So my history of tinkering on bikes is pretty short. It started 2.5 years ago when I picked up an $800 Ninja 250 that I cleaned the carbs on and "somehow" brought it back to life. That's, at least, how I felt back then.
Since then, I've done a few more maintenance things that's intimidated me. Valve adjustments on my 250, fork rebuild on my SV650, figuring out why the horn isn't working on my SV650...that last one is still an ongoing project that's long forgotten.
My point is, I'm hungry to get my hands even dirtier. But not too dirty.
The next obvious step in my motorcycle career was to pick up a 70's Honda and build it up to a cafe racer. That's my ambition at least. With a help of a friend who already has his CB360 cafe racer and a friend who has a motorcycle trailer, I was able to get this baby home safe and sound:
...which looks more like this in my messy garage:
My cafe racer friend gave me some inspiration with his homemade cafe seat. Let's see how it looks after I take off that seat and luggage rack:
Not bad! Actually, DAMN am I excited to work on this bike! *Note: don't worry about the blue rag, that is from my car spilling power steering fluid all over the place...from 6 months ago.
So the first order of business is to get this bike running without needing to hold the throttle. Looks like the idle jet is clogged since it dies instantly when I let go. Actually, it's surprising how well it sounds when I give it gas. Revs up and down well!
So right now, it looks like this as I wait to go buy a 10mm wrench that is lost in space somewhere...
There is much, much, much more to come. Thanks for looking!
Since then, I've done a few more maintenance things that's intimidated me. Valve adjustments on my 250, fork rebuild on my SV650, figuring out why the horn isn't working on my SV650...that last one is still an ongoing project that's long forgotten.
My point is, I'm hungry to get my hands even dirtier. But not too dirty.
The next obvious step in my motorcycle career was to pick up a 70's Honda and build it up to a cafe racer. That's my ambition at least. With a help of a friend who already has his CB360 cafe racer and a friend who has a motorcycle trailer, I was able to get this baby home safe and sound:
...which looks more like this in my messy garage:
My cafe racer friend gave me some inspiration with his homemade cafe seat. Let's see how it looks after I take off that seat and luggage rack:
Not bad! Actually, DAMN am I excited to work on this bike! *Note: don't worry about the blue rag, that is from my car spilling power steering fluid all over the place...from 6 months ago.
So the first order of business is to get this bike running without needing to hold the throttle. Looks like the idle jet is clogged since it dies instantly when I let go. Actually, it's surprising how well it sounds when I give it gas. Revs up and down well!
So right now, it looks like this as I wait to go buy a 10mm wrench that is lost in space somewhere...
There is much, much, much more to come. Thanks for looking!
)
