Topic: Terry Bob's redneck F-ing K2 bitsa project!

[PeWe]

My K6 still have its stock rubber. No problem except some road contact early 80's.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I’m not holding out much hope that these will last 50 years per, but if I get a couple out of them I suppose that’ll be better than nothing and next time I’ll buy some OEM ones.

[PeWe]

I bought Honda from Yamiya that I never used. My old ones looked OK.
My K2 got Yamiya made footpegs with rubbers. I'll see how they will survive.
Old Honda seems to have sturdier steel, like forged.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah mate, I don't want to buy a Yamiya repro bike with a few Honda OEM parts thrown in, I like to use the original parts where available, plus some Yamiya repro's where the OEM parts are no longer available.

Anyway, today I decided to swap out the clutch. I've mentioned that I noticed a little clutch slip on the last couple of 100 mile rides that I've done on the (now magnificent) K2 Bitsa, so as James' K0 carbs arrived this week, I decided that I'd better get the clutch fixed in anticipation of a ride this weekend. I probably won't have the carbs cleaned/rebuilt by then, but a clutch that doesn't slip on hard acceleration is a bonus.

I'd bought new clutch plates last year, and for some reason hadn't installed them. I'd soaked them in engine oil, and there they were today, still soaking in oil, several months after I'd covered them in a litre of Castrol 4T.

K2 Bitsa Clutch rebuild 21 Apr 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

With the wonders of my little DeWalt rattle gun, I had the kick starter, clutch outer cover, clutch cable assembly and clutch cover off, lickety split.

K2 Bitsa Clutch rebuild 21 Apr 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I used the big bertha rattle gun with my home made removal tool to remove the clutch centre nut, then pulled the clutch out.

K2 Bitsa Clutch rebuild 21 Apr 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Reassembling the clutch should have been easy, except that for some reason, two of the friction plates had bigger "ears"?

K2 Bitsa Clutch rebuild 21 Apr 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Hmmnnn, OK, so I grabbed the two fattest of the old plates (which were the same thickness as the new ones anyway) and left those two weird odd ones out, and reassembled my clutch, and all the ancillaries, and adjusted it. All going well weather-wise, I'll take it for a ride this weekend and hopefully, it'll be slip-free. I may or may not have the K0 carbs on by then, I hope I do, as I'm looking forwards to a nice light throttle, for a change. Getting old with arthritis in both hands sucks balls.........  

[PeWe]

The wider ear plate is the outer plate in K6, F1, F2 and later clutches. The steel basket is wider just for the outer one.
But not 2 of them!

K2 should have all of same model.

Sad to find late surprises like that.
My K2 use cheap cruzinimage clutch plates..work fine.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, yep it’s weird, they were advertised as being for “CB750 1969-78” on Ebay, but obviously incorrect. No biggie, as long as the clutch doesn’t slip, I’ll be happy.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry..... I had the same identical “head scratcher” a few years ago with my K1. Used the same solution, and it’s still working just fine! Nice to see why..... I have a motor coming together for my K6, so I may just stick in the new plates!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks John, I took my K2 bitsa for a ride today, and I purposely flogged it thru the gears, and no clutch slippage, so all good.

Today was cold and miserable, but I'd been waiting all week for a ride, so opted to take the K2 for a lap. I did think about the K0 as I haven't ridden it since I started on the K2 Bitsa, but hell, I'd just installed the new clutch, and I wanted one more ride before I install a set of (expensive) K0 carbs that I bought from James H as I really like the lighter throttle pull. The K2 started instantly, and didn't miss a beat for the entire 130 mile ride. I stopped for a couple of pics, on my way to the Heathcote Bakery for a pastie.
K2 Bitsa Ride Saturday 24 Apr 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K2 Bitsa Ride Saturday 24 Apr 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm constantly amazed at how well it handles and stops. The Koni rear shocks, progressive front springs, air fork kit, bronze swingarm bushes , tapered steering head bearings and good tyres make it a good package, and the twin front cast iron rotors with stainless braided lines and FJR1300 MC pull it up very well indeed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and I've now done a shade over 1000 Km's (600 miles) on the new engine, so I think I'll give it an oil and filter change, and see what comes out, hopefully nothing but oil. Life is good.

K2 Bitsa Ride Saturday 24 Apr 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[grcamna2]

Terry,are those Konis a pair of 'old school' models that you've rebuilt ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, they’re the last of the Koni “7610” series before Koni sold the rights to manufacture them to the Australian distributor, Proven Products, who still make them under the “Ikon” brand. I bought this pair from a guy on a BMW FB page I think who’d had them professionally rebuilt by a company called “Promecha” in Sydney. He sold them to me for around half the price of new Ikons, which was very nice of him.

I have several other pairs of Koni’s to go on my K1 build and a K2 build after that one. The only thing good that came with the Horrible K2 was an even older set of Koni’s that appear to be in quite good condition.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, they’re the last of the Koni “7610” series before Koni sold the rights to manufacture them to the Australian distributor, Proven Products, who still make them under the “Ikon” brand. I bought this pair from a guy on a BMW FB page I think who’d had them professionally rebuilt by a company called “Promecha” in Sydney. He sold them to me for around half the price of new Ikons, which was very nice of him.

I have several other pairs of Koni’s to go on my K1 build and a K2 build after that one. The only thing good that came with the Horrible K2 was an even older set of Koni’s that appear to be in quite good condition.

Terry,I hope you do a thread on rebuilding your Koni shocks.

[BenelliSEI]

Good to hear clutch is OK. Those iron discs intrigue me..... may have to try one. The ones on my Benelli 750 SEI are close. Mmmmm.

[Terry in Australia]

The cast iron rotors are made by a motorcycle engineer here called Hugh Robinson John, it's done on an "Exchange" basis, i.e, you send him your OEM disc rotor and he drills out the rivets, taps a thread in each of the holes, and mounts his drilled cast iron rotors. What a difference, a CB750 that actually stops, almost as good as a modern bike! (as long as you use braided stainless lines and a better MC).

My next build, (for me, I'm building the "Horrible K2 as a trade with a friend for his Harley) is a mild hotrodded 1970 K1 that has Lester wheels, and I think I'll do the cast iron front rotors again, seriously, the difference between twin OEM rotors (even those that have been drilled) and cast iron discs is like chalk and cheese, if you want to stop, throw those OEM boat anchors away and get some cast iron suckers and you'll wonder why you waited so long!

[BenelliSEI]

Found him on EBay and his website. Thanks, J.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries John, I need to send him another disc and get him to put a cast iron rotor on it for me, as I'll definitely do the twin cast iron discs on my K1 as well.

Anyhoo, today was maintenance day. First thing was the double banjo brake light switches arrived, so I installed one on my front MC so my brake light is working again. The FJR1300 MC has a switch built in, but it's not a brake light switch, it connects to the ECU/ABS computer so was useless. These banjo switches are fantastic, and (like me) cheap.

K2 bitsa maint 28 Apr 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The (magnificent) K2 engine that I rebuilt a few weeks ago has done it's first 1000 Km (600 miles) so today I dropped the oil out, and I'm happy to say, that this is the biggest oil spill I made all day.

K2 bitsa maint 28 Apr 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I dumped all the oil out over the course of the day, as I was "working from home" I'd just run outside, dump the sump oil, run back in and do some more paid work, then run back out, empty the oil tank, run back in and do some more paid work, then drop the oil filter. I refitted all the various plugs and filled it with expensive (not) car oil that me and that crazy Kiwi like so much, and called it good.

K2 bitsa maint 28 Apr 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I took a look at the slurry in the bottom of the pan, and was happy that there was no metal. A few small lumps of dirt, or rust, or clutch plates, or whatever, but no metal, so was happy.

K2 bitsa maint 28 Apr 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was also happy that the oil was still pretty clean looking, as opposed to the black crap that came out of the K0 when I did it's first oil change. I think I'll keep using this cheap car oil, it'll do the job.

 
also had another look at the static ignition timing. I really must get my eyes recalibrated, on the last ride on Saturday I experienced a tiny bit of "pinging" (pre-ignition) under load, so I checked it using the wonderful Kokusan electronic ignition's inbuilt timing light, and as expected, I had the timing slightly advanced, so I knocked it back a couple of degrees, and decided to go for a ride.

I only did around 60 miles because, even though it was sunny, it was cold, and as I was only wearing summer gloves, the cold air was rushing up my leather jacket's sleeves, and I was uncomfortable. The bike ran great though, a constant 50 PSI at just 4K RPM, and no pinging. I didn't stop to take a pic, so here's a couple of my freshly painted Horrible K2's bottom engine case, completed with the repaired bottom engine mount instead. Doesn't look bad!

Horrible CB750 K2 28 Apr 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Horrible CB750 K2 28 Apr 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I shoved it in my industrial oven and heated it to 150 deg C (300 deg F?) and unlike last Friday's total memory loss, remembered to shut it off after an hour. With luck, if I spill fuel on it, it'll be fine. We'll see.

Horrible CB750 K2 28 Apr 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[PeWe]

Look like new, Terry!
How is the engine mount damaged. A fatal crash only?

I have a late K2 case (K5 in US), also repaired (welded) but on the ignition side.

Another K1 case welded at upper rear. Also a crash I suppose.

I hope not twisted cases.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, no, you know what I reckon? Some idiot bashed the bottom mount shaft with a hammer when he reinstalled the engine, breaking that piece off, there was no evidence of any other case damage or oil leaks between the case halves, and not miles of sealant like my K2 bitsa engine. Moron.

I'm thinking about doing a 400 miler this weekend to visit my old Ma, so oiled the chain for the first time in 4 years. That sounds terrible, except that the bike would be lucky if it's done 1000 miles in 4 years, 600 of which I've done this year.

[PeWe]

Yes, can be a sledgehammer in the toolbox.
Or how the engine is handled when working on it outside the frame, transporting it.

[Terry in Australia]

Well what a great weekend it was! The weather has been nice since mid last week, and I started thinking about riding the 200 miles to my Ma's place. My little sister was flying down from Brisbane, and as we hadn't seen each other in well over a year, she was keen to see me. Only problem is, due to the side effects of these new drugs I've been on the last couple of weeks, driving my big fancy SUV with it's big comfy leather seats wouldn't be good, because once I got comfortable, I could fall asleep, which isn't a great thing to do @ 70 MPH.

Riding a bike is a much better idea. Bike riding demands more concentration, is way less comfortable, and the constant blast of air (not to mention, bugs, rocks, birds, rubbish thrown from cars and trucks, and larger wildlife entering your personal space) tends to keep you awake and alert. I do sadly know of one young guy who did apparently fall asleep at the end of a double shift and hit a very large tree in the middle of the night after a double shift at work and was killed a few years ago (I worked with his dad who was heartbroken) but I can't ever remember a time when I felt like nodding off while riding a bike.

I initially thought about taking the Rocket III, but I was fairly confidant after a couple of 100+ milers that the K2 might survive the 400 miles round trip? I'd done an oil and filter change on Wednesday, as well as lubed the chain and replaced the throttle cables (what a revelation!) and bought a "shoulder satchel" (Man bag?) to throw a change of clothes in, which of course didn't arrive on time. Oh well, the decision was made, the K2 bitsa was about to embark on it's longest ride since I built it, almost 4 years ago.

I went hunting through the garage for a bag of some description but came up empty. I've seen lots of "Noob" long distance riders wearing heavy backpacks, but that's a recipe for disaster, so I eventually found some straps and some elastic strap and tied the backpack onto the seat. I also found a sheepskin seat cover that I think came with my BMW R1100GS, which turned out to be a good fit on the Honda seat. If you guys have never used a sheepskin seat cover, get one, they keep your butt warm on cold days, and stop your privates from sweating on a hot day. They're worth their weight in beer.

K2 Bitsa weekend 2-3 May 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I purposely left around 1pm to be at My Ma's place around 4.30-5.00 after dropping in to see my mate Pete, as he has never seen the bike actually run, or ridden it. I filled it with 98 RON Shell fuel, kicked the tyres to ensure they were running the optimum tyre pressure, and checked my bag was still secure. All good. I decided I'd take a break halfway and refuel the bike, and once I got out of the city traffic and onto the freeway, I was happy that the K2 was just happily humming along with oil pressure never dropping below 50 psi. I stopped at the 180 Km and when I filled it up (with 95 RON this time, a lot of the country gas stations don't seem to sell 98?) I was happy that I was getting 48 MPG. Can't complain about that. I took off again, and around 40 miles from home got off the freeway and onto one of my favourite backroads, and stopped to take a piss, and a pic of the old scoot.

K2 Bitsa weekend 2-3 May 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I continued on and was surprised that it was just starting to get a little dark. I don't think I've ever ridden the bike with the lights on because up until now I haven't had an engine that I'd trust to ride into the night. I was happy though that when I put the light on, nothing bad happened, the Marchall headlight is a beaut, and I rolled into the driveway at Pete's place. Pete is usually pretty critical, but he loved it. He's noticed that my front left blinker lens was just hanging by one screw that had had wound out, which pissed me off a bit as I'd bought them new from Yamiya 4 years ago and hadn't touched them so they just hadn't been tightened in the factory. Pete had a box of Honda blinkers so we found a screw of the correct OD and pitch and ground it down to the correct length, and we checked all the other screws, but they were all tight. Peter took it for a ride and was almost tearing up at how much he loved riding a CB750, 20+ years after he owned his last one. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets another one.

I took off down to my Ma's house, and was happy that my little sister had ordered takeout chinese for dinner. My oldest sister had threatened to roast a chicken and make a salad, but my little sister talked her out of it, and I was happy, my big sis is a terrible cook, and anyway, I love Chinese food. I jumped in my Ma's old Subaru car that I gave her a few years ago and drove to the booze shop and was horrified that they didn't sell Ginger Joe any more, but had a (barely) acceptable product called "Ginger Kidd" which was even more expensive than GJ, but what the heck, I was thirsty, so I bought a four pack, plus a bottle of wine for the ladies.

The food was great, the booze flowed, and we all had a good night. My Ma has had "Bidet" toilet seats installed in both bathrooms, and I must admit, I was impressed by the heated seats, and the jet of warm water aimed so accurately, I know guys in the Army who can't shoot that straight! Anyhoo, I wobbled off to bed at around 11pm, took all my drugs, and hit the sack.

I woke up around 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep, which pissed me off, so I thought about the 970 engine I'm gonna be building soon, and what sort of bike I'll build around it. I got up up at 7am, and started packing my bike after first checking my tyre pressures, with the toes of my steel capped boots. They were perfect.

weekend 2-3 May 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It wasn't wet but it was cool, so I put on a thermal top, my old Army tank wet weather overpants and my wet weather jacket, just to keep out the cold until it warmed up some. I'm glad I did too, as it was chilly at 8am as I rolled out the gate.

My little sis wanted a pic so my 92 year old Ma mastered her Iphone and took it, but was too shy to have one taken with me.

weekend 2-3 May 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The ride back was uneventful. I filled the bike again, then rode for 90 minutes before I stopped for breakfast at McDonalds. I parked it as close to where I was sitting as I had my laptop etc in my bag, but the only attention I got was positive, from a young guy who told me he absolutely loved it, and I watched a couple of guys my age walk over to it and I could see them discussing it. One looked up and saw me and yelled out "Beautiful bike mate!" and gave me the thumbs up.

I rode on for another hour and stopped for fuel, this time I could buy 98 RON, and used their rest room. The bike was noticeably "peppier" with the 98, so obviously that's what I'll keep putting in it from now on. I got home around midday and the sun was out and I had to strip back to a pair of shorts and a T shirt. I was very thirsty though, so I had a Ginger Joe first.

K2 Bitsa weekend 2-3 May 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So, the bike went beautifully, and the only casualty was a fork seal, both fork gaiters and a blinker screw.

K2 Bitsa weekend 2-3 May 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'll drop the forks out and replace the seals and clean all the crud off the legs, the left disc, and the engine, and I might even give the bike a wash, maybe for the first time? Anyway, the weather was great, so I cleaned, etch primed and painted the top engine case of the horrible K2 and cooked it in the oven for an hour @ 100 deg C. I'll start reassembling the bottom end tomorrow. All in all, a good weekend!

Horrrible K2  weekend 2-3 May 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Horrrible K2  weekend 2-3 May 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Horrrible K2  weekend 2-3 May 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
 

[PeWe]

A good ride as in the old days which was a fun adventure!

There is no paint overspray on the 2 inner studs where oil flow to head?
One guy on the forum clogged his oil orifice(s) by paint the hot oil disolved. Top end failure.

970cc with stock rods?
You have no stronger in your boxes?
Like old RC,  Action Fours that are a little bit stronger than stock.

Your RPE racing guy might have a good package to make a 970cc with good compression to run safely without a sudden stop.

[MauiK3]

Great write up Terry.
I'm enjoying the horrible bike, it won't be horrible.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, it was a great ride, and I was surprised at how comfortable it is, even more so than the rocket III which has very short travel rear suspension, so the “New bikes are easier to ride than our old bikes” is absolute bullsh1t, and I think the day pack strapped to the seat acted as a bit of a backrest, so I’ll definitely use that again.

I’m still debating how much money I want to spend on the 970 engine Per, I’vd got RC hardened rods here that are just heat treated Honda rods, but I honestly don’t believe that it needs $1000 Carillo’s or those crappy alloy ones you see everywhere, I’ll be running them in an F2 engine with F2 crank and rods in excellent condition, the downside if I was looking for ultimate power is that the bigger F2 combustion chambers will lower the compression ratio markedly, but the upside is that the bigger valves (and bigger carbs I’m gonna buy) will flow more fuel, and so performance won’t be too bad, and as I’m not gonna be racing it, I just can’t see the point?

I haven’t even done an intentional burnout in 30 years, so if anything the engine will just be a big torque monster with some sensible mods like better carbs, mild porting and a good electronic ignition. If it does go bang, I’ll just build another one. Of course, if someone here has a set of better rods gathering dust on a shelf in their garage and want to sell them, I may be interested?

Oh, and I now have 2 x K1’s to build as I won an ebay auction for a K1 engine (in pieces, of course) that is very close number-wise to my 112XXXX frame. Will it ever stop? Maybe....

[seanbarney41]

Terry, I would love to see you get one of them Kawasaki's on the road.  And I would hazard a bet that you would be glad you did too.  I was just ripping around on my Kz1000 tonight.  What a blast!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Sean and you’re right mate, I’ve finished building both engines so could probably put them both together in a week or so, but I needed to get my K2 bitsa together for my own sanity, and the K2 I’m building for Dion is a part trade for his Harley, so I need to at least get it done, and if there’s any spare time in between I want to build the 970 engine, just for kicks. But hey it’s only early May, so plenty of time to build 4 or 5 more bikes! (Not......)

[Terry in Australia]

OK, so before I ride the K2 bitsa again, I needed to fix the blown fork seal, replace both 48 year old fork gaiters, and clean all the ATF off the forks, disc, brake pads etc.

K2 Bitsa weekend 2-3 May 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Friday afternoon was nice weather, so I got stuck into it. My little Dewalt rattle gun made short work of most of the bolts, and I cheated by not removing each leg to replace the seals, but just rattle-gunning the two allen bolts that hold the alloy fork lowers to the fork dampers, draining the ATF into a container, then sliding the old fork lowers off, removing the circlips and popping out the seals. A bit messy, but much easier that what Honda would have you do.

K2 fork rebuild 7 May 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K2 fork rebuild 7 May 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Reassembly was just the reverse, once I'd installed the new fork seals and circlips I shoved the allen bolts back into the alloy lowers, tipped in new ATF, and refitted the alloy lowers on the forks. I'd dropped all the brake pads into my ultrasonic cleaner and left them in at 50 deg C for an hour to remove any soaked in ATF, then washed the degreaser out, and reassembled the calipers. I then realised that last time I installed the front wheel I'd put the axle in backwards, and noticed that the tyre had been slightly rubbing on the brace inside the front fender on one side, but it had done very little damage, so I reinstalled the axle the correct way, and all was good.

I ran out of light just as Spotty dropped off my cuz's little 1959 Velo-Solex mopeds. We were trying to sell them on Ebay but as "non-runners" didn't attract any bids, apart from one tight arse who was trying to lowball us, so I'll get one going and sell it as a runner with an almost complete bike as spares. If no-one buys it, I'll keep it and give the cuz the bucks.

Rod's Velox-Solex by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yesterday, I finished reassembling it  before taking the wife and mother in law out for lunch and some gambling (the wife doesn't gamble, thank God, but the mother in law loves poker machines) so the wife went shopping while we played the slots. I had a great day and walked out $75 ahead, woohoo! It won't buy too many bike parts, but will pay for my gas and lunch today when I take the K2 for a pie run.

K2 Bitsa Saturday 8 May 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr