1980 CB650 Brat/Bobber/Tracker? - First Bike, First Build

Best thing I've seen on the forum... "I fucken hate everything right now". I laughed out loud. Haha
 
rays650cafe said:
Athena top end gasket set for now, more as I determine what it needs. Shouldn't need to much though the motor runs really nice. Even if it is a little beat up on th outside. I'll be happy if I get the oil leaks slowed down substantially if not actually stopped ;D
Cool, thanks. Yeah one reason I'm so pissed is because this engine is spotless, not a drip of oil from anywhere. If the head gasket was bad, this would just be an excuse to replace it, but everything's pristine. The bike has been burning oil, so I guess it is a good chance to check/replace the valve seals.

Qawls said:
Best thing I've seen on the forum... "I fucken hate everything right now". I laughed out loud. Haha

Yeah, I was PISSED. ;D After the bolt sheared, I went to throw a flashlight across the garage. When I lifted my arm, I smacked it into the florescent shop light above me, slicing my hand open pretty good and sending both bulbs shattered to the floor. That REALLY pissed me off, so I threw the flashlight and went after it with the 3 pound sledgehammer.

I need to buy a new flashlight. And new light bulbs. The hammer is fine.
 
Hahahahaha, that's fucken funny I'm sorry. You must of been pretty frustrated, funny stuff. Can you set up a go-pro in the corner of your garage, it would be perfect I'd pay a subscription to watch it an all!
 
Haha - I laughed out loud when I read the part about the flashlight and fluorescent bulbs. I have (well had) a GPS that met a similar fate with a hammer after it got me lost and pissed me off. Take a deep breath, have a beer, and get back at it. She will be worth it.
 
Qawls said:
Hahahahaha, that's fucken funny I'm sorry. You must of been pretty frustrated, funny stuff. Can you set up a go-pro in the corner of your garage, it would be perfect I'd pay a subscription to watch it an all!

Believe it or not, I'm a very calm person. It's been years since I've been pissed off enough to break something (working part time as a mechanic the last 2.5 years has forced me to become more patient. Bosses don't like tools flying across their shops ;D). That go-pro video would just be a scrawny kid drinking beer and spending a lot of time sitting, thinking, and staring at a CB650, trying to figure out how to make it less ugly.

CDNbiker said:
Haha - I laughed out loud when I read the part about the flashlight and fluorescent bulbs. I have (well had) a GPS that met a similar fate with a hammer after it got me lost and pissed me off. Take a deep breath, have a beer, and get back at it. She will be worth it.

Currently drinking beer, figuring out what all parts I'll need. Anybody have any recommendations on where to buy gaskets and all that good stuff?

EDIT: Well, I just ordered an Athena top end gasket kit from Ebay. Figure if it's good enough for Ray, it's good enough for me. ;D Now to find a tensioner...

But first, more beer.
 
Well I hope it turns out well for ya mate, I'm sure it will if you're debating over different ideas with yourself. Good luck
 
Well it looks like even a used chain tensioner will run around $75, so I'm going to tear it apart and see if I can replace the broken bolt (hopefully the rest of the tensioner is in good shape). The gasket set should be here on Saturday, and it's supposed to be 58 degrees on Sunday. The plan is to get it all get torn down on Friday when I get back from class, and hopefully back together Saturday. And then ride it on Sunday.

My time estimates are so notoriously bad though that I usually get yelled at to not jinx things whenever I make them... ;D Hopefully there are no surprises waiting inside the engine.
 
just an idea
650x_zps23e68820.jpg
 
Not bad, I definitely don't want to go with a solo seat right now though. I'm going to be carrying passengers on occasion, and I've got a few overnight trips planned this summer, so I need to be able to get some luggage on the bike. I'll probably be building an easily removable luggage rack that will cover the rear half of the seat.
 
I really hate FedEx, they can never seem to get something here on time. The arrival date of the gaskets is now next Tuesday, so there goes the plan of getting anything done this weekend...

9 days to get a box from NV to NJ? I could drive out there and pick it up faster.
 
Really liking that thing with a solo seat! Hmmmmm, I think I'll keep it brat style for another year at least. At least you got your head off. I have to pull the motor on mine. The last bolt holding the head on is seized! Wooofuckinghooo! Oh well, now I have an excuse to pull the whole thing apart and paint the frame. ::)
 
That sucks man! Not the time of year to tear it all down...

And I haven't started on mine yet, it comes apart tomorrow night. Fingers crossed that none of the head bolts are frozen.
 
Well things got a bit crazy around here, we adopted a 1 year old Australian Cattle Dog last Saturday, and I had exams this week so the bike got put on the back burner. The plan is to tear it down tomorrow night, and put it all back together on Saturday barring any mishaps.

Supposed to be 70 on Tuesday, hoping I can ride to class!
 
Well everything came apart perfectly! The plastic on the chain tensioner has a bunch of small cracks in it, but it still feels solid, so I'm just going to reuse it. If it fails I'll replace it, but I really don't think I'll have any issues.

Everything else looks great, except for an odd gouge on the head between cyl. 2 and where the timing chain is. There's a matching indentation on the jugs, it almost looks like somebody tightened down the head with something stuck in there. I really don't care at this point though, I'll fill the gap with some copper RTV and forget about it. The compression on cyl. 2 was good enough before, I'm sure it'll be fine now, and I don't plan on riding this thing that hard anyway.

If it becomes an issue, I'll fix it. Until then, I'm just going to ride this thing like the low-budget bike that it is.

Here's where I'm at now, tomorrow I'll clean everything up, replace the bolt in the tensioner, and hopefully get it back together and go for a ride.

photo_zpsdd0aef74.jpg
 
It runs!

The culprit:

IMG_0869_zpsc46fc8b1.jpg


The fix:

IMG_0870_zps2bb2d4ad.jpg


IMG_0878_zpsf08be344.jpg


Clean!

IMG_0872_zps3c07e267.jpg


IMG_0877_zps86d22bc4.jpg


Took a ride around the block, no apparent issues other than a strange chirping noise which I traced to the alternator area. Maybe the stator brushes? I'll figure it out tomorrow.
 
Hey DV,

I have the exact same bike as you, colour and everything. I even paid the same price for it haha. I've been cruising around all sorts of sites and came across your bike. I signed up for this site just so I could reply to your thread. I have a Q about your handlebars.

In the picture with the stock bars on, they still run through the fuses and fuse cover. Then when you have thbe tracker bars on, it looks like they have a new mounting bracket. Is that custom? Is it rasied above the fuses? I love the look and am wondering what you did.

Thanks,

Maybe I'll post some pics of my ride later.

Smoke_eater
 
Just realized I never updated this. I rode the bike about 80 miles on Tuesday, and everything was great. Running SO much better with the slow jets cleared out. Not perfect, but its at a point now where it's rideable, and I'm confident I won't damage anything by putting a few miles on it. I found out that my buddy has a sync tool, so I'll probably try to run over to his house and get that done over the next couple of weeks. Other progress has pretty much stalled, since I have an important exam on Tuesday, and I fucked up my neck at work last week.

Smoke_eater said:
Hey DV,

I have the exact same bike as you, colour and everything. I even paid the same price for it haha. I've been cruising around all sorts of sites and came across your bike. I signed up for this site just so I could reply to your thread. I have a Q about your handlebars.

In the picture with the stock bars on, they still run through the fuses and fuse cover. Then when you have thbe tracker bars on, it looks like they have a new mounting bracket. Is that custom? Is it rasied above the fuses? I love the look and am wondering what you did.

Thanks,

Maybe I'll post some pics of my ride later.

Smoke_eater

With the height (or lack of rise) of the drag bars, the front brake line and right fork tube were trying to occupy the exact same space, so I needed to raise the bars up. I happened to be drinking in a buddy's basement, and saw an old Bultaco dirt bike in the corner that had some bar clamps that looked they would work as bar risers. They fit perfectly, and are now on indefinite loan from him. ;D I temporarily relocated the fuses to the inside of the left headlight ear, but I'll be finding a better place for them once I start messing around with the headlight/gauge area.

Here are the ghetto bar risers (I'll get some allen headed bolts eventually, the bike is being in sort of a mockup stage this season).

photo3_zps020c5821.jpg


And here's how close the brake line still is.

photo2_zps18404c16.jpg
 
Ahh, I see! Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm thinbking of doing tracker bars as well. So I'll probably have to do the same thing. Bar risers are pretty cheap... How hard was it to relocate the fuses?

Smoke_eater
 
The fuses are currently a bit embarrassing, they're currently just zip-tied to one of the headlight mounting ears. I'm probably going to move them to under the seat or under a side cover eventually, possibly with a blade style fuse block like one of these:

47070.jpg
 
I've been busy with work and class so no physical progress has been made on the bike, but I did some planning last week (while I was procrastinating).

I've decided that I want to go with a '79 CB650 tank, not only because of looks, but because it is 1.3 gallons larger than the stock tank. Having to look for a place to fill up every ~120 miles is a pain in the ass.

This is the tank:
1982_CB650_2.jpg


And I also found some better pictures of what I want to do with the seat (hopefully I can recall my sewing skills from 8th grade haha). I love this 550.

LDSC09535.JPG


I'm also going to go with a similar color scheme to that bike with the new tank, I'm thinking a British Racing Green, or possibly a similar metallic green. So I'm currently on the hunt for a '79 650 tank, they're not too common though since they only made them for one year, and once I get that I can start work on the seat.

I picked up a 90 degree die-grinder and some sanding discs at a swap meet today, gonna go smooth out the welds for the rear loop in a few.
 
Back
Top Bottom