Author Topic: CR750 replica for the street (Read 74664 times)

Vincent · « **Reply #200 on:** April 05, 2018, 10:49:16 PM »

I tried to make the neatest wire harness that I could, and I wanted to contain the handlebar switch wiring as far as possible up to the bars, so I made one holder for each side. It seemed to work with a paper dummy, so I made them from aluminum, found grommets that would be a kind of snug fit around the wires, and attached the clips to the triple clamp bolts.

I figured out how to have the brake switch wires sneak out from the wiring sheath, and then made that happen right where the grommet held the sheath.

Vincent · « **Reply #201 on:** April 05, 2018, 10:55:08 PM »

Another way of making a neat wiring harness was to combine things wherever I could. I made all the instrument bulb wires come down to a common switched hot and a common ground.

Vincent · « **Reply #202 on:** April 05, 2018, 11:22:43 PM »

From the first time I thought about doing this bike, I knew I had to have a custom tail light, and it had to be something that specifically fit this bike and only this bike. Solter Plastics in Los Angeles sells clear red acrylic, and I bought a small piece. I put the seat on a piece of balsa wood, traced the outside of the back of the seat onto the wood, drew another curve about 3/16 inside of that curve to account for the thickness of the seat and the acrylic, and cut a pattern from the wood.

I cut a strip of acrylic, heated it with a heat gun, and held it on the pattern while it cooled.

OK, it's almost 11:30 and I need to go to bed. See you tomorrow.

Vincent

PeWe · « **Reply #203 on:** April 06, 2018, 03:05:39 AM »

3:rd small instrument? Oil temp?
Have you made the black instrument dashboard?

Godffery · « **Reply #204 on:** April 06, 2018, 09:05:21 AM »

Quote from: PeWe on April 06, 2018, 03:05:39 AM

3:rd small instrument? Oil temp?
Have you made the black instrument dashboard?

From the looks of the back, I'd say Oil Pressure...?

dunc · « **Reply #205 on:** April 06, 2018, 10:49:10 AM »

This is going to be cherry. Loving the small fab exercises. Giving me some inspiration for mine!

Vincent · « **Reply #206 on:** April 06, 2018, 03:03:06 PM »

Godffrey is right about the gauge. Its an old new-in-the-box Smiths gauge I found online. The face is black, so I had the new tach and speedo gauge faces done in black to match. The other new-in-the-box item I found was a set of old aluminum-body Koni shocks, but I'll cover that in another post.

As for the dashboard, man, I wish I could do metal work like that! The dash was created by Takashi Iwamoto of Cascade Cafe Racer Product in Hawthorne, California. He fabricated various other parts, including the fairing mounts, front fender mounts, and the complicated single piece that supports the front of the fairing, the gauges, the mirrors, the horns, and the headlight. He was able to fit all that stuff into a small space and make it so that the pieces didn't crash into each other when the bars are turned. He also has deep knowledge and appreciation of many types of motorcycles.

Vincent

Vincent · « **Reply #207 on:** April 06, 2018, 10:23:04 PM »

I wanted the tail light to be visible from the sides as well as the back, and I wanted to use LEDs. The individual lights didn't look right to me, so I got a piece of textured acrylic.

I assembled the components, welded the pieces together with a syringe filled with methylene chloride, and then sanded and polished the whole thing.

I made aluminum clips to hold the light and fiberglassed some screws into the inside of the tail piece to hold the clips. The light blends in with the shape of the tail.

Vincent

Vincent · « **Reply #208 on:** April 06, 2018, 10:37:13 PM »

The aluminum shocks were brand new in the box, but they wouldn't compress because one of the interior parts disintegrates over time and clogs the orifices. I ordered a rebuilding kit and shock oil from Ikon, took the shocks apart, and replaced various plastic and rubber parts. I bead blasted the aluminum parts and gave them a clear coat, got springs from Revival in Austin Texas and had them powder coated, and put everything back together.

02z06dave · « **Reply #209 on:** April 07, 2018, 05:18:03 AM »

Really excellent job. I cant wait to see the rest of it

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #210 on:** April 07, 2018, 07:29:01 AM »

Some amazing work. That taillight looks superb.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #211 on:** April 07, 2018, 03:04:38 PM »

Great job on the shock rebuild mate, what did you use to pull them apart? I've got a pair here I'd like to rebuild too.

Vincent · « **Reply #212 on:** April 08, 2018, 07:15:01 AM »

Hi Terry,

The tool is an adjustable gland nut wrench: OTC part # 7463.

Vincent

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #213 on:** April 09, 2018, 01:50:46 AM »

Quote from: Vincent on April 08, 2018, 07:15:01 AM

Hi Terry,

The tool is an adjustable gland nut wrench: OTC part # 7463.

Vincent

Thanks mate, that looks great!

Vincent · « **Reply #214 on:** April 14, 2018, 10:46:15 PM »

OK, a couple more things. This was a mockup of a possible shift linkage, but I really didn't like the bend.

This is what I ended up with.

Since everything on the bike is new, I wanted to have instruments that were appropriate. It took them both apart, used a syringe filled with acetone to kind of blast the old lubricant off all the pieces, filled the little cups with fresh silicone lube, painted the needles, installed new faces and started the odometer back at zero. You can learn how to do anything on the internet!

Thanks for looking.

Vincent

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #215 on:** April 15, 2018, 02:22:12 AM »

As always, beautiful work mate!

Vincent · « **Reply #216 on:** April 15, 2018, 10:40:20 PM »

A few more pics. Weld was added to the front and back of the kickstand, and then I filed it off until the stand sat in the right place: High and inside when retracted, and at a stable angle when deployed.

Painted the oil tank and catch tank with satin epoxy paint.

The catch tank has a bridge on top that holds wires for the tail light and the Motogadget M-Lock keyless ignition. I didn't want the clutter of a key switch, and thought the M-Lock was really neat. It sits about 1/4 inch under the fiberglass seat cowl.

I dummied up the oil lines and had them duplicated by Earl's Performance in Lawndale California.

More tomorrow. Time for bed. Thanks for looking.

Vincent

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #217 on:** April 16, 2018, 01:17:36 AM »

Looks great mate, I love those oil lines!

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #218 on:** April 16, 2018, 08:43:58 AM »

Clean work, Vincent, as usual. Where exactly are you placing the m-lock sensor? You will want to put as less "material" between the sensor and where you place the "key." A plastic/abs/resin sidecover is not problematic, but metal plates can drown out reception.

Vincent · « **Reply #219 on:** April 16, 2018, 09:15:12 AM »

Hi Don,

The M-Lock goes on top of the metal bridge, where the three holes are. Two holes are for the screws that hold it in place, and one is for the wires that power it. The only thing that goes on top of the unit is the fiberglass seat cowl, and I made sure the unit is held high enough that it's within the correct range to be activated by the key fob. I'm at work now (shhhhh!), but I'll take a picture of the setup when I'm home.

Vincent

calj737 · « **Reply #220 on:** April 16, 2018, 11:30:08 AM »

I’ll be curious to see how you can screw those tiny screws into the base of the M Lock with the apparent lack of room below the bridge

You must have really small hands and even smaller tools

It’s a sexy idea for the mount (like all your other work).

slikwilli420 · « **Reply #221 on:** April 16, 2018, 11:57:33 AM »

This is looking really killer, but can you please go back and change the broken photobucket links to something that works?

Vincent · « **Reply #222 on:** April 16, 2018, 09:58:48 PM »

Hi, slikwilli,

Here's a tip that PeWe posted to deal with the missing pictures. Give it a try. It actually only takes a couple of seconds, but I guess we each have to do it on our own computers. The last tip worked for me, because I have Firefox.

Vincent

I did the Photobucket fix that started to work after I had installed 2 of each.
I had to install Chrome Photobucket Embedded Image Fix too

Link in this thread refer to photobucket embed fix
Yes, I see the photos at top of this page
Both add-ons:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/photobucket%20embed%20fix?hl=sv

Firefox
This only did not help my computer
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/?src=search

This did it
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-fixer/

Vincent · « **Reply #223 on:** April 16, 2018, 10:56:04 PM »

Hi calj737,

Big hands, but small homemade tools. Here's what the bridge looks like with the M-Lock installed.

I found longer screws for the unit, cut off the heads to create studs, and double-nutted them to screw them into the bottom of the unit. Took off the nuts, fed the wires into the center hole, turned the tank upside down and inserted the studs into the other two holes, and used long tweezers to place a washer, lock washer, and nut on each stud. Then I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel to make a tiny open-end wrench out of a piece of flat brass sheet from the hobby store. And then it took lots of 1/4 turns to tighten the nuts.(This is why it takes me a million years to get anything done!) The white junction block is for the tail light, which is attached to the seat.

I thought a lot about where a license plate should go, because I like the clean look of the seat and didn't want to distract attention from it. Also, I didn't want it hung off one of the shocks because that looks "chopper" to me. I cut out some aluminum sheet, bent it to match the angle of the back of the oil tank, and attached it to the tank mounting brackets. Painted satin black, it pretty much disappears. I added a short LED strip to the tail light to shine on the plate. You can walk all the way around the bike without seeing the plate, but you can see it if you're about ten feet back.

I made 2x2 stands for the seat, fairing, tank, and fender to hold them while I worked on them.

Not an original idea, I know, but I made a Dexter-themed spray booth and decorated it appropriately.

The seat before sanding and polishing.

Gas tank at the same stage.

More tomorrow. Thanks for looking, and thanks for the kind words.

Vincent

slikwilli420 · « **Reply #224 on:** April 17, 2018, 08:17:03 AM »

Photobucket fixed! PeWe's link didnt work for me but a quick Google search got it. Looking very good! Now to go back and start at page 3!

News:

Author Topic: CR750 replica for the street (Read 74664 times)