Some love for Ragnarok

With Sporherre i have a new partner in crime and he became my main bike, not because i don’t like Ragnarok any more but going offroad is just too much fun.
Ragnarok will stay and i take him 2 times a week to work for the grocery’s on the way back and when i have to go somewhere and it’s just an A to B ride without time to take the small roads with maybe some dirt it’s also the bike to use.
The odo past the 120.000km so it was time for some love.

For regular maintenance it was time for new spark plugs, coolant, oil and filter, air filter cleaning and valve clearance. A big service.
I hate rushing these jobs so he’s out of the running for a couple of weeks so also a good moment to do some cosmetic work. The pannier racks and rear luggage rack where rusty ad oxidated and the crashbars where used and rattle canned to protect the bare metal.
The last ride to work was without panniers and i left without the “scaffolding”.
It was easier to take it off at work than at home and take the loose parts.
At home i started stripping the bike.

At work i had some work to be done to the “scaffolding”.
The pannier racks where already on when i bought it and had some aluminium panniers with a lock for the panniers and quick disconnect for the racks. Don’t need the lock hook and also never take the racks off so time for the angle grinder.
Also wanted to use this moment to get rid of the straps for the crashbar bags.
These bags where not meant as crashbar bags but i thought it was the best option after destroying the ones i had before.
Fun Fact, the international sales manager from Mosko Moto did pitched it at Mosko Moto but they didn’t see it but he uses them too (i discussed this with him and send the how-to).

Now that’s ready for sandblasting and when it’s back i can paint it.
It’s still at work but the blasting chamber is in another location. The spray cabin is at my location, very convenient and also nice i can use it whenever i want (only not when it is in use off course).
In de mean time i can work on Ragnarok but that got shifted a few times.
One time was because of a spontaneous TET ride with Jan, a fellow T7 rider i know from the T7 forum.
He lives in Germany near Cologne (Köln). We wanted to ride together for a bit longer but the agenda’s didn’t match before.
I suggested a week later but it supposed to get wet that weekend and this weekend was just great so i caved in and we went to do a new part of the TET NL. He did a part of it earlier but this part didn’t exist yet.
When we came at the point where we both already rode that section we had lunch (thanks for buying Jan) we changed our plans.
He is a beginner rider so we went to a part of my offroad commute to practice a bit to make it a bit more relaxing for him

We had a great day and we will do some more of the TET next year>
Back to Ragnarok.
The biggest job of the whole set is getting to the parts a want to address. You have to take apart halve of the bike and then fiddle some more to get the valve covers off for less than an hour work and then all steps again in the opposite order.
Even if you get on it like a pro it still would take at least a full day and i think even a day and a halve so it’s a huge money saver if you can do it yourself.
Coolant was way too late, it still worked and the bike never got hot but the stuff that came out smelled horrible.

And then there was the matter of painting some parts.
Already had an idea to get a bit more colour on the bike and this was the perfect moment.
Off course it would not be the regular way, it had to fit the bike so orange it is.
Putting orange racks and crashbars on would look silly and too much, my plan was to paint it black and then the inside orange finished with a mat clear coat.
When painting the inside the overspray would make a nice match with the top of the stripe on the tank and fairing.

We got a new mat clear and that didn’t turned as mat as the bike but still a lot more than the pictures show, this was still wet and a little less does give it a little contrast.
Two bolts broke with disassembling so when i fixed those problems i put everything back together with stainless bolts with anti seize but i hope i don’t have to take it apart again.
One part i will and that is the bashplate where one of he bolts broke, that i have to take off for oil changes.
Only thing left is showing the result but it is nothing like walking around it in real life.
Don’t have a picture yet with the panniers back on.