The First MotoCRAFT Thursday was a success. Ty broke down and ground up the cb400f. Ryan Removed his fender and i installed his light converter (It was not my best work). I put on my blue jewel tail light and ryan his. i rebuilt my gauges and flattened the bracket. So fun.
so, it took me a bit longer then i wanted it to. but my bike is finally where i wanted to get it. all thats left is a few details. Now its time to focus on my cb500/650.
ty’s 400f is now a basket case. fucking airbox wont come out.
www.tyarlo.wordpress.com
i kinda hate bar end mirrors so i mounted my stockers back up, only problem is my new master cylinder didnt have a mirror mount. so i got a $6 emgo mirror pirch and milled it to fit the back of my master.
could have just ordered this one for $20, but what is the fun in that.
my new set up let me cut another 1/2 inch from my bars. the shorter they are the more comfortable they are on my wrists. and the steering gets way more responsive. and i like the harrower look. look more and acts more like clip-ons. see ryans cb750 bars, seem so wide to me now. but that seems to work for 750’s. they feel big and not at all nimble. my bike feels like a lot more responsive in its breaking and handling. though ryans bike is FAST. seems like it should hit its factory top speed of 120mph no prob. takes a football field to stop it though. There is a lot weight difference in the (now) 390lb “Sport-touring” cb550 and the 518lb “Touring” cb750. that -128lbs adds a lot hot handling action.
Seat.
my seat and tank met in a slope like way. making the profile of my bike kind of insect abdomen like.
i didnt really dig that. i wanted to lower the back end to flatten out the lines in the profile. but the lower the back, the sloppier the ride. so i changed the angle of my seat mounting instead.
looks way better. just had to grind the one of original bolt off the seat, move the cock/balls latch on its new bracket, and open the frame hinge for the new forward position of the seat.
sure, now the chrome strips dont line up. but that is cool. the chrome stip is on its way out anyways.
got my cb500t tank stripped (man, i hate finding bondo under the finish). but now i have to move the bung. bung and petcock, what the hell were they thinking when they named this shit.
that bung is moving north 3″ to the X. Actually i am having a new bung put in and the old one capped. just have to get a petcock to the welder so they can find a bung that fits. what a mess.
i guess its not that hard. people dumber then i am can do it, why not me. regardless, i did it. New braided line (balck line, black bango), rebuilt the caliper (piston was in fine shape, new brake pads, andnew master Nissin cylinder. the adjustable break lever is worth it alone.
and i figured while i had it all apart i would strip and polish the caliper:
blowing fuses… installed modern fuse block… bla bla bla cb550 bla bla bla…
It was made apparent to me that my family had been talking for about a year about giving my my grandfathers 1965 Harley Panhead. Holy shit! this bike is all i remember of him. funny that its mine now. who would have thought i would own a Harley, let alone a rare vintage one.
needs a bit of work. new wiring harness. but that should be it. has 0 miles on a rebuilt engine. My grandfather had it rebuilt in 1996 then he died in 1997. never even started it. i hadn’t seen him for 10 years before that.
note: its the red one in front. the purple one next to it is a 1962 and next to that is a 1969.
Shouldn’t be too hard to get it back to this:
modern master cylinder for better push. looks pretty cool too. and new custom steal brake lines getting ordered this week from http://www.spieglerusa.com/
black steal and black banjos.
fins are on. more coming. i need to paint my engine at some point too.
