Third dump

More dump

Photo dump

Weekend Ride to Santa Cruz

I took a little (160 mi) ride to Santa Cruz and back taking all of the windy backroads. Casey took his 1979 RD400F and I took the newly completed 1980 XS650G. It was a blast. Both bikes were working flawlessly. And the new Lucy Bike was killing it in the twisty roads. Those new tires are a real improvement in road feedback.

 

Casey’s truck finally got some body panels installed on them. It is a pretty bitchin machine.

 

Then I set some time aside that weekend to clean up an old brake master and caliper. I don’t know what was on the brake pads but it was a sludge like grease or something.

And then because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I decided to swap motors between the Lucy Bike and the Chopper. The Chopper motor is a 277 Rephase with mild porting, rebuilt clutch, etc. It has a lot of motor upgrades the Lucy bike does not have, including adjustable timing and a Pamco Hall effect ignition, better than stock TCI ignition in my opinion.

Courtesy of my Instagram account. @trevorsaurus_rex

Around the Shop

I made some leather key fobs for all of the motorcycle keys and spares. Just messing around mostly.

 

I also snapped some pictures of all the bikes in their various states at the moment. Some are looking better than others.

Finally got the wheels done. 18″ rear 19″ front with new Avon tires. I love seeing both bikes side by side. Same year, same model, very different results.

 

Tires on the Lucy bike are Avon Roadriders.

 

1968 Triumph TR6R Trophy Sport

 

2001 Harley-Davidson FLHRCI Road King Classic

 

1969 Triumph T100R Daytona. Currently awaiting re-assembly of the motor.

I also took some photos of Chiquito, Dio’s Dog, on the seat of the bike. It was a nice day and I couldn’t resist.

Obligatory dog selfie

 

 

Dream Machines Weekend

In preparation for Dream Machines in Half Moon Bay this year I had to deal with a few motorcycle related items so I could ride the bike for the event. The traffic that day is terrible so I like to ride a moto so I can cut through traffic.

I cleaned up my Dad’s Road King. It had been sitting for over 2 years prior and there was a lot of rust and dirt on the thing. A quick wash and detail followed by an oil change was all it took to bring it back on the road.

I stopped by to see Casey and his ’57 Chevy Hot Rod he has been building for the last 10 years.

But most of the time was spent trying to get the Unimotorcycle bike up and running for the show.

Foster, Fraley, and Dad working on the frame

The bike started life as a 1999 Kawasaki KZ1000 Police Special. We wanted to keep the look of the original bike as much as we could. Overall it turned out pretty cool. We are already thinking about ways to improve the design for next year.

Me and Sam on the finished bike

Even Casey wanted to jump on the monster

I was also super stoked to have the Lucy bike done for the show. The wheels were not done getting new rubber by the show so I used the 21″ Front wheel and slapped it on for the day.

There were some cool motorcycles at the show as well.

Cant wait till next year. It should be a good one.

Carbs ‘n paint week

This week has been a lot of work getting everything together so the bike is running well.

 

I got new carb diaphragms from JBM industries. They are really nice quality and a huge improvement over the old stock ones. You can see the new one from JBM on the left and the old crumpled one on the right that is 35 years old.

New JBM diaphragm on the left. Old one on the right.

 

The JBM ones have a definitive roll to them to aid in use.

 

The stock ones are a little worn. Not the worst I have seen but not great.

 

I also had the opportunity to polish some of the aluminium covers. I didn’t want to go for a mirror shine but just enough to make the bike look like it was made out of higher quality materials.

 

 

The chrome cleaned up well too. Just some Nevr Dull and steel wool shined it right up.

 

 

I installed a new tail light and turn signals in the rear. They are both LED and super bright. I made some simple L brackets and came off the back of the license plate mount to hold the signals on.

I also upgraded the the top triple with a polish job and Aluminium solid riser bushings from Hugh’s Handbuilt. They are much sturdier than the stock rubber ones. The handlebars do not move at all anymore. Goodbye flexing every time I try and turn the bike. 

 

While the tank and side covers were away being painted I wanted to prep a temporary tank so I could still ride the bike around. I had an old late model tank lying around but never used it because of the peeling away tank liner. It was really bad. And I really didn’t want to just fill it with nuts and bolts and shake it for hours at a time. So I decided (against my better judgement) to cut it upen and use my hands to remove the old gunk.

The old liner was just coming off in sheets. It was easy to remove most of it but the rest I had to use chemical solvents.

Most of the liner on the table after scraping away.

I found some Emgo Reverse Cone mufflers online for about $100 for the pair. IT was a little tricky installing them. The stock headers are double walled so I had to use an adapter to connect the upper pipe to the muffler directly to prevent exhaust leaks. They have a removable baffle which you can wrap more insulation around to lessen the noise. Very cool for the price and they give a great sporty sound to the bike.

I managed to get all of the tank liner out and started to prep for welding. It was very thin sheet metal with many compound curves so welding would be very tricky. Plus there was a large 1/8″ gap to fill as well.

 

A little rusty but much better than before.

tacked into place.

Fully TIG welded. There was a little warpage. But nothing too bad. I kinda like the look of the welds. It is very Mad Max.

As luck would have it I got my tank and side covers back from paint the day after I finished welding the gas tank. It was painted in House of Kolor Lapis Blue. Then covered in clear coat. It looks a little purple in the dark but has a nice brilliant blue in the sunlight.

I got the seat back from the upholsterer. He did a great job and did exactly what I asked. I threw it on the bike and loosely put on the side covers and paint for a photo. The wheels are not back from the tire guy so I have an old front wheel as a stand in.

 

Motor work and Bondo dust don’t mix

Aligning the cam at TDC

When putting the camshaft back in the bike you have to align an index marking on the sprocket with the cylinders at TDC. It is a little tricky if you don’t break the camchain but this time it was a breeze.

You can see the indexing mark at the top of the sprocket.

 

 

 

 

I spent some time on the forks as well. I wanted to replace the fork seals as they were leaking.

The old fork oil was black and gross and less than it should have been.

 

All laid out and ready for re-assembly

 

Spent some time with Bondo and sandpaper. I really hate the body work part.

 

The motor after putting it all together again.

 

Some new shocks from MikesXS. Not great suspension but clean and as good as the stock ones. So for now they will stay.

 

 

I used too much force getting on of the fork seals out and put a gouge in the mating surface. It would probably have been fine but I wanted piece of mind so I added a little dab of JB weld and smoothed it over so the surface would be free of holes.

You can see the small grey line at the bottom of the cup. This was the gouge I put in the fork lower with a big screwdriver.

 

 

Prepping a new rotor on the front wheel.

 

Some rough shots of the bike after the bondo and fork rebuild. Just to get a better look at how its turning out. It is still very rough around the edges.

Nice looking front rotor.

 

First ride after bringing the bike home. Still needs a little tuning and some more work.

 

Paint stripper gets you high if you’re not outside

I stripped the paint from the tank and side covers in preparation for paint. It was pretty easy but I should have done it outside because I got a little light headed after it was all done.