'82 cb450sc "Troublemaker" Street Tracker Build

B

bombayblack

New Member
What's up? I'm extremely excited on many levels, and for many different reasons. Two in specific.
One, This will be my first post ever to this forum. And two, this is my first motorcycle, which will also be my first build. (because is there any other way?)

Just to give you some background information on the bike...
As the thread title says, it is a 1982 Honda Nighthawk 50. The bike has 28,000 original miles. I am the third owner, and I picked it up at a very good price. Clean title, and at first glance, not modifications to the bike can be seen.

As soon as I got it home, I took it out for a spin. It does not have any formal exhaust on it (beyond the headers), which led to a funny start-up and low rpm at idle since there isn't proper back-pressure. The bike runs smooth! Got it up into fourth gear with no hiccups. Rode it 3 miles down to my buddy's house where I'm laying it up for all maintenance and modifications.

I'll post pictures of the bike in one piece once my phone stops being a pile of shit, but here's where I got to as of today.



Got it up on the lift.
Pulled the entire tail section off.
Pulled the tank off.
Inspected the wiring.
Got rid of that stupid airbox (cut it out instead of removing the rear tire. What a pain.)
Stared at it a bunch.

So, after looking at it some more, we realized that the bike has some frame damage around the headstock. There are some questionable welds on the headtube, which could lead to handling issues down the road after the front end gets replaced.
The wiring is intact! Factory tie-downs and all. Hell yeah
The bike looks a lot better without the airbox.....

When I say "we" in this thread, i'm talking about these dudes....




That's Bill (left) and Brandon (right).
The bike is in their garage, which I am fortunate enough to be able to make use of.



Brandon is in the same position as me (first bike, first build, '82 ft500 ascot)and his dad is a wealth of knowledge, having many years of experience as a Honda Motorcycle Technician.





Rusting on the exhaust, Where the mufflers should be, where it apparently got laid down pretty good.



So, Now that you guys are up to speed, I'm gonna hit you with some newbie stuff.

I would like to find an exhaust that goes 2-to-1, or 2-and-2, but runs down the same side. Any other bike that I can source a compatible exhaust from?

Finding aftermarket parts are a pain already. I'm looking for a tank at the moment, but it's hazy if the ones I've seen are compatible. Any ideas?

Can you guide me to any threads of quality, completed cb450 sc builds so I can build some steam from them?

Are the wheels from the '83 cb450sc compatible for this bike? I couldn't find an answer anywhere online.

THANKS FOR CHECKING THIS OUT! PLEASE HELP ME MAKE THIS THING SWEET AS HELL!
 
With minor mods to the tank and the mounting posts on the frame a mid 70's cb750 tank can be made to fit. If you keep your eye out you can find them on eBay for around $100. They lend them selves to a good starting point shape wise. Also this has been very helpful when looking at wheel compatibility bases ao axel size.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=17902.0

Happy building!
 
JGHiggins1 said:
With minor mods to the tank and the mounting posts on the frame a mid 70's cb750 tank can be made to fit. If you keep your eye out you can find them on eBay for around $100. They lend them selves to a good starting point shape wise. Also this has been very helpful when looking at wheel compatibility bases ao axel size.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=17902.0

Happy building!
Click to expand...


Thanks a ton! gonna se if I can find one of those tanks, and I'm gonna give a look at that wheel compatibilty chart!
 
Welcome to the site, My first bike and build was an 81 400 which ended up with your bikes motor after I blew a piston. Also the missing pipes on the bike are not the muffler, they are just hollow pipes to extend the length out to the right amount. The heavy as crap chunk of cast iron bolted right under the engine is your muffler, has a ton of baffles and is a crossover, it is also a performance robber and weighs I think 25-30 lbs. If you pull that, and attached some pipe and decent mufflers to the headers you get a better flowing exhaust. Also, depending on the type of carbs on your model you can use a decent set of filters and tune it right, but if you have the 3 jet CV's, keep the air box and use a good filter. Cheers and good luck. look forward to the build.
 
Oh yes and a lot of the 79-86 CM/CB/400-450 parts can be swapped around, either direct bolt on or with slight mods. Some parts won't swap but you can usually tell from pics. The nighthawk is the same basic frame motor everything as the CB450 hawk, just with a longer fork and slightly less aggressive riding position. I still have a few parts left but most of them went with my bike when I sold it to buy a new fridge. Mac makes an exhaust 2-1 but like I said, you can do a 2-2 by removing the under engine X-over and adding a length of exhaust pipe, then mufflers. I just went to the auto parts store and bought the right diameter, clamped it to the headers, then clamped mufflers and made hangers. You can find different peg brackets for the various models to move your pegs more front or back etc. too.
 
Maritime said:
Oh yes and a lot of the 79-86 CM/CB/400-450 parts can be swapped around, either direct bolt on or with slight mods. Some parts won't swap but you can usually tell from pics. The nighthawk is the same basic frame motor everything as the CB450 hawk, just with a longer fork and slightly less aggressive riding position. I still have a few parts left but most of them went with my bike when I sold it to buy a new fridge. Mac makes an exhaust 2-1 but like I said, you can do a 2-2 by removing the under engine X-over and adding a length of exhaust pipe, then mufflers. I just went to the auto parts store and bought the right diameter, clamped it to the headers, then clamped mufflers and made hangers. You can find different peg brackets for the various models to move your pegs more front or back etc. too.
Click to expand...

I was just jumping online to buy the Mac 2-1 exhaust! Thanks for the insight by the way. I was looking at some cm400 parts earlier. There was a parts bike near me that caught my eye. I do plan on relocating the rear pegs, and possibly sliding the driver set a little farther back to set myself a little more aggressively on the bike.
 
Alright, The dude with the cbr front end never hit me back up. So instead, I'm in a bidding war for a front end from a '82 ft500. Also, bought a tracker style tail section, and some of those cheap chinese FMT shocks for the rear. The Mac Performance Black pipe/Chrome Megapipe exhaust is on backorder, but ordered nonetheless. In the meanwhile, I've been trying to keep myself busy with some small stuff.



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Took all of that hideous wiring and did a simple and easy tuck.



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I disconnected everything, cleaned all of the connectors, yada yada yada, and then media blasted the factory bracket. (got rid of the Flasher thing too, since they aren't on the bike anyways, and I most likely wont be replacing them.)

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Painted some stuff black.......

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After some grinding, I was able to manage to fit it right here, after making a new lil' hole in the tank mount bracket.


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Cut off that rubber thing from the kickstand too.


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With all of the stuff in the mail now, I should be able to have some more fun stuff done on Monday, my next day off. Thanks for checkin' it out! any feedback would greatly be appreciated. I am still new to this all, and very eager to learn! Cheers.
 
That little rubber thing is kind of worth keeping. you'll know why the first time you leave your stand down and make a corner LOL. I put my RR and stuff in the same place. I will suggest though if you can flip the RR over and let the fins be exposed under the seat for air flow. they short out if over heated. If you have lots of space after the seat is attached it will be fine though.
 
I'm not sure what your final wiring plan is but I was much happier when I stripped out the old harness and assembled a fresh one. It seemed I was always chasing some sort of ghost in the electrics. I kept the ignition unit and reg/rec from the original system but did away with all the sensors warning lights ect. Also are you planning on using a compact battery or going full size. I have been doing some looking around for my own build and curiou about others preferences/experiences.
 
JGHiggins1 said:
I'm not sure what your final wiring plan is but I was much happier when I stripped out the old harness and assembled a fresh one. It seemed I was always chasing some sort of ghost in the electrics. I kept the ignition unit and reg/rec from the original system but did away with all the sensors warning lights ect. Also are you planning on using a compact battery or going full size. I have been doing some looking around for my own build and curiou about others preferences/experiences.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of extra runs of wire in this harness, I used the factory but simplified it up and took a lot of the runs that all seemed to go through the headlight bucket then back LOL. I also put a new fuse box in as I had the same ghosts in the machine that some were the fault of the corrosion on the fuse holders.
 
JGHiggins1 said:
I'm not sure what your final wiring plan is but I was much happier when I stripped out the old harness and assembled a fresh one. It seemed I was always chasing some sort of ghost in the electrics. I kept the ignition unit and reg/rec from the original system but did away with all the sensors warning lights ect. Also are you planning on using a compact battery or going full size. I have been doing some looking around for my own build and curiou about others preferences/experiences.
Click to expand...

I was planning on going with a small lithium battery, that way I can stash it somewhere discreet. I heard that they don't do very well with holding a charge, and can be unreliable. I'm not sure if that's true or not, I should look into it a bit more. And eventually, I may move to making my own wiring harness, but the spot where it all ends up seems like a nice, accessible home for them. My main concern is the bulk of the factory harness running down the downtube. how tricky was it wiring your own harness?
 
The new harness wasn't too hard to build I left all the major components (reg/rec ignition box ect) close to there original placement. I'm out of town for a couple of days but wen I get home I could send you a hand drawn diagram of what I had going on with mine before I removed the battery and starter.
 
JGHiggins1 said:
The new harness wasn't too hard to build I left all the major components (reg/rec ignition box ect) close to there original placement. I'm out of town for a couple of days but wen I get home I could send you a hand drawn diagram of what I had going on with mine before I removed the battery and starter.
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Dude, I'd greatly appreciate that. Please do!
 
Here is a drawing from the best of my memory. I hope this helps. Also I used a two position key switch.
 

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The switch below the head light I failed to label is the kill switch. If I failed to label anything else just let me know.
 
Might want to question the seller about any sort of warranty that goes along w the MAC, black silicone coated system.

Check this out, Posted by cbguy a couple days ago...
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=64560.msg738043#msg738043

cbguy says MAC system only 4-5 months old.

index.php
 
JGHiggins1 said:
Here is a drawing from the best of my memory. I hope this helps. Also I used a two position key switch.
Click to expand...

You can also include a five pin relay into this diagram so that the main switch will also kill the bike.
 
JGHiggins1 said:
Here is a drawing from the best of my memory. I hope this helps. Also I used a two position key switch.
Click to expand...

HELL YES. Thanks man! Is there a benefit from using a two-position key switch?
 
trek97 said:
Might want to question the seller about any sort of warranty that goes along w the MAC, black silicone coated system.

Check this out, Posted by cbguy a couple days ago...
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=64560.msg738043#msg738043

cbguy says MAC system only 4-5 months old.

index.php



Damn dude. Yeah I'm gonna have to ask about that one. I'm wondering if that was from regualr abuse from heat, or if there were any other factors that may have caused that....
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