Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[Jerry E.]

After getting the seat upholstered, and the tank/seat back from paint, I entered my cafe in the local Abate bike show. Had a great response from people, and won 1st place in my class (Asian semi-custom). Got a nice plastic trophy to show for all the 1000's of dollars I have in this thing. lol

[Jerry E.]

After getting the seat upholstered, and the tank/seat back from paint, I entered my cafe in the local Abate bike show. Had a great response from people, and won 1st place in my class (Asian semi-custom). Got a nice plastic trophy to show for all the 1000's of dollars I have in this thing. lol

[mcswny]

After getting the seat upholstered, and the tank/seat back from paint, I entered my cafe in the local Abate bike show. Had a great response from people, and won 1st place in my class (Asian semi-custom). Got a nice plastic trophy to show for all the 1000's of dollars I have in this thing. lol

Photos or it didn't happen!

[Jerry E.]

Sorry, I have no idea how to put photo's on this forum. Very computer illiterate. I was going to try and make a build thread for my bike, but lost all my photo's to a computer crash/virus, so I never bothered to learn how to post pic's on here. So, I guess it didn't happen. Bike does look good tho, or at least, I think so. lol

[maduncle]

I fitted a stock points cover, stock tappet covers, stock stator cover insert, new plugs, new plug caps - and I made myself a cafe seat from a CL175 tank.





And I fitted clubman's.



Nothing like a day off work in the workshop.

[evanphi]

Very nice. I like the raw look. Nice concept of the cutout side cover... but won't it look silly with the other cover solid?

[MCRider]

Very nice. I like the raw look. Nice concept of the cutout side cover... but won't it look silly with the other cover solid?

ITs a 500 so both sides can be cutout.

[evanphi]

Very nice. I like the raw look. Nice concept of the cutout side cover... but won't it look silly with the other cover solid?

ITs a 500 so both sides can be cutout.

Ah I see that now, looking at the first pic (duh).

Where are the electrics located on a 500?

[MCRider]

Very nice. I like the raw look. Nice concept of the cutout side cover... but won't it look silly with the other cover solid?

ITs a 500 so both sides can be cutout.

Ah I see that now, looking at the first pic (duh).

Where are the electrics located on a 500?

Under the seat, between the sidecovers. What the 500 lacks is an oil tank, being that its a wet sump engine. That gives lots of spare room under the seat.  Some cafe racer guys put the lectrics in the cowl of their cafe seat leaving the area under the seat open air. Then also leave off the side covers. Just rambling.

[750cafe]

After spending three hours cleaning up/polishing/painting the rims yesterday, the tires showed up today and got mounted up.   
Not as great A job as I wanted to do but it will have to do...




Eric

[maduncle]

Very nice. I like the raw look. Nice concept of the cutout side cover... but won't it look silly with the other cover solid?

ITs a 500 so both sides can be cutout.

Ah I see that now, looking at the first pic (duh).

Where are the electrics located on a 500?

Under the seat, between the sidecovers. What the 500 lacks is an oil tank, being that its a wet sump engine. That gives lots of spare room under the seat.  Some cafe racer guys put the lectrics in the cowl of their cafe seat leaving the area under the seat open air. Then also leave off the side covers. Just rambling.

You could see the yellow battery through the left side cut cover cut outs so I covered in black tape today.

I also bought some ultra high density foam from the local suppliers and finished the seat. This foam is so dense you can sand it into shape, so I made up two pieces to glue to the seat pan. I will leave them as is to compliment the raw racer look and see how long the foam lasts without being covered.



Then I sent for a ride - wow, this thing is so much fun with the clubmans and cafe seat! I will need to put 'bar dents' in the tank  at some stage though as the switch blocks tap the tank on full lock.

[scunny]

the high density foam won't need to be covered. had that on my bike for 4 years and no problems.

[socal1200r]

[/quote]

Is that a VF500 in the background?  How do you like riding that bike?  I'm thinking of getting one (1985)...

[Schnell]

Finally, a warm(er) day with an afternoon temp of -4C up here in the great white north! In my unheated detached garage I was able to remove the wheels from my bike without freezing my fingers off. The wheels need new rubber after last summer's 'round the US solo retirement trip.

I will want the shop to straighten the rear wheel as well. (Spokes) Do they need the rear axel?

[maduncle]

Is that a VF500 in the background?  How do you like riding that bike?  I'm thinking of getting one (1985)...

Yes it is a VF500 but I have not ridden it yet - got some work to do on it...

[strynboen]

go for vfr they have not problems,,, vfr750 are bullet proff have gear cam drive

[mrbreeze]

Is that a VF500 in the background?  How do you like riding that bike?  I'm thinking of getting one (1985)...
[/quote]What gave it away??

[cbfivefitty]

gave it it's first ride in 20 years. Still got a ways to go in my build but took a huge step today

[evanphi]

Bit of puttering today...

Made some tubes for the clear tube method of checking float height. I have some new bowl drain screws coming in the mail (along with some other things!), so the two slot-most-hacked-up ones got re-purposed! Cut the heads off, then spread the end of a 1/8" ID vinyl tube to fit over the end with the holes in it using a pair of needle-nose pliers. Then added a bit of shrink tubing over it all just to be safe and have something for the threads to seal against when they get screwed into the bowls. Made two.





Exhaust needs a touch-up coat of VHT flat black exhaust paint... and I'm actually going to let it cure this time before heat-cycling it!

So I degreased it all, and rinsed with cold water.



Now it hangs in front of the heating vent for the night.



Tomorrow I will attack it (lightly) with a wire brush to remove any flaking black paint, and possibly do the touch-ups.


I've gathered my tools for doing the frame cut to dig in to the top-end... too bad we still have buttloads of snow!

[Ravie]

Started getting a some of parts in for the build...New Dunlop K70's, intake boots, tank rubbers, spokes, etc...

Got the spokes painted last night as well as my front hub. This evening I cleaned and painted the top case half with Engine Enamel. Cut and wired the old fuse harness into a new blade style fuse box I got at O Reilly that has a little plastic cover on it.. Gotta figure out how I'm gonna mount it now.

Oh! Oh!  And I ordered and picked up the Kona Coffee Metallic paint for the tank and side covers and dropped them off at my friends place. Can't wait to see the finished product. I LOVE that color.

Just getting as much little stuff done as I can before the rest of my parts come in this week from 4into1 and DCC. Also have a few things coming from overseas (both near AND far...) like my new seat, swingarm bushings...

Freakin pumped to be getting this thing back together!

[MoMo]

Finally, a warm(er) day with an afternoon temp of -4C up here in the great white north! In my unheated detached garage I was able to remove the wheels from my bike without freezing my fingers off. The wheels need new rubber after last summer's 'round the US solo retirement trip.

I will want the shop to straighten the rear wheel as well. (Spokes) Do they need the rear axel?

No, they should not need the axle.  You can buy an inexpensive stand from Harbor freight and do it yourself

[AlekStooge]

Today I cut out sheet panels for the seat

[crantonr]

Put the carb rack back in my 550k after rebuilding with new jets and re-setting float heights etc. Found Vaseline to be a good tip on getting the boots to slip back on easily and just required some grunt to get the rack back in. Turned on the fuel and major overflow problem from carbs 3&4. Scratched my head for a bit and made a cup of tea (We do that in the UK) and kicked it over a couple of times and turned the fuel back on and if by magic no leak  Ran her up and it is sounding good and firing on all four which was the reason for the original strip. Will sync the throttles tomorrow and then take her for a run.

[ekpent]

Put the carb rack back in my 550k after rebuilding with new jets and re-setting float heights etc. Found Vaseline to be a good tip on getting the boots to slip back on easily and just required some grunt to get the rack back in. Turned on the fuel and major overflow problem from carbs 3&4. Scratched my head for a bit and made a cup of tea (We do that in the UK) and kicked it over a couple of times and turned the fuel back on and if by magic no leak  Ran her up and it is sounding good and firing on all four which was the reason for the original strip. Will sync the throttles tomorrow and then take her for a run.

Actually sometimes there can be a little drama on a first bowl fill after work till things settle in, or a little tap here and there. Been there.

[evanphi]

Sorted out what gaskets and and O-rings I need to dig in to my top-end. I ordered a whole engine gasket kit, so I had to measure the orings and see which ones I needed... Hondaman's book was helpful in figuring out what I needed: two on top of the cylinders, along with the stud rubbers (holes in gasket are big enough!), and four little orings for the metering jets on top of the head. I got 6 pucks in the gasket set, and I also ordered four more. So I will measure their pocket's depth when I have the towers off, and see which pucks are closest to 0.030" more than that value (according to Hondaman here. Also going to change out the orings for the tappet covers and breather cover. Set aside the head gasket and valve cover gasket too, as well as four new exhaust gaskets.

Getting organized for this job is half the fun!

I'm going to get everything taken apart, and bring the head and valve cover to be cleaned. Going to clean the rest of the engine once everything is put back together and the weather warms up. No sense in everything getting wet when it is always below freezing!

One other thing I plan to do... remove the tach drive gear from underneath the valve cover. I am not running the stock tach on this bike (electronic tach weeee). I have a plug all made up and ready to go in, and hopefully removing the driver will reduce any tendency for that spot to leak oil. I have an Oring on the plug anyway, but just want to be sure!