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So I've got a great group of vintage bike lovers that I hang with and we work on/talk about/obsess over/ bikes of all sorts... Triumphs/BMWs/Nortons/Harleys/Hondas ETC... there's a good number of Airheads among the group... mostly 60s-80s R series. I finally found a good candidate for decent money. It's ugly but runs okay already... I'm in no hurry as I'm just wrapping up an extensive restoration on my '69 T120R... I am going to de-ulgy and perform essential maintenance pretty quickly though. I'm already in it at a pretty good price after selling off the Corbin Seat, Krauser bags and Fairing I'll be in relatively cheap for a runner. This build will probably be a cross post with one of the Airhead forums... but I dig the Do The Ton community so much there's no way I can't log my build here. My initial inclination is to not get too crazy and just keep a nice clean and tasteful Airhead and nothing too "personal"... I'm not going to spend a ton of money on this one either.
Here's what I brought home...
https://youtu.be/NZK13C6JCtM
I dug around and I've got some stuff on order to get this thing road worthy again. I I was able to source the Headlight (Ring/reflector/lens/bulb), Side Covers, Side Cover decals, Turn signals.
Going to need to re-build the front caliper... that thing is not letting go completely. Just the seals... it works so I assume the piston is okay... probably mega funky in there though.
This old guy is probably going to just see itself getting put back into serviceable condition and let it see some miles this year. (I say that now... )
Nope, was going to dig into that caliper maybe tonight and see what's up with it, I'm sure my Clymer has a section on the caliper... But, it's so cheap (barring replacing the piston) and quick to rebuild one, it's a must do on any vintage bike of questionable origin in my book.
So I got the Triumph off the lift yesterday. I took the R75/7 down to the end of the driveway with a bucket of kerosene and a couple of brushes and cleaned off the caked on decades of crud from around the motor. Man this bike hasn't been loved in a while. I have a good bit of neglect to undo. I have a new pair of side covers and my local paint shop is supposed to have a paint match ready for me on Monday. I'll get the side covers and front fender painted and installed and see where things stand cosmetically... I have a little frame paint touch up to do also. I am going to try to get the carbs sorted out maybe next weekend also. Oh and notice the big ass Corbin seat is gone... I was able to find a same condition original seat on eBay for a good price. Looking a little more like it should.
So I was able to score a pretty nice instrument cluster off eBay and it came today and surprised me that the speedometer/tachometer/odometer/trip odometer all function... and with that fact I got a deal compared to what it'd cost to refurbish mine.
EDIT: I installed the new cluster and it indeed looks and functions 100% the neutral light even works where the old one didn't... I was worried I'd have to replace the neutral switch which doesn't look like a pleasant job.
My headlight assembly arrived from Italy today... Nice!
And I left work a little early and managed to get my Front fender and side covers in a couple of coats of primer. Next I'll sand them back and seal them so that I can spray them on Sat.
It was pretty nice after work today so I got out and sprayed base and clear on the Fender and side covers. I'll be able to get those back on the bike this weekend and focus back on finishing up my Triumph build.
I also was able to get the headlight wiring harness made up today. No need to bother with pics of that. Between a harness that was given to me and what I salvaged from the fairing extension I was able to make a pretty nice harness with the correct color-coded wires. The paint work turned out good... it's a 2K paint so I can cut and polish out a couple of little nibs as soon as tomorrow, I have a set of 750cc decals for the side covers to complete the look. Still need to get the turn signal brackets swapped out, I might try that next That'll finish up the electrical. (though there's an inline spade fuse that has been added... I need to figure out what that is all about and address it properly... looks like an amateur fix.)
I got the side covers and fender reinstalled today. I also got a set of carb rebuild kits and valve cover gaskets. Gonna get those carbs right and make sure the heads are torqued properly and valves adjusted well next
I got out yesterday and pulled the carbs and started breaking them down for rebuild. I got one cleaned, new diaphragms and O-rings installed and I cleaned & nickel plated all the steel
At least it's a single disk up front. Double on my r100s is a PITA to get right. Might need to get the disk warmed up to get perfect if it's slightly out. Change those plug wires if they are original...fried my point with an old one and ruined a good ride that day.
Carbs are rebuilt and back on the bike and a cursory tune has been done... the bike idles nice off choke now... and revs up with no stumbles.
Ellwood said:
At least it's a single disk up front. Double on my r100s is a PITA to get right. Might need to get the disk warmed up to get perfect if it's slightly out. Change those plug wires if they are original...fried my point with an old one and ruined a good ride that day.
Yeah, I plan to read up on aligning the brakes and performing the alignment this weekend. My son is in from the Navy this week and next... Bike time might be spotty. Oh, They are not original plug wires.
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