Intermezzo

I've been very busy with my study the last couple of weeks and the next 4 weeks or so are going to be even worse. This means: no bike building, so no updates. In he mean time, check out this very nice blog:

520 chain cafe

Or get some inspiration from this:

Been to a swapmeet

Vehikel was in town again. Less sellers and even higher prices than last time. Some really interesting stuff to see though. I didn't bring my camera and I'll spare you from looking at my cell phone photo's. For a photo impression it's better to have a look at bubble visor's blog:

bubble visor

I did manage to find some useful stuff though. Found a starter solenoid and starter button for the Virago and hand grips and a headlight for the CB750. 

Exhausting

The CB has a big problem: The front fender can hit the exhaust when rinding over a bump or braking. I can tell you: It's pretty hard to kepe the shiny side up when it does that. So things needed to be changed. At first I planned on buying a 'new' exhaust, like this one:

But it seems people want money for stuff like that and I don't like to spend money when I don't have to. So I decided to take a piece out of the exhaust that came with the bike. So I started measuring

and cutting

and welding. The fender just stays clear of the exhaust now. 

This is under braking, you can see the front and the exhaust going really low, but not touching anything. Now I need to recondition the forks, there's so much oil coming past the seals that even BP would be embarrassed. Another for somewhere in the near future: Try to lose a few decibels in the exhaust. Sounds great though, like half of this province will have heard ;)

Making friends with the neighbours

Or maybe not.... Modified one of the Virago's mufflers to look and sound cool on the CB. Certainly sounds cool enough now. And everybody in a large radius around my garden can probably give you an opinion about the sounds. Not too sure they'll all be very positive though....

Been riding, again

For a whole 5 meters or so :D. This time not on the cb, but on the XV. It was a short ride, we had some trouble with the carb, in the end it turned on of the vacuum hoses had come off. But hey, it runs! And the idling sounds is incredible. Some cool fireworks too!

Don't forget to watch it till the last second ;)

I've been riding

On the CB that is. Removed the top fairing + bracket, adjusted the clip ons and kicked it too life. I only did a couple of hundred meters, just to check the gearbox. The chain is still too long (too loose) and I ran straight into a problem. I already was afraid it would happen (or better put: I knew it would happen): The front dives under braking, the front wheel gets closer to the frame and gets stuck in between the exhaust pipes. Bummer. I want to keep the front this low, So I'll think I'll mount the CB750 forks that came with the triple tree, make them a little shorter and beef 'm up.

I just love the aggressive stance with the low front:

But I also managed to get a new research for my study. I'm really excited about the subject, but it also means I'll have to work really hard the next 6 weeks. There won't be many updates on this site, sorry. The good news is: We'll be working on the Virago again tonight.

Back on two wheels

Received the necessary parts yesterday, finally. Took a break from studying and put the forks back on the bike. The difference is instantly noticeable: It's so much smoother with the new bearings. Also raised the back of the fairing a bit. On one hand it looks better, it's nicely in line with the bottom of the tank. On the other hand: I can only do this by putting the fairing on top of the fairing frame, that'll be visible.  I can live with that, but worse is that I'll have to raise the clip ons even further up than on this photo. I'm not so sure I can live with that. It'll lessen the 'sportiness' of the bike and I don't think it'll look very good.

hmmm.

Virago update

It's been a while, I know, but we finally found some time again to work on the Virago while the CB 750 is still sitting in the backyard, waiting for parts.

Last time the bike wouldn't start, the starter motor just wouldn't turn over. We figured out it had to be the starter relais, so this time I brought a new one. I hooked it up while the bike was sitting in on the work table and hit the starter button: It worked. So after quite a bit of effort we had the bike of the table and outside so we wouldn't fill the shed with exhaust fumes and tried to start it. You guessed it right: Nothing. Just a ticking sound from the relais. It took us a pretty long time to figure out what the problem was: The side stand is too long, so we use a block of wood under the forward controls to park the bike. It turns out that the weight of the bike slightly rotates the forward controls causing the bracket for the brake pump on the forward controls to short circuit the wire to the starter motor... Anyway: It starts and it runs. We need to fine tune the carb, but this is enough for now. Next time we'll start on making a new wiring loom.

Trainwreck

Replaced the intake rubbers last night. No wonder it wasn't running properly, the old ones were installed incorrectly and that had damaged them. With the new ones the engine is running a lot better.

So this morning I started working on the steering bearings. D*mn what a mess... At least half of the ball bearings were missing at the lower bearings, a few at the top. The lock nut was missing at the top and where the locknut was supposed to be the thread was damaged. The bottom of the pin was damaged too because of the missing ball bearings. On top of that the pin turned out to be to short, so I'll have to find a new one somewhere. Unbelievable. This guy should get a restraining order to never ever get any closer that 50 meters from a toolbox. Pretty sure he rode it this way....

The idiot.

yay or nay?

Started this morning by loosely fitting the fairing.

Had to make an all new frame for it

and a few hours later:

Still some work to do and not entirely convinced it looks all that much better than without the fairing.

Was he serious?

And he is the previous owner. I wanted to replace the worn brake line in one of the pictures in the previous post, but ended up replacing the whole front brake. And don't forget that he thought it would be fine to ride the bike without the rear brake installed.

Before I started:

This is one of only two bolds holding the brakes in place. It's supposed to be held in place by 4 and this one wasn't tightened correctly, it was bend and as you can barely make out in the photo: about to shear off. Incredible....

This is the reservoir cap. All the missing pieces of rubber are in the brake lines somewhere. So I replaced all the brake lines.

Had a 'new' brake cylinder and new blocks at hand.

One of my better investments:

And the end result. The bike is a lot lighter to push and the brake handle a lot stiffer.

Not entirely happy with how the brake lines are running now, but I'll first need to find some clip ons before I can sort it out.

Priority list

I'm trying to get the CB on the road before I do any (possibly unnecessary) more work. So I made a to do list.

The carbs... I cleaned them and now it's running on all 4 every time I start, but it's also running way too high and the rpm's don't drop fast enough. I need new intakes (ordered) and new air filters (still need to find those)

The Brakes: Well, this brake line obviously isn't too safe anymore. To make it worse a few nuts and bolds are missing form the front brake and the rear brakes isn't hooked up at all! I've already got new brake lines, but I'll have to find the link rod of the rear brake. The previous owner thought it would be better to leave that out and use the space for the exhaust....

The electrics. It starts, but kick only. And that's all the electrics that work. No lights, no horn and no idiot lights. Especially the latter might be wise for me to have ;)

The exhaust. It ain't pretty, but it'll work for now. I need 4 clamps though. I'll be looking for a 4 into 2 exhaust in the meantime.

The only thing I really need to do that's not in the photo's are the steering bearings. Already ordered those. It's a job I really don't like doing, but it's also really necessary.

 

That's all I found so far. Could have been a lot worse :)