Two simple things - so let's get started. Turns out, to replace each of these dang things, you pretty much have to disassemble the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the front end.
Brilliant. About 2.5 years ago, a similar attempt with my BMW (more on that bike later) made for a poetic intersection between a long career of weightlifting, ignorance, a stubborn nature, and incompetence. The result was a badly bent fork leg.
Knowing a little more, and suffering from a few years of work-induced muscle atrophy, I got at it again. This time, my cheerful Irish-American friend, Connor, was there to help. Even wee, tipsy-elvish hands come in handy! That's Connor below, right before we found out what a noble pain-in-the ass it is to change a tire by hand.
Matt Q. at the Puch's North American Headquarters, or, Motorwest, sold me a great manual and the parts I'd need for the job. He also imparted exact details on how to get it done. Since this is something that *Matt, a professional with years of experience with this EXACT bike could do in less than an hour, I figured we'd bang it out in like, 90mins., no doubt.
Took about 6 hours...
It was a litany of eff-ups. little ball bearings rained down from the TOP and BOTTOM races of the stearing head - but we caught them all, with a magnet-wand, and garage-mate Chad and Winter's quick eye. Bit by bit, it came together. I had it almost all there, when I realized something else:
That headlight bucket will NOT fit between those fork tubes. SO, off again with a tube. This is how it goes, and it was all love - well, the kinda angry, heartbreaking and frustrating kind. I noticed that the clutch and front break...well, all the cables were shot. So, they're on the way...and there she sits, ready for the next operation:
When are we back at it? Get at me...
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