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'Captain Meatarm' is both my first bike and my first build. I am taking this kind of slow, due to lack of money and knowhow. This past spring, when I picked up this 1970 CB350 K2, I didn't even know what a carb was or where to find it. I have come a long way with the help of my cousin, who definitely knows his way around a wrench.
Here she is as I bought her. She didn't start, but she wasn't locked up and had compression.
First up, get her running... Did that. She had been sitting since the mid '80's. Carbs were cleaned, and some wiring had to be replaced. Also I replaced the starter- thanks to VonYinzer and some exhaust shims- thanks to MarcW. I received some assistance with the timing, and now she seems to be running decent.
Then I started stripping some stuff off, to see what I was dealing with. Stripped the paint off the tank. Removed fenders, signals etc...
(incidentally, this pic took place in my cousin's garage. There is a Torino below the lift. A mid '80's Lamborghini Jalpa on the lift. Immediately behind the bike is the beginnings of a Factory5, Shelby type kit. Nice stuff)
I removed the tach, which wasn't working anyway. Then centered the speedo. I think I may drill, and have those idiot lights come out the top of the headlight bucket. We'll see..
I plan to run some clipons. I am pretty short, so once I have the bars worked out I will decide what to do about the foot controls. Still working on ideas for a seat and seat bump. I have consumed so much motorcycle information and cafe images in the past year or so, that it has me a little scattered in my vision. I am going to have to see where this takes me.
Justino,
I cannot really tell, but your tank is different then mine right? Is yours a little more rounded or something? Someone told me the K2 tanks like mine are a bit taller and squarish. But I never did a side by side comparison to see if that is the case.
I stripped the tank with aircraft stripper. Then my cousin started polishing it up (mostly for grins) I don't know what I will ultimately do with mine, but it has grown on me. I love knee dents. But I fear my skills are lacking to do that. Also if I screw it up, it sets me back because I don't have the cash to keep replacing the stuff that already works LOL. For now, while the bike looks like shit anyway, I figure a raw tank is kinda fitting.
I'm a novice myself, so I'm not sure. The guy that sold it to me it's an original tank but there's like 3 different tank styles for that bike. I like yours more. And I would keep it with no paint and just have everything match the tank!
You know how sometimes it is easier to take things apart than to put them together? I am putting that to the test.
I needed to get the blue headlight brackets, and fork sleeves off. I have some new brackets coming as well as some clip ons... We'll see how that goes.
-chris
So Friday, I have removed all the blue fork sleeves and blue headlight ears. I then added new headlight ears and Woodcraft Clipons. Started removing the paint from the top triple clamp.
Saturday... Started reinstalling the hand controls. Started polishing the triple clamp. Removed the last of the (poorly sprayed) blue paint from the bike by stripping the headlight bucket.
hey looking some so far! dont worry about the little thins like broken clutch handles etc, they're easy to replace! the tank looks quite good for its age and perhaps you can make the dents into recesses!
So I got some new levers and perches for the clutch and brake. I took off the left side controls completely. I don't have signals or a horn at this point anyway. I may/should put those on, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It was a bitch re-running the control cables with the clip-ons. At this point I only have the stock length cables (which are F-ing long! Duh!) I'd like to order some shorter cables from Motion Pro. But budget requires that I hold off on that. So the long cables make things look a tad unruly upfront. This is the polar opposite of what I'm going for, but there is not much I can do about that right now. I thought I could get a little creative with the way I ran the cables in order to make up for the extra length. But it seems they just start to bind if I do that.
What do you guys do with the long cables after switching from stock bars? ??? Shorten them yourself? Get new custom ones? Have them shortened somewhere?
-chris
My goal this week was to get my bike back on the road. I have not ridden much and cold weather is coming (or maybe here already?) I have never ridden with the clip ons before...
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