while using the other hand to pull down the rear brake lever." Nah, I'll let the pros do the hard stuff. I'll stick to the easy stuff to save a little money. |