Plant Services - May 2008 - (Page 7) FROM THE EDITOR Familiarity breeds content Is keeping old equipment worth the risk? So I have a lot invested in this machine and many good ave you noticed how everybody seems to be drivreasons to just keep using it, and nothing indicates that it ing faster, closer together in heavier traffic, accelwon’t easily outlast me. erating and braking more briskly with less regard But times have changed. Most of my miles are commutto road and weather conditions? I think some of it has to do ing on Chicago’s expressways and the occasional two-day with attitudes, congestion, more 18-wheelers and strained business trip a state or two away. These days, I’m either highway maintenance budgets, but a good portion is berunning with Interstate highway traffic at speeds I won’t cause cars and trucks are significantly better than they used put in print, jamming cheek-to-jowl through potholed, to be. It’s gotten a lot easier to go faster. gravel-strewn construction zones (often in the rain) or eyMy motorcycle is 36 years old this year. It has only 161,000 ing twitchy oncoming left-turners too eager to get into the miles on it and it runs well. It handles and stops just like it strip-mall paycheck loan store. did when it was brand-new back in 1972, maybe better with I imagine sometimes that rising gasoline prices or the its modern tires. Gas mileage is good, it pollutes no more increasing number of automatic speedingthan it’s designed to, it’s comfortable and it’s ticket-writing machines will slow drivers been my companion ever since I traded my car for it in 1976. (It’s a BMW R75/5, black with I figured out how down and make the highway environment more hospitable to me and my old motorwhite pinstripes, Vetter fairing and bags.) to use a Weber cycle, but realistically, that’s probably not Parts remain available at reasonable cost, gas grill to heat going to happen. Like my old BMW, time and my garage is stocked with hundreds of has no reverse gear. new and serviceable used ones, including a the housings Today’s machines are faster and more effidisassembled spare bike and salvaged accessoand shrink-fit cient. More powerful engines; bigger, stickier ries (thank you, eBay brethren). I have books, manuals and files full of maintenance lore and them around the tires and highly effective antilock brakes help information unique to my machine and the shaft assemblies. them cruise more safely and comfortably at much higher speeds, soak up rough surfaces model line it represents, as well as a number and stop fast enough to stay out of trouble. of special tools I’ve acquired and fabricated But a new machine wouldn’t even come with a shop manover the years that allow me to do almost any maintenance ual, much less all the parts, tools and above all, specialized or repair to the engine, brakes, wheels, suspension, electriknowledge I’ve accumulated over the years. And it would cal system, etc. have complexities like fuel injection, an engine management For example, every 60,000 miles or so, for one reason computer, even a communications bus. I’d have to start all or another, I’ll have to go into the transmission. I made over again. What a hassle. a heavy-duty puller to remove the output flange from its Still, it’s crazy to compete with the rest of the world with tapered seat, and fabricated a lever that allows me to hold less than the best equipment, right? I should buy something it while I torque the retaining nut to precisely 170 ft-lbs. I newer with today’s capabilities so I can keep up, and imfound a Plastigage-like material that allows me to measure prove the odds I’ll survive. the bearing-to-housing clearances, have sources for shims to set the preloads, and figured out how to use a Weber gas grill to heat the housings and shrink-fit them around the shaft assemblies. I know where to find parts, who specializes in the few PAUL STUDEBAKER, CMRP tasks I can’t do (like overhauling the speedometer or weldEDITOR IN CHIEF ing up and re-machining the rear-wheel splines) and how to pstudebaker@putman.net get useful information when I come across a new problem. (630) 467-1300 ext. 433 May 2008 www.PLANTSERVICES.com 7 H http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com
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