Topic: The spoils of war - project Bugsy 78 CB750

[bigsherm]

Buck,

     Nothing tricky about the Swarbricks, just a lot of work.  If you are a better welder than I, or you were going to paint the pipes it would be less because there would be less to clean up and it wouldn't have to look so perfect under paint.

     Just found a possible solution called Steelaloy, from the same company as Alumaloy, a low-temperature, fluxless welding rod.  It supposedly is shiny in its final form.  I might try a similar product that is supposedly available at Lowe's, etc.  I'll let you know.

Sherm

[J.Webster Designs]

what stunt forums did you source? do you know if they all are running the same amount of offset, same size steering stem?

im going to have to agree with bucky that it looks as if you still used the same wire as before. If you want to weld with shielding gas (argon) then you need to get new wire to run with it. the amount of slag and the white residue give it away that you are still using flux core wire with the shielding gas. looks like you might have your heat up too high as well.

[bigsherm]

Midnight,

     It's been months, I don't remember the stunt forums in which I looked.  Google is my best friend.

     To find info on the steering stem sizes, I looked up the sizes of steering head bearings.  A search will turn up places where you can order steering bearings by their sizes, so you can get bearings to adapt different size stems to the CB frame if you need to.  Sorry I don't have those sites right now.

     I looked up the specs of the dirfferent bikes and looked at trail to find the different offsets.  To find if they all had the same fork width, I looked up part numbers of the front axles.  I think I remember almost all recent CBRs using a front axle with the same part number.

     I used the welder at the on-post auto hobby shop.  I looked at the roll of wire and I'm pretty sure it was not flux core, but I could be wrong.  Either way, I'm going to use whatever they have.

     I'll remember your advice when I go back for touch ups.

Thanks,
Sherm

[J.Webster Designs]

Thanks for the tips.... I will definitely be using parts fiches and parts suppliers to try to find out the information that im looking for.

What are the next plans for your build?

[bigsherm]

Immediate plans are to finish the pipes so my son and I can ride the beast when he visits me here in a week and a half.

Then, to finish the stainless tail (including the taillight and license plate mount).  My intent is to be able to switch between the stock and new seat for 2- or 1-up.

I've also got new coils & wires, an FZ-1 aluminum swingarm to shorten and adapt to twin shocks, a set of awesome ikon shocks, and a really cool tach/speedo combo.

Someday I may get the CR750 replica oil tank in and redo all the electrics.  That would mean losing the sidecovers and cleaning up all that mess between them.

I'm not sure about the CR750 replica aluminum tank I have.  I'm still considering shortening it and putting it to use.  It has the vintage racebike cool factor that I like so much, but that is a long way down the line.

Sherm

[cosmo]

Immediate plans are to finish the pipes so my son and I can ride the beast when he visits me here in a week and a half.

Then, to finish the stainless tail (including the taillight and license plate mount).  My intent is to be able to switch between the stock and new seat for 2- or 1-up.

I've also got new coils & wires, an FZ-1 aluminum swingarm to shorten and adapt to twin shocks, a set of awesome ikon shocks, and a really cool tach/speedo combo.

Someday I may get the CR750 replica oil tank in and redo all the electrics.  That would mean losing the sidecovers and cleaning up all that mess between them.

I'm not sure about the CR750 replica aluminum tank I have.  I'm still considering shortening it and putting it to use.  It has the vintage racebike cool factor that I like so much, but that is a long way down the line.

Sherm

Please don't shorten that tank!  I'll buy it back from you if it's not what you want to do.  Bike looks good so far. 

[J.Webster Designs]

any updates bigsherm?

[bigsherm]

Done quite a bit more work.  Pics and updates to come soon.

Sherm

[J.Webster Designs]

looking forward to the updates. sent you a PM as well if you wouldnt mind responding to that one.

[bigsherm]

Hey Midnight and everyone else-

Didn't get your pm, bro.

I've been putting some miles on the beast.  I did a 500+ mile day to San Diego and back last week!  Let me tell you, there is no finer way to travel the California freeways than on a motorcycle!  You are legally permitted to give that dork camped out in the left lane a little 4-megaphone wake up as you buzz by a foot from his mirror when you split lanes.  BRAAAAAP!

Anyway, the seat isn't as bad as it looks, but 500 miles is still 500 miles.

On that trip I had the rear wheel slightly misaligned, and with the wide 180mm tire being sooooo close to the swingarm and chain, the chain shaved a considerable amount off the left edge of the tire.  I replaced the tire with a 170mm, and added a new chain and 10mm offset sprockets from Cycle Exchange.  Problem completely solved.  When I removed the 180 tire, I was a little startled at how thin the left edge was where the chain had shaved it.  I could feel my fingers though the rubber there!

One thing the Cycle Exchange guys aren't aware of (or maybe 77-78 models are different from 69-76) is that the 10mm offset front sprocket will cause the edge of the chain to rub substantially on the sprocket cover, even with a thinner, non-o-ring chain.  I removed about 3mm of material from the back of the sprocket, reducing the offset, removed a little aluminum from the inside of the cover there and let the chain finish the job and self-clearance.

I made a mount for the license plate and tail light, which is just a $7 trailer light.

I painted the exhaust pipes black with BBQ paint.  I originally clear-coated them with header paint, to try to keep the metallic color theme going, but that looked like crap so I went to grey header paint.  That ended up looking poopy as well, so I went with the black.  I'm pretty happy with that, but may someday get the pipes ceramic coated or something.  The black hides my booger welding pretty well, anyway.

Here's how she sits now.

Sherm

[J.Webster Designs]

what type tires are you running.... I know that 18 inch rim choices are not all that common. also what are the exact sizes that you were running?

170/??R18
180/??R18
120/??R18


I am planning out my build on my bike and want to keep the rim proportions close to the originals. I know i can get 120/70R19 tires in some sticky compounds. but a 180/55R18 rear i cant really find anything that looks to very sticky....


Also, Would you mind taking some more pictures of the bike. some from different angles like straight on from the front, straight on from the rear, maybe a 3/4 shot or something....

The bike is coming along man. I am glad to hear that its running good and you are enjoying it out in cali.

[bigsherm]

Thanks,  Midnight.

I was running a 180/55/18 rear Dunlop Sportmax.  It's grippy enough, believe me, for anything a CB750 is gonna do and I wouldn't hesitate to take it on the track.  Only if someone was beating me by inches in a race would I bother looking for something better.  Before I bought the rims I researched to make sure sizes would be available in a good tire.  The 180/55/18 is the Kawasaki ZX-6R size from a few years back, so I knew those would be available for a while since that's a popular bike.

I switched to a 170/60/18 Shinko Podium tire.  It's the only 170-18 available other than some expensive vintage racing tires from Avon and a touring Dunlop.  Shinkos are really taking off in popularity, especially with drag racers, and realistically, modern sport bike tires are way beyond the demands I'm going to put on it with my 500 pounder, no matter how hard I ride it.  After only a couple days on the Shinko, it feels fine to me.  As a bonus it's really cheap!

The front is a 120/70/18 D205 Dunlop Sportmax.  I knew this tire would be easy to get forever because the Harley V-Rod uses it.  There are plenty of choices in this size.

Here's some good info- bikebandit.com lets you select, for example, front tires, then 18 inch tires, then 120/70/18's, etc., and at each step you can scroll down and see what's available, so if you don't know exactly what 18 inch tire you want, when you select 18 inch front you can scroll down and see every size available in an 18" front.

Hope this helps, Bro.

I'll post the pics you asked for soon.

Sherm

[J.Webster Designs]

sounds good Sherm.

I was actually looking into the dunlops for my project. glad to hear that they are nice and sticky.

[bigsherm]

Here are some more pics.

[J.Webster Designs]

bike looks good sherm

[motocyconomad]

very nice... love the tail

[Industrial Cafe]

very nice!
 if you feel it necessary to swap in a longer, wider swing arm- I have a thread here somewhere

I think I'm going to pick up a gs450 tank, my forks hit the leaky tank I have now, and I like the lines of the one you have.

EDIT:

found it-   http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=46599.0;all

also, what rear rim did you use?  yours looks how I wanted mine to look when I bought a 16x4.25

[Zig]

Well, BWC is back in business!

It's been a long time since I welded, and everyone said that MIG with argon gas would be much better than my flux core efforts before, but the results are the same.

mig wire burns best with a mixed gas, c 10 would be my choice. co2 and argon.

[coyotecowboy]

Well, BWC is back in business!

It's been a long time since I welded, and everyone said that MIG with argon gas would be much better than my flux core efforts before, but the results are the same.

mig wire burns best with a mixed gas, c 10 would be my choice. co2 and argon.

Yeah, 75/25 would have worked great on that.  Make sure your wire isn't too big also.  Run .023 instead of .035, makes a much nicer weld when you're doing fine work.

[J.Webster Designs]

IC, I believe that he is using an 18 inch excel rim. I dont know what width he is running, but im going to guess its somewhere near 5.5 in order to run a 180/55/18.

[Industrial Cafe]

you're right midnight, I emailed him.

he's also using cycleX sprockets.

[MattFreeman]

Anyone know if you can use the honda petcock with that tank?

[RustyOlive]

hey bigsherm.
your bike is sick!! Love it!
that tank is gorgeous.. looks right at home..

I have to ask though.. assuming that is in fact a 18x 5.50 rear rim.. did you have to shave the inside of the swingarm to fit the 180 or the 170 tire? I measured my swing arm.. and it doesn't look like it would fit if i didn't shave or build a new swingarm..

thanks