Baghira newbie...

[Malcvtr]

Hi. I’m new to the forum as well as to the Baghira and would be grateful for any advice you guys could offer.

I haven’t got the bike yet as the current owner is sorting out a couple of issues like having 30mm of subframe welded back in after a previous owner cut it out trying to get a lower seat height...

I’m buying this bike as a project. I’ll be paying £900 for it. The bike was registered in 2005 and has only done just over 8000 kms. The bike starts and runs OK, but has leaking fork seals and a leak from the gearshift shaft. I’m hoping these issues will be sorted with replacement seals.

I’m guessing the Grimeca calipers might need rebuilding/replacing. I know they’re not made anymore, so is there a good solution out there?

Any other thoughts/advice about good things to do to a Baghira gratefully received.

Thanks

[Malcvtr]

The bike...

[homebrew123]

Fork seals with dust seals £10 off ebay, very easy to change, and gear shaft seal same as szr or xtz Yamaha part, or match the sizes up at a bearing factors, and very easy to change, just carefully prise out the old seal with a sharp pick and slide over the shaft, and lubricate new seal and slide back on.
£900 is a very good price for the low mileage. If I lived closer, I would have bought this bike 2 owners ago lol
If you want to turn it into the supermoto version, I have a pair of supermoto wheels for sale £200, but you will need a rear tyre.

Jon

[Malcvtr]

Thanks Jon. Much appreciated. I’ll certainly have a think about those wheels. In terms of the fork seal change, is it possible to remove the sliders from the stantions without removing the forks and doing a full strip down?

[rodge70]

welcome to the forum,lots of help and advice available,easier to do seals with forks off the bike realy

[Malcvtr]

Thanks rodge

[breakwellmz]

It does look low at the back without the front having been lowered by the same amount, how about sliding the forks up in the yolks when you change the fork seals? Having material added to the subframe sounds tiresome and expensive!
I found that i had to change gear lever output shaft, water pump and a fork seal on my Puzey (yes!) after it had stood for a long time unused, all easy to do as others say.

[homebrew123]

Waste of time trying to do the seals while still assembled and in the bike, it makes it incredibly difficult and is an easy way for something getting damaged. Get a small bike lift and lift under the main frame tubes to raise the bike level, and work on the front end no problem, I can do new fork seals with a complete internal clean down and wash out in an hour, but I have done a dozen different Baghira's and Mastiff's over the years, even so you should be able to do it in a couple of hours. Don't forget to wash all the muck out of the lower leg, and blow everything off with an air line and blow gun, even with low mileage, you will be surprised how much muck there will be.
Good luck.
Jon

[Malcvtr]

It does look low at the back without the front having been lowered by the same amount, how about sliding the forks up in the yolks when you change the fork seals? Having material added to the subframe sounds tiresome and expensive!
I found that i had to change gear lever output shaft, water pump and a fork seal on my Puzey (yes!) after it had stood for a long time unused, all easy to do as others say.

Thanks for that. Luckily, the guy I’m buying from has a mate who is a welder and he’s going to restore the subframe for free. That’s a price I can afford

[Malcvtr]

Waste of time trying to do the seals while still assembled and in the bike, it makes it incredibly difficult and is an easy way for something getting damaged. Get a small bike lift and lift under the main frame tubes to raise the bike level, and work on the front end no problem, I can do new fork seals with a complete internal clean down and wash out in an hour, but I have done a dozen different Baghira's and Mastiff's over the years, even so you should be able to do it in a couple of hours. Don't forget to wash all the muck out of the lower leg, and blow everything off with an air line and blow gun, even with low mileage, you will be surprised how much muck there will be.
Good luck.
Jon

Thanks for the advice. I wouldn’t have thought to wash out the lower leg! I haven’t got the bike yet (waiting for the welder to do the subframe) so I can’t examine the fork. To replace the fork seals is it just a matter of removing the front wheel, removing the bolt that goes into the damper rod, carefully levering out the old seal and fitting the new one, or are there other stages?

Also, is 7.5 weight fork oil the right stuff?

Thanks again.

[homebrew123]

Hi, yes you can undo the bottom damper rod bolt and pull the lower leg off the stanchions while they are still clamped in the bike and slide the leg down like a slide hammer until it slides off with the upper bush, then remove dust seal and snap ring on top of oil seal and carefully without damaging the edge of the leg prise the oil seal out, best to put a piece of curved hard plastic on the edge to protect it. Then loosen the large top nut and slide stanchions out of yokes and wash them off and blow dry them. With the low miles, you shouldn't need to dismantle the cartridges and they can stay in the stanchions, remember one side is compression, and the other rebound, so better to do one fork at a time and keep the bits separate. There will be an aluminium cap for the end of the damper assemblies that will stay in the leg probably, tip it out and don't forget to put it back in before you reassemble, then wash out thoroughly the lower leg and stuff it with rag on the end of a brush handle and turn it while keeping hold of a bit of the rag, and then give it a good blow out, don't forget to clean the oil seal seat area and there is a heavy gauge plain washer that goes under the oil seals Remove the copper or aluminium washers from the lower rod bolt and replace with a tight fitting Dowty hydraulic seal instead, they are far better and don't rely on overly tightening the bolt to seal properly, although do make sure the bolt is tight enough lol. Then reassemble the stanchion into the leg with a bit of clean fork oil rubbed around the bushes to lube them, it should go back together with a gentle tap, and tighten the bottom bolt with Dowty seal on. Then slide heavy washer over stanchion and onto seal seat, then lube oil seal with rubber grease and slide over stanchion and knock into place with a seal driver, then slide dust seal down and push on with fingers. undo the pre loosened top nut and slide stanchion down a bit to expose the spring and hold in that position, there is just enough room to run the oil from a jug into the coils of the spring slowly to refill, but keep the stanchion near the top of the spring or there is not enough room for the oil as it comes fairly high up the tube, then screw the top nut on, and tighten fully once back in the yokes.
That is the quick way to do it, if there is nothing else that needs attention, and everything is pretty clean inside, and it involves the minimum of dismantling, but if you do want to take it completely apart, you will have to undo top nut and lower stanchion, pull spring down a bit and put an open end spanner through the coils to hold the rod and unscrew the large top nut and adjuster, then remove the cartridges from the stanchion tube. But with the low miles, you should be ok just doing it the quick way. And yes 7.5 oil is perfect, although Marzocchi give 3 options of oil, 1 heavier and 1 lighter think they are 5 and 10 grade off the top of my head, but I have always used the 7.5.
Good luck
Jon

[Malcvtr]

Wow! What a fantastic response. Thank you very much for taking the time to do that, Jon. Very, very helpful

[homebrew123]

That's alright, I have done so many of these forks, I could do them with my eyes closed, well may be not lol

Jon

[breakwellmz]

Hi, yes you can undo the bottom damper rod bolt and pull the lower leg off the stanchions while they are still clamped in the bike and slide the leg down like a slide hammer until it slides off with the upper bush, then remove dust seal and snap ring on top of oil seal and carefully without damaging the edge of the leg prise the oil seal out, best to put a piece of curved hard plastic on the edge to protect it. Then loosen the large top nut and slide stanchions out of yokes and wash them off and blow dry them. With the low miles, you shouldn't need to dismantle the cartridges and they can stay in the stanchions, remember one side is compression, and the other rebound, so better to do one fork at a time and keep the bits separate. There will be an aluminium cap for the end of the damper assemblies that will stay in the leg probably, tip it out and don't forget to put it back in before you reassemble, then wash out thoroughly the lower leg and stuff it with rag on the end of a brush handle and turn it while keeping hold of a bit of the rag, and then give it a good blow out, don't forget to clean the oil seal seat area and there is a heavy gauge plain washer that goes under the oil seals Remove the copper or aluminium washers from the lower rod bolt and replace with a tight fitting Dowty hydraulic seal instead, they are far better and don't rely on overly tightening the bolt to seal properly, although do make sure the bolt is tight enough lol. Then reassemble the stanchion into the leg with a bit of clean fork oil rubbed around the bushes to lube them, it should go back together with a gentle tap, and tighten the bottom bolt with Dowty seal on. Then slide heavy washer over stanchion and onto seal seat, then lube oil seal with rubber grease and slide over stanchion and knock into place with a seal driver, then slide dust seal down and push on with fingers. undo the pre loosened top nut and slide stanchion down a bit to expose the spring and hold in that position, there is just enough room to run the oil from a jug into the coils of the spring slowly to refill, but keep the stanchion near the top of the spring or there is not enough room for the oil as it comes fairly high up the tube, then screw the top nut on, and tighten fully once back in the yokes.
That is the quick way to do it, if there is nothing else that needs attention, and everything is pretty clean inside, and it involves the minimum of dismantling, but if you do want to take it completely apart, you will have to undo top nut and lower stanchion, pull spring down a bit and put an open end spanner through the coils to hold the rod and unscrew the large top nut and adjuster, then remove the cartridges from the stanchion tube. But with the low miles, you should be ok just doing it the quick way. And yes 7.5 oil is perfect, although Marzocchi give 3 options of oil, 1 heavier and 1 lighter think they are 5 and 10 grade off the top of my head, but I have always used the 7.5.
Good luck
Jon

Hi

Does the " one side for compression and the other for rebound " apply to the non-adjustable fork on my Mastiff as well?

Having just finished replacing a seal on the Up-Side Down forks on the Puzey i thought i would (at long last ) renew the oil in the Mastiff forks and fit the progressive fork springs that i`ve had for years!
Glad you have the perfect means of restoring subframe back to how it was Malcvtr, that will sharpen up the steering a bit!

Cheers

[homebrew123]

The Mastiff forks are very basic road forks, with very simple internals, nothing like the compression and rebound cartridges found in the Marzocchi Magnums 45mm on the Baghira's, they have no adjustment and both fork internals are identical, so they both work to some degree in compression and rebound. In my experience with Mastiff forks, they are very spongy, and heavier oil doesn't correct this, maybe your progressive springs will stiffen them up a bit, but it may also make them top out, you may need to use heavier oil as well, to help slow the rebound from the progressive springs down. As an extra note, some or possibly all of the Mastiff forks are not made by Marzocchi, as far as I know, they are made by Paioli

Jon