RUST RIDER

CM450 Revamp Pt 2

2012-02-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

Life's short. Loop it.

CM450 Revamp

2012-02-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

There's no question the Honda CM series comes with a hideous chud of a frame. A buddy of mine gave me a good deal on this runner and I like a challenge. Choppy choppy.

Ah, that's a better starting point.

Currently working in a shop called Elan Vintage Cycles. Cool dudes. If you need any work/repair/customizing done to your bike hit us up. Rustridermailatyahoodotcom. We won't have a booth at Timonium, but we'll definitely be around.

Timonium

2012-01-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Lowside

2012-01-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

Met a couple of the guys from Lowside Syndicate. Good people. Check out their blog and subscribe to a great magazine.
www.lowsidesyn.com
http://lowsidemag.blogspot.com/

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

Been living in Baltimore, MD for the last couple of months and made some cool friends who are also into building some two wheeled machines. Finally, posting will resume with some new projects.

Relocating

2011-06-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Selling all my shit off, packing a van and moving across the country. Thats what Ive been up to. Life is good. Go get your piece of it and live it to the fullest. Posts will continue. Eventually.

Open up your eyes....

2011-05-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

...and let your demons run.

CB progress

2011-04-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Getting there. I want to go scrambler style but my ambitions are larger than my wallet as usual. It will be roadworthy soon though.

Make it work!

2011-03-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

I need a bike with a clean title to ride some medium distance adventures this summer but the 500 engine is toast and I have no money to resleeve or nickaseal it. So, I made the frame accept either the 400 or the 500 engine. Dubbed the CBslow, performance is considerably less. 27HP versus the 50HP from the 500. I'll nix as much weight as I can to bring it back around.

Slugged the inside at the connections. Pretty stout. (I hope).

Make yer own mounts.

A little tech tip. When spraying a gloss coat, set the can in warm water (not too hot or the damn thing might blow up). It helps the paint flow a little smoother, gives more pressure, and lets the paint relax a little easier on your piece. Make sure your piece to be painted is a decent temp too. Several light coats at about 12 to 16 inches away will mind the drips. But you already knew that.

CB500T Cylinders out there??

2011-02-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Anyone have '75/'76 CB500T Cylinder jugs laying around with some good life on the stock bore? Let me know. Mine has been over-honed by the previous owner and are out of spec. Oversized pistons are ridiculously hard to find. P.S. Im pretty poor.

Bastard. Currently.

2011-01-11T21:43:00.000-08:00

El Bastardo as it sits currently. Gotta do something for a seat cover. Sounds like a raped ape. Its the bane of my neighbors' existence.

Lazy bike

2010-12-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

OK OK, I built one. Now I can calm down and relax. Back to the workshop. (Fun as hell to ride by the way.)

Small Engine Love

2010-12-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

Pics snagged from the random interwebs.

CB 450/500 and 350(maybe??)

2010-12-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Dont care what it is really. Looks tits. Cruising around on Bubble Visor. Should be cruising around on one of the bikes but, Im stuck at work.

Christmas Wish List

2010-12-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

#1) Terminator HK Motorcycle

Can it be???

2010-11-24T15:24:00.000-08:00

... A TLR200? Looks like it! Made me laugh. NFK photo via Bubble Visor. Thanks.

Still Alive...

2010-11-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

Im still here. Just doing some art and other stuff. No motorcycle work as of lately, but as soon as I get heat going into the garage I'll post once again. (Image stolen from ze interwebs.)

CVCC

2010-10-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

So an old 79 Honda Accord found its way back into my driveway recently. Once found a few years back, brought back to life with a top-end rebuild and a new carb, now thrashed and in need of resurrection once again. This car is the equivalent of the TLR200 bike. It will start, get you there surely and safely. It wont do it fast, it wont make 12 foot rooster tails or even chirp the tires. But, they both have some sort of charm to them that makes the rider/driver fall in love with them and miss it as soon as you sell it and will make you buy them back if the opportunity ever arises. Got lucky I guess. A new radiator and a CV axle and this pup is ready to begin it's 3rd out of nine lives. I wish someone would do a nasty engine swap on one of these. I think it could put some old VW Golfs, Datsun Honeybees, and 510's to shame.

(The car in the pics isn't mine. Got the pics off the web. But same body style and shallow-reef-water blue. In case you cared. You dont.)

"The Fang"

2010-10-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

One wicked CB500t. Supercharged drag bike. Site: www.thefang.co.uk

2010-10-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Had to modify the foot pegs to get them forward a little bit. Plus they fold for tighter storage. That's important when it takes you a metric ton of months to finish a 6 month project.

2010-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

Haha. Instead of checking everything for safety, I get it fired up and do a weenie burnout for my friends. Thanks for the vid Dan-o.

Rear Sprocket

2010-09-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Cut by Rebel Gears. These guys are awesome. They whipped this sucker out fast, accurate, and clean.

How To Make Your Own Spokes:

2010-09-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

Need one replacement spoke? Need a custom sized spokes for an odd wheel/hub combo? You could rummage around your motorcycle graveyard, order some online if you can find them, or you can do it yourself, the good ol' fashioned way.
Start out with solid rod the same diameter as your other spokes. You can use mild steel if you want to paint them, zinc plated or SS if you want to keep them bare and rust free, or Cro-Mo for light and strong (cro-mo mig/tig wire needed for welding cro-mo and SS wire for SS or the weld will fail). First thread the end. Most spoke nuts are 40 TPI. You might find yours to be different though.
Cut it to length leaving enough for the bend.
You can either heat and bend or just smack it over with the hammer if the gauge is small enough.
Check your angles.
I drilled and counter-sunk a hole in a 12ga. sheet of copper. You can also use brass.
Clamp in the spoke leaving the desired length out to weld the nipple on.
Lay your copper sheet on top with your spoke protruding with enough material to weld on.
Put a nice dab down. make sure you get the heat on the spoke to make good penetration. You dont want a cold joint here.
Grind and file the bead down til you are happy with it and it fits the dill-outs in the hub.
There you go, your hand made spoke.

Disclaimer: You are responsible for your own safety and the safety of others who ride your bike.

2010-09-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

A lot of sharp CB's Im diggin' on.

Got it.

2010-09-01T22:40:00.001-07:00

Some carb cleaning and setting the float did the job. Sounds good, exhaust cleaned up on both sides, now its going on the back burner because I have a sprocket coming for El Bastardo. Finally..

2010-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

Got power to the coils, cleaned the points and it runs. Kind of half assed. Left cylinder smokes a little, right never got hot. Doesn't seem like the right is getting fuel. I'll give the carbs a run through.

Its impossible to get on the center stand without a front brake. So I fill up the reservoir and find a nice leak at this coupler. Someone twisted it til its stripped both ways. Wont loosen, wont tighten. Good times.

The Good, The Bad, and The Wiring

2010-08-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

All back together and in the frame with new rings, cyls honed, valves, lapped, a few hardware runs (no matter how much they say "its all there" with a basket case it never is), checked, re-checked, torqued, re-torqued, gapped, cleaned, lubed, wired, gassed, and ready to go... except there's no voltage at the coils. Boo. The manual says not to run without a battery. It will kill the rectifier they say. So I figured Id put a capacitor in place of the batt. Ive done this on a couple of bikes and have had no problems. I want a kick only bike. The mag should run the bike just fine. Cant check the stator til it runs. Might hook it up to a car batt to get it all hammered out. Fawk wiring. Its a love/hate thing for me.

New addition to the Family

2010-08-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

Picked up a CB500 twin roller with a basket case engine. Its 99 percent all there. I was going to use it for parts for the Bastardo (rear wheel, trip trees, disc brake) but its all together and Ive seen what can be done with them. Im leaning hard towards a hardtail attack chopper that Bird so inspiringly touts. Check out Attack Choppers and be forever transformed if you havent already. Yes, I know its not a Harley, yes, I know its not extremely powerful, yes, I know its a Japanese bike. I like what I like and thats that. For now, Im going to make it a runner first and finish up El Bastardo before I have too much madness going on in my tiny garage.

Some assembly required......naturally.

Random-ass Inspiration

2010-08-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

ShineFest 2 Madison, NC

2010-08-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Great advice.
Inside of an early model modified. Click to see larger.

Making my Santa list early this year. Please please please?

2010-07-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

I swear these guys have a mind reading machine with a direct line to my grape.

2010-07-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Needs tires, bmx stem, and bmx bars. Good to go. Light as a feather.

2010-07-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Some detail shots of the frame Im painting for my mountain/bmx hybrid bike. Should be fully dried and assembled by tomorrow night. Then I can get back to building stuff thats powered by gasoline instead of some drunk asshole.

Im back

2010-07-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well I never left but I had to do some automotive side work to pay the bills. Now that the Jeep is back in action.. well mostly, it has a dead miss in cyl #3 at idle but smooths out above idle. Checked plugs, wires, cap, rotor, swapped these components for know good ones. Nothing. Its not detrimental, but it sure is annoying. It does have more power and about 90k less miles than the old 2.5 banger. Or wheezer rather. The weber makes a nice bit of pep. Overall, minus a few little things, Im pretty happy with my jalopy 4x4. NOW I can get back to the bikes.

The TY175 pissed me off. Wont shift. Took the cover off to see if I could adjust the shift mechanism but it still wont click into gears normally. It will go into a gear (dunno which) and halfway to another and thats it. Ill come back to it later.

El Bastardo needs: a seatpan, seat, custom rear sprocket, and a chain to start with. Need to make a call to get a rear sprocket made that will take #50 chain to match the Honda motor. After that: wiring, turn signals, brake light, keyswitch box, front fork w/ hydraulic disc brake and reservoir, new front wheel, tires/tubes, and an inspection for registration. Whew.

And like I need one more friggin' project, Im converting Rock Hopper mountain bike to single speed. Ive been building a BMX style fork for it over the past few days.

Took a wee kids bike fork and extended it to fit a 26" wheel. Im going for something like the bike in the last pic. Back to work.

Effin' JEEP

2010-06-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

So there are motorcycles in the kitchen

because there's a JEEP in the garage

with its transmission on the floor

because it had a bad clutch

that came with this new lump I put in

to replace this wasted old lump.
Thats why I haven't got anything done on the bikes.

Foot pegs...

2010-06-08T15:54:00.001-07:00

...done.

New Gear

2010-06-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Needed some new offroad boots and some old school bomber goggles. Theres an awesome shop I love to check out on a regular basis called Ace Motorcycle Gear. They sell stuff on consignment. New and used so the inventory is always changing. If you're in Albuquerque drop in and chances are you'll always find something you need at an excellent price.

ALIVE!

2010-06-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I hooked up all the ignition wiring and coils, put half a gallon of gas in the tank and kicked it over about 3 times and it lit up. Sounds tough for a little 400. The straight pipes have a nice deep bark. These honda 360 deg. twins have a ton of counterbalance so it actually runs pretty smooth. Carb is pretty close as is. I might lift the needle a bit more. I need a road test to be certain. I am stoked! Still a lot of things to finish. Back to work.

Carburetor...

2010-05-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

...is a funny word. When I'm really bored I like to see how many spelling variations of the word I can find on Craigslist accross the country.

2010-05-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

Made some new runners into the intake ports since the boots were shot.

Should work fine. Cross my fingers. I would like to do a full metal piece. It aint pretty, but neither is the rest of the bike. So its perfect.

Opened up the Mik to find a broken float hinge. Fixed that right up. I might go with an Amal in the future. Not sure yet. Need to do more research. Back to work.

Cramped

2010-05-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Footpegs for contortionists. Need to come up with something else.

Lookin' good. Awkward from some angles, but good.

Removable

2010-05-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

Trials vids

2010-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Doin' Work

2010-05-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

Finally getting stuff done and completed. This place is a mess. I am thoroughly disgusted with messy work spaces and this one is driving me 100% apeshits crazy.

2010-05-06T01:02:00.000-07:00

Got some work done on the crusty bastard.

Need to finish up the top mount and brace over the valve cover, pick up some good hardware and I'll set up the carb (thats right, carb, singular) and ignition and see if this pup kicks over before getting any farther with this set up. The dual carbs will interfere with the frame. A single will sit right in there with a fabbed manifold. I'll be using an 84 SR400 round slide Mikuni. Ive seen a few parallel twins with this setup and thet seem to work ok, although I havent found any dyno numbers that can give me any insight to change in power. Reliability and ease of maintainence is what Im really looking for in this case. Might have to play with the jetting a bit though. Just because both displacements are relatively the same doesnt mean anything.

Too many irons in the fire. 3 bikes not including the new project design my buddy and I have on the planning board. Just now put the engine back in the TY (right). I need a day or two off. To work... Damn.

nOi!ce

2010-04-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Frame stiffened up nicely as soon as I tacked in the lower cradle. Mounted up some nice bosses for the front engine mount. Finish welded the cradle. Aaaaaaaaaand now I need to put some cross bracing in between and extra bracing around the lower rear eng mount. Woot. About 5in of ground clearance. A little low for my taste, but thats what you get for stuffing an oversized lump in a tiny frame. That little honda motor better be a runner, otherwise I might have to cram some other craziness in there. Maybe a TT600 single??? Time will tell. Gotta go finish this shyte.

2010-04-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

The engine is hanging in there on it's own now. I'm going to put some small tube through the bolt holes on the frame for the front hanger, just like the original CB400 mounts. It took some precision drill work (yeah right) but it all lined up nicely. I was going to start on the rest of the frame and saw that it was after 3am in the wee morning, so I mocked it all up and couldn't resist a few snaps. More work to do.

2010-04-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Getting everything where I want it. Mocked up the exhaust to see where the pipes would run. I want to keep it nice and tight. I decided to continue the cradle underneath the engine to keep the pipes pulled in and give a place to mount a skid plate. Although this thing will hardly clear a cockroach when its all done. Whatever, if it doesnt work out I'll just build a jig and make my own frame. Hardtail of course. Either way, Im having a blast.

Sorry for the blurry pics. I was in a hurry.

2010-04-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to keep most of the original cradle but, the engine wont sit low enough and be removable for maintainence. Also needed to line up the output sproket to clear the swingarm. Been working my day job hard, so progress has been slower than I prefer. I killed a bunch of time trying to mount my tubing bender to my garage floor. The 10 dollar diamond tip concrete bit was toast after about an inch and a half of work. Did it slow and tried to keep it cool, but it didnt live up to its name. Ive got a few railroad ties buried in the back yard that should stay put. Ill just have to mount the bender and use it outside till I build a heavy-ass workbench that mounts to the wall. I drew up 10,000 sketches for the lower cradle. Madness. I have dreams about engine mounts and triangulation. Speaking of triangles, I found some useful stuff. TonyFoaleDesigns.

Do you ever...

2010-04-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

...stop and think about IF you should do something BEFORE you do it?

...Nah me neither.
A lot more work to do before its even remotely safe.

Greezy Bastardo

2010-03-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

So light and easy to pull out. Having regrets pulling it.

Fresh n clean(er).

Oh that will look pretty in there. Screw it! "Chop em all, nothing is sacred!" to quote Slim.

Yup

2010-03-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

That is going into that. I could keep the little 2 stroke 175 in there and make a decent ride, but I wanted a frankenbike, so Im going to bastardize it even harder with a CB400 twin from a 78. I mainly picked it up because the price was right (cheap). What I failed to notce is that it runs off of a CDI ignition. Which requires a battery. A magneto powered, batteryless, light, fast, agile, bike is what I was after. We'll see what can be done to ditch the battery. The Cb400 was not ideal in the fact that they are picky with octane levels, a bit heavy for its displacement, and power is only about 10hp more than the 2stroke. But, does offer gobbs more torque, the ability to not require premix, and the propensity to be an excellent daily runner that can do dirt. Not going to ditch the 175 engine though. Ive got plans for that.

Fenders

2010-03-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

New bars and tire mounted. Coming together nicely.

The new rear fender just mounts on top of part of the old one to utilize its mounts.

Choppin the old rear fender nastiness off. Also the dog molested front fender was bobbed out of necesity. Sanded and ready for some of that plastic paint.

El Bastardo is coming along

2010-03-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Pulled this headlight from the "DeathKart", a 70's TeeBird golf cart that never really came to fruition. Probably for the best interest of me and my friends safety. It most likely won't be bright enough but that's the thrill of it.

Skateboard wheel for a chain tensioner. I've wanted to do this for the last two years. Anything goes on this bike. El Bastardo is it's new name. So, while looking for a skate wheel I noticed someone had helped themselves to my skate. It's missing and now the weathers nice to go ride some vacant parking lots. Thanks to whomever was dick enough to take my board. I hope you bust your ass on it now.

Factory 70s yamaha paint can take a bullet. The nasty rattle can green burned off in 5 minutes with the paint stripper. The blue yammy paint underneath took another 2 treatments at about an hour a piece. After an hour of sanding I have a fresh steel tank. It's snowing today. Hopefully the humidity doesn't make it flash rust before I get some clear on it.

Goodies

2010-03-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Wheel laced up. Tire and tube arrived this morning with some handlebars. Woot.

Stainless allens for case covers, gaskets, and rear fender from Trials UK. I usually try to buy domestic but these guys know vintage trials bikes, are super helpful, stock the right parts that fit, and are fair priced. That's right eff the eGay sellers who charge 5 times what shipping really costs. Or sellers who think their junk is cast in gold. Honest work and honest prices are what makes America great. Rant, rant, rant. I also want to say thanks to the sellers who I have purchased parts for this bike at reasonable prices and reasonable shipping rates. You make it a more enjoyable resto experience and doing your part to restore our economy.

Making some...

2010-03-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

bars,

to replace these bars,

While listening to The Bars.

The cables dont like the shorties but I think they are rad.

A little progress

2010-03-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

A few little bits cleaned up and polished. Just waiting on some little odds and ends in the mail to finish the front end. It should be a roller soon. Got the new piston and rings so I'll crack open the motor soon.

FTW

2010-03-02T23:48:00.000-08:00

I went out to the garage tonight to start wrenching on the motor and said eff it. Got on this one and had a little night ride session for an hour or so. No destination. Just riding.

Cant wait to ditch the airbox and muff. Deciding how I want to run a new pipe and megaphone.

I love Husq tanks No.2

2010-02-18T15:51:00.001-08:00

From WrenchMonkees

I love Husq tanks!!!

2010-02-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

Saw it first on Attack Choppers. Originates from Mutiny Mayhem. Both excellent blogs.

2010-02-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

Frame is painted. Kind of a gunmetal/cast iron color.

Brushed Aluminum Look

2010-02-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Getting the brushed aluminum look is simple really. Its like polishing minus the last 4 steps. Not being a fan of chrome and mirrored finishes, I like the look of machined surfaces and labored handmade pieces. I think it fits this bike perfectly.

The rim had been annodized gold. I sandblasted most of the gold off. Shortly after i found out you can use oven cleaner for 5 minutes and cut it right off. BEWARE, if you leave it on too long it will eat your aluminum like the Cookie Monster let loose on a girl scout bake sale. I ran out of sand (I know, I know, I live in a desert haha) so there is some remnant of gold left.

I used a blue scour pad to cut off the rest of the gold. These things are coarse and cut very deep. I wouldnt recommend this for going to a fine polish. It leaves directional marks. Fortunately, thats what I was going for. Be sure to get every nook and cranny.

Next step was the green scotch brite pad. Not quite as course but will still leave directional marks. I went around the rim with this about 4 times. each time it looks better and better. I never cut in enough the first time to remove the pits from sandblasting though. They can be seen up closely. It gives it a bit of a dull look. I like it and am going to go with it. I did all of this by hand. Power or air tools would have made the job A LOT faster. But, I like where it ended up regardless.

Final outcome. I might go over it with a 600 grit wet/dry paper to get the shine a little closer to the rear wheel. Either the pits make it hazy or the alloys are slightly different.

Rear wheel shined up nicely other than the pits that I was mostly able to get out. There wouldnt be any rim left if I kept going.

Polishing Aluminum

2010-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ive been working on the wheels. I was going to paint them but decided that it was probably not a good idea since this bike will see only offroad use. I chose to polish them instead. I dont think I will take them to a mirrored finish though. Just a clean "brushed" look. The rear is pitted badly in one section, but I worked it out as much as possible. It wont be show quality, but it wont be an eyesore either. Here are some videos I found very helpful. Ill post some pics of the process of polishing the front rim.

2010-01-20T01:10:00.000-08:00

Primed and almost ready for paint. A little fine sanding to smooth out rough spots.

2010-01-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

Cleaning up the rear wheel while the rust converter does it's thing. The frame should be ready for primer soon.

New Toy

2010-01-15T07:19:00.001-08:00

Well, new to the garage anyway. Yamaha DT175. Rusty, greasy, and in need of a lot of work as usual. Came with another DT tank, a seatpan, and a Husqvarna vintage tank. Hell yeah! Not to mention the possibility of another rolling frame. Ok, back to work on the TY.

More Engine Porn

2010-01-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

Allison liquid cooled V12. Developed by the Allison Division of General Motors Corp. The design is that of a modern engine featuring overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, and single point fuel injection. It made at lest 1 HP for every pound it weighed. This particular engine coming from a P-38 produced 1,450 HP.

Engine porn #2

2010-01-05T00:23:00.000-08:00

I was at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento last week oogling various aircraft and engines. Should have been a pilot. Or at least an aircraft tech.

Engine porn #1

2010-01-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

28 cylinder air-cooled airplane engine at the Sacramento air and space museum. The pistons are bigger than my head!

Zoom

2009-12-17T00:08:00.000-08:00

My second favorite tool

2009-12-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

The "metal make go awayer".

She's a true basket case now

2009-12-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

Spoke too soon

2009-12-17T00:04:00.000-08:00

A gift from UPS yesterday. The hub probably isn't going to work. Hooray for respoking wheels. I think it's time for a sandblaster as well.

Small crack on the ouside edge of the silver one.

Pioneer?? Scott Towne's Chainsaw Chop

2009-12-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Have a look at this sweet 2-stroke bob built by Scott Towne in his "spare-time". It might have been done before, but this is the first I've ever seen. Much respect for this awesome toy. Check out his blog and link to a Chop Cult article on him.

Scott, you are a modern day pioneer. I want to build a little 2-stroke chop now. I'd bet my botton dollar I'm not the only one either.

In his post he mentions what the hell he would do with a smoker hardtail. Good question but, its the bombbay doors. Cheers for the inspiration.

Heep Jalopokee

2009-12-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

The jeep didn't want to stay running today, or the past 2 weeks for that matter, because of an air leak underneath the carburetor.

Look at that nest of wiring and vacuum hoses. When I get around to rebuilding the weakling AMC 150 I think I'll take the opportunity to do away with most of the computer controlled feedback carburetion system and put in a properly jetted carter yf sans electronics. The right size catalytic converter and some tuning should keep it within emissions standards. This thing is kind of a roach. I wouldn't be bothered to take the sawzall to it and make a trail rig out of it. Perhaps a future project. For now, I'll stick to the drive, repair, drive a little farther, repair again routine.

Well here is why it's sucking air. The four little screws holding the carb to the base plate are loose. ( I loosened the 9/16" nut.) The carb was rocking out harder than Beavis and Butthead.

Honda TLR 200 Survival

2009-12-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

Some pics of the survival 'Flex. Yes, in case zombies happen.

Barbeque black and olive drab, undeniably my fave.

Ooooo scary.

Stoplight made out of a rattlecan lid. I think Im going make my own fiberglass fender a la Manual. Be sure to check out the Manual Blog to be fully amazed.

Disassemblification

2009-12-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

Getting it all broken down finally. If I had a dollar for every time I cussed at rusty, frozen bolts on this bike I'd be a millionaire and could buy factory bikes all day long. Eh.. but what fun would that be???

The front axle gave me hell until I got out a big ass hammer. Steel + aluminum + heat/cold + h2o = stuck. Same with the swingarm. Except there is supposed to be grease in the swingarm. Well I guess the factory squirt 34 years ago isn't doing the job anymore. Imagine that.

Carb and Mag

2009-12-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

Cleaned the Carb and found enough dirt to start a potato farm. The process was simple enough. Not much to these little Mikunis.

Cleaned up the breaker points and wired in a new condenser. Replaced wiring to the mags. Good enough to get a spark. During the engine clean up I'll see if some CLR can cut the mineral deposits.

First Impressions

2009-12-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

It's a real snotter. The wiring harness is mostly gone. It seems a dog had its way with the front fender. No one liked it enough to bring it in from the wrath of the desert sun. Rust rust rust. But, it did have the redeeming quality of smooth piston action and a satisfying foop-foop-foop-foop-foop when kicked.

Lovely.

When buying it I remarked about the gas capless tank and the guy just kind of shrugged. Guess Im going to have to figure out how to clean that mess up. I dont really want to have to change a fuel filter every 30 seconds.

Cool headlight though. Im tempted to save it for another project since after all this is going to be a full on trials machine and such amenities only become bothersome extra weight.

Chewed off wires, an iron oxide infected chain, and one stuck-ass, seized-on, son-of-a-bitch-ass magneto to get off. Finally after breaking an AutoZone rental pulley puller, it slid off to reveal calcium and lime deposits on the electrics inside. The points were fused together and the condenser was eff'd. This leads me to believe they left this thing to be drowned by sprinklers. Nice.

Sweet! An autolube pump. Errr now a new paperweight. Apparently when you roll on the throttle, the pump produces more oil to be injected into the intake charge. Beautiful design but, I think I'll stick with the premix to keep it simple. Dont even want to know what the little seals and o-rings look like in that thing.

Yam 175 Trials

2009-12-03T10:23:00.001-08:00

So I picked this little gem up for a few measly bits not too long ago. It's a Yamaha TY 175 2-stroke trials bike. I used to have a neighbor, older fellow in his late 70's who would ride these little trial and enduro bikes damn near every weekend. Tough old bird, this guy. I'm feeling I should pay him a visit soon. Anyway this guy got me pretty interested in owning a motorcycle. He had a little Honda TLR200 Reflex that was light, very underpowered, but a blast to ride. Plus the little gutless wonder could chug itself up the gnarliest of terrain and not even bat an eye. So, I'd wander over to this guys garage and he and his son would play these old videos of trials competitions and the bikes they've built and bam I was hooked like Whitney on crack. Plus it didn't help that my buddy bought a Yammy TW200 and was less one riding partner. 12-Hundy and a tlr 200 later I was on the trails. Point being these little bikes got me into it and now I'm apeshits crazy. So, feeling kind of disillusioned about my trade of my 'Zuki GS 450 for a busted assed 4 cyl Cherokee, I decided to pick up a rust bucket bike to clean up. And so, here we go...