My Burger

Finally, locate the generator timing cover and remove it. It's on the back of the engine on the RHS and uses a large allen key that isn't in the toolkit. Turning the engine over while looking for the "T" mark is not too hard but requires a long reach while peering round the number plate! The front pulley bolt is a 24mm and I just happened to have a socket the right size. It also helps if the seat and engine cowl come off as well.

Once you're in there, doing the tappets is easy as it's all screw and locknut. They had opened up by maybe 0.05mm and I set them to .10mm and .20mm (spec is inlet 0.08 to 0.13, exhaust 0.17 to 0.23) In the end, this really wasn't too hard but feels like yet another Japanese origami joke.

Other Burger maintenance issues.

The oil filter is unlike any other I've seen and hides behind a cover on the RHS. There's quite a lot of oil in there so plenty of newspaper and containers are needed to avoid getting it all over the exhaust.

My front brake disk pads have worn much faster than the others. The front brake is the top pair of pads in the front caliper. Mine were almost down to the metal after 8500 miles. By contrast the other pair in the front caliper are only half worn. I'd strongly suggest checking all of them regularly. The fronts are easy to check, but it's pretty hard to see how the back disk pads are doing without removing the wheel. Without doing that you can just about see the metal backing plates and comparing these with the disk gives an indication. I had to phone all over the place to find someone who had pads in stock and eventually ended up with EBC from a local dealer that I had forgotten carried Suzuki. M&P, Carnell, Bike Stop and Daytona all claimed that the EBC part number hadn't arrived in the country and none of them carried genuine Suzuki spares.

Front Forks

Simon Evans writes

Ok so after 276 miles yesterday testing, here are the recommended settings for the fork modifications. The soft springing has not proved to be the problem I expected, and I put it down to the increased spring effect supplied by the new viscosity of the fork oil and, more significantly, some actual preloading of the spring. With more preload and the far greater compression and rebound damping action in the forks the light springs have not turned out to be too much of a limiting factor. Good news really, as nobody does replacement fork springs for Burgers - and no, they aren't progressive or rising rate springs!

OK so assuming you REALLY, REALLY want to tune your bikes forks what are the changes..? Well, the standard settings are as follows (these are as measured on my bike alone and may not be representative of all 400 Burgers. I also haven't tried a 250 with the same mods but given the lighter weight of the 250 I have little doubt that these settings will be even more effective as the spring weight is less of an issue):

Fork oil weight and volume: 10weight 102mm air gap with forks compressed
Fork Spring length and weight: 259mm, 1.2 Kg/mm
100mm total spring deflection (measured on the spring rig, just before coilbound)
Static sag (before modification) 35mm
Full travel deflection for fork slider (i.e. Total available for wheel travel, from bike on center stand and weight off forks to full deflection): 110mm (suggesting that the last 10mm is absorbed by the bump stops as the spring cannot deflect that far. So that explains the `thumping` then…)
Spacers in front forks length - standard 73.5mm
Sag with rider sat - 65mm

Phase One Modifications: Changed fork oil for 20weight Silkolene fork oil, retained 102mm air gap (actually 275cc's per leg if you just want to measure it out)
Fork spring length and weight - unmodified, apart from increasing the preload spacer length to 79mm (used plastic plumbing pipe - a perfect fit for 41mm forks, lighter than the aluminium standard spacer and an old racers trick as it can easily be cut to length) … and that's it.

Told you it wasn't rocket science! Total fork travel is now just past 90mm, but all of that is now usable (i.e. no banging down on the stops). The static sag has been reduced by 40 percent to just 21mm (that's the ride height of the bike on its wheels with half a tank of fuel, but without rider, versus its ride height with all weight off the wheels).

With 200lb me on board the sag is now just 41mm - it was 65mm before. The importance of preloading the spring! This therefore means that in total suspension travel terms, the `useful` travel has gone from little more than 35mm (I'm not counting that 10mm of bone-jarring bump stop) to about 48mm - an increase of 37 percent.

In the dynamic state the gains are even more obvious: Much smoother fork control at town speeds, fewer `sharp` impacts coming up through the seat or steering and much more steering stability at higher speeds, with no trade-off in terms of handling `nervousness`. You can also use far more front brake in confidence now that the thing isn't plummeting down on the stops at the first sight of a brake pad! The key result for me in speedhump strewn Surrey is the improved performance over speed bumps - plenty of bump absorption with firmer control - matched with greatly improved compliance over the rutted goat tracks that pass for roads in this neck of the woods..! Curiously, ultra-slow speed control is also improved - I've doubled the `feet up` stationary time from 3 to 6 seconds - very flash at traffic lights!

HOWEVER - to maintain the stability I had to increase rear preload to around 12-10 clicks from maximum. Below that there is a hint of a `wander` coming through the steering stem at about 40-50 mph and a definite hint of a weave if cranked over at 70+... Now the cause for this could simply be the worn tyres on my bike (6,116 miles at start of test) or it could be a function of the increased precision of the front end or the change in relative `set` of the front and rear - we've already seen that raising the back end actually improves stability on this machine so I think that's the most likely reason.

In any event, I am now much happier with the front end of my bike and am happy to recommend it to anyone who can take the time and trouble to get the forks off the bike in the first place. Just don't blame me when the cursing starts!

Rear Wheel problems

Now I've got my machine back, here's an update at 9000 miles on the clock.

- Round about 6000 the exhaust started to rattle. I removed the heat shield which was loose, but it still rattled. I eventually removed the exhaust and it's clear that there's a large piece of metal loose inside it. It's all a bit noisy as well. Hey-Ho. So it's a warranty repair...

- Then at 9000m I pull away from some lights hard (there were a couple of sport bikes next to me!) onto the A10. There's very little drive almost as if the clutch or belt have gone. The scoot struggles up to 40mph if I'm delicate with the throttle and it's only 5 miles home so I crawl along in the edge of the slow lane. As I turn off the freeway, the scoot feels very unstable almost like a puncture. I look down at the back and the rear wheel is wobbling left and right and the wheel nut is turning relative to the wheel. Oh dear!

When I got home, I tried to get the wheel nut off with the toolkit spanner but it's completely seized. Hitting it with a rubber mallet got it moving, but inevitably the toolkit spanner broke. When I got a proper socket of the right size and a wheel breaker bar, it finally came off. BTW. This was all with the bike on the side stand and the rear brake held on hard with a bungee. It turns out that the steel nut had rusted internally and a couple of threads had broken away.

So now we have the wheel off and all becomes clear. The hardened steel wheel spindle has splines. Onto this slides the disk carrier (steel?) and then the wheel which is splined internally. The wheel is cast aluminium, the splines are small and they'd stripped completely under the vast acceleration of the mighty 400 engine. As well, the brake reverses the thrust on this by feeding all the braking forces through the splines in the other direction. This really should have either *big* splines or a steel bush shrunk into the wheel.

Of course, by riding home, the spinning wheel has eaten into the disk carrier as well. So it's a warranty repair...

I phoned my two closest Suzuki dealers (Bob Hill and DC Butler) and they both suck their teeth and mutter about it being mid summer and they're too busy. They're both careful not to outright refuse to do the work, but that's what they mean. I phone Suzuki who say "they can't force their dealers to do warranty work" and can only give me phone numbers for their dealer network. Eventually, I get Colin Collins to accept the work and pick up the bike. I attached a letter explaining all and also asking for the front brake recall to be done, new rear tyre and new rear brake pads. The guy who picks up the bike puts the letter in his pocket.

1 week later, they get round to looking at it. "The exhaust is covered but we can't do the wheel under warranty because the nut was loose" "Did you read the letter? The nut was finger tight because it was all going to have to come off again.", "What letter?" So I fax them the letter again, they agree to all the warranty work and order the parts.

1 week later. The parts haven't arrived. When I ask when they might be there, there's more sucking of teeth as they explain that Suzuki have a new internet based parts ordering system and they can't find out where the parts might be or an ETA and it's hard to get through to the right people in Suzuki to talk direct.

1 week later. I phone up to be told that the bike is booked into the workshop on Friday and the parts have either arrived or are due tomorrow. Great. Phone on Sat and there's more sucking of teeth. "Rob shouldn't have told you that". "But Chris, it was you who told me". The wheel had arrived but not the exhaust or disk carrier. On my way to Beaulieu, I drop in and show my face. They'd forgotten the letter so I explain again what needs doing.

1 week later. Good news. There's no exhaust but the carrier's arrived. "Your rear tyre's bald is it ok to fit a new one?" "Did you read the letter", "What letter?". So I explain again and fax the letter to them and arrange to pick the bike up first thing the next morning. I turn up and inevitably the Mutt'n'Jeff show of Rob and Chris are both out and have left no details. It takes the mechanic and the eejit junior 30 minutes to find the bike, keys and service book and bill me for the tyre. They hadn't done the front brake recall because they didn't have the parts. The old exhaust is back on because the replacement hasn't arrived. And they can't give me paperwork as proof of the warranty work because the eejit junior doesn't know how. Still at least they didn't bill me for the pickup and my bike's back in one piece.

AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Stay Calm!

You're probably all bored by now, but what can we make of this?
- IMHO, the wheel-spindle design is flawed and is a problem waiting to happen. It's not especially dangerous, but in the wrong circumstances, it could be.
- Several people have had exhausts fall apart internally. I think I'm going to go for a Gianelli and when the replacement eventually shows, I'll keep it for MOTs and eventual resale.
- Back tyres can last up to 9000m and fronts about 11,000m.
- Suzuki have national spares warehouses rather than one pan-European warehouse and a parts system that is a little chaotic. You might well have to wait for a slow boat from Japan for critical but unusual bits.
- The motor trade hasn't changed a jot. It's still complete crap and staffed by spivs, liars and eejits. Now the big M/C dealers are just as bad and the car dealers are only slightly better, but why do we have to put up with this crap?
- So if I do all the work on the bike myself, where do I get spares? Is there anybody (UK) that's the equivalent of David Silver Spares for Suzuki and Yamaha? In other words, an independent spares distributor or factor? Honda's always been really good for me in that spares were never in stock but always arrived from Belgium two days later.

Finally, for the 4 weeks the bike was off the road, I've been riding the Ducati 900ss into the city. It was doing my head in. I've found myself riding way too fast and it was just plain *HARD WORK*. Briefly:-

- Ducati tyres, UKP200 a set, last 4000 miles Burger, UKP70, last 9000 miles
- Ducati 12 litres fuel for 105 miles Burger 11 litres for 130 miles
- Ducati, rock steady at 127mph (real, indicated 140) Burger, wanders a bit at 90mph but safe (indicated 99)
- Ducati, really doesn't work below 50mph, heavy clutch, wrist ache, neck ache, takes muscle to turn it in and then it falls on it's side, knees hurt, hard to see over your shoulder, noisy, etc etc.
- Burger, light, controllable, comfortable, etc etc. On a journey time of 45 minutes, the Ducati is maybe 5 minutes quicker, but only because I'm riding extremely illegally.

To be honest, the Ducati only does a couple of things well. It's really stable and the kick as you wind on the throttle out of medium speed corners is pretty addictive.
It's good to be back.