Bright Lights

I'm trying really hard to keep the progress on this bike simple and straightforward with no detours for aesthetics. I want to have a good running and riding bike before I start messing with the look of it. It's not easy, and the other day I convinced myself that I should paint the back section of the frame.

Much of the reason for this was that I had been grinding on it and generally messing with it working of installing the tail lights. I have a hand full of these little LED 1157 bulbs they're super cheap and easy to find at any auto parts store. I've been trying to figure a way to plug them into the ends of the frame tubes ever since I came up with the idea for Sixtynine and I think I've solved it.

I bent up these little spring retainers from a coat hanger based on a drawing that I did referencing the frame tube and using the shock mount as a mounting point.

I took a rigid ruler and scraped it across the top of the two tubes to get a center line and then drilled a hole based on the drawing that I made.

Ran a cable braid inside the tubes.

and plugged them in. Right one's not quite sitting right but it seems to be working great. I think I'll still replace the spring bend that I made in the wire with an actual spring because it's too rigid. That might help it sit a little flatter.

Bikely fluids

Behind slotted screws (which I believe the civilized world banished decades ago) Phillips are the worst thing known to man. The best thing they will ever do is center the drill bit that is to destroy them. And that's what this one did.

With that out of the way this bike needs brakes. Which starts with a bottle of this stuff.

And some bolts

Bled, braking, and looking good!

Cap it off with some stainless cap bolts, and call it a night:

Not a ground breaking event or anything, but an important step.

Fast Eddie

After sizing up all the parts for the front end swap I had the stems pressed and just needed a place to have some welding done. I don't have a welder, but I do have some great friends, so it was off to Eddies garage to drink a soda and watch him do his magic.

He's got a pretty enviably collection in there of ridiculously clean customs (If you look really close at the tank you can see him prepping the tungsten)

Including another '75 750 that I can look over whenever I can't figure out how something is supposed to go together.

My tree ready to be burned in

and done:

Forking around

With a friend over to help me with the 750 we realized that the whole front end of this bike is tweaked to the left. Must've been in a front impact, the forks seemed to travel ok, but there was no denying that they're bent. So... I do have these laying around:

It's time to put them to good use. From one 750 Honda to another. Since Ill be swapping the VFR to an R6 front I think I'll probably end up having to use an R6 wheel too (one of the reasons that project's still held up) So Squid will be borrowing the VFR front roller.

Everything actually fit except the VFR stem was too long for the CB750 neck so I had to grind the weld off:

and then have both stems pressed out and the CB750 stem pressed into the VFR tree by Plano Machine for 15 bucks (I actually had the VFR stem loose in hand from the other swap at this point) Then I got a friend of mine to run a bead along the bottom for a little extra reassurance, but more on that in the next post.

Stem done and new tapered bearings from Cycle Concepts in Frisco ($20). Once all the parts were swapped it was just a matter of bolting it all together.

So I may not have a rear brake for a while, but man oh man should that front stop good.

Carb loading

One of the things that Squid gained in her travels is another bank of carbs.

Skyler (the latest owner before I finally bought it back) had discovered that one of the carbs had the slow jet snapped off inside the body. So he sourced a new set, I just need to rebuild them.

Not much to this, just take the old ones out and put the new ones in.

One thing that I discovered about the Super Sport kit that I think is pretty cool are these little individual filters on each valve.

And something that I found the I don't like is that you have to take the entire slide mechanism apart to adjust the needle. I stopped here so that I could run to B&A Industrial supply for new stainless allen bolts.

because if I have to take this thing apart each time I want to adjust the needle the phillips aren't going to cut it.

Back together with all new brass

You'll just have to trust me on that. I popped them on and I've got a runner, for the first time in probably a decade!

Homecoming

Way back in 2005 I came across this in a junk yard for $600:

...and I couldn't pass it up. It was the first inline 4 that I really liked the look of. It had clearly been abused a bit.I had grand plans for her:

...but I never found the time. It sat in my garage, I moved it from an apartment, to a town house, and finally to my current house. All without really doing anything to it. So when a friend of mine came along and expressed an interest in it I decided that maybe he'd be able to get to it and get it on the road sooner than I would and I sold it.

You might remember the post "Eulogy". Well he had just bought a house himself and also, like me ended up not having any time for it so he sat on it for a while too. So again, when another friend of mine suggested maybe he was interested in an SOHC 750, I suggested that I might know just the one, and she changed hands again, and again she sat.

She sat in his garage until he decided that maybe a better choice for him would be an XS650 and it was time again for the 750 to find a new home. So here she is:

Back home and with some new enthusiasm this might actually happen this time.