I've been pulling the PEs apart over the last week or so, as part of my post Harrow service regime. The water/soil out there is uber-acidic and plays havoc on all your shiny and unprotected bits. The fork legs on the 250 were badly pitted and needed a bit of a re-polish. I pulled the front hub apart and cleaned the black goo out of the brakes and wire-brushed the lining and shoe surfaces, as well as re-greasing the bearings and brake cam.
The rear wheel got the same treatment, although when I popped the seals off the bearings, I found that they had both seized! Couldn't get them to move at all. They were still tight in the hub, so I'm guessing that at some stage they were just spinning on the axle. There was no evidence of this, so I may have been lucky and they may have seized since I got them home, otherwise some of the last lap of Harrow was done with dodgy bearings! New ones have now been inserted.
The 175's wheels were also removed, cleaned and re-greased. They fared much better as they only completed one lap of the circuit. The chain looked a bit sad, but a squirt of some slippery stuff seems to have sorted that out. The only other service item I had to do to her was to lower the needle clip (raise the needle) in the carb, cos she was starving at higher speeds/revs. My tech guru (Tony) suggested this was all it needed, so I'll find out at Blackwood.
