The weekend is here and that means motorcycle mechanics. The team got to feeling an obligation these past few days after I blew up the Xpect community with those pix of the stem bearing grease so they asked if I would do a post and I said of course.
I, the team, are not great mechanics, expert, just guys that have been turning a wrench a la backyard mechanic for years and starting working on these China bikes couple years ago, I mean you have to right? I'm not trying to teach anyone the best or proper way to do things, just show you what I do. This post is not for the many experienced mechanics on this forum but for those guys with limited experience trying to do some work on their X pect.
The tools you need. The hooked wrench is a shock preload adjusting wrench I got off amazon for my HAWK when I started and has done the job on a number of bikes and you can use it for shock preload too.
First thing you take off the headlight housing with four bolts and disconnect the headlamp plug.
This first pix shows a front picture of the instrument mounting bracket and how it attaches, the cage fitting at the bottom into rubber grommets which is common for many bikes. Two bolts holding it in the upper top right.
Need to loosen those two bracket bolts and use some of that plastic wire you got to wire it out of the way. The handle bars need to come off and just pull them back to rest on the frame with some padding.
You need to loosen the 30mm nut holding the top fork plate. (Easier if you do this before removing the forks as someone can hold it or use an impact wrench). The bolts on my bike were pretty tight, especially those small 6mm holding that speedo bracket so be prepared. I used the impact wrench. Pull top plate off.
Below we find the bearing collar. Use the spanner to loosen it and remove it and out comes the bottom fork plate be ready.
I clean um, re-grease um, and put it back together. Tighten down the spanner nut with the hook wrench while moving the stem back and forth, side to side until you feel good resistance to turning side to side, meaning you have tightened (preloaded) up the bearings. Back the spanner completely off. Retighten it this time while moving it side to side until there is no play in the stem up or down any way (no looseness) but it turns freely. Put the top plate back on and bolt and torque it after you have put the forks back on and set up the front suspension.
If you pack these with good grease and don't swim them a lot probably will last maybe as long as the bike. Rather than this, you could drill and tap the stem for a ZERT as explained in other posts. Then pump grease in it until the seals on the end bulge or grease shows confirming you have grease to the bearings. The headllight, stem, wiring is layed out in an easily workable fashion compared to others. Try looking at the rats nest behind a HAWK sometime. My conscience is now clear.
11/25/2021 This video does a better job explaining it all.