Taking off the tree was a real pain in the butt! I borrowed a front bike stand but that actually holds the bike up by placing the holder underneath the lower triple clamp. I used a small block to put between the exhaust pipes and propped it up with a jack. This was a bad idea but I was desperate to make some progress. I didn't even have time to grab the camera to take a picture. It was pretty scary and the bike actually started leaning to the left enough to fall down onto the jack! I was pretty freaked out but the rear bike stand held it up so it wouldn't flop over onto the ground. Lucky lucky! The bike stabilized just long enough for me to throw the new one into the frame.
Of course I took out the bearings before hand and cleaned them out with solvent. Then I grabbed some synthetic grease and gave them a heavy coat while making sure to smush it in good. The 53mm tree is out and the 51mm Ohlins compatible one is in! That was pretty scary. I heavily recommend using a rope at that point to stabilize the bike from the top or to lift the whole front end up with it completely. That way there is no way to drop it. Due to the other things in the middle of my garage I didn't have a strong enough point to tie ropes to.
I'm still waiting on one clip on since one of the two I paid for was completely bent. I got a refund but it wasted two weeks of waiting for them. I should have my new one soon and be finishing up the front end next week. For now I have the front wheel on and I can move the bike around again. The upper clamps (newly powdercoated glos black =) are on temporarily for this reason and when the new clip on gets here then the real fight begins to move over all the controls. :blink:
