A CB360 Build - Lil' Sebastian Rides Again

el barto

Been Around the Block
Greetings. I haven’t posted here for a while - good to be back. As usual, life got in the way: I spent some time in hospital and subsequently recovering; I had a kid; I moved house, all in the space of a few months. With that now behind me (except the kid obvs) it’s time to once more take up the wrench and finish this bike. I suppose it fits into the scrambler category, but it’s kind of a mix of lots of things.

This is my first build and thus my first build thread, and also I suppose a proper introduction (hi). I thought about starting a thread a while back and posting updates as the work progressed, but I couldn’t get the motivation. So I decided to complete the bike, or at least get it close to completion, and then start a thread that outlined what I did and how I got to that point.

So here is my story; what I learned, what I wish I hadn’t done and what I’d do again. The main thing I took away is simply how rewarding a project like this can be, in every sense of the word. From the feeling of breaking something and figuring out how to fix it (probably the most common occurrence in this entire exercise), to having ideas and seeing them become a real thing that I made myself, however crude or sketchy, let alone having a bike I’m really proud of and can actually ride.

When I started I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I didn’t know there were trackers or scramblers or any of the million other names given to bikes and builds. Don’t get me wrong, I knew there were different types of bike, I just had no idea that you could take a regular old twin and turn it in to whatever you want. I also don’t know why I got a CB360, there was no definitive reason to choose it over anything else, I just liked it. What I did know is that I wanted a bike that could get dirty. I grew up on a farm in north Hampshire (that’s central southern England btw), in an area where roads and tracks frequently become the same thing. Now I live in North Devon (that’s the south west of England), similar to Hampshire but more dramatic: more tracks and gravel roads; more hills; (much) worse weather; it’s like the countryside but MORE. These two places and the countryside and coastline of southern England are where this bike will get ridden most, so I wanted something befitting to these environments. Could it be used as a daily rider? Yes. Will it? Probably not. The weather is too bad here. It would be miserable. Above all though, the bike had to be fun. It’s never going to be a show piece or be a feat of engineering or industrial design. I just want something to ride that’s mine.

I found a CB360 on MCN in may 2015 a couple of hours from me. It was listed for £1800 with 3000 miles on the clock, a lot of money compared to what folks in the US are paying but I suppose the UK is another story and the mileage was good. I was sceptical but secretly knew of course that I’d buy it. My brother and I took the truck to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere and there sat the bike. It’d been imported from America at some point and came over in a 250T frame. The PO got rid of the 250 frame and put it back in a 360 frame. He offered me the 250 frame too which I now wish I’d taken. The bike fired up straight away and green as I was, that was enough for me. What the fuck do I know? It ran and I didn’t know what I’d be looking for if there were any problems anyway so that was that. Below are a couple of pics of it as it sat when I bought it, and then on to the teardown (I can already hear some of you wincing) :mad:.

rP0ApiV.jpg


Naturally, being a kook I wanted to chop off the rear end and install a hoop, as well as add pods. This I did, and devised a cunning plan with PJ that enabled him to modify my carbs and get them back to me here in the UK (thanks PJ). But there were also further underlying issues that weren't purely cosmetic, mainly the wiring and electrics. They were a shambles, years of crudely splicing and cutting - this is probably what slowed me down the most.

Other stuff done to the bike:

- Pamco electric ignition
- New wiring harness and connectors throughout
- Swapped out glass fuses for blades
- Hagon shocks
- CL360 Scrambler pipes
- New gauges
- New levers and controls
- Sparck R/R
- Stainless brake hose
- Boring task of removing rust from tank

The list goes on. So much has gone into this bike but it still feels like it’s a little way off. Today I'm working on some final de-tabbing, some control wiring and bleeding the front brake. I’ll try and keep this thread updated with photos and other shit. Thanks to all the DTT members who’ve helped me to get this far (especially PJ, Sonreir and Mydlyfkryzis).
 
Couple of electrical bits today. I made a tiny lil tray to put most of the junk in, it's a tight squeeze but it about fits...

4SsQH9I.jpg


I've been working on a few different battery solutions. Nothing was really working for me but this is something I'm into... in theory at least. It's an old Polish ammo case that houses a 7ah AGM battery, mounted using two leather straps. The brown leather case to the right is another smaller ammo case that holds the starter solenoid and possibly fuse box. Blade fuses seemed like a good idea at the time but I didn't consider how bulky they'd be once wired in etc. Not as simple as the relatively flat stock fuse box.

The battery clears the swing arm by about an inch and a half and sits just to the right of the chain, so HOPEFULLY there's enough room to work with here and not cause any problems. Although if I've missed anything glaringly obvious hopefully someone will point it out...

YbbBWtd.jpg
 
Should be fine. If it rubs you could cut a piece of plastic (chopping board from pound Store) to act as a slider
 
Looks very similar to mine !

I've stuck with points for now, is the pamco worth the cash?

Battery wise I squeezed a lithium battery into a custom tray and it's working well now I have the sparckmoto reg rec.

Steve
 
Sderbyshire said:
Looks very similar to mine !

I've stuck with points for now, is the pamco worth the cash?

Battery wise I squeezed a lithium battery into a custom tray and it's working well now I have the sparckmoto reg rec.

Steve

Tbh I don't know whether it's worth the cash. I've yet to try it out properly! It's certainly pretty simple to set up and gives a nice big spark but I haven't field tested it. Which lithium did you go for? Any issues at all?
 
Even with the built in protection, lithium cells are not a good idea on CB/CJ250/360
Bike doesn't charge well enough and regulator isn't accurate enough to prevent battery damage
 
el barto said:
Fuse box bulk; case in point (click to enlarge):

c1nNNxX.jpg

If you're looking to slim it down you can solder the wire ends on to the connectors at a 90* angle. Or direct solder to the fuse box to eliminate the ~1" on either side of the box.
 
adventurco said:
If you're looking to slim it down you can solder the wire ends on to the connectors at a 90* angle. Or direct solder to the fuse box to eliminate the ~1" on either side of the box.

Another good idea. Hadn't thought of that... genius!
 
I used one similar to this on my CB750, but mine has 4 circuits instead of 3. It's pretty compact.

attachment.php


http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Way-Waterproof-Fuse-Block-Box-Holder-w-Black-Cap-Motorcycle-Boat-Atv-Car-Truck-/301994167394
 
crazypj said:
Even with the built in protection, lithium cells are not a good idea on CB/CJ250/360
Bike doesn't charge well enough and regulator isn't accurate enough to prevent battery damage

Indeed.

I initially 'upgraded' to the Kohler reg rec but it didn't control the voltage well enough, going above 15.

I've now replaced with one of Matt's Sparckmoto regrecs and it seems to be working well.

I've replaced all the bulbs with led, so the load when running is circa 4 amps, which shouldn't stress the ancient charging system too much.

Steve
 
deviant said:
I used one similar to this on my CB750, but mine has 4 circuits instead of 3. It's pretty compact.

attachment.php


http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Way-Waterproof-Fuse-Block-Box-Holder-w-Black-Cap-Motorcycle-Boat-Atv-Car-Truck-/301994167394

Ahhh that's nice. Much tidier than the one I got. Good shout.

Nothing doing over the next couple of days as I wait for parts (annoying parts like connectors; wires - nothing exciting). Boring.

Question: when installing the exhaust headers and bolting everything up I was getting quite a lot of play, even though everything was done up tight and I THOUGHT I'd got the headers fitting snug against the ports. Took the headers off and the new crush gaskets didn't look like they'd been touched. Any suggestions?
 
Hmm interesting. These are what came with the bike, and I simply swapped them over from CB headers to CL headers. You reckon it's worth getting new/longer shims?
 
The short ones are the ones you want. No difference between the CB and CL, but the CJ has different ones.
The longer set pictured above are the kind for the smallest SOHC fours.
 
Aight thanks Matt. Any suggestions on getting a tighter fit? I was thinking that upon adjusting the flanges maybe I'd knocked the joints out of position causing them to be loose...
 
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