Topic: Slowly - CB650 Custom 1980

[Azzarius]

Hi Everyone,

Tire
So as per the previous post, I finally got my T39 and T40 tire installed.  The look is nice.  I'm now thinking maybe changing handle from clip-on to some sort of "tracker style", it'd be a bit more comfy to ride and might not look bad either.  We'll see.

Problem starting
So after sepnding quite a bit of time fighting to start the bike, I was able every now and then able to get it to work, mostly with choke "full ON" and with a lot a starter fluid.  Spent couple evening watching youtube and reading posts and few things seemed matching the behavior.
- it runs only on choke, thus, i must run too lean (not enough fuel/ too much air)
- it runs with starter fluid, thus, it lacks combustible
- stall when giving gas, thus, idle jet must be gunked
Most blogs and video said it's 90% chance to be carb.  But I had cleaned the carb some time ago.  Then one vid mentioned that without stab fuel could gunk in as little as 6-8 weeks.

Sure enough, 3 out 4 carb had their slow jet completly plugged, and the main also needed some TLC.  Clean all of these guys, and now the bike starts, no starter fluid, runs ok, rev up ok.  So I am very happy and excited about this after few years of on and off work.  Sure it's not perfect, I would still have to balance the carb and all, but just the fact that I can now run it "without being too worried" that it will die on my.  I still ride it within 5-10km from home for now, so if I have to walk it's not going to be too  bad =-).

Next maybe cleaner electric installation
I've seen some very nice installation on pinterest. I would like for mine to look that clean.  I've put below what I'm talking about.(the pic of the electric installation is not from mine)

cheers

[kslrr]

Beautiful job on the electrical tray!

[Azzarius]

Hi Kslrr,
Like I said I wish it was mine =-)(it's from Pinterest). But it give me a target as too what it should look like.  That's the next thing I will try to do on the bike.

cheers
 

[Azzarius]

Hi Everyone

Electric/Electronic
Like I had mentioned before, I would love to have a cleaner installation "a la" picture in my last post from Pinterest.  In looking into getting what I need I realized that the motogadget brain ranges in the $300-$400 USD.  However nice that box is, I can bring myself to spend so much for "so little".  I double quote  because, I understand that to package something similar, someone had done the work for it and they must not be selling zilions of those unit, so the R&D needs to be absorb on very few units and it is still a very decent product from what I have been able to find.

That said, I'd still like to have 1 or 2 or similar features that are available.  Those features are:
- Not turning the headlight until the engine is started
- pulsing brake light (better to catch driver's attention)
- possible nice blinker sequences

I will try to replace it with a cheaper solution:  Arduino Micro(programmable microcontroller) ~$13.
nice fuse box ~10$

I just started, so I will keep you posted on the progress as I go.

cheers builders

[Azzarius]

Hi Everyone,

Electric question - headlight turning "ON" as soon as ignition key is "ON".  I want to keep it "OFF" until engine runs

I have been playing with my electronic and realized that everything is pretty simple.  Since the Arduino can be programmed in C and all I am trying to do is very trivial, I start to wonder why the M-Unit is so expensive.  But still, there is one feature of the M-Unit that I don't yet understand how it is done.  I have few work around but none are perfect.

When I turn the ignition key on, the headlight come on.  This, to me always been a bit of strange as you want to use as less as possible you battery until the alternator takes over when the engine is running(sure they are not planning for you to have issue starting the engine and thus, this discussion become a bit of a moot point). 

For those of you who played with the electronic.  Is there a signal that we can "sense" that tells us the engine is now running ?  I have few work around:
- Sensing the oil pressure light (as it turns off as soon as the engine runs)
- Adding a fix delay between the "Turn key ON" and "Turn lights ON"
- Sensing when the alternator produce more than the 12V from the battery. (So headlight would stay off until you rev the engine for the first time)
- Seen some induction reading done over the coil wire. ( used to do an electronic Tach read out)
- Adding an extra switch to turn the headlight ON

All of the above should work, but none are perfect.  Any of you knows, or have done similar thing to keep the headlight off until the engine is running ?

thnx