Topic: Sophie, post-retrofication

[nickjtc]

Herewith some pics of the CB650 after some minor cosmetic surgery over the winter. See my avatar for an idea of how she looked before.

EDIT: I like the new look so much that I've replaced the avatar with a new pic.

I wanted to give her less of the cruiser look and more of the original CB sohc look. Mechanically everything is untouched, but down the road a new exhaust will be necessary.

Jobs done: seat reshaped and recovered with silver piping around the top (not by me, I might add); front brake stripped and re-built with new fluid reservoir, braided line, new (to me) disc rotor, black paint stripped off the master cylinder and the caliper; junked the central idiot light housing and replaced it with two small lights for oil and neutral; replaced the switchgear with '68/'69 CB175 stuff (metal, not plastic); new turn signals, repositioned, to get rid of the semaphores that were stock; replaced the rear tail light assembly with one from a '68/'69 175 (the original would have made a good warning lamp for the Titanic); repositioned the Scottoiler immediately aft of the left side panel; tank pad; 'preserve nature' decal on the tank; bar end mirrors.

Now all I have to figure out is why she insists on revving up to 4,000+rpm from a start, with everything exactly as it was when I parked her last autumn.....methinks the carbs need to come off. Ideas??

[upperlake04]

   The two-tone silver and grey paint is classy and elegant but the post industrial/minimalist speedometer might be pushing it    Carb -  head rubbers leaking air?    Nice job Nick

[gtyler5]

good work! I like the new look very clean

[nickjtc]

PS. Flatter bars....maybe that has something to do with it since I just re-routed the cables.

PPS. I'm particularly proud of the electrical-wiring-within-the-handlebars. Actually, I didn't have any choice since that's the way the switchgear is set up.

PPPS. The grips are off my old R1100RS BMW

[nickjtc]

The two-tone silver and grey paint is classy and elegant but the post industrial/minimalist speedometer might be pushing it    Carb -  head rubbers leaking air?    Nice job Nick

Erm, haven't got round to dealing with the broken speedo face from late last year. The carb rubbers shouldn't be leaking since they haven't been touched......hmmmm.

[c_kyle]

Nice.  I think you have one of the cleanest CB650Z's on the board.  Hopefully, mine will be up there too. 

When you had your seat reupholstered, did they break some of the tabs holding the chrome trim strip onto the bottom of the seat?  I just had my spare seat cut down and reupholstered and they said that the tabs always break when trying to bend them straight.  My chrome strip came back with 6 tabs; probably not enough to put it back on the seat. 

[nickjtc]

When you had your seat reupholstered, did they break some of the tabs holding the chrome trim strip onto the bottom of the seat?  I just had my spare seat cut down and reupholstered and they said that the tabs always break when trying to bend them straight.  My chrome strip came back with 6 tabs; probably not enough to put it back on the seat. 

I took the trim strip off before I handed the seat over, knowing that I would not be putting it back on. Some of the little locking washers on the inside were a pain to lever off, so I could see that it would be possible for the tabs to be damaged in the process.

I have given thought to getting some of that 'U' cross section silver trim stuff that goes around the edge of car doors, as a way of tarting up the edge of the seat.....maybe some time in the future.

[bill440cars]

        Nick,

                  Your 650 is, without a doubt, the toughest looking one I have ever seen. It IS just Perfect. I don't know what else there is to say except, GREAT JOB GUY!!!!

                                                     Later on, Bill

[spitfire]

Nick,
       Sure looks good hope my turns out as well !

Cheers

Den

[TwoTired]

Now all I have to figure out is why she insists on revving up to 4,000+rpm from a start, with everything exactly as it was when I parked her last autumn.....methinks the carbs need to come off. Ideas??

Erm, SOMETHING isn't exactly the same now, is it?    Choke linkage?  Fast idle cam stuck?

The carb bowls are vented to the atmosphere.  Gas evaporates leaving a residue, particularly where it wicks up into the slow jet orifice.  This narrows or blocks the jets.  Culprit carbs can be identified by the odd temperature headpipe(s).
Do you have an accelerator pump?  Is the diaphram leaking?
Does the 650 have ignition mechanical advance weights that could stick?

Pretty bike.

[c_kyle]

When you had your seat reupholstered, did they break some of the tabs holding the chrome trim strip onto the bottom of the seat?  I just had my spare seat cut down and reupholstered and they said that the tabs always break when trying to bend them straight.  My chrome strip came back with 6 tabs; probably not enough to put it back on the seat. 

I took the trim strip off before I handed the seat over, knowing that I would not be putting it back on. Some of the little locking washers on the inside were a pain to lever off, so I could see that it would be possible for the tabs to be damaged in the process.

I have given thought to getting some of that 'U' cross section silver trim stuff that goes around the edge of car doors, as a way of tarting up the edge of the seat.....maybe some time in the future.

I just swapped my chrome seat stripe. Took a good stripe off a torn seat and put it on my good seat. Most of the tabs broke. I re-attached it with machine screws. Grind the heads down for a lower profile and they will just slide into the track.

So you just screw the machine screws into the mounting holes and slide the chrome strip on to the heads?

[doug_id]

Classy looking for sure.......good job 

Doug

[Soos]

NICE!

I really like the clean handlebar look you got, and especially the 2 tone paintjob!

Nice.  I think you have one of the cleanest CB650Z's on the board.  Hopefully, mine will be up there too.   

Is that a cb650Z??

The rear footpeg mount piece is welded on like the '79CB650's in the US are, I thought the CB650Z's had ones that bolted onto the frame, then the footpegs bolted to those.

l8r

PS - Like TT said, have you checked the mechanical advance?

[nickjtc]

Is that a cb650Z??

Thanks all for the kind comments. At risk of sounding, well whatever, let me reiterate that she's a 10 foot bike. She looks excellent from 10 feet away but a little tatty around the edges when you get closer. I'm interested in a 'rider', not a bike that I worry about if it looks like rain.

The paint job was done by a PO at some point in the distant past.

The bike is the standard issue 1979 CB650, whatever the model nomenclature may be. For the North American market the exhaust/passenger footpeg hanger is a black painted piece of tin welded to the back of the frame tube. I forgot to mention that I have a pair of the alloy hangers from an '82 (I think) I got off you-know-where. The mounting bolt holes and what-not seen to align exactly with the stock pieces so when I get a chance I'm going to break out the trusty angle grinder and whack them off and replace them with the alloy ones.

[nickjtc]

Now all I have to figure out is why she insists on revving up to 4,000+rpm from a start, with everything exactly as it was when I parked her last autumn.....methinks the carbs need to come off. Ideas??

As Linus used to say in the early Charlie Brown cartoon strips (hands up everyone who remembers them) "I feel somewhat akin to a fool."

The problem was that with the single cable set-up necessitated by the new switchgear the throttle was not fully closing. So I readjusted the position of the cable outer in the clamp/bracket down at the carb end to ensure the appropriate free play at the throttle, and voila, Robert is your mothers brother!! She runs just like she did when I turned her off last year.

Went for a (naughty, uninsured) spin around the condo complex and everything seems to be operational. I'm less than impressed with the feel of the front brake after my stainless line/caliper/master cylinder rebuild but will get a better sense of that when I can take her out for a good hard (legal) thrap tomorrow.

Woo hoo!

[c_kyle]

Went for a (naughty, uninsured) spin around the condo complex and everything seems to be operational. I'm less than impressed with the feel of the front brake after my stainless line/caliper/master cylinder rebuild but will get a better sense of that when I can take her out for a good hard (legal) thrap tomorrow.

Woo hoo!

Did you encounter anything unusual/difficult in the front-brake rebuild?  I'll be doing this in a week or two.  Reading through the Clymer, it all appears to be a simple job.

[nickjtc]

Did you encounter anything unusual/difficult in the front-brake rebuild?  I'll be doing this in a week or two.  Reading through the Clymer, it all appears to be a simple job.

No. I got a copy of the official Honda service manual with the bike so used that. I had got a second brake set-up (cheap) off eBay so had the pick of two sets of parts to make things good. There were some discrepancies between real life and the manual, notably that in the manual it shows rubber seal sleeves around both of the main caliper sliding bolts, but on both of the calipers I had to play with (the original on the bike and the second one) only one of the bolts has said seal. Hmmm.

After stripping the top end gubbins down and thoroughly cleaning out the brown cack that had accumulated everything went together well. I stripped the peeling paint off the casing. Used a rebuild kit for the master cylinder which all went together quite easily.....use fresh brake fluid as a lube to get the piston seal and cups into place. When done I couldn't understand why there was no movement of brake fluid into the system when I pumped the front brake. It turned out that the second hole in the bottom of the reservoir casing was plugged so I had to drill it out.

The caliper end of the show involved a strip and clean up. The piston was in good shape with one small corrosion pocket outside the swept part, so I cleaned it up and re-used it. The piston in the second caliper was rusted solid so I filed it under 'G' straight away. After stripping the paint off the outside of the caliper I greased/fresh brake fluid-ed everything up and it went back together tickety boo like. Now the front wheel spins with no drag, but as I noted last night the feel is a bit 'wooden'. Time will tell as to whether there will be any real improvement over what was there before. It certainly looks a lot better...and I'm all about the looks.

[c_kyle]

Cool.  What did you use to strip the paint off of the master cylinder and caliper?  My master cylinder has some peeling paint; I was thinking about stripping it or repainting it.  I tried to order two of those rubber boots for the caliper sliding bolts, but they're n/a.  Did you use new pads/rotor?  The old pad might be thick enough, but just 29 years old and not gripping worth a crap.  I don't expect the front brake to work like a new bike, but it should be a whole lot better than the 29 year old pads/line/caliper/reservoir. 

[Rushoid]

Nick, Sophie looks great! What're the specs on the bars? I'm interested in getting those for mine. And the mirrors? (Sorry if you posted this before and I missed it)

Lee

[andy750]

Good looking bike Nick and I like those bars as well ;-) Nice!

cheers
Andy

[nickjtc]

Cool.  What did you use to strip the paint off of the master cylinder and caliper?  My master cylinder has some peeling paint; I was thinking about stripping it or repainting it.  I tried to order two of those rubber boots for the caliper sliding bolts, but they're n/a.  Did you use new pads/rotor?  The old pad might be thick enough, but just 29 years old and not gripping worth a crap.  I don't expect the front brake to work like a new bike, but it should be a whole lot better than the 29 year old pads/line/caliper/reservoir. 

Paint stripper chat included here:

http://www.sohc4.us/forums/index.php?topic=19342.msg202101#msg202101

I salvaged the best pair of pads from the two sets I had; they have a lot of 'meat' left on them. I found a disc rotor on eBay which turned out to be hardly scored at all. The original one, although still within specs, showed a marked indent where the pads gripped, due to assymmetrical pressure caused by the caliper not sliding.

[nickjtc]

Nick, Sophie looks great! What're the specs on the bars? I'm interested in getting those for mine. And the mirrors? (Sorry if you posted this before and I missed it)
Lee

Bars and mirrors are generic items ordered from one of the big Canadian motorcycle parts houses. I wanted the 'superbike' look for the bars so browsed the catalogue until I found a set that looked sort of OK. The bar ends were chosen a) because they were cheap ($34CDN for the pair.....yeah, yeah, I know I'll probably hate the optical quality..!!) and b) because they were round and cheap.

I drilled the bars myself to be able to feed the wiring from the switchgear through.

[nickjtc]

Hey, Raul. Couldn't figure out how to send a pic, so here is the page from the Motovan catalogue, showing the blinkers I got. They are the 'Triumph' ones, long stem, part number 04-495.

[nickjtc]

I took her out for the first legal ride of the year last night. Ooh baby, ooh baby. After a weekend of riding cruisers it's an interesting feeling being 'on' the bike rather than 'in' it. Of course, having the seat redone to eliminate the dip at the front has made a difference and I am sitting an inch or so higher than before. With the flatter bars it makes for a much sportier riding position.

The front brakes are marginally better than they were before, but as others have said, they will never compare to the modern stuff.

It looks like the shifter shaft seal is finally about to give up the ghost because there are some oil drips under the bike in that position. Am I right in assuming that this is a simple 'pry the old one out (destroying it in the process) and tap a new one in' scenario? I guess the procedure is the same on a 650 as it would be on the other sohc's....??

Tomorrow is the first of my at least once-a-week commutes to work; 115km each way on the Trans Canada Highway. Some nice scenery (hills and lakes) with a few bends, but basically an easy ride. It'll be a good way to start this years tally of kms under the wheels.

SO, BC and Washington sohc-ers......up for a ride some time??

[Rushoid]

Nick, thanks for the info.

Your bike's been nominated, and seconded, for BOTM. So go accept already!