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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:
If you have a compressor, tubeless are easier. You don't have to fight the tube ( I tend to run the heavy duty tubes which a step below a bib mousse  ) and the process goes much faster as a result. Getting the bead to catch can be a bitch sometimes, the rear tire on the K75 I had was a strumpet.Generally though, if you are having a lot of trouble with tires you're doing it wrong. I use a pair of 8" hand irons and a Irwin speed clamp....and the Walmart store brand "personal lubricant" as a lube. I don't know if Asstroglide would be any better and I sure wouldn't know which side to put the KY his and hers lube on, I'm guessing I'd put the his on the rim and the hers on the tire. It works for me, it's cheap and it doesn't react with rubber.
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Oct 23, 2009 02:40
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 11:52 |
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I'm glad that I have more modern bikes, but I do loves me some old bikes. This is my present pre 1980 bike- 1978 Kawasaki KZ1000 Z1R.   This bike is going to transform over the winter into a ELR cafe bike. At least that 's the color scheme I'm going with. I'm likely going to remove most of the bodywork and substitute cafe style parts. After seeing what Z1R parts fetch on ebay, I may sell the Z1R stuff, which would bring in close to the $500 I paid for it. Is it right to do that to a Z1R I could concievably restore? Maybe not, but I don't plan to do anything permanent to the frame and the next guy can restore it if he wishes. The best part of owning and older bike is watching the reaction of the checkbook chopper owner when you ride in to a gathering and all the riders walk right past his bike to have a look at yours. He's got more money in his handlebars than you have in your whole bike and who gets the attention?  A few more random old bikes from the Alaska bike blessing back in May    Local bike legend Squeaks and his $300 KZ1000, $3400 later. It may seem like a fair amount of money, but try to buy a nice literbike for $3700 and see what you get these days.
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Oct 23, 2009 02:58
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For the bike, I think the paint is quite appropriate. 70's paint for a 70's bike. It looks to be done well and should result in one of those bikes that outshines the checkbook choppers.
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Nov 20, 2009 06:05
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Coasterphreak posted:Does anyone here know anything about Honda Trail 90s? My father bought two of them eight years ago or so, and restored one to barely working condition. It's been sitting in a shed for a few years, so it probably needs fluids changed to run again. The other one had been sitting outside before we got it, and is currently resting in pieces in our garage. My first bike was a Trail 90. It is a capable machine, it will never go very fast but will go literally anywhere. They are street legal and if they aren't too far gone, worth fixing. Parts are available and if a guy could find a Chinese knockoff motor it would be close to plug and play. If I stumble across a cheap one I plan to grab it. You'd be surprised at the money they fetch.
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Jan 1, 2010 09:42
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Some progress has been made on the KZ1000 Z1R, although the shop is getting a bit tight. I'll be kicking some bikes out for a bit, the DopeFiend is going to be there for a while, dammit! First, the bike-1978 KZ1000 Z1R, in reasonably complete but neglected condition. Step 1, a strip to the frame.  I'm not sure if the gnome is making a statement about Kawasakii or if he needs more fiber in his diet.   After working with some of my favorite strippers, I have a naked tank, ready to slap some bondo.  The time remaining is until Decmember 21st, 2012. Add a "1" to the number for a few months. Hard to believe that my shop filled up with crap so quickly, dammit! Little shop of horrors 
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Jan 4, 2010 05:24
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Progress has been made on the KZ1000. I've been stripping, sanding and filling as needed, and ended up with this Final prep. The rust remover/metal prep is a fancy brand of phosporic acid, which dissolves any leftover rust and etched the bare metal to better prepare it for priming. The 409 is to clean and degrease the plastic parts. At this stage, you should be wearing gloves to keep any skin oil off of the clean surfaces. Fish eyes are bad, mmm'kay?  First coat of primer/surfacer. After this dries for a couple of days, I'll wet sand it to a 400 grit, use some sealer and a topcoat, and clear over all of that. I plan to use Auto-Air colors and will be using the Eddie Lawson Replica as a model for the finished paint.  You have to disassemble and clean any spray gun you plan to use again immediately after use. Don't ask me how I know this. The real fun is after the clear coat. It can be hard to determine if the gun is clean all the way when the "paint" is clear and can't really be seen.  I'm using DuPont Nason branded paint. It is far better than NAPA Martin-Senour crap but the price is still reasonable. I spent $100 on primer, topcoat and clear for my FZ1 and will have plenty of the primer and clear to do the Kawi. Auto-Air paint is water based and inexpensive, although more work to use.
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Jan 23, 2010 07:17
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Dubs posted:What kind of compressor(tank size, l/m) do you use gnomad? I'd love to get a nice setup for painting/blasting/rattlegunning, but after i price it all up its just way way cheaper to get the stuff I need to do done professionally. My compressor is a 4HP 13 gallon tank. I'm actually needing an upgrade-the new gun I'm using, which is an HVLP, uses more air volume than my setup can deliver easily. It also seems to be dying on me-the motor kicked on really slowly a couple times, one time it locked up and blew the circuit breaker, I was lucky to finish up this evening. That would have pissed me off-once the paint is mixed, it has to be used as it sets up anyway. It did hold up for 10 years of hard use so I can't bitch too much. HVLP spray guns are worth the upgrade though. There is so little overspray. Siphon fed guns blow an astounding amount of your paint all over, the waste is ridiculous. I originally bought the compressor to paint a Jeep CJ7 that my son and I rebuilt and put a fiberglass body on, locally paint jobs start at $1000 and go up from there. The compressor was a couple hundred, paint gun $50, paint was $200, so it paid for itself on the first project. I guess if you don't need it done a lot, it might be better to pay someone else, and painting your own stuff is really time intensive.
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Jan 23, 2010 08:40
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I upgraded my compressor to a 33 gallon upright monster, which I promptly tried to tip over on me and the other stuff in the shop-those units are a bit top heavy, just so you know. It made painting these parts a lot less frustrating. I didn't swear once. My, what a difference!  It's the closest color I could find to the typical Team Green green sheen. Next, appropriate white and blue stripes and clear coat. Oh yeah, and I sanded through the primer on the tank, it wouldn't be a painting project if I didn't sand through on at least one piece. It's almost as much fun as sanding through the clear coat when color sanding.
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Feb 8, 2010 08:50
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  Closer to the goal. I lost a day to having to repaint the spots on the tank that I sanded through. Oh yeah, the tank-  I ran out of the lime green and have to make a run to the Big City for another bottle. Lame. The other tank is from a CB400 that is another project, I'm thinking bobber. That particular CB400 came to me free, I'm working on the title, and need an engine. I'm actually thinking of this one- http://www.pccmotor.com/lifan-200cc-5-spd-engine-motor-motorcycle-dirt-bike2005.html Pushrod 200cc single, which would make a nice little bobber thumper, and it's cheap. OTOH, it's Chinese, allegedly the Lifan is a better quality motor, but still. Gnomad fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Feb 11, 2010 |
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Feb 11, 2010 07:19
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And then I did the tank I painted the frame using POR-15 "raw metal" color, it went disasterously. Runs, drips and uneven coloration. I am not amused. I'll let it go and consider it a primer coat, POR15 is alleged to be very tough and durable, I'm going with basic black as a topcoat.
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Feb 18, 2010 04:20
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I'm not sure-the bronze does look pretty nice in there though. My engine covers are kind of bad anyway, the fins are beat down where the crash bars did their magic, they were a bit close, probably from crashing. I could file the fins down, and paint/powder coat as I see fit. Hmmmm, thanks for the idea.
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Feb 20, 2010 04:54
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This was a project bike I owned for a while, brought up becuase it's turned up for sale again and God help me I'm thinking about it. This bike-  A BSA 650 twin stuffed into a Yamaha XS500 frame, done by a fellow advrider Alaska inmate over the course of a winter as he decided to get out of the BSA scene entirely. He had one engine left, and a Yammy XS500 frame with a bad engine. Apparently, XS500's were an early Yamaha experiment with the use of balance shafts and most of them eventually coughed up the balancer through the crankcase. Tom put his leftovers together and came up with  and for the princely sum of $750 I owned me a FrankenBeezer. This was my introduction to the exaltation and despair of classic British twin ownership. First thing was paint. I thought the original paint was bit drab.  Much better. Of course I couldn't leave it alone  so I added a seat from a Harley that I found at a second hand store, one of those things you buy cuz you know you'll need it someday...
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Mar 3, 2010 04:53
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^^ I don't own this bike anymore, but it has come up on the market again. entered the FrankenBeezer in a bike show  and as it turns out, it was a prize winning show bike after all!  I did fix that oil pressure guage  and then, I redid the bike again, this time as a cafe bike  How FrankenBeezer was this bike? Well, BSA 650 twin, Yamaha frame, Kawasaki switchgear, Ducati handlebars, and I used the Ducati body parts as molds for the front fender and seat. Honda mirror and JC Whitney
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Mar 3, 2010 05:07
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Actually, that bike was registered as a 1962 BSA, using the engine serial number. The builder got a title from one of the title agencies, getting a 1962 title solves a lot of technical and paperwork issues. Getting it insured was interesting. "BSA, what kind of Harley is a BSA?"
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Mar 6, 2010 03:07
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I've been steadily working on the Z1, finally got the frame painted acceptably, installed new head bearings to replace those hateful fistfull of balls that sneak off everywhere while you try to stick them to the races with gorilla snot. I am ready to start reassembling in earnest, but figure, as long as the engine is out of the frame why not check the valves now? First I notice that when I turn the crank to T 1-4, the cam lobes don't seem to line up. Hmmmm, lets check the timing. According to the manual, which came with the bike, which means the DPO loving had it in his possesion!!!!! I find that the exhaust cam is off 1 tooth, and the intake cam is off a tooth on the opposite direction. The guy I bought it from said it ran, but really badly, the carbs must need a cleaning. And they may well need cleaning, I haven't got anywhere near there yet, and likely won't for a bit. When I timed the cams correctly and tensioned the chain, I found that most of the valves had 0.0mm clearance, one had .03 on a spec of .05 to .10, and one had all the clearance a guy could want. All righty then, I guess the head is coming off.   So, does anyone know a good sealer to use on a head gasket? I believe this clown used bathtub caulk. Oh, and the horror show isn't done yet. Once of the cam caps has a nonstadard fastener  It appears to be a 1/4" NC stud. And when it seems that I cannot possibly abuse the palm/forehead interface any farther, I find why the one valve has so much clearance  The metal around the bucket is nicely cheewed up so the valve can't close all the way. My forehead is starting to chap from all of this facepalming. I pretty much gave up work on this tonight in favor of whining about it, and will go ahead and pull the jugs to check for further evidence that the engine was rebuilt by an illiterate housecat.
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Mar 22, 2010 06:17
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ari.gato posted:Threebond Liquid Gasket 1194 pssst-I was being facetious. You don't use sealer on head gaskets. And as good as that stuff is, it still isn't suitable for head gaskets. It's the shizz for sealing case halves, especially for 2 strokes.
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Mar 23, 2010 03:03
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ari.gato posted:Oh. Sorry. SO now that it's out there that I didn't know that was for head gaskets, do you put anything down on a head gasket or just place it and bolt the rest on? Head gaskets are made to work without sealer, most won't hold up to the heat and pressure. Torque them down and you're good to go. In an ideal world, we wouldn't need sealers at all. Real world, sometimes a bit of sealer can help, too much and it's like a harness wrapped in electrical tape, the sign of an amatuer. However, we were all amatuers whe nwe started.
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Mar 23, 2010 07:13
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I was working on the Z1's head and found that the damage I thought was to the head is actually to the bucket-and there is no shim to be seen in that bucket. The edges are chewed up so I couldn't get a shim in there if I wanted to, so I guess I'll be adding another item to the shopping list. My concern is the missing shim. Did the guy forget to put one there or did it fall out? It doesn't look like it could wander off into the bowels of the engine and yet the concern exists. I truly hope the guy who did this to an innocent bike has been relieved of his tools and forbidden to ever kill again.
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Mar 24, 2010 15:53
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Also, points will continue you spark, although at reduced output, at lower voltages than an electronic ignition. The FrankenBeezer had an aftermarket Boyer ignition at the battery had to be at 12V or above to fire. When you have old Yamaha electricals and Lucas charging, you can't always count on 12V.
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Mar 31, 2010 16:16
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Crayvex posted:I didn't get a chance to mess with the points but I did take a look at the chain adjusters. Left side was 3.5 notches in while the right was 6.5! Took a little while but I got the chain tension right and the adjusters dead on. Wow the rear wheel rolls like butter now! Hurr, I guess I should have looked at that a while ago. It sounds like you you were pretty far out of whack and got it back reasonable-like. Do keep in mind that the chain marks are not Gospel, some are correct and some aren't quite so precise. I bet that even the worst is less than 3 marks off though! And I dunno about the odd couple. It's evolution in action, dad and lad.
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Apr 2, 2010 03:08
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tubes and 2 rim locks. It's enough to make a guy hate life.
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Apr 4, 2010 18:06
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Happiness is a full truck Exstasy is free bikes  When Wasilla tells you to clean up your yard, you have some work to do...anyway, my friend James was needing to clean up his yard some so he offered these bikes up. otherwise they were going to the dump. I had to perform a bike rescue, it was my solemn duty. The old Yamaha thumper, basically the ur-XT, was one he accidently hooked up to a 12V battery charger. Zot. I hope to have it running before summer begins in earnest, and plan to use it as a trail bike. Unless I can fing this fuel tank!  The CB350 is a heroic story and no way is that bike going to the dump. It was early on a January morning and James was riding the bike home after finishing up a shift outside on the docks at the port of Anchorage. The ambient temps were roughly 0 to -10ºF and he was rolling across the flats whne he noticed the bike losing power. This concerned him somewhat as it was after midnight and cold and dark and cell phones were for the rich and connected, not for a working man riding a bike home in January after working outside all day-the man is a Viking from his red hair to the boot he'd put up Odin's rear end if he got crosswise with him-and since he didn't have any good alternative, he kept riding it. It carried him home, where he found a hole in the piston. I do have the rest of the bike, having carted it home last week.  I think that level of loyalty deserves a restore. It should be a nice project for next winter. Gnomad fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Apr 19, 2010 |
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Apr 19, 2010 00:54
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Does oil get moldy? I changed the oil in the XT500 and the stuff that came out was stringy and nasty, it looked not just dirty but diseased almost. I put some oil down the cylinder, and maybe got carried away. I got a brief burst of running out of it, and some signs of smoky combustion, but the plug oil fouls after a couple of kicks. Tomorrow I'll get a couple of new ones so I can ruin them also.
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Apr 21, 2010 07:58
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You can't beat a nice looking classic bike for $700 (or whatever the exchange rate is these days). We would have held you to account had you not bought it.
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Apr 25, 2010 18:13
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My daughter tells me "Dad, you need a 12 step program" I tell her that I can stop any time I want, maybe this one will be the last   No, it's not running, what do you want for $300?
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May 3, 2010 04:40
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 11:52 |
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I'm guessing that there is no spark, the fact that the coils are in a bag leads me to conclude that the DPO's had a no spark issue and were unfamiliar with Marelli electrics. I made sure the engine turned over before I bought it. It's in good shape and complete, that seat has to go.
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May 3, 2010 05:58
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