Show and Tell: First Project is Ready for the Road!

[sebastianhammer]

Originally Posted by knary

Step 1. suspend heavy-ish item by wire.
Step 2. put two layers of paint on item
Step 3. while putting third layer on, watch in disbelief as wire comes undone and item drops onto ground into dirt and leaf litter.
Step 4. shake can vigorously and debate just painting over all of it, sticks, bugs, leaves, and all.

Yep. Did that to my rear swingarm. :-)

[Airhead Wrangler]

Originally Posted by sebastianhammer

Yep. Did that to my rear swingarm. :-)

Well I haven't done quite that before, it seems that whenever I paint something outside the wind picks up immediately afterward coating the fresh paint in dust, bugs, leaves, etc.

[Biebs]

Seriously!!!

OK ( just kidding) it is your motorcycle so you should not apologise for your saving this from being parted out.

Enjoy your ride.

Now for a battery a Odessey PC680 is the one to go with I have had one for 3 years in my R75/6 no problems.
Does cost a liitle up front but will not let you down and should fit where the airbox was.

Now with the pods and new exhaust did you do any rejetting of carbs?? I am sure it would run ok with stock jetting but these bikes can be dialed in to run like raped apes!!!!!

I had a 800cc airhead at one time best running Airhead I have ever owned my current R100 needs a top end rebuild but once that is done I expect that to be best running. The engine design was based around a 750cc displacement so the best balanced bikes are the 750's - 800 are right there. When I say design I mean the crankshaft weighting is best for the 750cc. When you get to 1000cc you get a little more vibration / unbalance due to the higher displacement. An R60 is smoother due to the heavier crankshaft weights.


But back to your bike - the 800cc is perfect and can be coaxed into makeing Apes afraid!!!!

[Player B]

Originally Posted by Biebs

Now with the pods and new exhaust did you do any rejetting of carbs?? I am sure it would run ok with stock jetting but these bikes can be dialed in to run like raped apes!!!!!

...

But back to your bike - the 800cc is perfect and can be coaxed into makeing Apes afraid!!!!

I haven't rejetted the carbs yet. All I've done is replace the float bowl gaskets and adjust one of the idle screws which has gotten rid of some sputtering during idle. I may borrow a harmonizer soon and see if I need to make any more adjustments. But for now the bike has been running great. not quite ape scary, but I hope to get it there someday.

Any recommendations on which way to go with the needles? would the pods and exhaust change make the bike run richer or leaner? I imagine I should check the valve clearances and ignition timing first. Just to get everything into spec before I go and really mess around with the carb settings.

somehow I've recently lost any ability to use the choke. It seemed to be working fine after I changed to the pods and shorty mufflers. But if i try to use it now the bike just stutters and cuts out. I haven't had the time to take a good look at it yet, but I'm going to check the cables sometime this week or next weekend. Fortunately, I can just give it a little bit of gas for the first 20seconds of riding to keep it from stalling and by then the bike seems to warm up enough where I don't have to worry about it.


on another note, what is everybody's take on the stock steering dampers? Are they rebuildable? I'm not sure mine is doing much of anything. Hoping to pull it off this weekend to take a closer look.

[fishkens]

Originally Posted by knary

watch in disbelief as wire comes undone and item drops onto ground into dirt and leaf litter.

Originally Posted by Airhead Wrangler

Well I haven't done quite that before, it seems that whenever I paint something outside the wind picks up immediately afterward coating the fresh paint in dust, bugs, leaves, etc.

And I thought this only happened to me.

[Kunst]

the seat is gorgeous did ya make it yourself?

[Player B]

Originally Posted by Kunst

the seat is gorgeous did ya make it yourself?

I thought so too

It is a seat i purchased from MotoLana

http://www.motolanna.com/ourshop/pro...Racer-v20.html

It is made for a yamaha sr500. Took a little bit of cutting and welding to make it fit. There are a couple of other places that sell similar seats. Dime city cycles has recently added one to their inventory. And it looks pretty nice too.

[Player B]

Made a bunch of progress recently.

a) Had the charging system breakdown on me. Stranded at a gas station 2 miles from home. No biggie. Got it jumped long enough to leave me with enough battery to get home. Tracked the problem down to the board inside my instrument cluster. I didn't realize that the light not turning on at all may actually prevent the battery from charging...

I'd been meaning to replace the cluster with an acewell unit, so I bit the bullet and purchased the 4583 and proper cable from the guys at Dime City. Spliced in all the wires and miraculously it worked the first time. Not super happy with all the wire management, but there's not much you can do with the stock loom. Most of it hidden under the tank anyways. It's all shrink wrapped nicely, just had to leave more extra wire in there than I would have like to.

One of the great features about the 4583 is that has a voltmeter function. I left out a secondary charging light for now, and just wired in a small resistor in its place. Not sure if that actually needed to be done, or if i could have just spliced the wires together. But better safe than sorry. Bike has been keeping charge nice now.

b) replaced the old battery with a much smaller/lighter battery from http://syclbatt.com/. Made a little bracket to hold it in the old airbox location.

c) Tank got a new look for cheap. Stripped the paint from the upper half. it was in pretty rough shape to begin with. left it bare metal and got some pinstriping tape from autozone to clean up the transition. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Just need to get some more tank badges.

Not sure if I should clear coat it or not. Right now, I'm just giving it a generous wipe of wd40 every time I park it in the garage.

d) had to modify the way I mounted the mufflers, so the pipe wrap had to go. I think this goes better with the new look on the tank, so I probably won't replace it.

e) I've been working on a cowl cover for the back of the seat. Not sure if I'm going to use it or not. I have a little bit of more work to do on it and I'll try to put some pictures up to see what you guys think of it.

All that's left for right now are some rear sets and new rear shocks.

[jsullivan]

Looks good! That's a clever trick with the tank... I contemplated buying one of those seats, but decided to have a go at making my own. Did you have any interference with those mufflers and your brake lever?

[Player B]

Originally Posted by jsullivan

Did you have any interference with those mufflers and your brake lever?

The fit is definitely tight. About a hairs with between the two. I'm sure they touch a little bit during vibration. Haven't had any problems with it though.

[Kunst]

Looking really tasty. Fair balls having a go at the tank like that! Reminds me of the 'cafe racer dreams' 2-tone tanks.

Any chance of a few close ups of your seat bracket, and how it fits on the frame? Is the seat the same with as the sub frame or would it drop in there?

[Player B]

Originally Posted by Kunst

Reminds me of the 'cafe racer dreams' 2-tone tanks.

The bikes from CRD are the inspiration for tank. Always liked the way they looked, and I think it helps slim down the bike.

Originally Posted by Kunst

Any chance of a few close ups of your seat bracket, and how it fits on the frame? Is the seat the same with as the sub frame or would it drop in there?

I don't have any pics of the seat area right now, but I'll be sure to snap a few this week if I can. Unfortunately, the seat and subframe are the same width. I was hoping to be able hang the edge of the seat over the horizontal tubes of the subframe, but they won't fit over. I tried to match the lines as best I could. Its not perfect, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I had to find a medium between the lines of the subframe, and a comfortable angle for the seat.

I've given some thought to fabricating a new subframe, but I figured it could wait as I take care of some other stuff. I've had a bunch of people ask how long it took me to "finish" the bike. I just laugh saying that I don't think it will every be "finished", but it is rideable...

[Player B]

Couple new pictures to show (no, I totally forgot to get some more detailed pics of how the seat is mounted to the sub frame )

Ordered some new badges from San Jose BMW. The oldschool motosport ones. Really nice quality. Also finished up a little cowl cover for the seat. I cut out part of the original seat unit so I could keep the roundel and model designation emblems. Then gave it the same finish that the tank got.

[ignatz72]

As much as it pains me to say it (I'm a stock-wiring-loom-color-scheme-as-BMW-intended purist), I like this bike.

If it were my project, I'd next black out the engine and possible add some trick shocks for the rear (with reservoir, comp/rebound adjustments).

But I wouldn't be ashamed to sit on that one as it is, nice work.

[Player B]

Originally Posted by ignatz72

As much as it pains me to say it (I'm a stock-wiring-loom-color-scheme-as-BMW-intended purist), I like this bike.

If it were my project, I'd next black out the engine and possible add some trick shocks for the rear (with reservoir, comp/rebound adjustments).

But I wouldn't be ashamed to sit on that one as it is, nice work.

Thanks ignatz! I've had a blast working on the bike. This is my first real project. I've had a lot of inspiration from the other builds on Old's Cool, especially Miob's build (as i'm sure many other have as well). As you can tell, I'm not much of a as BMW purist myself, but tend to really enjoy taking a project and throwing my own spin on to it.

New rear shocks are on the shortlist of mods that I'd like to add soon. I just started looking into them, and it appears that I'll need to save up a little more. Wasn't quite prepared for the cost of a good pair (almost as much as I spent to purchase the bike), and I'd rather save up for some good ones, than buy a cheaper pair just to put them on there.

Other than that I'm looking to put on some rearsets and a machined upper triple clamp. I'm torn between just purchasing the rearsets from Boxer Metal or having a go at making my own. Some time this winter I'm going to tear her down and clean up the frame by cutting off the extra tabs and refinishing it. Also going to paint or powder coat the wheels. Probably give the engine a coat while I'm at it too.