Soon to be a kat 600 fighter

[MotorbikeBruno]

Hooray! I sold my CBR "hurricafe" to a nice guy a few weeks back. Can't wait to see what yours shapes up to be!

 

[andoor]

So, this project is still moving along. I have done too much to the bike in the past three months to remember it all but, I have been spending most of my time painting and finishing up the bodywork on the frame. The fame and the engine supports are now done and waiting for assembly, also about half of the small parts are painted and done. I took the forks apart last night to blast and paint the lowers and rebuild the internals. I have a big shipment from allballs coming in the next week with all the bearings, seals, and bushings for the entire bike. My goal for the next few weeks is to get all the parts done to have a rolling chassis again. I need to get the engine in the thing and back to my place to sort out all the final assembly. Having the bike 45 mins away has been killing productivity.


This weekend’s adventure is soda blasting all of the aluminum chassis and wheel parts and getting paint on them. Also possibly cleaning and painting the engine.

Hopefully pictures this weekend… If I remember!

 

[andoor]

Frame painted and ready

Aluminum parts soda blasted and ready for paint.

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

Make sure those parts are CLEANNNNNN I've heard many many bad things about painting over Soda Blasting. I've just kept away from it on anything I wanted to paint. Hopefully someone else chimes in and says what I heard was rubbish, but just wanted to give you a heads up! 8)

 

[andoor]

Things are still moving. Most of the key parts are painted, also have some needed hardware on order. I am looking to start building the bike back up in a week or two. Painted the engine over the weekend and spent about two hours trying to get a broken rear rotor bolt out. Man that bolt was hard, burned up a bunch of drill bits. The Bridgeport helped in not destroying my wheel and being able to save the threads.

 

[CALfeRacer]

So one of the main reasons why this project is taking so long is because I have been doing some work on the side for friends. I am making some extra cash, but it is really tough to get anything done quickly with a full-time job and a life to tend to. Not to mention all my fab work is done at my parents place which is 45 mins away. The first project was another Katana that needed some maintenance work and the owner wanted a quick streetfighter treatment. The current “customer” project is a full restore with some mild customization on a CB200 for my girlfriends cousin. I am trying to get the CB200 done before the owner moves back to Miami in May. I doubt my kat will be done this year. Add to that, another friend wants me to swap over all the parts from his CB750 to a hardtail frame and fab some additional parts. Maybe it’s time to quit my day job…

The kat I did some work on. Made up brackets for the stock gauges, new headlight, reshaped the rear plastics, and a ton of maintenance work.

The CB200 pile of parts, frame cleaned up and primed.

What did you do for the gauge brackets on this bike? I want to keep the stock gauges on mine but am still debating how to mount them. Thinking about using some steel bar to mount them similar to the stock style with a dash panel over them, but I like how these look.

 

[andoor]

This weekend the bike starts going back together! I have to press in the races for the stem, and change the rear wheel bearings. After that the cassis can get bolted back together.

Finished rebuilding the forks and filled them with oil last night, and put the final coat on the rear wheel.

I also had to machine some bolts to work with my homemade CB360 handle bar risers. No one sells a full length tread M10x 1.25 bolts over a 40mm length, and I needed at least 60mm so I had to extend the treads. I also had to turn down the heads in height and diameter to recess completely in the base of the clamp.

Painted Kat parts and rusty CB360 parts.

 

[andoor]

Got it rolling again over the weekend. Next big thing is to get the motor in the frame and bring it back to my garage for the winter to finish all the little stuff.

 

[andoor]

Engine is now in.

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

NICE!! Having a roller is a great feeling. Good stuff! 8)

 

[andoor]

Now that the bike is at my place I have been bolting more parts on each day.

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

Yes. This is great 8)

 

[crazypj]

It would have been easier to get a 750 top yoke, has bar clamps cast in
Coils are on backwards, the bosses will probably get cracked next to frame tube like that, they should be 'out', away from frame tube

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

It would have been easier to get a 750 top yoke, has bar clamps cast in
Coils are on backwards, the bosses will probably get cracked next to frame tube like that, they should be 'out', away from frame tube

PJ, I always learn so much from reading your posts. If those bosses aren't touching, would it still be a problem for him?

 

[andoor]

It would have been easier to get a 750 top yoke, has bar clamps cast in
Coils are on backwards, the bosses will probably get cracked next to frame tube like that, they should be 'out', away from frame tube

Thanks for the info on the top yoke I wish I would have known that a few months ago! Luckily what I did didn't cost me anything.


I swapped the coils around, I must have been half asleep when I installed them they were very close to the frame.

 

[crazypj]

PJ, I always learn so much from reading your posts. If those bosses aren't touching, would it still be a problem for him?

Some of the hold off spacers are slightly longer so they don't touch frame tubes but it's VERY rare.
If spacers are lost the coils will crack(usually you have hard starting and miss-fire on 1~2 cylinders)
It's easier to fit them properly and then fit the 'rubber' heat deflector (almost ALWAYS missing after second service)

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

Cool, thanks for the info PJ.

Carry on with the good work Andoor!

 

[andoor]

Wiring is mostly done. Started the bike up last week and it ran like crap! Had a leaking seal in one carb causing it to flood, and some vacuum leaks. Got that all set and bike revs nice and returns right back to idle with no issues. I still have to clean out the tank and finish up the hand controls before it will be ready for a test ride around the block. Lots more work to do mostly cosmetic, but I can finally say this bike will be ready to ride 100% in the spring!!

Some pictures of my new shorai battery. And the lexan I cut for around the battery and the under tail.

I extended the harness for the fuse box to locate it under the rear section of the seat where it is pictured.

O yea and a nice little video. https://vimeo.com/113336047

 

[MotorbikeBruno]

8) Hell yeah!

 

[andoor]

Put on the tank and seat just to see what it would look like. I am definitely going to try to extend and smooth out the sides of the tank to get it to flow better with the frame.