Topic: The X's Project

[xtalon]

You have to have some incredibly detail-oriented job as your primary profession. You do so well with the documentation and photography that I almost think that I could replicate this build with enough time and $$$ (and a buddy like yours    !

Vitamin... thanks!  My friends just call me 'anal'.     I think it's just because a lot of this is new to me and I'm learning as I go.. with a lot of help from the people on this forum and if what I'm doing to my own bike can help someone else down the road, then even better.

You are the man with the plan!   Great work....looking super!   

Doug, when complete, my bike is still going to still pale in comparison to your bike.  Yours is truly a work of art!

Hopefully in a few more weeks I can get your pods on as my finishing touch.  Thanks again!

The bike looks like it's going to come out real nice. I LOVE the fatter rear tire as well. Where in NC are you if you don't mind me asking?

Starion, I'm in Hickory.  I see you're in Concord.  Only about an hour away.  Cool!

--xTalon

[xtalon]

Well my boy came through.  I must say, the black base coat and clear looks spectacular.  These pictures don't come close to doing it justice.  The finish is like looking into a mirror!!!   

I must say, I'm really digging the black and starting to think twice about using the chrome paint.... but I'll probably go through with it because it will be different... but damn that black rocks!!!   

Here are a couple pics of the tank just sitting on the bike.  It's not in it's final position because it is a #$%* to get off and on and the paint still needs to cure.  When mounted, the frame rails will come out of the cutouts in the rear of the tank, so you can see how high the tank is currently sitting.

The Hel custom made brake lines showed up late last week.  This was like a 3 day turn around time and they were perfect, so kudos to Hel USA.  I mounted the lines yesterday.

I still need to rewire the headlight bucket and then start figuring and cutting on the seat pan.  Wish me luck!





--xTalon

[firecracker]

X - man, that is looking sweet. 

Remember the old Looney Tune cartoons, where somebody hungry looks at someone else, then envisions them as a cooked chicken or drumstick, etc.?
 
The extra tank I've got laying around is starting to look like a good candidate for a stretching...

Thanks for the inspiration - and just a week before I was going to cut my seat pan!   Whew!!!

[bwaller]

Looks good X, you may wake the dead with those pipes!

[forwheeldrift]

looks good, cant wait to see it in chrome.

I love the parking sign

[starion88esir]

I'm loving the pipes! Who did you have bend them up for you?

[xtalon]

I'm loving the pipes! Who did you have bend them up for you?

Pipes are standard MAC drag pipes that bolt right on; however, we did modify slightly, but you don't have to.  If you go back to the beginning of this thread, you can see what we did.

--xTalon

[EVILONE]

Good looking bike,its a shame the paint job SUCKS!!! ;DIf only you had some side covers.............

EVIL

[xtalon]

Good looking bike,its a shame the paint job SUCKS!!!    If only you had some side covers.............

EVIL

Just don't confuse which bike your painting and make them orange and green!   

--xTalon

[jdawg]

I'm curious X -

Why did you go with the later model carrier with the Cycle X +10mm offset front sprocket vs using the Cycle X + 10mm rear sprocket and + 10mm front sprocket? Sounds like it would achieve the same clearances.

Not saying one way is better...  just curious.

[xtalon]

I'm curious X -

Why did you go with the later model carrier with the Cycle X +10mm offset front sprocket vs using the Cycle X + 10mm rear sprocket and + 10mm front sprocket? Sounds like it would achieve the same clearances.

Not saying one way is better...  just curious.

JDawg,

Honestly, I did it that way because the later model sprocket carrier existed, was made by Honda Engineering and has been test proven for over 30 years.     Not to mention, it looks more stock.  Not that a 150 rear tire looks stock though.   

I'm sure the Cycle-X rear offset sprocket works just as well.  It's just a matter of preference.  Probably would have less unsprung weight using Cycle-X's offset sprocket.

I think the guys at Cycle-X even use the rear offset sprocket with the later model carrier for 20mm offset for really big tires.     I don't know how that works in the swingarm.  I assume they are using a later model engine that already has the offset and then putting their front offset sprocket on that to keep the chain aligned.

I don't know if this helped or not, but that was my logic.

--xTalon

[KB02]

How much clearance do you have on:
a.) The swing arm - for the tire
b.) The frame where the chain goes through
and
c.) The tire as the chain goes by?

Thanks. I don't really need measurements down to a thousandth of an inch, but a general idea of what you've got would be great.

[xtalon]

How much clearance do you have on:
a.) The swing arm - for the tire
b.) The frame where the chain goes through
and
c.) The tire as the chain goes by?

Thanks. I don't really need measurements down to a thousandth of an inch, but a general idea of what you've got would be great.

KB,
Keep in mind that the light in my garage sucks, all I have to measure with is a hand held ruler and it's hard to get close and my eyesight ain't what it used to be.

Having said that, on the left hand side, all the clearances (tire to swingarm, chain to tire and chain to frame) all seem to be between 7-10mm.  On the left hand side, the tire to swingarm is only about 4-5 mm.

My biggest issue and one I haven't resolved yet is the brake stay arm.  It's hitting, but only in spots, which leads me to believe my rear wheel isn't true or the tire isn't perfectly round.  But even if it was, I think I might still have a slight issue.  I hope to resolve this issue in the next week.

I bought a '78 brake stay arm thinking I needed it, but it is actually thicker than the '76 brake stay arm, so I think I am going to modify the '76 arm.  I'll post here what I end up doing.

--xTalon

[xtalon]

Man, I love this forum!!!

Two days ago, I started hooking all the wires back up in the headlight bucket.  Even though everything is color coded, I still marked everything with tape.  Everything went back together easily.  Installed the charged battery, turned the key.  Lights on...good.  Hit the starter and nothing! 

I spent all day yesterday digging in that rats nest of wires.  I found a couple loose wires that weren't marked, so I figured they were either already disconnected by PO or came loose on their own when removing the old frontend.  Turns out both scenarios were correct.  I hooked up what I could.  Hit the starter and nothing.  Kept digging.  Pulled wires loose and reconnected to make sure had good connections.  Started looking elsewhere making sure I didn't pull or break something loose (especially when installing the front offset sprocket).  Nothing.

Keep in mind that if you think I'm no mechanical wiz, I am virtually an electrical retard.   

Went to Lowes last night and bought a multimeter and started with the wires from the starter button and cut-off switch.  Everything seemed to be doing what it is supposed to.  Turns out it wasn't my wire reconnecting at all.  I traced it to the solenoid.  I ordered a new one from Honda but luckily I did a search and did some reading here too.  Saw a post from Jevfro that said to take it off and hit it with a hammer and that he beat his on the concrete.  I figured if its already broke, what can it hurt?  Took it off, beat it on the concrete, put it back and IT WORKS!!!  She's turning over!!!

Called Honda and cancelled the new solenoid order... at least for now.   

--xTalon

[Roach Carver]

get a new one.

[aj]

looks good man! so you basically wanted the drag style pipes right?

[neil young]

looking good.you and tvag are really giving me the incentive i require to work on my 72 500.i was going to wait untill winter.but i find myself doing a bit here and there these days.

[Pinhead]

Wow. Just LOVE the fat tire.

[xtalon]

looks good man! so you basically wanted the drag style pipes right?

Thanks guys!

Yep, definitely wanted the drag pipes, but wanted the side by side look (like under a hot rod) versus the staggered look.

Project was pushed to the back burner while I planned and went on my trip to California (Motogp race) and spent a week touring California.

The plan is to put the mirra-chrome paint on the tank this weekend, although the initial plan of simply painting the side of the tank chrome has changed somewhat.  Rather than just paint the sides chrome, we are going to paint the whole tank chrome and then after it has cured, come back and lay the black back over the sections I don't want chromed.  Jason thinks that will work better in terms of adhesion with this stuff.  So... you guys waiting to see how this mirra-chrome is going to work should have an answer by early next week when I hope to be able to post pics.

--xTalon

[xtalon]

As you can see, I'm running slightly behind schedule, but the Mirrachrome is on the tank.   

We may have screwed up slightly and lost a bit of reflectivity.  Jason's never shot this paint before and everything on the internet says to shoot it really light and not stack the paint which will dull the reflectivity.  Well, I think we shot it too light initially and then had to come back and shoot again because we didn't get good initial coverage of the mirrachrome and some of the black was still showing through.  ANYWAY, it still looks damn good in my opinion.

These pics are before it has been cleared, which may or may not happen tonight.  Once it's cleared and it has cured, we will mask it off and lay the black on.  Then it will be cleared one last time.

I hate to give another time estimate since Jason has to work me in to his real paying customers.   







--xTalon

[noelocol]

What exactly is this Mirra-chrome stuff?

Is it just a paint? How expensive is it?

TANK LOOKS GREAT!!!!

[jevfro]

Man, I love this forum!!!

Two days ago, I started hooking all the wires back up in the headlight bucket.  Even though everything is color coded, I still marked everything with tape.  Everything went back together easily.  Installed the charged battery, turned the key.  Lights on...good.  Hit the starter and nothing! 

I spent all day yesterday digging in that rats nest of wires.  I found a couple loose wires that weren't marked, so I figured they were either already disconnected by PO or came loose on their own when removing the old frontend.  Turns out both scenarios were correct.  I hooked up what I could.  Hit the starter and nothing.  Kept digging.  Pulled wires loose and reconnected to make sure had good connections.  Started looking elsewhere making sure I didn't pull or break something loose (especially when installing the front offset sprocket).  Nothing.

Keep in mind that if you think I'm no mechanical wiz, I am virtually an electrical retard.   

Went to Lowes last night and bought a multimeter and started with the wires from the starter button and cut-off switch.  Everything seemed to be doing what it is supposed to.  Turns out it wasn't my wire reconnecting at all.  I traced it to the solenoid.  I ordered a new one from Honda but luckily I did a search and did some reading here too.  Saw a post from Jevfro that said to take it off and hit it with a hammer and that he beat his on the concrete.  I figured it it's broke, its broke, so what can it hurt.  Took it off, beat it on the concrete, put it back and IT WORKS!!!  She's turning over!!!

Called Honda and cancelled the new solenoid order... at least for now.   

--xTalon

Ha!

Glad to have helped! When mine wouldn't work I remembered my grandpa telling me about hitting the solenoid on old auto starters w/ a hammer, and figured it would work on the ones off a bike too.  Mine is still working after a year or so after my beating I gave it.  seems they just get a lil' rusty and need to be freed up to work again.

oh yea... That tank is looking sweet! I can't believe it's not chrome...

[greenjeans]

I've been waiting for pics of that tank for a while.... Looks great - even in the photos shot inside.  I bet it gleams outside in the sunlight....I'm going to shoot my paint on my projects this weekend and I'm already starting to change my mind...

Well done.

[xtalon]

What exactly is this Mirra-chrome stuff?

Is it just a paint? How expensive is it?

TANK LOOKS GREAT!!!!

It is classified as paint and shoots as paint.  However, I read somewhere that it is hyper fine aluminium... I assume mixed into the paint.  You first paint a background color (in my case black) and then clear it and then paint the mirrachrome over that to give it the reflectivity.  Just like a mirror has a black backing.

It can be cleared like normal paint.  It is made by Alsa Corporation and they sell a kit which includes their black, reducer, clear and mirrachrome.  I bought their pint kit which is way more than I need.  It is expensive, but you get a lot in their kit.

--xTalon

[xtalon]

I've been waiting for pics of that tank for a while.... Looks great - even in the photos shot inside.  I bet it gleams outside in the sunlight....I'm going to shoot my paint on my projects this weekend and I'm already starting to change my mind...

Well done.

HA!  Yeah, I remembered you were waiting to see it.  Sorry for the delay. 

Regarding changing your mind... I know what you mean.  Once we painted the tank black, it looked so slick, I was ready to throw it on the bike and forget the chrome.  Now that it is chrome, I'm again ready to throw it on the bike and forget the two-tone (black and chrome), but I'm going to see my original plan through.  Being paint, it can always be changed.   

--xTalon