First bike/bobber build!Lil' Blue

I am digging the flat black tank w the gloss black badges. and I am not the biggest fan of black. but its pretty cool looking.
 
Thanks guy's! So this weekend were going away to our annual august long weekend party. So the bike isn't at the stage of full completion were getting it running and doing a test run with it while we are there. Will give us the chance to do some carb adjustment's and/or re-jet. Got the wires all sorted out in the fender, depending on what happens I may be running a solid conduit piece to protect the wires instead of BX shielding. Here's some pictures.


Forgot to mention i will also prob look like a goof for the first bit of the weekend. Gonna be learning to ride the good ol' fashion way. driving around in a field partying haha. 8)







 
That's looking a lot better. You may end up wanting some higher/wider bars. The Virago bend is okay, but you may find your elbows digging into your sides after awhile.

I went for high on mine...
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15 inch apes, 2 gallon gas tank, sprung solo (sucked, too small, long gone in favor of a VN800A 2 up seat), FLH 72-84 solid rear fender with Panhead trim and beehive taillight (swapped for tombstone with integrated plate mount), stock pegs (swapped for half moon floorboards), switch boxes deleted in favor of toggles, currently working on the engine repaint (black and silver with polished head fins)...

I like where you are heading with it. Old time lines, parallel twin engine, add yourself a set of small bags to go with the fairing and you'll have a very functional machine. Nice work.
 
Nice bars lol! If they do bother me i will prob just end up bending my own, due to Ontario law there is a limit on bar height so lol.... Trying to avoid the harassment for now. 1 day left before the biker party but here she is at the end of the night. Rained ALL damn afternoon and evening but that still didn't stop me from getting her put together. (video is still currently uploading on Youtube.)

Oh, almost forgot....Yes i do have saddle bags for it. My brother gave me his old bags he had on his sportster that are kinda beat up so he let me have em so i can make em a bit smaller and make em to look more of the old school knucklehead bag style.






 
Handlebar height limit? That's no fun... let's see, current bike regs require headlight, tail light, one mirror, passenger pegs if you intend to haul 2 up. Other than that, anything goes... Oh, we are still stuck with a lid law, but the way people drive here (no license, no insurance on 90% of in county tagged 4 or more wheeled vehicles), I wear one.
 
Scruffy said:
Handlebar height limit? That's no fun... let's see, current bike regs require headlight, tail light, one mirror, passenger pegs if you intend to haul 2 up. Other than that, anything goes... Oh, we are still stuck with a lid law, but the way people drive here (no license, no insurance on 90% of in county tagged 4 or more wheeled vehicles), I wear one.
Yea, i hear ya there is some like that here. I know for sure we have to have helmets, both mirrors, i forget the exact bar height measurement........ Pipe decibels (which is total Bullshit. loud pipes save lives.) Signal lights you supposedly can get away with because you can use hand signals but......the cops will try to burn you on that.

Anyways i just got back from our august long weekend party and i got to put 24.5 Kilometers on the bike. Took me awhile to get use to the clutch and stuff but, for my first time riding a motorcycle i picked it up damn quick. Wet grass was interesting to drive on lol. BUT i never dropped it and damn that was the best time i've ever had finally getting to ride this after owning it for 3 years and been working on it the past 2 years. Also got to try out my brothers 1200 sportster for comparison on the clutch and throttle feel ( and his bike was much more comfortable as mine only had the metal seat pan lol.)

I'll be posting pics a little bit later, i'm exhausted and extremely hung over from the past 4 days of partying.
 
Quick update. I've finally dealt with the straight pipes lol ( even tho I'd love to keep it that way) I have determined the problems i was having at the august long weekend party we took the bike to so i could ride it and figure out any problems with it. It's been the carb's..... Not sync'd the slide is jamming causing the flat spot on the left cylinder. im just gonna try to clean the cap the slide is jamming in and get the bodies sonic cleaned. I will also be buying a rebuild kit for it. It's going to be a battle with them but, i am not going to give up on it since i've already put all this work into it.

I may or may not have time to work on it once september comes as i will be returning to school and might have myself a 1975 Ford f250 ranger with the 390 to deal with also. =P
 
JordanCFH said:
Quick update. I've finally dealt with the straight pipes lol ( even tho I'd love to keep it that way) I have determined the problems i was having at the august long weekend party we took the bike to so i could ride it and figure out any problems with it. It's been the carb's..... Not sync'd the slide is jamming causing the flat spot on the left cylinder. im just gonna try to clean the cap the slide is jamming in and get the bodies sonic cleaned. I will also be buying a rebuild kit for it. It's going to be a battle with them but, i am not going to give up on it since i've already put all this work into it.

I may or may not have time to work on it once september comes as i will be returning to school and might have myself a 1975 Ford f250 ranger with the 390 to deal with also. =P


Carbs are easier than most think. Just pull apart, pay attention to where things were/are clean nicely and put back together. I know that makes it sound easier than it may be to some, but really it's not that hard. If you have diaphragm carbs, take those out before you go spraying cleaner etc all over them. Your rubber will thank you. Also, hot water to soften things up works well too. Just remember that aluminum transfers heat insanely well...so if you put boiling water in there...and try to grab them..you will wish you didn't.
 
MotorbikeBruno said:
Carbs are easier than most think. Just pull apart, pay attention to where things were/are clean nicely and put back together. I know that makes it sound easier than it may be to some, but really it's not that hard. If you have diaphragm carbs, take those out before you go spraying cleaner etc all over them. Your rubber will thank you. Also, hot water to soften things up works well too. Just remember that aluminum transfers heat insanely well...so if you put boiling water in there...and try to grab them..you will wish you didn't.

Will do Bruno, gonna be taking em apart tomorrow after work. Gonna check to see if everything is in spec, make sure all the seals are in good shape.....etc etc lol.
 
K, I'm sending em off to get sonic cleaned on Monday. If I still have the flat spot after the cleaning, I will get the rebuild kit. But I will be getting 2 vacuum gauges first and make sure they are synchronized properly before I drop the money on a rebuild kit.

while I wait for that I've fixed the ferring and begun painting, made the signal light mounts, gotta install my Honda rear signal lights into the Harley light housings. Basically to avoid having to buy specific Harley bulbs.

I have also decided on a name for the bike since my father and I changed the color scheme. knucklebuster . Fits the bike since I've lost a lot of skin on my hands to the bike lol
 
JordanCFH said:
K, I'm sending em off to get sonic cleaned on Monday. If I still have the flat spot after the cleaning, I will get the rebuild kit. But I will be getting 2 vacuum gauges first and make sure they are synchronized properly before I drop the money on a rebuild kit.

while I wait for that I've fixed the ferring and begun painting, made the signal light mounts, gotta install my Honda rear signal lights into the Harley light housings. Basically to avoid having to buy specific Harley bulbs.

I have also decided on a name for the bike since my father and I changed the color scheme. knucklebuster . Fits the bike since I've lost a lot of skin on my hands to the bike lol

Nice. Flat spots can be from many things though, so don't always assume carbs especially if they have been cleaned correctly. I've had electrical gremlins show up as this sometimes too. I'm assuming it's from the mixture screw settings you have right now. You are running cone filters and depending on where your flat spot is, it's either the mixture screws/too small pilot , slide needle height, or main jet (or a combination !)
 
I had this problem with the flat spot when i first got the bike. It's either the Carb or ignition coil. Cause with the stock exhaust and breather box it still had the flat spot revving it up at idle (forget the start of the flat spot RPM atm.) It also when under load the cylinder wasn't firing (the slide jamming was the problem in that case.Just dumping fuel into the cylinder.) I'm going to clean the carbs, test them. If there is still no change, test the coil ( i have another coil i can test also...so before i buy the kit ill test both coils and check plug gapping.)

I'm hoping it doesn't come down to there may be something wrong internally on the engine once i've went through all possible reasons that its doing this. To make my life simpler i'm going to make a nice little checklist of possible causes and check each one. As i've been getting a little frustrated trying to figure it out.

Edit: The right cylinder runs great with the cone filter, I have not had a single problem with that side..... I'm deff swaying towards something you mentioned and also just thought that possibly since the bike was sitting for so long and i'm pretty sure the fuel line was left on and not turned off, either its gummed up with old &^%$ fuel or debris (and my cleaning attempt was piss poor) maybe causing a restriction or blockage. But it doesn't explain why that the right carb works fine so it maybe something as simple as you mentioned. I'm over thinking this too much lol.
 
JordanCFH said:
I had this problem with the flat spot when i first got the bike. It's either the Carb or ignition coil. Cause with the stock exhaust and breather box it still had the flat spot revving it up at idle (forget the start of the flat spot RPM atm.) It also when under load the cylinder wasn't firing (the slide jamming was the problem in that case.Just dumping fuel into the cylinder.) I'm going to clean the carbs, test them. If there is still no change, test the coil ( i have another coil i can test also...so before i buy the kit ill test both coils and check plug gapping.)

I'm hoping it doesn't come down to there may be something wrong internally on the engine once i've went through all possible reasons that its doing this. To make my life simpler i'm going to make a nice little checklist of possible causes and check each one. As i've been getting a little frustrated trying to figure it out.

Edit: The right cylinder runs great with the cone filter, I have not had a single problem with that side..... I'm deff swaying towards something you mentioned and also just thought that possibly since the bike was sitting for so long and i'm pretty sure the fuel line was left on and not turned off, either its gummed up with old &^%$ fuel or debris (and my cleaning attempt was piss poor) maybe causing a restriction or blockage. But it doesn't explain why that the right carb works fine so it maybe something as simple as you mentioned. I'm over thinking this too much lol.

Yeah, go back over the insides. Make sure the pilot jets are really clean! The carb cleaner with the straw works best. I would soak them in boiling water (or really hot water) and then try to clean them out. That way the heat softens the crud up a bit. Start with that, and then also spray down the spot where the pilot jet screws in. You should see it come out of 2 places. ONE will be where it actually goes into the carb throat, and the second will be in the back of the carb where the Mixture screw goes through to close off/open up. See attached picture. I think this is the same as yours?
 

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MotorbikeBruno said:
Yeah, go back over the insides. Make sure the pilot jets are really clean! The carb cleaner with the straw works best. I would soak them in boiling water (or really hot water) and then try to clean them out. That way the heat softens the crud up a bit. Start with that, and then also spray down the spot where the pilot jet screws in. You should see it come out of 2 places. ONE will be where it actually goes into the carb throat, and the second will be in the back of the carb where the Mixture screw goes through to close off/open up. See attached picture. I think this is the same as yours?

Its similar, looks like an older set. Yea the sonic cleaning should get all that crap for me ( dunno if my dad took them in yet.) If not i will do what your suggesting. then afterwards if things still persist, I'll install a kit.

Edit: to mention it....I noticed when i took the carbs apart down to the jets being still in it. there WAS NOTHING and i mean NOTHING to be seen in the right carb.....on the left it had a Orange/red (rust obviously) residue in the float bowl section....it was noticeable . Finally coming to learn how temper mental carbs can be (insert whatever vulgar joke that will probably come to mind for relation,) i can't NOT be pointing that out as a possibility
 
JordanCFH said:
Its similar, looks like an older set. Yea the sonic cleaning should get all that crap for me ( dunno if my dad took them in yet.) If not i will do what your suggesting. then afterwards if things still persist, I'll install a kit.

Edit: to mention it....I noticed when i took the carbs apart down to the jets being still in it. there WAS NOTHING and i mean NOTHING to be seen in the right carb.....on the left it had a Orange/red (rust obviously) residue in the float bowl section....it was noticeable . Finally coming to learn how temper mental carbs can be (insert whatever vulgar joke that will probably come to mind for relation,) i can't NOT be pointing that out as a possibility

Well, the left carb usually has more left in it for some reason, I think it's related to it being the low carb on the kickstand side. As for the right, who knows, maybe it wasn't getting any fuel before :) so there wasn't anything to mess it up!
 
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