Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[Stev-o]

Show a picture of the right side Steve. I want to see what it did to the cracks in the striping. I want to get my freshly derusted Apricot Red Flake K5 tank clearcoated. Did you hit it with rubbing compound or something else before applying the clear?

We block sanded the tank before shooting it, then buffed afterward.  You'll still see the cracks in the striping, no way around that. 

[mrbreeze]

Yeah I guess. Still it looks better.

[Stev-o]

Yeah I guess. Still it looks better.

Short of respraying, this is a good option, I wanted orgiginal paint on this budget restore.  The top and left side look very good, the right side had pretty bad UV damage

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks for the info, folks.

In sad news, I dropped my bike today.  Rhonda took a nap and then started crying oil from the coil cover... nice little crack. So I had to pull all that apart. Going to be a temporary JB Weld fix for the time being, then either a new cover or a quality repair job by a welder in the winter.




If anyone has a generator cover that would fit a K5 going for cheap... pleas PM me.

I wouldn't waste money on repairing it, good time to upgrade to a polished cover.

I hate throwing away good covers because they can be easily welded and polished back to "as new", but that one is a fake anyway, so no biggie. Cheers, Terry.

No "Made in Japan" give it away? A new one from DSS is 250$. Bleh.

Yeah mate, back in the day, as a hard charging 18 year old with a shiney new F0 and no money, I had to replace my alternator cover a couple of times. Those non-genuine (but otherwise identical) covers that were made in Taiwan were available from most bike shops and the price was less than half of the genuine items, so were very popular.

I don't think the quality was less than the originals really, so you could repair it, but of course nowadays the "train spotters" like me would pick it as a fake. Funnily enough, the fakes are probably rarer than the OEM suckers nowadays. Cheers, Terry.

[evanphi]

Thanks for the info, folks.

In sad news, I dropped my bike today.  Rhonda took a nap and then started crying oil from the coil cover... nice little crack. So I had to pull all that apart. Going to be a temporary JB Weld fix for the time being, then either a new cover or a quality repair job by a welder in the winter.

If anyone has a generator cover that would fit a K5 going for cheap... pleas PM me.

I wouldn't waste money on repairing it, good time to upgrade to a polished cover.

I hate throwing away good covers because they can be easily welded and polished back to "as new", but that one is a fake anyway, so no biggie. Cheers, Terry.

No "Made in Japan" give it away? A new one from DSS is 250$. Bleh.

Yeah mate, back in the day, as a hard charging 18 year old with a shiney new F0 and no money, I had to replace my alternator cover a couple of times. Those non-genuine (but otherwise identical) covers that were made in Taiwan were available from most bike shops and the price was less than half of the genuine items, so were very popular.

I don't think the quality was less than the originals really, so you could repair it, but of course nowadays the "train spotters" like me would pick it as a fake. Funnily enough, the fakes are probably rarer than the OEM suckers nowadays. Cheers, Terry.

Cool. I know aftermarket points covers are still made today (mine is original!)... but I had no idea about the alt covers. My dad and I will be fixing the crack tonight or tomorrow with some JB weld. He's made plenty of these repairs himself. Then in the winter I'm going to keep an eye out for an original (for a decent price)... failing that I'll have my welder do a better job of the fix.

Partzilla has an original cover for 199.95, plus 35 for shipping. Best price so far...

[rickman750]

Nothing SOHC4, but had a blast at the Harrow 2014 vinduro on an early eighties IT175.
Blasphemy, but oh baby! F.. U.. N..!

[mrbreeze]

You should be able to find one on Ebay way cheaper than that.

[edwardmorris]

Picked up the final bits and pieces from the Chromer today!

[nccb]

I haven't gotten to ride my bike in a long time.  I am actually feeling horrible about it.  I think it has been about a month and a half of what should be prime ride time.  Some of you may have read me complaining about the rain and my yard, but it has rained so much here (i think just over my house only) that I just don't want to try and get it up my mud slick hill of a back yard.  I go out and start it periodically, but I have been so busy I can't take it out.  I am hoping to take it out on friday for my birthday but it is scheduled to rain   woe es me   anybody run a concrete business that can throw me a bone to make a path from my building to driveway?

[Jerilee]

More of the ole wire wheeling, two brake calipers and three brake brackets. If I remember the pile right I've only got the lower forks, upper tripple tree and the bar clamp shells. Then I should be done everything that is getting PCed black. There'll be plenty else to clean while that's all off getting done.

I also had my stitches out, hooray.   

[Schnell]

At the motel, Idealt with 2 motorcycle issues. My rear wheel wobbles quite a bit. This causes premature tire wear and stress on the wheel bearings. It is rectified with tweaking the wheel spokes. I used a bar ofmotel soap to mark the sideways travel of the wheel. I did my best. If I were to come across a motorcycle shop on the way, I'd inquire about getting it done right.

The other problem is that my rear light and brake light weren't working. This happened before and the cause was a bad bulb. I replaced the bulb (I had a spare) in Omak in the morning, but that did not fix the problem this time. At tonight's motel, after trying to true the back wheel, I took apart the tail light assembly. I found that a collar that was required to supply the ground for the tail light electrics had vibrated loose. This, I was able to fix.

[evanphi]

Patched my cracked alternator cover with JB weld last night... hammered the dent back outwards as much as we could, roughed up the outside, and dremel'd some grooves over the cracks to have more hold. Cleaned up with degreaser and acetone. Packed the putty in tiiiight.

Sanding up today after work, then hopefully everything back on for a test ride to make sure all is well!

[MCRider]

Patched my cracked alternator cover with JB weld last night... hammered the dent back outwards as much as we could, roughed up the outside, and dremel'd some grooves over the cracks to have more hold. Cleaned up with degreaser and acetone. Packed the putty in tiiiight.

Sanding up today after work, then hopefully everything back on for a test ride to make sure all is well!

It should work IMO. Degreasing was the most important part. There is no stress or pressure on the cover, oil is flung around but pressure is lost once it exits the crank. It just pools at the bottom and runs back into the crankcases and down to the sump.  Good luck!

There would be some heat expansion and contraction, but not so much the JB can't handle it I think.

[PeWe]

Got new oil ! Hopefully the cure for my clutch issues
http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=110&pcid=21

[RobbyD]

Ordered a new chain, grips, throttle tube, 1 tappet cover and new lever for the clutch and front brakes for the 550

[MarshallCS]

I did 9/10ths of the Ton! I LOVE the difference in maneuverability and feeling the new Avon rear tire makes. I can't wait to save up the money to replace the front as well.

[Jerilee]

Just a little time with the drill and wire wheel again tonight, a couple of bolts and washers after work, before dinner. Busy week ahead at work so I'll try to do at least an hour or two every evening when I get home.

[Tews19]

I did 9/10ths of the Ton! I LOVE the difference in maneuverability and feeling the new Avon rear tire makes. I can't wait to save up the money to replace the front as well.

Marshall be careful on old tires! Great you got to 90 mpg but wait till you get the new front. 

[MarshallCS]

I did 9/10ths of the Ton! I LOVE the difference in maneuverability and feeling the new Avon rear tire makes. I can't wait to save up the money to replace the front as well.

Marshall be careful on old tires! Great you got to 90 mpg but wait till you get the new front.

In retrospect, you are absolutely correct. I'm usually pretty conservative with my riding and driving in general. There was just something about a completely empty, flat highway that I couldn't resist. The front tire is in good shape, and is only about 2 years old, but its a bridgestone (the PO had a 130 sized rear that completely squared off.


Not that it makes it any better, but my speedo is about 5 mph fast, so I was probably only doing 85 But the front tire is absolutely on my very soon to purchase list.


Something that I finally did understand after reading stuff on this list is that the power comes on after 5000rpm. I could have hit 100 if I would have dropped down to 4th gear, then moved back into 5th.

[evanphi]

Patched my cracked alternator cover with JB weld last night... hammered the dent back outwards as much as we could, roughed up the outside, and dremel'd some grooves over the cracks to have more hold. Cleaned up with degreaser and acetone. Packed the putty in tiiiight.

Sanding up today after work, then hopefully everything back on for a test ride to make sure all is well!

It should work IMO. Degreasing was the most important part. There is no stress or pressure on the cover, oil is flung around but pressure is lost once it exits the crank. It just pools at the bottom and runs back into the crankcases and down to the sump.  Good luck!

There would be some heat expansion and contraction, but not so much the JB can't handle it I think.

Hi-Temp JB Weld did a fantastic job! Sanding it down to match countours was no problemo. It is just a different colour now, is all. I also put some Permatex Form 2 around the rubber grommet for the wires coming out of the cover. If the Cash Gods are fair to me this winter, I will likely order an OEM cover.

...but what and adventure I had to endure last night!

I get everything all bolted back together on the inside and I am on my LAST bolt at the bottom (PO put stainless allen bolts on everything, how nice!), and hear the dreaded "tink-tink-tink" and loss of tension that indicates stripped threads... I only was doing hand tight and then 1/4 turn with the ratchet. Luckily for this situation, the bolts the PO put on were a few mm shorter than stock, so I only lost a few threads. I popped down to the hardware store, bought a M6x40mm pan head to hold me over. The distance from the top of the cover's hole to the back of the case hole (threaded all the way through, thankfully!) is 40mm. Before I got that bolt on, the cover was leaking as bad as it was before the hole was fixed! Left it over night and no leaks on the garage floor this morning.

WHEW.

Now to put in an order for some CORRECTLY sized allen bolts... and do something nice for the wife since I spent the whole night in the garage...

"But babe, every minute I'm not trying to fix this problem, money is literally figuratively dripping out of my bike."   

[PeWe]

Changed Oil today. 2L Redline 20W-50 + 1L 20W-60. If clutch will be Ok with this oil I'll use 20W-60 only next time. Oil temp is rather high so 60 might be needed.

[speedwolf]

Swapped out my crusty original spark plug caps for some NGK 5KΩ . Not sure why I didn't do this earlier. Probably because I didn't know any better.

Part #'s if you're curious:
VD05F & XD05F



On a side note, started designing a custom t-shirt for myself. F to match my bike.

[edwardmorris]

On a side note, started designing a custom t-shirt for myself. F to match my bike.

Impressive! Can you do a 750 engine too? If enough people sign up, maybe you can sell them and partially donate to the forum

[flybox1]

+1 like that shirt.....

[speedwolf]

Impressive! Can you do a 750 engine too? If enough people sign up, maybe you can sell them and partially donate to the forum

Thanks! I can probably do a 750 design as well. I just need some high-res scans from an old shop manual. Engine and side cover logo. Looking for a better version for the 500, as well. 

The digital version of the shop manual I have has watermarking that I had to magnify/erase. And it was pretty low-res to start. You can tell how some of the details get lost. (Piston Rings, Oil screen, Honda text, etc...) At this point it might not translate well blown up.

I can see what I can do as far as shirts. I've only ever made batches of two for personal use; I've never hosted on a site for sale.

PS. If this gets serious, what part of the forums would I create an official thread? I don't want to hijack or break the rules.