Its back on the road!!!! I rode it again yesterday, very nice. The painter has done the tank base color and the side panels and seat. The tank will have to go back for the stripe on Monday but the stripe will be in the same flat black that the side and seat are in so we have to let the clear on the base color fully cure before we (he) tapes up the stripes. But the point is I get to throw it all back together and start riding again. I did so much to it it is hard to tell what improvements are the result of what mod.s
The front forks got changed out for a set from a super sport. I have no idea if the springs are any different than what was in my old ones but it sure as hell feels stiffer. Mind you when I drained my old ones and found the oil was probably original to the bike so I suppose that could have been a factor. My old ones were pretty badly rusted behind the headlight ears and the local junker sold me a complete SS front end with wheel for $100 so I really couldn't say no. and of course it was rust free as the SS does not use the headlight ear water encapsulating device. and by the way I had already polished the lowers on the orig. units so if anybody wants to make an offer for them I am all ears. They dont leak but the upper half of the uppers are all rusty.
I replaced the chain and sprockets and switched to a 17 tooth front in the process. Certainly has more omph now. In the year that I have had the bike I have yet to get on the freeway with it so I am not to concerned about the cut in top end, and when I compared my old ones to the new ones they really were not worn at all. So I will hang on to them and I can always switch back to the 18t front should my riding habits change.
I threw on a set of pod filters (el cheapo EMGO ones) and as of yet there is no problems as far as the mixture goes. Haven't really put enough miles on it to be sure but at this point it looks like it was a little rich to begin with and I can just twiddle the screws and get away with not having to dive into the carbs.
It had the ignition switch bracket on the handlebar clamps that everybody used in the 80's and I have always hated them. I couldn't find the correct frame mounted piece locally and I didn't want to spend $45 on ebay to get one so I cut up the bracket I had a little and relocated it to the frame under the tank on one of the now vacant airbox mounting tabs. The harness just barely reaches. Really cleans up the tom of the clamp not having the damn thing there.
I used a set of Carpy's gauge faces as mine were badly faded and missmatched (one blue one green). They are in and look pretty good now but it was a real fight getting them to work. As it turns out honda used a few different odometer layouts over the years. Some have the trip on top, some on bottom. One is wider than the other. And further some have a little notch in the bottom right corner of the slots. Well Carpy only does the holes one way and no notch. You guessed it, mine are the other way round with notches. The first time thru I didn't realise any of this until it was on and one hole had the orig green showing at the side and the other wasn't wide enough to see all the numbers. Carpy, to his credit did send me a free replacement, but cut the same way. So I used a dremel to cut the holes to the same width and stuck the next one on. Then I used a razor the trim the decal to an exact fit around the holes. One of the holes is of course now a little too wide but it isn't really noticeable unless you know to look for it. Worked out well in the end, I got him to put "BANG" at the end of the speedo and "Seized" at the end of the tach. Looks cool and I like it. Were I to do it again however I would use the guys who advertise on Ebay as they account for the differences in years (and they are half the price to boot).
I also went thru the harness and replaced all the dirty connections, and re wrapped it. That was probably the best time spent as now it all works when it should. Blinkers were always a touch and go thing on this bike and I had all but given up on the horn.
And of course I did the dual disc conversion to it. And fresh Stainless lines. The master cylinder that was on the bike before was incorrect but a modern dual disc unit so I was planning to reuse it, however sitting on the bench it has given up. I suspect that it may have been on dot 5 before and that when I put in dot 3 all the seals have swollen up inside it. whatever happened it is now junk because I have no idea what the donor bike was and so I cannot get a rebuild kit for it. I have been forced to use the M/C that came with the 2nd caliper I got off of EBAY. It is the correct unit to the bike and actually works fine but I will be replacing it nonetheless with another dual disc M/C once I can get over to the junker. So WHile I have working dual front brakes I am not really getting the full benefit at the moment as the lever throw is pretty bloody long. Nice and firm once I get there though. I will report more once I get another M/C on there. Oh and by the way, on the walkthru that everybody passes around on here he makes a big point of explaining how to shim the new 2nd caliper mount to sit perfectly leven to the disc with washers. I didn't have to do this at all. went together fine and works fine as it is. Not saying he is wrong of course and the article is very usefull in explaining the whole process but I suppose some just dont need it. I also kept the splittler under the headlight but flipped it over and deleted the brake light switch so now I just have one line to the M/C. Looks cleaner than the double banjo bolt I think, and after collecting all the parts to do the conversion I have about 5 extra singles. Of course since the modern M/C with the built in brake light switch is dead I am now down to only rear brake lights (seriosly though I bet half the forum members here only have rears, I know did for years on other bikes) but as I said that will be remedy'd soon.
Those are the high points, otherwise I just took it all apart and painted everything. All the easy to polish aluminium parts have been polished and speed hole drilled where appropriate.
