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

[Alan F.]

Looks like a good day Terry.

My 5000th post!

[Terry in Australia]

Well just a quick post because I need to go shower the wife with gifts because it's Mothers Day here and I just woke up, after a lovely evening snooze. I farted around with the little Velo Solex moped until way too late, so gave it a break, and took the K2 for a nice ride.

K2 Bitsa Sunday 9 May 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

No time for a delicious Heathcote Pie, so instead I stopped in at a burger place called "Carl's" which I believe is a US franchise, but anyway, it was nice and a good break from the usual fare. Because I only have a tiny tummy nowadays I couldn't eat any more than this, but some of the much larger burgers looked magnificent. As it was, it was still much nicer than Macca's or Hungry Jacks (Burger King)

K2 Bitsa Sunday 9 May 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As I was gazing out the window at it, I noticed that the dirt road riding today, and the leaking fork seals from last weekend, not to mention the dead bugs etc had left a filthy film all over it, so I stole a handful of paper serviettes from Carl's, and rode over to the car wash.

K2 Bitsa Sunday 9 May 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 In the old days when some of my CB750's got wet they'd either not start at all, or miss and fart all the way home, but after giving it an absolute drenching (even though the "foaming detergent" wasn't working in my bay, and the other wash bays were in use, dammnit) it fired right up, and after I wiped the seat and tank, mirrors grips and switches etc dry, I rode it home alittle quicker than normal to help dry it out. All in all, a good day.

K2 Bitsa Sunday 9 May 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Terry,how did the K2 Bitsa run the last time you had it out /

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, I think that was the last time I rode it because I spent the next weekend working on my T350 not knowing that we’d be going back into Lockdown, so no ride last weekend, or this one either as the lockdown will go until at least next Thursday at midnight. I can only go out for 5 reasons, and can go no further than 10 Km (6 miles) from home, but I’m getting some quality time with the T350, so not too upset.

The K2 Bitsa goes like a rocket, but I can’t help but fell that the K0 is still faster? Maybe it just feels faster, and with an extra 100cc and the Andrews cam the K2 should be quicker, but either way, thats the impression I get. Interestingly the K2 is better on fuel than the K0? Strange, but true....

[PeWe]

You might twist the fuel drinking bike's throttle more?

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, I think that was the last time I rode it because I spent the next weekend working on my T350 not knowing that we’d be going back into Lockdown, so no ride last weekend, or this one either as the lockdown will go until at least next Thursday at midnight. I can only go out for 5 reasons, and can go no further than 10 Km (6 miles) from home, but I’m getting some quality time with the T350, so not too upset.

The K2 Bitsa goes like a rocket, but I can’t help but fell that the K0 is still faster? Maybe it just feels faster, and with an extra 100cc and the Andrews cam the K2 should be quicker, but either way, thats the impression I get. Interestingly the K2 is better on fuel than the K0? Strange, but true....

Terry, I'm glad after all the difficulties and 'down time' that you experienced with the K2 Bitsa that it's turned-out so Good:there's a testament to your quality restoration work. 

[BenelliSEI]

Terry..... nice progress and that K2 looks damn fine!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I'm really happy with it now, although I need to replace the left fork tube as some clod used a pipe wrench to remove the legs from the triples and scrarred the leg just above the seal, and no amount of filing and polishing has helped keep that leg oil tight. That's OK, I have some new ones here, so when I take a break from T350 building, I'll replace that leg, along with the speedo and tach cables as both needles flicker a little, and I'm thinking the 50 year old cables might be contributing.

I'll need to clean the brake pads and disc on that side as well as there's a fine coating of ATF over them again, due to the weeping fork seal. Fuel economy wise, I have the K0's carbs set a little too rich, which is fine at WOT, but it does drink fuel as opposed to the 836 in the K2 just sipping it, with the mixture just about spot on. It'll be interesting to see what sort of economy I get out of the 970cc engine, when I build it. (when all those parts I bought weeks ago finally make it to Australia, bloody hell, USPS is crap..........

[BenelliSEI]

Terry....... stuck a forktube in the phosphoric acid bath and a weird thing happened. They blackened up? I just immersed the part that fits between the top and bottom clamps, and is hidden by the fork ears. Wonder why?

[BPellerine]

iif they were not plated in that area they will turn color

[Alan F.]

That coating is phosphorus and will prevent rust. This happens in fuel tanks where phosphoric acid is used to clean out the rust.

[grcamna2]

Do those fork tubes you dipped still have chrome underneath that coating ?

[Alan F.]

They were never chromed there, that's why they always rust.

[grcamna2]

They were never chromed there, that's why they always rust.

Yes,I remember.
I have painted a few silver on those un-plated areas before..

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, what Alan said John, Honda cheaped out the forks and only chrome plated the tubes below the bottom triple, so the last 10 inches or so of bare metal rusts quite badly. The phosphoric acid cleans the rust off and leaves a protective layer so it won't rust there again. You've just reminded me that I left a rusty gas tank in my phosphoric bath, I must pull it out, no doubt it'll be rust free now, but the interior will be black too after sitting for so long, oops.

While we're on the ol' K2 Bitsa thread, I replaced one fork tube over the last few days, and it was an adventure. The left OEM tube was weeping, due to a previous owner (the numbnuts Ebay seller in the US) using a pipe wrench to twist the fork tubes out of the triple clamps. It wouldn't have been a problem if he'd scratched the sh1t out of the hard chrome 4 or 5 inches above the seals, but he didn't, and when I peeled back the gaiter and saw the carnage I tried to rub it out with wet and dry sandpaper and replace the seal, but to no avail, and on my 400 mile ride to Bairnsdale and back the bike went really well, but the ATF dribbled out and into my brake pads, and over my engine, which pissed me off.

K2 Bitsa forks 22 Jun 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I bought two sets of fork tubes from Cruizinimage in Japan. I opened the box, they tubes looked good with just a cursory glance.

K2 Bitsa forks 22 Jun 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 so I pulled the left leg off the bike, separated the tube from the aluminium slider, transferred the spring and damper rod and slid it into the new fork tube, and ........ it fell out the bottom! WTF? Unlike my OEM fork tube, the Cruizinimage one didn't have anything in it to stop the spring and damper rod falling thru. Great..........

K2 Bitsa forks 22 Jun 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I measured the overall length of the OEM leg, and noted that it's also 15mm longer than the Cruizinimage one. Inside the OEM leg there appears to be something pressed into the inside of the fork tube, so as it was buggared anyway, I sliced it open with my angle grinder for a look.

K2 Bitsa forks 22 Jun 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So you've got a short "tube", with a castellated piece sitting in the upper most part which is a fairly close fit around the damper rod ("Damper Rod guide"?) and a thick washer/spacer above that, and the whole shebang looks like it's pressed into the machined out portion at the bottom of the OEM fork tube. Bugger. Well the next problem was that I couldn't just insert that piece in the bottom of the Cruizinimage fork tube, as their tube was only bored to 27mm as opposed to 30mm for the OEM forks, and even if I was able to install them, the tube was 15mm shorter than the OEM tube, so the damper rod would hang 15mm higher than the damper rod on the OEM tube. Bugger again.

Well, when life gives you lemons, make Ginger Beer. I machined up one insert that would (I think) do all the things that the other insert did, but the finish was horrible, even though I was using a new indexable cutting tool. I gave up for the night, and came back on Saturday. Good thing I did, I was able to rethink it, and came up with a better mousetrap. The first one is on the left, and the new improved model, which I machined with a blunt old insert in one of my old tools, is on the right.

K2 Bitsa Forks 26 Jun 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

Rather than packing it with the damper rod guide, and then a thick washer etc, I bored the insert from either end so that the "guide" was fixed inside the insert, at the same distance from the top as the OEM guide.

K2 Bitsa Forks 26 Jun 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then ground the chrome off the bottom of the fork tube, cut/ground a nice deep chamfer and did some ugly, but penetrating, welds.

K2 Bitsa Forks 26 Jun 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I had to (luckily) grind my ugly welds down to below the OD of the 35mm fork tube, because the fork tube is a fairly close sliding fit, so I ground some off, did a test fit, ground some more, and so on and so forth until it was a nice easy sliding fit inside the alloy slider.

K2 Bitsa Forks 26 Jun 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I shoved the fork tube up into the triples.

K2 Bitsa Forks 26 Jun 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I got so excited I must have forgotten to take any more pics, but when I reinstalled the slider, I was happy that the fender bracket mounting holes lined up perfectly with the lugs in the slider. Bonus! I reinstalled the wheel, calipers (after I degreased the brake pads and rotor) refilled the fork oil, installed the air fork cap on that side, installed a new speedo cable, and called it good. Tomorrow is supposed to be a really nice sunny day, so I think I'll finish work early, and take it for a ride to Heathcote, for a pie.

If you never hear from me again, it'll be because my welds failed while I was doing a sweet power wheelie, probably while doing the ton, and my front wheel fell off. Pray for me........





   

[grcamna2]

Terry,it looks like cruizinimage has some decent plating on their fork tube,but I don't understand how they could manufacture it without the castellated/correct piece on the bottom to hold the spring?

[Terry in Australia]

Yes mate, pretty disappointing actually, I don't know where these tubes came from (most of is stuff is made in Japan) but they look like someone forgot to finish them, so I must send them an email and ask them what's going on? Anyway, I'm pretty happy that they're OK now, so I'll do my first 100(+) miler for a while today, and see hw it goes.`

I bought a set of new progressive front fork springs from Ricky Racer, and when they arrive I'll install them, not that I've had any issues with the stock springs and air caps, which I must remember to inflate before I leave.

[grcamna2]

Terry,I'm looking for a pair of Progressive front fork springs for the small Honda I have;small bikes like mine aren't in the listings for fork spring manufacturers here in the States,as far as I can tell.My springs are 17.25mm o.d. x 18" long free-length.My stock springs are not up to the job.

[Terry in Australia]

So as we're locked down until at least Tuesday (when my CB750A "Taxi" is supposedly being delivered) I thought it timely that I remove and replace my warped front brake disc. being the lazy baastard that I so obviously am, I didn't completely remove the wheel and then the disc, but rather, just jacked up the bike so the wheel was sufficiently off the ground, then removed the 4 nuts and washers from the bottom of the forks alloy sliders dropping the wheel far enough that I could zip the nuts off with my little Dewalt rattle gun, pull the axle back into the hub, and drop the disc rotor straight down, and off the wheel. I set the disc rotor up on my lathe to see if it was actually warped, or if the mating face on my Henry Abe wheel might be slightly warped?

Happily though it was pretty obvious where the fault lay:   

I turned it around and this is a bit sketchy as there's not much meat to grab a hold of but I was trying to see if the rotor was warped, or if the the carrier may have been bent, maybe from a previous crash? I pulled these discs out of a tub and sent them to Hugh Robinson to have him install new cast iron rotors, and didn't know their history, so who knows?

I still wasn't sure if it was the rotor or the carrier, so I set up my boring bar as a pointer to see if it would just come close to each of the rivet seats, but no, there was a fair gap.

I had a spare cast iron disc that I'd put on one of my Lester wheels, so I chucked it in the lathe and gave it a spin, and it was true, so I quickly installed it and spun the wheel and it was as straight as. Excellent. Hopefully the lockdown will end before the weekend, and I'll be able to do a Heathcote pie run and see if that horrible "Chop chop chop" noise from the front end has gone.

K2 Bitsa warped disc rotor fix Sunday 18 Jul 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Glad to see it wasn't the disc carrier;you'll be able to use that part again.

[Terry in Australia]

"Warning: This topic hasn't been posted in for at least 90 days." Sad but true, the poor old Bitsa has been sitting, unloved since July when the snap 7 day lockdown that we "had to have to prevent further lockdowns" that somehow blew out to 77(?) days really put a damper on my rides.

Yesterday the sun finally came out, and while I can't venture into the regional areas until the weekend, my travel around the metro areas is OK, so I decided that a ride was in order. I drove my old Subaru to the gas station and filled one 5 litre can with 6 litres of 98 RON and another 5 litre can with 6 litres of 91 for my Harley Sportster which I'll be riding today. I have to admit I was pretty excited that I was able to squeeze 6 litres of gas into a 5 litre container, I must be the best gas can filler I know?

But I digress. I went home and dumped the 91 into the Harley, as the Harley was my backup plan in case the K2 didn't want to start for me. The Harley is the best starter of all my bikes, I can leave it for a year, crank the throttle a couple of times to squirt some raw gas into the inlets then one tap on the starter buton, and it fires right up, every time. Anyhoo, I dumped the 98 in the Bitsa's tank, pulled on the choke, turned the ignition to "on", gave it a kick and it fired, so gave it another kick (to save the battery, basically) and it fired right up! I rode it out of my carport and gave it a good de-grease and wash.

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It looked a bit happier after a good scrub. I also put a litre of oil in the oil tank as I remember the last time I rode it, it sounded a bit rattley.   

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I took off, and was immediately surprised at how smooth and punchy the engine is. After riding the Suzuki T350 and T500 recently, the K2 feels a lot smoother and "planted" than the smaller bikes. I was trying to decide where to go but decided that rather than hit the suburban streets I'd head north as far as the metro boundaries would allow, then circle back. I stopped at the Shell gas station in Donnybrook to fill the tank right up, and bought the most expensive fuel ever, @ $2.01 per litre. ($5.60 USD for 1 US gallon)   

While I was in there waiting to pay for my fuel I noticed another biker, a member of the "Veterans MC" which is a club just for military veterans. Being an old soldier I have a bit of time for these guys, but he saw me riding beside him up the highway and decided that he didn't have any time for an old fart on a Honda (I think being an "MC", they can only ride Harley's, and possibly indians) so he cracked the throttle on his bagger to get away from me. Well of course this presented an immediate challenge, so I did the same on the bitsa and wanged it past him, giving him a friendly wave. He tried to catch up, but I think his hawg was at it's limits, or maybe he was, but whatever, he faded in my mirrors, and memory.       

I turned off the freeway shortly afterwards at Beveridge, and immediately sh1t myself as there were cops everywhere! Fark! Then I saw that they were assisting some road workers with a major road re-sealing activity, and carefully rode past, looking as innocent as possible. I cut across to the Eden Park road, then thru to Whittlesea , then a big loop back to Wallan. I assumed (incorrectly it turned out) that the northern end of Wallan was in a "Metro" region when I went past a "Mitchell Shire" sign. Ooops, luckily there were no cops patrolling the area and I was able to ride back towards Melbourne unscathed. I did stop for a pic out the back of Wallan though.

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I continued on. Where to now? Well why not ride the Western Ring Road all the way into the city? Why not. The traffic wasn't too intolerable, and while it was cooling somewhat, I decided that I needed to do at least 100 miles so I could legitimately post in Franks "21 Rides" thread, and I'd already done over 70 miles, so I cruised the ring road, then the Princes Highway into the inner suburbs. I was thinking about whether or not to stop for food, but I'd eaten a lamb Souvlaki for lunch and nowadays one big meal a day is all I'm good for, plus the sun was going down and with it, the warmth, so I rode on through Flemington and hooked on to the "City Link" (Oops, just remembered that I need to pay the toll) and rode all the way back to the ring road, and home.

K2 Bitsa ride 26 Oct 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

All up 190 Km (118.75 miles) and the old Bitsa went like a swiss watch. It really is a lovely old thing, and that engine is a gem now. I need to swap out the bars as I need some with a little more pull back as I'm leaning too far forwards, and I might take off my lowering blocks because the rear end is a tad harsh. I jarred my back several times yesterday so the first thing I swallowed when I got home was a couple of Panadol Osteo and a Morphine tablet. I think I need to buy a longer clutch cable first, and while I think about it, the clutch would occasionally slip then grab under acceleration, so I might install some heavier springs too. None of these projects are ever truly finished, are they?    

[grcamna2]

G'Day Terry,I think your K2 is looking good being back on the road:I like those pair of front cast iron rotors,it must really 'stop on a dime' for you.

[spotty]

well done, i was out myself last night

and for reference an unpaid citytheivingcnutslink toll turns into and $18 invoice quite quickly,

[Terry in Australia]

well done, i was out myself last night

and for reference an unpaid citytheivingcnutslink toll turns into and $18 invoice quite quickly,

Yeah, I'm a bit luckier than you Spotty as I have a "Linkt" account, I just need to check to see if my Honda is "Linked" to my "Linkt" account.