Sunday, 4 March 2012

The Braking ability

Been a while... been out of action with work, rain, and lack of folding stuff.  CeeBee, however, has shiny new Venhill braided brake lines, rebuilt calipers, new fluid and ultimately, front brakes that work!  After a good hour of pumping and bleeding air out of the new lines with the brother in law, CeeBee can now stop. 

 Damn funny really.  I have absolutely no experience with how older bikes feel, and, now that she's got brakes, I'm realising just how powerfull modern sportsbike brakes really are!  Even though there seems to be good bite, the lever on the ol' girl, comes quite a ways in toward the 'bars.  It'll take some getting used to :)

Apart from the brakes, B.I.L.(brother in law) and I have tidied up the electrics, wiring up the new headlight and indicator controls, generally tidying up, all in readiness for my new headlight and digital speedo.

Speedo & tacho will be Acewell 2853AB Digital,

 and a nice tidy 7" light from the boys at http://www.dimecitycycles.com

The bike came with a 4-1 'zorst, and a supertrapp end can.  Typical of old things, a quick wire brush and she looks like new! - Pitty the same couldnt' be said about the headers, all banged and bruised from years being riding round a farm!

Just look at what 5 minutes and some polish can do to 33 year old paint! Amazing!!
"Devil spawn" as named by some forum users, the Auto fuel cutoff valve has been junked as it had some vacuum presure issues.  And.. now the bike is somewhat lighter also.

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

The Front guard

Wow, I'm still on cloud nine knowing that the old girl runs, and so far... seems to run nice!
I have been feeling in a 'hacking' mood, so got to with the dremel and chopped the frong guard down.  Looks goodly me thinks.  A bit of a sandblast, panel beat, and lick of black paint, and she'll be sweeter than a bag of sunburst jubes.


Dieing to get the headlight and wiring sorted, so I can tidy up the front end.  Ordered a reproduction front brake master cylinder yesterday... for $50AU including lever and all! :) Awesome.  Hope its good.
Next thing is to pull down the front brake calipers and rebuild them.  I have the parts, just need to do it. :)  Hoping that its not too hard. 

Then somehow... I need to earn some more money so I can get a chain and sprockets, change the oil and then time for a test ride at the local carpark!

Sunday, 22 January 2012

The First Breath!

All wired up again... a check of the oil, a drop of gas, a few extra volts in the battery, thanks to an uber car charger, and much winding of the starter,  she dribbled into life! 


All my excitement was quickly overshadowed by D's applauding entry to the shed, quickly followed by "umm... you'd better kill it... there's um... a lot of ... umm... FUEL LEAKING OUT OF IT!"  heheheh... sticky float syndrome..

A few well placed wacks of the offiending carb, with the handle of a hammer, and voila! She started to free up.  Though there seems to be a leaky float screw, (easy fix ... I hope), which is still causing some leakage... I'm sure i'll be able to get it fixed up easily enough.

Can't wait to get things tidied up some more and get the headlight etc sorted... and put a chain on it, to have a paddock ride :)
PS.  After removing all the standard rubbish that got stripped... the bike is infinately easier to push around!  Seems its been reduced in weight by like 20 kg! hehehehe.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

The Build up - Part... umm... lost count

It seems like I only get 10 mins here and there to work on the steed.  It urks me how 'life' constantly gets in the way of what really matters.... building my motorcycle!
I finally got the right fork polished up.  There's still some 'staining' but I have no idea how to polish it out... it just won't budge!  Must just be some discolouration in the alloy.  When I get the forks rebuilt after my first ride, I'll get the boys to wack the forks over the buffer and see if they can clean it up more.
Below a quick mock up.  She's taking shape!


 I think I have finally decided to do the tank black.  Wahoo!  A decision!  (bet I change my mind next week! hehehehe)  I love the idea of the tank gloss black up top, the white horizontal line, and matt black underneath to hide the shape of the bottom of the tank.  That, and my other realisation, that the wheels should be polished.  The red tank makes it a little difficult to visualise, but the other photos below, give you a better idea...Think it'll look better than Kate Beckinsale on the red carpet...and thats sayin' somethin'. :)


 Damn, those 'Bars look bad ass.  Can't wait to get my new LHS switch, clutch lever and head light from the boys at 'Dime City Cycles' in the US.  These guys are the best at doing CB450 Cafe's... my next project.

 See!  I told you its easier to imagine the black tank!  Hmm... come to think of it... wonder what the wheels would look like sandblasted... That could look cool!

 Finally have thrown the wiring harness in.... now to re-route and tidy up.  Have to wait till I get my new head light first though..... otherwise could stuff it up!  As Dad always taught me... "Measure twice, cut once!".


Check out my nifty little indicators, as used by the boys at 'Wrench Monkees'.  The little alloy bodied 'winkers' as they are known as in Europe, are just sexy.  Took me around 2 hours to drill out the frame lug, and modify the fixing nuts to grind them down to fit inside the frame tube.  But damn.. they look hot!  

Onwards and upwards, on to making brakets for the front indicators.  I want them fixed to the lower triple tree fork bolt.  Bit more minor fabrication coming up!

Sunday, 25 December 2011

The Colour Scheme

I keep changing my mind... Luckily, with the aid of photo editing software, I have come up with a few colour schemes.  The sport blue is still my favourite.  Though it is so hard to choose!! :)
I have polished the forks, and am yet to get exhaust, tank and wheels painted... but progress is happening!




Saturday, 24 December 2011

The Build up - Part 1

Christmas Eve, a bottle of Dimple Scotch, and a Brother in law... equals a very funny & greasy build up! Its amazing how long it can take to clean out a bolt hole that is full of soda from the blaster!  hehehe, Educated thought did prevail, and a combination of a vacuum and WD40 blasted that rubbish out! :)
 I was going to clean up the OEM shocks, and put double bump stops on them, but, alas, my travel reduction plan was thworted by the new undertail.  Damnit.  New longer shocks need to be purchased ASAP.
Hmm... hang on, maybe I can lengthen the mount on the shock body. 

 Of Course, due to an overzealous desire to 'finish' it, handle bars were installed well ahead of schedule!  The Pro Taper's look just right :)

 Installing my newly rebuilt carbs, was a particularly funny and difficult thing to do, with two guys being weakend by scotch!  Be-gone airbox!  The pod filters look awesome :)

Check out the side covers! A set of stainless/alloy allen bolts will be used for the side covers ... will look very flat tracker.
It looks so awesome, what a xmas present !  I am one lucky husband :)

The Pick Up

24 December 2011 - Pick up of the final pieces of my frame from the boys at 'Simca' Crash Repair.  Simon and his team have gone above and beyond to get my frame altered, blasted and painted before xmas, so I can be like every other customer, and be demanding and want everything in five minutes.  :)

They fabricated my side covers, rear hoop and undertail in fine form, exactly how I wanted! I couldn't be happier with the work they did, interpreting my photoshopped images, and very ordinary sketches :)
Anyways, proof as they say is in the pudding.  See below!


Monday, 12 December 2011

The Engine Clean

Finally, got my engine back from the Soda blaster guy.  He did a great job cleaning up the engine, ridding it of all that tacky black paint and years of road grime.  All metal nice and clean again. :)
So, together with my shiney newly rebuilt carbs I got from the guys at Chappell Customs in the US, http://chappellcustoms.com/  I'll start putting it back together and in the frame in the next week or so when I get the frame back from the paint shop.


 The flash makes it all look amazing!  Pitty it really has that dark 'staining' in the metal... but looks fine for now , till I can afford to get the engine rebuilt.


Tuesday, 29 November 2011

The Quick Steel

Problem: Cracked headlight bucket.  Solution?: 'Cargo QuickSteel' plastic repair compound ... YEA YEA!  So far, its an unbelievable product.  Cut off a piece, need it in your fingers till it gets nice and hot, stick it down and mould it quick as you can... leave over night.  BOOM!  Hard as a rock and ready to grind and sand.  Yes... grind.  They don't call it 'Quick Steel' for nothing!
 We'll see how well it holds up after painting and drilling....and miles of vibration. Hmmmm I'm skeptical.
Lucky for me, the chrome surround cleaned up nicely with some steel wool, and once I polish it, she'll sparkle like new.  So, off to the local Auto barn to get some plastic primer ready for a few coats of satin black.





Other updates.  Finally I got out of my work chair, and took my frame to the guys lucky enough to take on the minor mods to the rear of the subframe, blast clean, paint, and fabricate my new side panels.
  Hopefully, they will look a little like this bike below.  Cool. :)
The engine is off getting 'Soda Blasted' nice and clean ready to plop back into the newly painted frame. :) Can't wait to see it.  
Should look like the SOHC one the guy just completed a couple of weeks ago.  Nice, understated finish.




To be continued....

Monday, 21 November 2011

Well, it has been a while, as life has got in the way of prepping my frame etc.  I hope to get the frame off to the guys to do my welding and paint job end of this week.  In the mean time, a bit of bling to keep my interest sparked.   A shiny new set of Pro Taper 7/8th "Carmichael" bend bars, and matching 'Rock Star' Grips.  

The bars are nice and low, and practially straight.  Should look very aggresive on the CeeBee. :)  
Not sure ... if I'll use the cross bar, or not.  Either way, the cross bar pad will be coming off... thats just a little tooooo much MotoX for me... :)