WTF is red dog?

heres the first pic of my 82 cb650 that i picked up for $400, runs like champ after i did all the maintenance to it.




so i figured id make a build thread to showcase some of the things done to the bike, offer ideas, help, and receive them as well.

lowered the rear collars all the way down, and then cut a little more than an inch off the coils and moved the front forks up about 3/4'' and also some new black european bars.


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so whomever owned the bike before i did, spray painted the engine, and i personally think it looked tacky as hell, so i bought some easy off oven cleaner and let it soak over night, and it got most of it off, and pretty much all the grease off.

also i pulled off the stator, clutch, sprocket, and starter covers and redid those in satin black and bought some stainless button cap bolts.






i decieded to name the bike after one of my dogs who had got hit by a car a few years ago, he was a very good dog and defly my dog. his name was goose.
this is a color that i mixed up that i plan on painting the tank, its darker than it looks in the pictures.

the seat i personally feel just looks obnoxious and love the way the sporster seats look so im doing my own.




i still need to round out the pass hump on the sides and then do a little tweaking so it looks factory, and im ready to foam and wrap.

i need to order 5 gaskets from honda as she has a few leaks and just want to replace some. the side oil tank will be pulled and done in the satin black along with new hardware and a new gasket so it looks my symmetrical.

today i picked up some screen and and made some rock filters for my carbs.

Just want to point it out, but you are probably going to have a hard time tuning without your airbox.

Any progress on the seat? I'm curious as to how that's gonna turn out.

+1 on tuning w/o the airbox. It can be done, but its a pain in the ass. Build looks cool man.

how would tuning the bike be harder without the airbox? its not uncommon to see people run velocity stacks on their bikes.

i kept looking at the seat pan and how it was turning out and decieded i didnt like it, so i cut it in half and it looks better with the look i want to go with.

anyways, thought id post some pics of the look im going toward.





the bike is called a harley davidson, deus special. i love the rear end, i plan on doing something very similar, but with a "floating" pass seat.

and then these are the turn signals i just picked up, they are red/ yellow led lights, with black smoked bullet housings, very sexy.

Regarding open filter elements on most bikes....

Your bike comes with CV carbs which have vacuum operated slides which run your needle.
Without some restriction on the inlet your fuel metering will be wonky at best.
You can drill the slide out a bit to offset that and a lot of the old Dynojet kits either had the bit included or instructions.
There's also an insert someone sells for the bottom of the slider that eliminates the cavity and is supposed to help throttle response and metering in these situations.
If you really want it to run right you'll probably want to track down a set of mechanical carbs like Mikuni VM/TMs.
You can get CB750 carbs that are mechanical but I'm not particularly familiar with them. PJ could probably tell you which ones but he'll also be crabbier about your current setup (just a little forewarning hehe) than we are.

well i appreciate all the words of wisdom as im still pretty new to bikes.

anyways, the cylinder cover gasket was leaking, as was the valve cover gaskets so i bought new of those, a new turn signal relay, and a new oil side cover gasket so i can pull that off and throw some color on that.




somebody went crazy with the rtv :-\

so over this weekend i just started pulling the front end apart as the front end made the bike look like something my grandpa would be riding so i made new ears for the headlight and mounted that.




also where the fuse box, choke and ignition were, i cut up so ive got just the clamps, and then the choke will go right in the center of the down tube so itll look hidden but easily accessible, and the ignition i get crafty with later. the fuse box is under the tank right above the two coils.


and i know this is very hard to see what it is, but its a rail right now, but ive got another smaller piece of sheet aluminum to go on top of it, and then ill put 5 holes on them, and thatll be my dummy lights, just 1/5 the size.

Just got back to this..... while I have no experience tuning inline 4 carbs, the theory I've heard is that the outer carbs will get the cooler air surrounding the bike (plus a little more pressure from the turbulence) and the inner 2 carbs will get the "stale" air that's left over from passing over a hot motor.

The looks of 4 stacks is great - I just don't want you banging your head off the wall later. Just a thought, they use clear acrylic (?) on subwoofer boxes in cars. I've seen the entire sub box made out of the stuff - maybe try it for a custom airbox?

well, ive got a bit of bad news fellas, the other day i was out cruising on the bike and went around a turn, mustve had some gravel in the road or something and slid off the road. i broke my right thumb, had road rash all along my left side, face, had to get stitches, my lip is all tore up. unfortunately i lost my job the same day. the wreck left the bike pretty beat up and had to get rid of it, because the tow company wanted me to pay $300+ to buy my bike back from them or sell it to them for about $185 so i had to go that route.

this all happened on monday may 3rd, and im feeling better today. as soon as my health is back to shape and i get a new job, i plan on buying a cb350-450ish kicker, something to hardtail, and since i broke my thumb, ive got another 6months at least before i leave for the airforce. but anyways, thought id let you know the status of the red dog.

damn! im so sorry to hear that dude!

Man, Yort. If it wasn't for bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all. Sorry to hear about everything bud.

haha thats true too, im not so much looking at it as bad luck, but maybe that bike wasnt meant to be. ill have another one very soon, cb450ish, kicker, and im thinking maybe do complete cbr600-1000rr front fork setup, brakes, wheels, all the jazz. i love the look of big brakes on a little car/bike.

First off sorry about the crash, I am glad to hear that you are OK and it is just some broken bones and ego... those will grow back. Please don't take this the wrong way, but it seems you are pretty new to bikes.

As I have seen it so far, you jumped into a build without knowing much about how bikes work. And yes, this all becomes a learning experience, but I would hate for you to build up a new CB450 with a bunch of $$ parts like USD forks, etc... only to crash again and ruin your "brand new" bike.

Buy something small, a cb450 is actually a great bike, just getting rarer these days so if this is "THE BIKE" that you really want to do a build around, do it! Just buy another bike something small and ratty to learn on... I had a CB125s for a year when I was learning the ropes, and then rode a dual sport for a while. I dropped both those bikes more times than I can remember, but it was OK... thats why I had them and I learned much from them.

That being said I still fell after that, but they were those totally avoidable, me being a dumbass sorta things, the last fall was on my 08 GSXR... Wheelie on the freeway and ended up on my back at 75mph. So I guess what I am trying to say is, be careful, and make sure you have a bike to dump and learn on.

Again sorry if this sounds like I am giving you a hard time,

Aw man...that sucks to hear!
I hope things heal up and turn around for you soon.....
hang in there brother!

i hear what your saying man, i honestly think something happened with my front brakes because yesterday when i woke up, i remember trying to slow down and couldnt.

but yea i defly want a honda twin, kickstart. somthing a little older, a little smaller, but that i can do some good fab work as thats what i enjoy doing. i came upon a good deal on my 650, and loved it, but its not %100 the look i wanted to go for. but yea me beafing it up last week defly taught me that im not as confident as i thought i was.

Hey man no worries... I hate to say it, but it probably won't be the last time you fall... I mean, knock on some wood and stuff, but on two wheels, inevitably you are going to do down. I found that the last two spills I had were when I was getting confident...

I used to ride rockets, I had an 03 F4i and a 08 GSXR 750... Both those bikes could scare the shit out of me, and as long as they did scare me I was fine. But as soon as I got comfortable and cocky, I went down. It was the mentality that I "knew" what to do and that I was a good rider no matter what the studies show...

A healthy respect for how easily these things can hurt you is key, once you loose that, all bets are off.

What'cha gonna do in the air force and which country?