Topic: Pin2Hot's 73 CB750

[Pin2Hot]

That's quite a wiring job using the circuit board.  Will there be any bodywork between the light/electronics panel and the dash instruments, or are you just going to sheath the wires with loom?

The big fat connector going from the main board to the dash will get covered somehow, not sure with what just yet.

[Pin2Hot]

Is any of your electronics water sensitive or are you encapsulating the board components?

How are you handling aiming of your headlight and fog lights?

The boards will get a conformal coating and all connectors will be filled with dielectric grease.  Won't stop all water intrusion but I don't plan on riding this bike if there's even a hint of rain in the forecast.  I understand it's impossible to avoid water but I'm hoping the conformal coating and grease will prevent any issues.

The bracket will allow for right/left movement and I haven't fully sorted how I'll adjust up/down.  We'll see!

[jeff d]

Very cool build!  You should include an XLR connector somewhere as a signature.

[Pin2Hot]

In the 25 years or so that I've used this handle, you're only the 2nd person to ever get it.  Thanks for the kind words!

[RAFster122s]

XLR setup as an ignition kill switch, if you don’t have the properly wired XLR connected then relay won’t work and bike won’t start...

[Pin2Hot]

XLR setup as an ignition kill switch, if you don’t have the properly wired XLR connected then relay won’t work and bike won’t start...

Ha, that's a great idea.  "Sir why are you plugging a microphone into your bike?"

[Pin2Hot]

Getting close to being finished with wiring this thing.  Still need to run two more wires up front for the turn signals, terminate the 8 mUnit IN/OUT wires into their connector and create a couple more plugs for the front turn signals / accent halo LED strips (which have yet to make an appearance in any photos . . . more to come there).

Here's a photo showing how I'm using that weird looking 3D printed wire guide.  I ran out of super tiny zip ties so as soon as more arrive I'll tidy up the straight wires by tying them to their respective "arm".  In this photo, up is towards the back of the bike.


One very satisfying activity I accomplished this weekend was drilling holes in the handlebars to accommodate the stock Honda controls I'm using.  The turn signal / hi beam / horn combo unit, as well as the starter/kill switch and throttle assembly all have posts that locate themselves in the handlebars to prevent rotation.  I was able to lock them in their finals spots and tidy up the wires.  Very nice seeing the controls in their final form.
Left control:


Right:

[Pin2Hot]

I did some things.  Was able to test fit the decorative plate that will sit on top of the aluminum headlight mounting plates.  This decorate plate will hold the turn signals and accent LED strips.  With this blue plate, I'm trying to decide on how best to route the wires that drive the accent lights and turn signals.  I think I'll end up routing them from the bottom.

Decorative plate with turn signals and accent "halos":
 

Front view of the accent lights turned on:


Turn signal with the wire routing on the top side:


It was pretty neat finally seeing this vision come to life, I've been thinking about this for literally years.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Should look really neat once the plate is black and the headlights are in place.

BYE

[BenelliSEI]

Totally fascinated! Keep up the regular posts.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I did some things.  Was able to test fit the decorative plate that will sit on top of the aluminum headlight mounting plates.  This decorate plate will hold the turn signals and accent LED strips.  With this blue plate, I'm trying to decide on how best to route the wires that drive the accent lights and turn signals.  I think I'll end up routing them from the bottom.

Decorative plate with turn signals and accent "halos":
 

Front view of the accent lights turned on:


Turn signal with the wire routing on the top side:


It was pretty neat finally seeing this vision come to life, I've been thinking about this for literally years.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Should look really neat once the plate is black and the headlights are in place.

BYE

Can you do a quick video showing how the indicators flash and interact with the halos?

[Pin2Hot]

Can you do a quick video showing how the indicators flash and interact with the halos?

Sure, I actually made one back in 2016 (holy crap this has taken a long time!) that shows the basic idea of how they work.  A lot has changed since I shot this video (circuit board / different relays / different LED strips) but the functionality is exactly the same.  Each halo turns off when its corresponding signal turns on.  I'll try and get a video shot of them functioning on the bike sometime soon but it might be a bit before I can get that done.

[Pin2Hot]

In the long . . . so very long struggled to finish this bike, I'm happy to say that my tank is off to paint.  There's a local hot rod shop here in St. Louis that's doing the needed bodywork and will put down a single color of Ford's Grabber Blue.  I've been agonizing on how to achieve the vision I want for the paint as it's a rather complex design.  I think I came up with a solution that appears to work with some simple tests I did with a . . . coffee mug.

Water slide decals are incredibly thin and very versatile.  Because they're thin, I THINK whatever edge they have will disappear beneath a clearcoat.  And because I can literally print the graphic onto them, the detail / complexity is up to the printer.  Laser printer decal paper is a thing so that's the route I went down.  I have a vision of plastering a detailed technical diagram of the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft across the tank in an attempt to make it look like an old school blueprint of the vehicle.  The decal will wrap across the entire tank in all directions and because the decal is essentially a thin film, I should be able to do this. 

I tested this out by printing a small version of the diagram and putting it on a coffee mug.  Not a perfect facsimile but the curves and finish should mimic a curved, painted tank pretty well.  Anyone have experience using water slide decals on paint?  Very curious what your experience has been.

Little Pioneer diagram soaking in the tub:


Nicely laid down with minimal bubbles.  I didn't use a sponge or something to squish out all the bubbles but I did pretty well with just my fingers.


Check out the detail!  I used a laser printer at my office to print this out at 1200 dpi.  Considering that the actual decal will stretch across the tank, I think I've got the level of detail I'm looking for:


I also competely redid the wiring under the seat a few weeks ago and covered every wire in paracord.  I was being lazy when I did it last time and have since cleaned it up.  I'm also reprinting the wireloom / headlight surround and any other 3D printed part in PETG which is far more heat tolerant than PLA.  Last thing I want is this thing to melt when sitting in a parking lot.  KBYE

[BenelliSEI]

Amazing detail. I love the concept. Any idea how the clear coat will effect the material you printed on? A test may be a good idea!

[Pin2Hot]

Amazing detail. I love the concept. Any idea how the clear coat will effect the material you printed on? A test may be a good idea!

Thanks, completely agree that a test is necessary.  I'll be working with the guy doing the paint to do a test before we move forward with any final decals.  More to come!

[Pin2Hot]

So I had a pretty bad experience with the guy painting my tank.  Long story short, I'm marginally further along than I was back in June.  Frustrating, sure.  But given how long this project has gone on, it's just a little speed bump.  I plan to start doing bodywork on the tank this winter and will hopefully have the paint done by Spring.

In other news, I've mostly been working on a bracket to help me attach the headlights to the frame plate.  I had absolutely no idea that mounting the damn headlights was going to be as complex as it is and that's saying a lot after looking at my wiring harness.    I've been 3D printing iteration after iteration to get the part right and I think I'm finally ready to have the part made.

Mounting position of the high beam


Bracket to hold the high beam from behind


I started modelling the headlight bracket and light in Inventor.  From that assembly, I modelled the sheet metal bracket itself in situ.  I found a company called Osh Cut that will cut and bend sheet metal parts based on that model.  Their website is absolutley insane: upload the file, choose the material and it'll literally show you how they bend it in a little animation.  It will do design checks to ensure your part will actually cut/bend according to their tooling limitations and then give you a price.  For $100 all together, they're laser cutting, bending and shipping two prototype brackets to me.  I should have the parts back to me sometime in December.  Anyone ever used a service like this before?  I have high hopes, I'll follow up once the parts get in.

Animation from Osh Cut showing how they'll bend it


I'd like to think this is the last major hurdle I have to finish this project but who knows.  There will be a lot of grinding and shaping of the part to make it look finished but this is essentially a trial to see if this will even work.  I've built in SOME adjustability to the light for aiming but I'm not super confident it will work all that well.  May have to print some spacers to get the angle just right.  Time will tell.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEE

*Edit - update the bend video link to embed the gif

[Godffery]

   " Animation from Osh Cut showing how they'll bend it
"

 That's pretty Frigan Groovy!

[Pin2Hot]

Got the parts back MUCH faster than anticipated and hoooo boy are they pretty.  Take your parts to Osh Cut, they're great.





Real part sitting next to 3D printed model used for fitup.


You'll notice that the real part has a bit more material on the upper flange which is due to bending requirements of Osh Cut.  Their online tool makes it super handy to show what tooling requirements are needed for the part to be properly bent.  When I uploaded my original model it highlighted that upper bend saying "not enough support material" for the press brake to do its job so I added more material.  I'll have to cut away that section which is fine because I have some shaping to do on it anyway.

I'll work on mounting this plate to the frame and test fit the high beam.  If this works I have one more bracket for the low beam which will finally allow me to finish wiring the front of the bike.

[Pin2Hot]

With spring here I'm more motivated to continue work on this decade long project.  I've finally started working on the "easy" projects that I've been putting off while continuing design work on the headlight assembly.  I've been focusing on the rear brake to get it entirely functional.  I previously made a handful of parts that I knew I'd have to revisit in the future so that's mostly what I've been doing.  But before starting any of that, I had to ensure I'm 100% certain on my rear wheel and sprocket alignment.  Turns out I'm deadnuts on the wheel but not so much the sprocket.

Rear wheel alignment (always remember to fully inflate your tire . . . seemed out of round only to realize it was almost completely flat)


Aligning the laser with the rear* sprocket showed that I'm half a width off of the center of the drive sprocket.  The solution is to machine down a Cognito Moto sprocket spacer which arrives next week.


Knowing that the wheel is properly spaced, I was able to get the drum brake stay/brace positioned which let me finalize the location of the rear brake cable assembly.  I made a VERY rough bracket for this cable a long time ago and figured I'd make a new one that didn't look so bad.

Rear brake cable stay bracket, new vs old.  Still have to drill the holes and weld in the stud:


Also been playing around with some new options for my hand made rear set brackets I made what seems like forever ago.  I'll be sending off my low beam bracket (will post about that soon) to the laser cutter so I figured I'd also have some new brackets cut that match the pattern on the front of the bike.

Fitting them up to ensure I have proper spacing / positioning:


Next item will be welding on an arm to the stock CBR brake pedal and fab up the linkages for rear brake actuation.

[Pin2Hot]

I wanted to post a reply here because I couldn't find a good post that describes this process in detail.  Because I'm going to be using a spacer on my rear sprocket to move it 4.5mm outward, I'll need longer rear hub / cush drive hub (getting all the keywords in here) studs.  I'm now on the prowl for M12 x 1.25 x 60mm studs which are INSANELY hard to find.  The stock double ended studs are M12 x 1.25 x 54mm.  The next best option I can get is 60mm so that's what I'm trying to find.  If anyone out here knows of a good source, I'm all ears.  McMaster / Fastenall / Grainger etc don't have high strength M12 in 1.25 pitch double ended studs.  The best I can find is M12 x 1.25 threaded rod.  I'll update this when I find the answer.

In the meantime, another answer I couldn't find was can you remove your rear hub / cush drive studs.  YES, you can.  It takes a LOT of heat and in my case a stud puller.  I probably could have gotten away with double nutting but it was an excuse to buy a new tool.  It worked very well despite the need to apply a massive amount of heat to get them to budge.  These were, by far, the hardest studs I've ever had to remove.  Which I guess makes sense, they're pretty important.

Damage to the threads from learning how to use the new puller


Copious amounts of heat.  Will revisit the seal and bearing to ensure no damage occured during the roast.


Came out cleanly, I'll chase them with an M12 tap to clean things up if necessary:


Stud length:


Four shorties:

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I need to source some of those longer ones, too.

[calj737]

I need to source some of those longer ones, too.

ARP makes some that might work, black oxide only. Coarse thread on one end, fine on the other. Allen’s fasteners has them listed under ARP->Individual Studs, scroll through to nearly the last page. About $13@

[Pin2Hot]

I need to source some of those longer ones, too.

ARP makes some that might work, black oxide only. Coarse thread on one end, fine on the other. Allen’s fasteners has them listed under ARP->Individual Studs, scroll through to nearly the last page. About $13@

Very cool Cal, thanks for the suggestion. 

[Pin2Hot]

I learned a valuable lesson with my 3D modeling software.  I originally started out using Inventor but because this is probably the longest duration project in history, my license expired and all of my models became locked in Inventor purgatory.  Well, now you all know why it's been so long since I've updated as I've been busy learning Fusion360 and rebuilding all of my models.  So just this morning I finished my low beam bracket and submited it to Osh Cut.



This will finally let me get the headlight assembly mounted to the front of the bike which will let me finish up wiring everything.  I'll probably have that bracket back in a couple weeks and during that time, I'll continue my hunt for M12 fine thread studs.  Still impossible to find.  I've even started looking at European distributors because no one makes a fine thread, M12 stud in 60mm lengths.  The struggle continues.

[calj737]

The ones I referenced can be used with new coarse nuts. Unless you require stainless? If so, find someone with a lathe, grab some 304 round stock and have them turned to your need.

[Pin2Hot]

The ones I referenced can be used with new coarse nuts. Unless you require stainless? If so, find someone with a lathe, grab some 304 round stock and have them turned to your need.

Looks like a machinist will be required either way.  The ones you referenced are 6" - 8" long so I'd have to buy those, cut to length and thread or just make them from scratch.  I have to machine down the spacer anyway so I'll just ask the machinist if he can make some studs for me too.