Getting out

After just about a decade, she's back on the road. Since she last ran she's seen at least six owners, two of them were me.

I took her down to Don Tarvin and Black River Cycles for a little test and tune

 it turned out to be a little less testing and tuning than we had hoped because we were having some software issues, but I know that she's running way too rich and I've got a jet kit on order. It's taking it's sweet time to get here though.

But that's not going to keep me off the road

here with The MotoGatos RD

Squid represent. The color scheme is in constant flux at the moment. It's starting to look like a Silence Television bike with its' random stickers and icons. I'm excited about that.

 So far, I've only run out of gas twice, and electricity once. Other than that, she's been brick house reliable. Time to dig into the charging circuit a bit.

Running!... away

I'm city Cycles

China

Bike Bandit (how do I love thee)

Shiny new parts in the mailbox always make the day better

But Sometimes:

Old dirty parts from the junk yard are even better!

That's a nice bottom:

...and top:

She runs, and runs great. After syncing the carbs though she has developed a major oil leak somewhere around the bottom of the head. One way or another though, this is how she' going to Barber.

Speed bump

Everything was going great. I was moving forward, the bike was coming together, and all was good.

...and then, I found this:

Those dogs are junk, fork is possibly reusable, drum is possibly reusable. I tried to find another one of these gears everywhere. I even bought up a whole new basket full of 750 transmission off ebay trying to get one. Same exact problem with that one.

But, with a little help from the good folks over at the SOHC4 Forum I've finally got one and after several months of complete dead stop on this project. I'm charging ahead again.

Life is good.

Red Coat, the other kind

I've become just a tad obsessed with the TZ color scheme. I want to paint everything red and white, and I'm going to start here.

I couldn't get the frame to stop rusting since I've been grinding on it, so I decided instead of touching up all the bare metal with black rattle cans I'd go ahead and shoot the thing red. I have every intention of redoing the paint because I still have to do some frame chopping ahead of me. We'll call this a mockup, a test to confirm the color scheme.

 Stripped

I was working on a friends bike and went ahead and shot my tank at the same time. Took a few layers of primer and a few days to get it all smooth on the top, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Once the thing's mostly back together I'll take a nice side shot and play with the graphics until I get something that's worth shooting on the tank.

75 cent coat

After Junior welded up my tank there was still a bit of crud shaking around in there so to knock it around a bit I added 75 pennies and shook the living daylights out of it. It's a good idea to keep track of how many you put in and try to get that many out again at the end.

Next up was a good rinse with solvent and acetone, after which I needed to make sure it was good and dry.

Then the Red Kote went in. This stuff is new to me, but Junior swears by it and he's done a lot more bikes than I have and usually knows his stuff. In the past I've only used Por15s tank coating (that's what's in LoudBike) and have had no trouble with it, but this stuff's a bit thicker, and the 750 tank's a bit rougher. So I'm hoping this will take care of the couple of pin holes that are in the tank.

 And then it all comes out.

 Like red candy in there.

Bored

Down to the last split.

I would have just moved onto the transmission from here without stopping,that's the only reason I pulled the thing apart after all. But I found this:

Note the broken oil ring on the piston, that's what did the damage to the cylinder wall. To get this out I have to go bigger. That wasn't in the plan, or budget, but it's the only way to get this thing back on the road, so it had to happen. After much searching much of which landed on piston kits that were about $650 (which isn't possible) I got pointed to a much cheaper one on ebay that a friend who's opinions I respect told me looked good. So $110 later I got these.

 Also just now I picked up my cylinders, all fresh and clean clean.

From a local lawn mower shop $165. Engine building on the cheap. Wish me luck.

Pull up a seat

Had to cut up the deck that carried me all over the streets of Seattle for the two years that I lived there.

 Had to add a little foam, hopefully this one will be a little more forgiving than the seat that I've got on ludbike is.

 It's good to have friends, one of my buddies that works in the fashion industry was able to score me some tasty peeled cows.

All of which I dropped off at Rays. This place is just down the street from my old office and I used him for the red vinyl seat that I put on the Bugatti push car that I made for my Daughters first birthday.

A week, and a hundred dollar bill (a little overpriced) later I picked up this

I'm a bit lukewarm on it. He definitely took some artistic liberties with it and I liked my diamonds better. I'm overall satisfied with it, but I don't think I'll be going to him again.

I still haven't been able to figure out the mounting just yet, I got the bike running, but I've got no first gear, so I'm tearing her down and the seat's dropped down the priority list.

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.