Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

..'". '" c, - .... '" Ol ----tH~~ - U 13 ... ...J I I. I I l---MJ--t~-+---..r;.~~~-----,~~ I I I::) J , I I -+ i. a young biker faces his te t o'manhood a rm ,. d wvith tenacity and a ixpound crewvdriver. by paul boudr au THE GREAT FORK SEAL EXTRACTION ADVENTURE "There comes a time in everyone 's life when the trappings of boyhood must be doffed and the responsibil it ies of adulthood assumed. Be a man ; son , be a MAN . " T his revelat ion came to me one morning while I stood b efore the bathroom m irror revi ewing th e ac ne patterns o n my fo rehead. All th rough break fast , th e th o ugh t pecked away at my mi nd. What test, what t ria! would p ro ve my manh o od , would mak e me wo rthy? Still troubled (slings a nd arrows, slings and arrows), I went o ut to t he garage to sit w ith th e 01' Bul , a practice which wo uld usually get my mind a bit m or e on the pipe. Hmmm. Sail a raft to Pago Pago? Na w , miss too much school. Ta ke on the Cr et en bull? Aw, been done to death. Hm mm . Con tinuing to flex my mi nd, I ran my eyes over the scarred 'Taco. Hey, old friend. You 're really getting tired . aren't you? One more bend in that shift lever and you' re finis hed. Ho, what's this, eh? O il! Leaking from my forks! Fork seals must be shot. Shoot. Just had those turkeys changed las t year. I stopped . Dat 's it! The Test. T he one thing no one in the gang has attempted. The o ne thing that will eleva te me to a po sit ion of ad miration. This is m y Big Chance . I'll change my own fo rk seals! Gads. My h ead reel ed. A ft er all. cha nging o ne's own fork seals is not so me th ing o ne j ust goes o ut and does. A ce rtain amo unt of p an ache is n eed ed , obvio usly , to dig into th e mysterious in na rds of those Bet o rs. I'll just ge t me to a b ike shop , p ick up those boogers and d ro p 'em in th is week end. T hat afternoon , wh ile scrubbing down the 01' bod after fourth p eriod gy m class, Stinky, one of several local sand-pit hot sh oe s (a frater in the bond, so to speak) slos hed over to me and asked if I was up fo r a little han dleb ar- kno ckin ' t his Sat urday . Uh, yeah , yeah, I'll b e down there. But don't ex pec t me 'til later in the day. Uh, r tho ught I m igh t work on my bike a litt le. (I kept th e savior-faire .) Gotta cha nge jhe 01' fork seals . I lo o ked h im straigh t in the eye to catch h is react ion. St inky was remark abl y cool for his age. He wa sn't o ne fo r showing h is emotions. Yet standing there in the echoing shower ro om, I no t iced an almost imperceptible widening of his eye~ , and a slight forward mo tion o f hi s head. Awe? Disbelief? After all, ch an ging o ne's o wn fo rk seals isn 't something o ne just goes out and does . It blew his mind. The whole gang will kn ow by Saturday. I slep t fit fully th at night, searching my memory banks trying to ferret o u t any poop I had picked up co nce rning th e tas k b efore me . It was Thursday. I had to mo rrow t o prep are my self bot h phys icall y and menta lly . Let 's see. I thin k I've got all th e tools 111 need , excep t for o ne of those tricky sn ap rin g tak er-outers , I 'll need oi l. I mean fork oil. Oh yeah. Need the fo rk seals, too. I'll stop b y Raul's afte r sch oo l. Rau l's Bultaco is a converted florist sho p d own b y the freig ht yard. The flo rist d idn 't mak e it , so Raul though t he mi ght give. it a go with bikes. He sold R upp on the side. I trip ped over one of the da m thi ngs as I ca me toward the parts co u nter w hic h was also the service counter and Raul's desk. Uh, a set of fork sea ls, please. '65 Pursang,l think. Well , it's a '65 Pursang, b ut it's got a '68 mo tor in it. I m ean , they're just pla in 01' Bultaco fo rks, right? Yeah, O K. O n the way home from Raul's , I stoppe d by an auto p arts sto re a nd p icked u p one of those snap rin g things. If I'd b ou gh t a pair fro m Rau l, he'd've kno wn it was my first tim e aro und. I didn't want him to thin k I was a virgin. ' Didn't say too much at d inner t ha t night. No, Mom, I'm OK. J ust go t a lot on my mind. Big d ay tomorrow. T h ink I'll get to b ed ea rly . My eyes snapped o pe n. Satu rd ay. Sh o ot, it's still dark. I wo nder wh at - arg h. It 's only 3 :3 0. I stared at the ceil ing fo r t hree hours. The sun was still sucking the vening m o isture fro m the driveway as I wheeled the pat ien t fro m th e garage. 111 just jam this cinder block under th e skid p lat e. That'll get th e front wheel off t he gro und. I suppose the front w heel co mes off first. No sweat . I've done it eight ti mes. PAN IC. My gaw d! I don't have the slightest idea what I'm d o ing. I ra n back into the ho use and called Raul. No answer. Sh op doesn't o pen ' til n ine. Cau ght an hour of J o hn ny Ques t an d Sp ide r Man. Called Rau l agai n. Disguising my voice with an accent I pi ck ed up sweeping floors at Norto n Villiers, I sec u red th e n eed ed information. Gotta loosen the Allen scre w at the b ottom of t he fo rks. I ran back outside and to ok a look. Agh. That's go tta be the biggest Allen sc rew I've ever seen in all m y life! Man, I don't have anything that's going to co me close. Ma ybe if I jam th is screw driver .. .no way. Mayhap th ese vicegrips ... uh -uh, T h is ca lls for a trip to Se ars . . Sears and Roebuck's hardware department is to me what a h enhouse is to a ro ost er. I get inside and I just st ar t gra b bing. I got the Allen wr ench I need. It only came in a 14-piece set , which cost nine dollars. However, I also got a ring groove cleaner (something I've always wanted), an adj ustab le thread chaser, and this neat little snake thing for my ele ctric drill . Back to the Bul. Got th at turkey Allen screw o ut of there, using my new Allen wrench and a very old pipe wrench. Oh, well. I can dress that up with a little sand pa per. Now let's see. Raul said I just tap this little thing with a hammer and ... UGH ! Oil! Everywhere. Dad's going to strangle me when he sees th is. A little Speedy-Dry. All. T here they are. The elusive fork seals, nestled snugly in their little recesses 'nea th a very evil-looking sna p rin g. Quick work for my trusty snap ring re mo ver . Just give it a tw ist and a little tug, and ah go t it hal f-wa y out. Now just pry it a little with t his screwd rive r...Snap. Back to Raul's . Rau l h ad eyed me suspiciously wh en I asked him fo r th e snap rings. Gosh, I hope he could n 't tell how wet behind th e ears I was. Of cours e, Raul has been aro und fo r a lo ng time , an d perhaps h as see n this alI bef ore. I su pp ose he really d o esn't care. Bac k to the Bul. Now I suppo se somew he re , so meho w , someone mak es a too l t hat is used express ly fo r removing fork sea ls. In this case, ho we ver, my six-po und screw driver will have to su ffice. Actually, th e o nly th ing I use my six-pound screw driver fo r is prying. since I've nev~r come across a six-pound screw. The extrac tion w en t q uite smoothly, wi th the old sea ls last see n co mpleting a p erfec t par abolic trajectory o ver the back yard fence and in to th e ne ighbor's sw im ming p ool. Un fortu na te ly , th e inde n ta tion left by my super screwdriver o n the soft alloy of th e fork legs gave t he m th e ap pearance of a matching se t of elo ngat ed ash tra ys. No m atter . A few wh ac ks with a hammer too k ca re of th at. Ins tallatio n of th e seals was accomp lishe d with a fe w more wh acks with a hammer , and the entire fo rk assemb ly was reassembled, us in g liberal d oses of a fore ment io ned w hacks. When I sh owed up at the sand p it th at a fte rn oon , all activity ceased and my peers ga thered aro und me. How ya doin '? Yup, changed those old fork seals this mo min'. Ch eck th ose dry tubes. Think I'll tak e her o ut an d d o a few go-rounds. All things co nsid ered, t he day had been go od to me. T he Bul o nly ate a half dozen spark plugs , and o ne sk y-gro und....ky trick isn't bad fo r an afte rnoo n in the pit. St in ky only passed me o nce, and t he n o nly because I missed a berm. As for the new seals? That a i' Bul never hand led better.

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