CB desert sled

Yeahyeahyeah, the seat.


The other weekend Cory made up a really nice seat on the plastic pan. Over the week he made up a cover and attached it. He brought it down on Saturday and I was able to mount it up this afternoon. It looks really nice. I didn't take any close up pictures of it but should have. It's pretty firm, by request.

No more fir seat.











I did a little messing around with the carbs. I capped off the choke inlets- the hose system was just too complicated, and I don't want any unfiltered openings on the carbs so the chokes have to go. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, the bike doesn't need the chokes to run, and they can still be open to flood the motor for startup. Capping off the inlets required separating the outer carbs from the rack, so I re-synced them as well.


Last up was a weigh-in.



The original goal was to keep the weight similar to the stock 550, which was 420 pounds dry. Right now I'm at 395 pounds with not too much to add, so that's been a real success.

That'd be fun.


Frankenrally anyone?

Evil looking weapon.

It is... I was bleeding within the first 5 minutes of working on it. "Whose blood is this? oh, mine"

Wow 395 full of oil and with a gallon of gas, I didn't think it would come in under 400. As long as you don't make the skid plate out of 1/4" plate steel you should be very close to 400lbs

Lightweight pre-fabbed skid plate!

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i think thats the strangest build i have seen since my 67 greeves challenger with a 350 honda twin.you are very creative!

Thanks! Got pics of the Greeves?




No building progress on the bike, but I did go down to the DMV today. I had no title, but after a VIN inspection and filling out a few extra forms and a lot of looking up paperwork codes I got a temporary license plate and paperwork. Real plate and title to be mailed later. Woot!



Apologies to everyone who had to wait in line behind me.

license and title, dual sport baby!


What hard bags, rack and wind shield are you gonna go with?

"?Plate? I thought this was a race bike? I'm guessing there was no "safety inspections (Mirros, lights etc.) - they must leave that inspection to the cops. Does this mean that you can "show and tell" at some near future meet-up?

Dual Sport is not Adventure Barge.

I need a plate for Mexico; the race is all on public roads. Regardless, I want this bike to be a replacement for my KTM 640- just a little heavier and more comfortable.

The DMV was only concerned with the VIN and whether the bike still looked like a CB500. Since it does, I'll get a regular title with a reconstructed brand on it. The safety inspection was for when a bike was converted from dirt to street use, which is no longer allowed. There was nowhere in the paperwork indicating inspections. If I behave myself there won't be any roadside safety inspections either.


Hopefully it will be together enough to bring to a meetup one of these weeks; I haven't had time to go to them in ages anyway.

Awesome! The tale of your DMV adventure reminds me of some lyrics from Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time." The exception is to replace "Laughing" with "Gawking in Awe."

So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.

I'd never heard it before. I think that's the song of the whole bike. Just replace the factory with ebay and craigslist

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A little welding today. Boxed in the lower shock mounts.







The goofy shape is so that it clears the shock springs. It's actually not at all what I thought it would be when I first planned on putting the mounts low, but I like how it turned out.

The mount reinforcments look fantastic. The TIG welds are looking sharp as well!

It sounds like some serious testing is on the near horizon...

Nice work.

I did some welding today, finished my second bottle of argon. It seems that all the materials for TIG welding are sized right for me. I use 1 tungsten, and 1 pound of rod for each 80 cft bottle of argon. I might have used a little less tungsten on this second bottle, but it's close.


Mounting points on the swingarm for the chain guide:




Rear brake stop. The original one wasn't quite in the right place so a while ago I hacked it up to work. Today I cut the hack off and replaced it.



Since the welding on the swingarm had bent it yet again, I re-did the axle spacers.

Once I get the chain and wheel alignment right I'll make some proper spacers.




Next up, bodywork. I got a set of fenders from DC plastics. They're actually for a 1980 Husqvarna WR.

Front:




Rear:


If anyone knows where to get a Husqvarna taillight, let me know. Or anything 3.5" square would be about right.


Overall:




With rider, for scale (and pose).




A little detail of the fender mount and the seat retainer. The cad plated pin is a lynch pin that's been extended to reach the center where the seat retainer is, the spring hoop on it hooks on a ridge on the tube.

On a very important tangent, Rick fixed the heater for his motor home. This will be very nice at the Desert 100, which is in just a couple of weeks.

There's a little switch buried in the back that detects that the fan is working and enables the heat. It was making intermittent contact when we tested it, so it was replaced.



There's a little more work to do before testing it, but I like its chances.

Fantastic! The WR Husky fenders are perfect! The new and improved brake stop, and chain guide mounts, are looking great as well.

For the taillight, maybe a mid '70s to mid '80s Honda enduro taillight, as seen on everything from the CT70 to XL350? They are about 4" wide by 4" tall though; DOT approved no less :

http://tinyurl.com/d2y2vuo



Also, understood about the heater! I hear Odessa can be a bit chilly! I look at desperation towards the 20 degree mummy bag and hope it's enough...