Topic: itsssss alive (well its on the way anyway)

[spotty]

and its a trailbike (not a bloody hipster based scrambler) , its designed for actually riding on dirt roads, I live in the hills and that's pretty much all we've got (unless you want to play dodge the dickhead tourists on the tarmac twisties)

its a CB750K8 (which will get the 836 kit out of my dead motor after its finished) , CB900 forks which will get 3 inch slugs, raised shock mounts which will get longer shocks, XR/XT/Hodaka bodywork and seat, BMW trailie tyres, 4into1 with the muffler mounted above the rear footpeg mount, Hodaka bars, hidden speedo, twin desert racer style lights, other stuff as it evolves

[Terry in Australia]

Sweet! I always wanted a CB750 dirt bike back in the day before BMW's GS series killed off a lot of "Home Built" road bike based dirt bikes, I've seen a few CB750 trailies over the years, and it looks like a relatively easy task.

I hope you'll post some more pics as you get it done mate, and maybe some youtube vids? That looks like a nice old Harley panhead in the background too, what's the story with that bad boy? Cheers, Terry.

[spotty]

the panhead belongs to my mate tex whose shed the ónda was at for its initial build session ( I don't have a shed yet), he also has an indian chopper, shovel dresser, evo dresser, buell, cb305 dreams, XR's, many hodakas etc. he builds and restores bikes for a living having retired from real work a few years ago. he always has weird and obscure stuff in there getting built. one of the boys in the club has a thing for tiny wog bikes so theres often something small leaking olive oil and electricity, lots of VMX stuff and always a few harleys
I've been riding with him since I graduated from scooters to bikes and he's about the only person I feel safe around on the road, I've shared a couple of houses with him and he even forgave me for nearly drunkenly burning down the house with his Harley chopper in the lounge room (forgave but never lets me forget it...). he's a brilliant cook so club meets at his place are always well worth the effort

[spotty]

got new brake pads for the Braking motard front caliper yesterday and hopefully the brake line will be here today or tomorrow so I can at least see if the caliper will pump up and not leak over the long weekend (can't be many places in the world where you get a public holiday for a horse race, god bless their little hooves)
I worked out approx. what the mounting bracket is going to look like and sizing to fit the CB900 forks so that will hopefully be one more task at least partially done. pics soon
i'm going to use the m/cyl that came in the large box of parts attached to the caliper using the reasoning that if it was the right bore size to use on a race bike it should work for me


I am however having serious problems trying to work out why my back brakes won't go back together - the torque arm seems to be about 4 inches shorter than it needs to be so the mounting lug on the bottom of the brake plate has to swing round a long way to the front of the bike to line up with the bolt hole on the arm. I know this is not right - the mounting lug should point straight down. also with the plate spun forward the brake rod is about 6 inches too long (if you know what I mean)
AND where the brake rod connects to the splined brake pedal shaft at the front end seems wrong, to get the whole lot roughly where it should be (not taking into account the problems at the drum end of the rod) the curved coupling hits the swingarm. also the return spring that goes round the splined shaft doesn't seem to have any effect, it just flops around like a cock in a sock
I know I built this bike from two different bikes but they were both K8's so whatever bits I used I should have had the same on both bikes......
I've sold on the rest of the bits so I can't play mix and match to see what might fit but I cant see why they'd be different anyway
i'll try and get some pics this w/end to get some informed opinion

[Terry in Australia]

You've fcuked up the brake road assembly Spotty, the pivot on the splined brake pedal shaft needs to be tilted forward of the swingarm, and is easier to instal with the swingarm removed, or at least the pivot bolt out and the swingarm pushed up out of the way. All will be revealed once correctly in place.

[spotty]

ta for that terry, looks like I have more to do this weekend than i thought. not entirely sure how I got it out then....
ah well it gives me a chance to grease the swingarm pivot too

[Terry in Australia]

No wuz, cuz!

[spotty]

some pics of stuff so far, front brakes are a little more ahead that pic shows

the loose LED bulb is , I've found,  a great way to check if the lights are working due to its lack of ability to blow easily (unlike delicate halogens etc)

the muffler is still held on with a bungee but shows about where I want it to be fitted

the forks will also get gaiters to go with the telefix fork brace

[spotty]

new grips on the way

and new headlight clamps, after years of using those crap steel instarust ones, I found these on fleabay for under $20, shall see how they look when they turn up but they could be a good thing and actually look good too

[Terry in Australia]

Good work Spotty, and I've just remembered that I was supposed to be looking for some crash bars for you, I'll do that tomorrow mate.

[spotty]

no worries, ta

[Terry in Australia]

And now it's mine, all mine, hahahahahahahahahahoooohaahahahahahoooooohaahhhhaahhhhhahhhoooooo..........

[spotty]

and here was me thinking i was making good progress on the zzr, i didn't realise it was june when i got it

edit, just worked out its only august so thats only 2 months, not bad by my usual geological time scales of doing things

much planned for this weekend , just gotta stay away from that bottle of birthday bourbon

[Terry in Australia]

and here was me thinking i was making good progress on the zzr, i didn't realise it was june when i got it

edit, just worked out its only august so thats only 2 months, not bad by my usual geological time scales of doing things

much planned for this weekend , just gotta stay away from that bottle of birthday bourbon

Birthday Bourbon? Well happy birthday mate!

[RAFster122s]

Happy Birthday Spotty!

[spotty]

Ta all, that was two weeks ago now but I haven't touched the bottle until about 5 minutes ago...

And Terry, next weekend is aldi m/c gear weekend, they'll be selling stuff that even fits you now ( me not so much )

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate, and most clothes fit now, I'm somewhere between a medium and a large now, about where I was when I was in my 20's, but if my current situation worsens, I might be losing another piece of my anatomy.........