|
More like "what did you do this week", but: ✅ new tires ✅ bled brake / new brake fluid ✅ rebuilt front forks ✅ rebuilt carbs ✅ sync'd carbs ✅ replaced cracked/loose handlebar bushings ✅ shimmed a loose grip ✅ replaced the missing exhaust gaskets, exhaust studs, and assorted exhaust hardware that the PO took off(?)  Today was the day this bike finally became rideable and it all paid off. Still needs to be rejetted for 6kft but it really purrs now. EDIT: It's a 1997 CB750V Nighthawk that I rescued from some idiot
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2019 06:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 00:39 |
|
|
Ulf posted:More like "what did you do this week", but: ✅ stainless brake line ✅ adjusted pilot jet for my altitude ✅ iridium plugs ✅ 1600-mile IBA ride I've got a centerstand coming, and I guess I should rejet the rest of the carb, but after that I'm running out of ideas short of something drastic like new rings (probably won't bother). As you can see from the above I'm hitting the point of diminishing returns on fixing things. I guess every project has to be done someday.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2019 04:30
|
|
|
My (new to me) '97 Nighthawk has a master link chain. I'd be suspicious but the chain's at something like 80% of the way to the wear indicator so I think I'm good at this point. Today I put on an OEM "main stand" (center stand). It sticks out a bit far on the left because there's supposed to be exhaust on both sides. I had to bodge my own bump stop to keep it from swinging up to the chain too (it's supposed to be stopped by the left-side exhaust). Just one more reason to keep an eye out for an OEM exhaust and trade out this Yoshi 4-to-1 for it.   I also put new plexiglass on the fairing. No idea why it took Rifle two months to ship it to me. Now I can stick on all the Iron Butt stickers I've been saving up.  
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2019 02:04
|
|
|
Yep, I meant clip. I'm used to bicycles where "master link" is the term they use for the clip assembly, maybe it's different in motorcycles.mewse posted:That 4-into-1 seems good unless it's stupid loud - maybe replace the can rather than go stock? Must be a way to adapt the center stand without going dual exhaust The biggest problem right now is that the spring for the centerstand stretches against it and I'm worried it could cause a problem some day. I got the centerstand so that I could do chain maintenance / fix flats during long rides. Seems all right so far though, and maybe I can bend something out of the way.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2019 04:15
|
|
|
For some stupid reason I got the itch to open up my Nighthawk 750 and bleed the hydraulic tappets (since I'd never seen one, and thought it might clear up a ticking that I am imagining I can hear). I've spent the last day and a half pulling out the camshafts, checking out the rockers, bleeding tappets, cursing at the cam chain and timing marks, freaking out when the engine stopped turning (turns out the cam chain loves to bind up in the bottom end), and finally buttoning it all up and starting the engine with some trepidation. The engine runs fine (but the ticking is still there  ).I actually had a reason to be in there to replace the seal on the valve cover, but could have done only that with a lot less blood and angst. I learned a lot and can't say I totally regret the experience. One technical question: I didn't see a way to line up the firing order with the crank rotation (since each cylinder only needs to fire on every other crank rotation). Do the coils just fire on every rotation (that is to say, do they fire an extra spark at the end of the exhaust stroke?) EDIT: I always forget to get pics of these things in progress but enjoy a pic of my camshafts: 
Ulf fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Sep 9, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2019 04:07
|
|
|
I changed the 15T drive sprocket to 16T. On Thursday I'm kicking off a 2200-mile road trip to California and back.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2019 19:55
|
|
|
On the nighthawk. The Zero only has level 2 charging so longer road trips take a bit long (you spend 50% of the time charging), plus there’s a charger gap in the UT/NV/AZ area.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2019 14:13
|
|
|
Not sure about dirt bikes but with street bikes a lot of the wiring harness hookups live in the light bucket. It’s possible something got pulled loose? If it doesn’t start tomorrow then grab your multimeter and head to the questions thread I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2019 02:08
|
|
|
A few months ago I took the nighthawk for a ride, and on a certain stretch of road I felt a little wobble... Then a few miles later, during a turn, I felt a shift... I had an idea, I pulled over and sure enough, I hadn't torqued the axle down after adjusting the chain. Nut was still there, but finger tight. Oof. I gingerly got it home, torqued everything down, and headed back out to my original destination. At the same stretch of road I felt the same wobble (asphalt there is a little wiggly), and in the same turn I felt the same shift (this bike's a mess), I guess it was all unrelated and the voice in the back of my head managed to save me anyway. EDIT: A shameful page snipe.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2019 05:48
|
|
|
It's too cold to enjoy working on my bikes here but I did put a denali soundbomb compact on the Nighthawk last weekend. https://ulfheim.net/pics/bieks/soundbomb.mp4 This thing is a brick, do not expect it to fit on your bikes. Ulf fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 20, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2020 22:46
|
|
|
One of the handlebar risers on my beater Nighthawk has always been a bit loose, giving the bar a little more wiggle than it should have. I changed out the rubber cushions in it last year but no joy. The bike was crashed at least once before I bought it so I thought maybe the post stretched then, or it had rounded out the hole in the upper triple or something. I finally decided to fix this once and for all so I found someone selling an upper triple + risers for $20, bought it and started swapping parts from easiest to hardest. Turns out that swapping the riser and its hardware fixed it. Looking at the post it doesn’t seem stretched, but the nut on it bottoms out (by design) and maybe the threads in that nut were giving way. Or maybe it was always out of spec, Honda built these bikes cheap. In the end it’s fixed and holding a turn feels a lot more solid. Edit: riser probably isn’t the right word. Whatever it is that attaches bars to the triple tree. Handlebar clamp?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2020 22:35
|
|
|
Bonus post: I repainted my ignition lettering and popped the scratched-up Honda logo out, sanded it up nice and shiny, clear coated and glued it back on. It’s the little things like this that I notice every ride. 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2020 22:43
|
|
|
I keep trying to turn it to “Lipo” but it won’t go. Just like the transmission won’t shift into 6th. Told you it was a beater.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2020 03:33
|
|
|
Today I played a hunch and finally fixed the valvetrain ticking that's been worrying me the past year that I've had this bike. Here are the 8 crush gaskets that I pulled off my i4 engine:  Turns out it was an exhaust leak all along caused by re-using/stacking gaskets, thanks PO!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2020 01:58
|
|
|
The OEM exhaust on these bikes has a self-centering clamp over each header but this aftermarket exhaust does not. Since the headers aren’t lined up perfectly they leave the gaskets a little uneven and ripply, and the two layers were just making that worse. Starting the fresh gaskets flush against the block has let me get a proper seal I think. Edit: tell me more about olive oil... I use axle grease to hold these in place while I line up the headers, same deal? Ulf fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Mar 26, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2020 03:33
|
|
|
The best thing about bikes is how easy they are to work on. Unless you've got too many fairings or have one of those bikes built by tiny elf hands I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2020 02:48
|
|
|
One of the maintenance tasks on my engine is draining the "snot tube" (airbox catch tube). Air-cooled engines have a lot of blowby and you need to empty it out every few thousand miles. I don't really have a fixed schedule for this, I just keep an eye on the translucent tube and empty it when there's an inch of crud in there. Today I realized I hadn't drained it in a while but it looked empty. I took the cap off and a liter of greasy water came pouring out. I've been through a lot of wet snowstorms and soaked roads this winter so I guess it filled the airbox with water. There doesn't seem to be any rust on the re-usable filter so I don't think it rose to that level, I've now serviced the filter and no damage done I guess. EDIT: My biggest regret today is not having video footage of this thing draining. It was like an r/popping vid. Ulf fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Apr 6, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2020 00:45
|
|
|
goddamnedtwisto posted:Wouldn't that tube normally be set up to drip stuff out somewhere safe? On the Shiver there was a little tube that ran from the bottom of the airbox out to a little bracket just behind and below the horn, is there a reason why that wouldn't be common? Or is it something I needed to manually open up somehow?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2020 02:36
|
|
|
Renaissance Robot posted:Uncapped mine last night and had a bunch of gross watery oil fall out. Kinda weird but only one sploot, maybe 25-50ml, nothing close to a litre (I've never done this in the two years I've had it). Usually I get about 5-10ml of oil per thousand miles, thanks to this sloppy engine. Having a liter of water was completely unexpected, not sure if it was the 100 miles in a wet blizzard, or the 600 miles of post-blizzard roads that did it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2020 18:49
|
|
|
Ah, it’s so nice to be able to work in open air again without gloves or pain. Got a lot done today:
The sensor hasn’t worked in a year, the bike still starts in neutral but I figured I’d finally take Slavvy’s advice and disable it entirely. For now I’ve just got them jumpered together with some spare wire but it’s a little janky. I don’t like doing anything irreversible on wiring so I just want thinner wire I think.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2020 03:17
|
|
|
Surely those were ironic skulls. The last few days I’ve had some new rear shocks from Progressive on my Nighthawk, and they were stiff as hell and made it feel like a hardtail. Sitting on it I was getting nowhere near the target sag. Last night I got a few minutes to look into it and figured it out. The original shocks have mounts top/bottom that are centered on the shock itself, but the replacements have the lower mount offset so that you can work around figment issues by spinning it 180deg to flip the offset from one side to another. By choosing the orientation that I did I created a situation like this (seen from rear): pre:/ \ I flipped the offsets and the suspension became a lot more parallel, and while I still can’t hit the target sag it’s a lot better.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2020 20:51
|
|
|
Coydog posted:Actually received an order of what I was certain were No Longer Available parts and tools. Going to have to mine hord for more now. Today I took the wheels off my Zero. Then I took the wheels to a dealership, found out they actually didn't have Road 5s in stock, took the wheels back home and put them back on. I'd be miffed but this is the first time I've had the bike fully in the air so it was good to get that out of the way. The USD forks are uneven and not easily liftable, so the winning solution was a paddock stand in back and a scissor lift under the front edge of the battery. There was a little worry that might crush the L1 charger pan but apparently people do this lift all the time.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2020 02:03
|
|
|
There’s such a thing as fork oil? We’re not supposed to just use ATF?
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2020 01:49
|
|
|
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2020 02:11
|
|
|
Cafe conversion joke goes here. I too am jealous and lustful.
|
|
#
¿
May 26, 2020 22:43
|
|
|
How many farkles will it fit?
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2020 14:49
|
|
|
I put some aftermarket highway pegs on the Dadhawk and took it out to Creede, CO for a day.   I stayed masked up, don't @ me.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2020 21:52
|
|
|
Just checked my logs, bought it one year / 12k miles ago. Still ugly and a bit beat up but it’s really grown on me. Today I sprayed out and relubed the turn signal switch, surprising difference.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2020 00:55
|
|
|
Same month as the rear tire on the dadhawk when I got it last year. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2020 23:27
|
|
|
Speaking of lube... My bike’s 25 years old now and getting a bit crusty. Last week I lubed the turn signal switch by packing the mechanism with dielectric grease and it made such a difference in improving the feel and working of it that I went over the bike trying everything else I could think of.
Yes it is ridiculous to grease your sidestand. Yes you will notice the difference.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 21, 2020 03:48
|
|
|
I use ATF. Will I regret that? 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2020 01:44
|
|
|
It’s the ‘97 Nighthawk, aka a bored-out ‘80s-designed CB650 with all the components swapped out for the cheapest thing in the parts bin. Guess I’m not missing much but I’ll put proper oil in it next time.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2020 02:19
|
|
|
I don't mind my gas bike being a bit ugly and beat up, in fact I kind of like it that way. But I ride through a lot of weather and the golding of the exhaust was starting to stand out to me. Today I polished them up and got them back to silver. Other than some stains on the stainless they're back to original as far as I care. Here's a before/after shot:  Unfortunately my phone doesn't pick up the difference hardly at all, it seems like it's doing some color processing that's making them look a lot more colorful than the naked eye sees.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2020 02:25
|
|
|
The first thing I did was unfuck the rear suspension on my Nighthawk. A month or two I replaced the stock suspension with some Progressive shocks and springs. I couldn't reach the target sag, and the ride was really harsh. I eventually figured it out, for whatever reason instead of putting the eyes on coaxial with the shock:code:code:The second thing I did was replace the kickstand pad that someone stole off the bike a year ago: 
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2020 21:19
|
|
|
 On the left, Progressive 412-4211s. On the right, an original Showa. It would work if the bike also had the eyes offset. I'm guessing this is some all-in-one solution to fit some more popular bike than mine. EDIT: Searching for "progressive 412 offset" shows a lot of people with the same problem, and this pdf: https://www.progressivesuspension.com/assets/files/PDF-Metric/3080-002-Instr-412-Cruiser.pdf quote:Offset lower eye may be rotated in or out to gain clearance where required. This can be used to gain clearance for the lower cover, if this does not work, removal of the lower cover may be necessary. I guess it's intentional to fit their blingy spring covers on everyone's café projects. EDIT2: I forgot the most important part, which is never give Progressive Suspension your money. Ulf fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Sep 20, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2020 22:41
|
|
|
Agreed, no regrets on my Cyclops 10k either. Works fine with the original reflector and everything.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2020 05:16
|
|
|
Today I had to layer dan, somewhere between Deckers, CO and Sedalia. It's a nice day in Denver so I went out for a long ride, and as usual I got the stupid idea that since things were nice down on the plains, and since it hadn't snowed for a week in the mountains, I could loop through the Rockies without problem. I brought all my heated gear, what could go wrong? The ride was great (for locals: Perry Park, Palmer Lake, Black Forest, Woodland Park, Deckers) but in the last half hour I hit the problem, which is the last bit home from Deckers. Riding to Deckers is painting yourself into a corner, because there's two long ways home and one short way, but that short way is sketchy. It has a 8,000ft summit which is no problem, but the road is unpaved and I wasn't sure how shaded it would be. "What the hell", I tell myself all day, "I'm sure it'll be fine". First pic is where the road ends, and I see that there's still some ice and snow on the road:  Here's where I turned around, about a mile from the summit but the bike just couldn't make it. This was right after I lost the front and dropped the bike, no pics of that because it was pouring gas through the carbs:  And here's a pic after I got off that road and gave up (taking one of the long ways home), nice view of a burn scar and the last sunlight for the day:  It looks like I got away with it today, I dropped it on ice/snow/clay so no damage other than losing a pint of gas in the snow.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 7, 2020 02:14
|
|
|
SEKCobra posted:How did the gas get out? Did you jank off a fuel line or something?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2020 16:58
|
|
|
Changed the oil on my Nighthawk 750 and thought to clean and re-oil the air filter. Here's 12,000 miles of the western US  
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2021 00:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 00:39 |
|
|
I just realized the crush washer on that bike has been re-used for 30,000 miles. It's past time I got a pack of those.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2021 01:01
|
|