natebiehl
New Member
Hi there, New here.
About me:
I live in the Rocky mountains in the USA. I play a lot of music, even get paid to sometimes. I make up songs occasionally. I try to be a good dad. I had kids young, most of my peers are just having babies, my eldest is in high school. Challenging, but I'm blessed with smart, healthy kids.
Been thinking about a bike for a long time. Must be going through that midlife thing because I got divorced and got a bike all in the same couple of weeks (though the bike fell in my lap.)
As a mechanic, I've got a little bit of talent, less experience, and even less money (the perfect storm of project-wrecking traits.) I WILL have questions, most of them arising from assumptions that favor the cheapest outcome for me. I understand that about myself, and I can often self-correct and get back on track with reality, but if I look like I'm deluding myself, feel free to point that out.
Right now I'm trying to figure out why fuel is not flowing out of my project CB350's petcock when it's switched to main, but will flow out of the reserve setting. Bike seems to run fairly strong when it's getting fuel (which is a miracle, because I had the carbs partially disassembled last week and somehow managed not to to screw that up) but something's gumming up the flow out of the tank. Taking apart and cleaning the petcock during my lunch hour today.
My main questions moving forward with this bike: (71 CB350.)
[list type=decimal]
[*]I need a headlight, the original for the bike was smashed. What are some favorites for CB350 projects? I also want to replace that awful taillight and all the signal lamps.
[*]The triple tree seems to hit the tank. Turning radius is really bad. Did somebody put the wrong tank on this bike in the past?
[*]The suspension feels really bad. What questions do I need to answer before I look at upgrading that? My ultimate vision for this bike is to make it a sort of rat bike/cafe hybrid as I'm able to afford it in the future, but before I commit funds and time I want to spend time tuning it and riding it to see if I connect with this rig at all. Right now, the way it bounces into and out of turns feels really janky. Is that the way these bikes are? Is this something I live with until I decide how I want to proceed with the overall project, or is that something I see if I can fix before deciding this bike is worth a project? What's the order of operations there?
[/list]
I will probably post the same question in appropriate sub forums down the line, that's just what's on my mind as a new mechanic and new member.
Hope you have a good one.
About me:
I live in the Rocky mountains in the USA. I play a lot of music, even get paid to sometimes. I make up songs occasionally. I try to be a good dad. I had kids young, most of my peers are just having babies, my eldest is in high school. Challenging, but I'm blessed with smart, healthy kids.
Been thinking about a bike for a long time. Must be going through that midlife thing because I got divorced and got a bike all in the same couple of weeks (though the bike fell in my lap.)
As a mechanic, I've got a little bit of talent, less experience, and even less money (the perfect storm of project-wrecking traits.) I WILL have questions, most of them arising from assumptions that favor the cheapest outcome for me. I understand that about myself, and I can often self-correct and get back on track with reality, but if I look like I'm deluding myself, feel free to point that out.
Right now I'm trying to figure out why fuel is not flowing out of my project CB350's petcock when it's switched to main, but will flow out of the reserve setting. Bike seems to run fairly strong when it's getting fuel (which is a miracle, because I had the carbs partially disassembled last week and somehow managed not to to screw that up) but something's gumming up the flow out of the tank. Taking apart and cleaning the petcock during my lunch hour today.
My main questions moving forward with this bike: (71 CB350.)
[list type=decimal]
[*]I need a headlight, the original for the bike was smashed. What are some favorites for CB350 projects? I also want to replace that awful taillight and all the signal lamps.
[*]The triple tree seems to hit the tank. Turning radius is really bad. Did somebody put the wrong tank on this bike in the past?
[*]The suspension feels really bad. What questions do I need to answer before I look at upgrading that? My ultimate vision for this bike is to make it a sort of rat bike/cafe hybrid as I'm able to afford it in the future, but before I commit funds and time I want to spend time tuning it and riding it to see if I connect with this rig at all. Right now, the way it bounces into and out of turns feels really janky. Is that the way these bikes are? Is this something I live with until I decide how I want to proceed with the overall project, or is that something I see if I can fix before deciding this bike is worth a project? What's the order of operations there?
[/list]
I will probably post the same question in appropriate sub forums down the line, that's just what's on my mind as a new mechanic and new member.
Hope you have a good one.
