Topic: 1976 Honda cb750K

[MauiK3]

I love seeing this project moving.

[BenelliSEI]

I love seeing this project moving.

Steve….. I try and do a bit every day! Fought the front tire off this morning. Bearings are good and another tube survived the abuse. Had to knock a bit of crap off the inside, but the visible chrome is nice and shiny. My helper is a nuisance, she’d rather be out in the snow.

The guys in my club (Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group - Ganaraska Section) asked me to do a demo of a wheel build. I may clean everything up and do this one next Tuesday evening at our pub meeting.

[Nightshift]

...snip...

The guys in my club (Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group - Ganaraska Section) asked me to do a demo of a wheel build. I may clean everything up and do this one next Tuesday evening.

John, if you do that, it would be great if you have someone take a video while you explain what you're doing. Seeing is believing as they say. I know you've laced a lot of wheels so I'm interested in seeing your process.

Here's my setup I use when lacing. This is a 19" Harley wheel I'm getting ready to do. Haven't polished the hub yet but that will be done before I start. The table is an aluminum setup surface plate which is ground flat. I have a 3/4" dia spindle that threads in the middle for the hub and a 1/4" plastic piece to raise the hub off the surface. The white pieces centre the rim with the spindle and raise it 1/2" off the surface since this particular Harley hub is offset to the LH side by 1/4". Then just lace the wheel and snug the spokes lightly.  This puts the hub offset and wheel very close to where you want it before moving to the tuning/balancing stand. In case this helps someone. Cheers, Bill

[BenelliSEI]

Bill….. That is one immaculate and clever set up! Beautifully made, did you do that?

I’m far less organized. For the front, I’ve found that three small squares of 1/2” plywood under the rim give about the right relationship to the hub sitting on the bench. I’ve noticed that even the inexpensive set of spokes I buy from vintagecb750.com are so consistently made (to identical lengths) that I use that feature. After installing all the spokes, I wind them up by hand, so all the nipples line up with the end of the threaded shank. This gives me an “snug” fit. After I hang it in the truing stand (see picture a few posts back), I first put one extra turn on every nipple. Next I check/adjust for “hop”. Then side to side for runout. I used to set up a magnetic base and dial gauge, but more recently I’ve decided that when I see less than 1/8” gap, on the stick mounted to the stand, I’m done.

[BenelliSEI]

One critical step when setting spokes on a Honda rim. If you look closely at both the front and rear hub, on the outer rim where the holes are, you can see a wear mark for every one of the spokes that push in from the BACK side of each lip. Don’t be tempted to polish them out! Leave those for later. Fill in all the holes (20) in between those first. Use the spokes with a 90 degree hook for those. They feed in to the OUTSIDE of the hub and angle in the opposite direction of the other 20. Lace those very loosely, a couple of threads, to the rim.

Now you can push the other 20 (the ones with MORE than a 90 degree hook) in through the centre and flip them back into place. Lace them in using only a few threads so you can move the rim around a bit to get them all started. Now turn all the nipples in by hand until they JUST cover all the threads.

[Nightshift]

I did John. As you know, getting a rim centered with the hub is the easy part (although can be time consuming). Getting the offset right AND centered is not so easy. This setup simplifies the whole process. Cheers, Bill

[BenelliSEI]

I did John. As you know, getting a rim centered with the hub is the easy part (although can be time consuming). Getting the offset right AND centered is not so easy. This setup simplifies the whole process. Cheers, Bill

Absolutely brilliant design. Very nice.

[Nightshift]

Anyone can make something similar from plywood. You don't need a precision surface plate ... its just what I use for various setups because I have one. The benefit of lacing "snug" with a jig similar to this is less tweaking time on the stand. Cheers, Bill

[BenelliSEI]

Today I converted a couple of 8’ fluorescent fixtures above the bike to 2 X 8’ LED lamps each. “Great balls of fire!”. My shop has never been so bright.

Stripped and tanked a pair of massive flat side carbs for a friend’s snow machine AND got them all back together.

Finally got to the K6. Polished up the old rim and really cleaned the hub. Laid out all the spokes and then decided to leave it until next time……

[grcamna2]

Today I converted a couple of 8’ fluorescent fixtures above the bike to 2 X 8’ LED lamps each. “Great balls of fire!”. My shop has never been so bright.

Stripped and tanked a pair of massive flat side carbs for a friend’s snow machine AND got them all back together.

Finally got to the K6. Polished up the old rim and really cleaned the hub. Laid out all the spokes and then decided to leave it until next time……

John,do the LED lamps all hook-up to one common type of 'power distributor' (for lack of the correct word  )which powers all the lamps at the same time;compared to a flourescent ballast ?

[BenelliSEI]

Today I converted a couple of 8’ fluorescent fixtures above the bike to 2 X 8’ LED lamps each. “Great balls of fire!”. My shop has never been so bright.

Stripped and tanked a pair of massive flat side carbs for a friend’s snow machine AND got them all back together.

Finally got to the K6. Polished up the old rim and really cleaned the hub. Laid out all the spokes and then decided to leave it until next time……

John,do the LED lamps all hook-up to one common type of 'power distributor' (for lack of the correct word  )which powers all the lamps at the same time;compared to a flourescent ballast ?

Each of my old fixtures had its own ballast. The 120V power was fed to through the row. Removed the ballast from the fixture. Then fed power and neutral lines to each end of the lamp (clustered the wires and joined one end to white and the other to Black) and flipped them on.

[Nightshift]

Today I converted a couple of 8’ fluorescent fixtures above the bike to 2 X 8’ LED lamps each. “Great balls of fire!”. My shop has never been so bright.

Stripped and tanked a pair of massive flat side carbs for a friend’s snow machine AND got them all back together.

Finally got to the K6. Polished up the old rim and really cleaned the hub. Laid out all the spokes and then decided to leave it until next time……

John,do the LED lamps all hook-up to one common type of 'power distributor' (for lack of the correct word  )which powers all the lamps at the same time;compared to a flourescent ballast ?

Each of my old fixtures had its own ballast. The 120V power was fed to through the row. Removed the ballast from the fixture. Then fed power and neutral lines to each end of the lamp (clustered the wires and joined one end to white and the other to Black) and flipped them on.

I started my T8 fluorescent to LED replacement a few years ago the same way John keeping the T8 fixtures and just disconnecting the ballasts. It made the shop A LOT brighter. A couple years ago I came across a brighter LED strip fixture and ended up taking down the fluorescent/LED tube units and putting up these triple row "D" shape strips. I bought two 10-pack 4 footers and coupled 2 together for 10 8-footers across the ceiling. The  light is at least double what I had from the LED T8 tube replacements! Each 4' strip has 288 LEDs putting out 6000 lm of 6500 k white light. The shop now with them all on is like an Operating Room. All ten 8' strips run on two 15a breakers controlled by 2 switches. My ceiling is white steel panels so everything gets reflected down. Awesome for old tired eyes! After seeing my shop, most of my friends have converted theirs too. Cheers, Bill

[BenelliSEI]

Bill….. good solution! My fixtures ar mounted really well and I connected them all with EMT tubing and interconnected grounds. Pulling the ballasts and using the existing is really my simplest solution! As they are single pin, I can also direct the light. My shop is 48’ X 20’ (added down the side of an existing shed). I do all my projects down at one end, so the lights are down there. They are great!

[Nightshift]

Bill….. good solution! My fixtures ar mounted really well and I connected them all with EMT tubing and interconnected grounds. Pulling the ballasts and using the existing is really my simplest solution! As they are single pin, I can also direct the light. My shop is 48’ X 20’ (added down the side of an existing shed). I do all my projects down at one end, so the lights are down there. They are great!

Totally agree John, can't beat LEDs. Cheap, tons of light, low power consumption, no heat and don't go dim over time like fluorescents. What's not to like. Cheers, Bill

[Gamma]

Great idea ref the LED lighting, I shall look a changing my fluorescents too👍

[grcamna2]

Today I converted a couple of 8’ fluorescent fixtures above the bike to 2 X 8’ LED lamps each. “Great balls of fire!”. My shop has never been so bright.

Stripped and tanked a pair of massive flat side carbs for a friend’s snow machine AND got them all back together.

Finally got to the K6. Polished up the old rim and really cleaned the hub. Laid out all the spokes and then decided to leave it until next time……

John,do the LED lamps all hook-up to one common type of 'power distributor' (for lack of the correct word  )which powers all the lamps at the same time;compared to a flourescent ballast ?

Each of my old fixtures had its own ballast. The 120V power was fed to through the row. Removed the ballast from the fixture. Then fed power and neutral lines to each end of the lamp (clustered the wires and joined one end to white and the other to Black) and flipped them on.

 

[BenelliSEI]

The front wheel now matches the rear!

[Nightshift]

The front wheel now matches the rear!

Looks awesome john. Hopefully someone took a tutorial video of you lacing that badboy up.
Cheers, Bill

[BenelliSEI]

Mounted the Bridgestone Accolade. Another tube survived my abuse! Interesting to note that without the disc mounted, the “heavy” spot is 180 degrees opposite to the valve stem and the two original weights (1/2 oz.) where sitting exactly there….. Odd. I will balance after the disc is in place.

[BenelliSEI]

The front wheel now matches the rear!

Looks awesome john. Hopefully someone took a tutorial video of you lacing that badboy up.
Cheers, Bill

Bill….. we ran out of time at the club meeting last night, so I did it today. The only witness was the dog!

[Nightshift]

LOL @ John. He probably has the process memorized by now.

[BenelliSEI]

Set up my disc “dressing” tool today. By hitting the spinning disc at a certain angle, the disc on the grinder gets it up to a nice speed. This seems to work for me and it turned out well! This disc was not pretty to start with. Three of the stock spacers and a couple of extra washers gets the axle nice and tight to the bracket, locked in the vice. The stock nut goes on backwards to engage the threads. Make sure everything is tight!

[BenelliSEI]

LOL @ John. He probably has the process memorized by now.

She never seems too impressed!

[denward17]

Wheel looks nice.

What did you use to dress the disk?

[BenelliSEI]

Great idea ref the LED lighting, I shall look a changing my fluorescents too👍

Here’s a shot of the two LED converted fixtures. Even without the lights directly over the benches, this end of the shop is great!