I got 'new' toys
 

My dad and I spent the weekend driving up to Missouri in a truck with no air conditioning to pick up two bikes from my husband's family.

Big one is a 77 Honda 550 Four. Little one is a 69ish Bridgestone 175 Dual Twin(we still aren't entirely sure what Dual Twin is supposed to mean).

It was a painfully long trip, but so worth it. I've had a shit eating grin all weekend. :D

Best thing about it, both engines turn over :eek: The Honda has been sitting for 27 years and the BS for 34....I love Japanese bikes. :lol:

Honda in the truck:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/100_0997.jpg

Bridgestone in the truck:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/100_0986.jpg

Both of em just barely fit. That Honda is huge!
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/100_0996.jpg

We spent a good chunk of the 14.5 hour long drive back discussing what we should do first. We decided that we need to drain the tanks first. We discovered that the Honda has gas in it still...unfortunately we found that out because there is a hole in the tank. :lol:

Should be fun getting these guys cleaned up and running. We might make the Honda a street bike, but will probably just have the Bridgestone as a show off bike.

Those are great finds.

I don't know if it will work, but I have a spare CB350 gas tank sitting in the shed, its almost completely rust free. It would be yours for the cost of shipping (plus $1, a jew gotta make some money and all)

congrats heather! im jealous! drop the old gas, put in new plugs and jump that sucker. it'll probably fire up you never know. seafoam is your friend ;)

Hell yes! also get some PB Blaster on those rusted bolts... I've yet to find a bolt rusted so bad it wouldn't work... just spray... let sit... try to loosen... if it doesn't work... spray some more... let it sit... try again... repeat until off...

dont rely on pb blaster alone! rusted bolts can round out easy as hell. craftsman has a kickass broken nut extractor set

true... but I've never had one that PB blaster hasn't worked on... as long as you're patient and don't try to muscle it. but yeah... that nut extractor is a good fall back.

I thought this thread was going to be about implants.

Oh well, nice bikes, Heather.

then the title would have been...


I got some new toys for the husband... and I've included before and after pics as per the rules of Twfix.com

Nice find, cant wait to see how they shape up!

more like "check out my new HIDs" :lol

Jump it? Heck, it's got a kickstarter. As I remember, the F model was sporty and the K model was for touring. Looks like everything is there, so that should be fun. I recommend Metzeler Lasertec tires, Ferodo or EBC pads, Dyna ignition (coils and S ignition), copper spark plug wires, and Works Performance shocks and fork springs.

It's a dual twin because

A: It's a twin (you knew that)
and
B: It's a dual rotary valve.

I'd like to thank Walneck's for my mildly impressive ability to remember odd shit about bikes that almost never existed.

You have never worked on a farm then.

no no I haven't.

You'll needa new battery and GOOD carb cleaning first. hope you enjoy torment, the 550K and F airboxes are exactly that.

I have a 750K that sat for 25 years. fresh oil change and it fired right on up once I changed the shitbox champion plugs for NGK ones.

Kickers are AWESOME on these old bikes. I used mine much more thhan the electric start.

would still require a battery or other form of current to run would it not? the dave plan bypasses all potential failures in the charging system for a proof of operation

I need an old bike to wrench on and curse at. :(

Not necessarily.

Charging system yes, battery no.

:lol:

I now remember a 4am truck stop conversation over root beer and that was mentioned as one of the possible reasons for the name. It was a looong trip.

did you see the turn signals, head and tail lights on that fugger? They are HUGE. It's gonna need a battery. :lol:

I'm just stupid giddy about it. We've already cursed at both bikes loading and unloading them.

I'll have to figure out how to load the video I took of my dad and husband trying to unload the Honda jimmy rig style. It was hilarious. :lol:

congrats on the new toys. should be a lot of fun to work on...

Love that 550. I have an idea for what you can do.

http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/custbike.html

Look at Doug's and Sarah's 550 cafe racers.

Here's a photo.
http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/images/cust1.JPG

Hubby almost dropping the Honda because my dad decided it was not lined up properly and so he pulled on it....without warning my husband. :lol: Or actually, he warned him that he was going to push...instead he pulled. :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6wKv7DriYQ

Dear lord that is hot...

I love those freakin' things. I have been looking for an iron head since I saw this.

http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/images/Picture_628.jpg

What an interesting bike...

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...gger/hb1-1.jpg

When I say that I've been riding "forever" people don't believe me....:lol:

:lol Tigger, I'm digging the playboy shirt!!!!!!:lol

Shit...peep those Levi 501s! Hahahahaha! How about that "state of the art" helmet! I think I was wearing one of those "new fangled" digital watches as well.

Ole shit red tag levis were the shit!!!!!!!!! I was peeping those cuffs too.

I love the look of the old bikes.

I can't wait to see them after you have them cleaned up and stuff.

That might have been a "Member's Only" jacket and Nike Stan Smith kicks!!!!:lol::lol:

I was so relieved to hear you only broke your arm jumping the trash cans in Arnolds parking lot, Fonz.

oh no, that was a shark tank. Pinky was there!

those are awesome finds! Definitely need "progress" pics as you go!

Yea well at least I got to fuck the O'Rourke twins before hand!!!:lol:

right click...

save as...

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Holy shit, you really are close to 90 years old

:lmao:

Heather, those are awesome!!! And huminahuminahumina cafe racer drooooooool

Here's how someone in Denver did their CB550: http://denver.craigslist.org/mcy/1366748468.html.

I talked to my dad last night and we are planning to *try* and rebuild 6 carbs this weekend....we'll see how that goes.

while that is delicious theres an extreme lack of betty page wannabees in that picture ;) :lmao:

Heather... all sorts of awesomeness.

Heather it has to be SO MUCH FUN to do things like that with your dad!!! I have a great father too but we never had a 'thing' like that we did together. :)

Last night we drained the tank on the Honda. For some reason it had 3/4 of a tank in there. Can't imagine why.

Then we took the airbox, battery and finally the carbs off.

My dad was supposed to upload the pics for me, but he is slacking.

The air box and filter were literally filled with rolly polly corpses. There was also an empty pecan shell in there. :lol: We decided that we are probably gonna do away with all that and get K&N filters for it.

This morning we got out there and started to clean up the carbs. Thing has been sitting for 27 years with gas in it, so it was pretty nasty. We spent most of the day just getting them clean and functioning.

We then took stock of what we should work on next weekend which will be taking off the wheels and chain. Lubing the chain up to see if it will be usable. Taking a look at the drum brake in the rear(someone messed with it at some point so it seems a little fishy), then WD-40ing the crap out of the front calipers to see if we can compress it(it's been sticking).

We also WD-40ed the clutch and throttle cables and they all seem to be functioning now.

Didn't get to anything on the Bridgestone because the Honda carbs took so much time. We also didn't want to get parts mixed up, so we are gonna work on one at a time.

Anyone have suggestions for the air filter? We decided today that we are not going to try and keep it true to OEM. Inverted forks are definitely in it's future, and the tank will have to be repainted. I love the blue and gold so we will use the same color scheme, but the tank has a soft spot on it and to fix it properly we will have to strip it. :(

We also found that the frame under the tank is dented ever so slightly. The tank is not dented in the same spot, so we are not sure what the hell happened with that. Maybe the tank has been repaired or replaced? We aren't entirely sure.

I think that is all we did....there were three of us and we put in a good 9 hours total last night and today. Granted, I'm learning a lot during all of this and my husband is meticulous and apparently wanted the carbs clean enough to where he could eat off of them. :lol: We went through 3.5 cans of carb and choke cleaner. :eek:

We are just taking it step by step and not coming up with outlandish ideas just yet. But I am more than willing to hear about or see everyone else's outlandish ideas! :D

By the way, my fingers have never been so dirty, and I am now addicted to this.

I needed to quote this :lol:

carry on.

id say go with pod filters, you can get em on ebay fairly cheap and the only downside is itd going to need an up jet (probably will after exhaust anyway right?) and it makes more noise (i think its sexy but you may not approve). for the carbs id get some brasso and polish the crap out of the sliding portion of the carb, twenty years of oxidization can play hell with throttle response

Congrats. But no way in hell I'd get into something like this. Good luck.

Well, I have nothing else to do. :lol:

Fair enough. :dthumb:

Everything is sliding around just fine now. :wink:

As far as the filters, you talking something like these?

Along with the title of this thread, my mind wanders, I have a dirty mind.

yupper! dont forget to check clearance behind the engine, my cm's frame is kind of a pressed box affair and it wasnt very happy sharing space with a filter. did keep the carbs on when i forgot to tighten the boots up and backfired them out on the way home a few months back

:lol: I think there is plenty of room since there was a giant portion of the air box in there before. Damn, I think that is gonna look pretty sexy.

When I get home tonight I'll get the pics from photobucket my dad claims to have loaded last night. The air box was repulsive and hilarious. :lol:

Before:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/41378088.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/6293c27d.jpg

After:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/a6ccf1d0.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/5777e874.jpg

Gross:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/100_1001.jpg

Under the filter:
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/100_1002.jpg

Draining the tank...what's in there?
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/f0b5d8ec.jpg

Husband breaking stuff...literally.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/8b1a1f52.jpg

damn, eff that airbox! carbs are looking good! dont forget theres lots of passages and crap that could be clogged. might be worth soaking them overnight in some solvent or manually running a fine wire through each jet and passage you can find. hows the oil filter looking? i assume it uses the in pan round filters honda was so fond of in the eighties? cheep

What do you take me for, an amateur? Okay, well you should....but my dad told me he started doing this when he was 14. :lol:

Here are the fancy carb rebuilding tools we used:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...r/67c5dcdf.jpg

We took a pin through every jet and did reverse flow on every passage way. We ain't foolin' around Dave-O.:lol:

We didn't take the oil filter off yet. That's next week. :wink:

well, excuse me! :D in my defense you did ask for tips and advise ;) prepare for "sounds like you ride a 500" jokes :lmao:

You're off to a great start. get signed up on SOHC4.net for the best possible info. the CB550's needed a short pod filter as regular size ones interfered with the frame rails on the #1 and 4 carbs.

I had one of these back a few years. without a battery, they no go. I did a LOT of this stuff back when I brought my first one home.

trust me, you need to put some strong cleaner in the fuel tank to loosen the remains of what once WAS fuel about 30 years ago and is now just pretty much a crust of nearly rock like shit in te bottom of the tank.

REBUILD the front caliper with a NEW piston and seal, get to a brake caliper shop to get the bleeder out, they get stuck over time and require professional help to remove. ask me how I know.

Also do a crankcase flush. theres likely a lot of nasty sediment in the bottom of the oil pan that needs flushing out, and plan on no less than 2 complete oil and filter changes once its up and running to remove as much crap as you can.

I HAVE been there, DONE that, and love my SOHC4 750 for the same reason. Also add some braided stainless lines and stick with the stock front end. inverted forks arent going to make it handle any better, and it stops quite well on its own if the brakes are in good shape.

Dont be afraid to ask me if you got questions. I likely have answers.

Thanks for the info! I was wanting to find a good forum to join, but didn't know where to look. :dthumb: I just joined over there.

At this point I am kinda trusting my dad for the basics. He has been doing this a while, but he still has questions and also likes to hear other's ideas and opinions. I'll mention about the forks and the caliper.

No, I am totally messing with you! More than anything I am just proud that I can say, "I already did that, chump!" :lol:

nice! rawwwraaaawwwwwwrrr!

I'm always happy to help. For the front end, respring it, change the fork oil and seals, itll be fine.

My old one sat for many years, fuel in the carbs all I needed to do was basic maintenance and it fired RIGHT up when I put gas in the tank. ran like a champ too. these old CB's are just unkillable machines with overengineered engines that will live WELL past the redline safely.

Yup before anything is started we will have to remove the oil filter and check as much as possible for "crusted up stuff"- technical term!
from past experience these things are probably in great shape. Just filthy

SHHHHHHHH!!!!!!Here comes Heather's Dad!!!!!:lol:

Any new progress? I just bought a 4:1 header for my old 750K.

Until you've experienced the phenomenon known as backfromthedeadHonda, you just havent experienced true reliability in a motorcycle. these heavy old beasts dont die, they hibernate.

Congrats Heather :beers: Very cool you get to do this with your dad & hubby. Nice to see you working on a classic ( or two ) :dthumb:

On the front caliper, if the piston is 1.502" in diameter and 1.380" in length, the K&L part is described as
BCP-102
BRK CALIPER PISTON
32-1168

I modify these Honda parts to fit the Kawasaki triple front calipers since the diameter is the same and they are just a "touch" too long.

Jeff

No, my dad had a short weekend so we didn't do anything this weekend.

He has quite the cryptic screen name doesn't he? :lol:

just make sure you put new rubber on it :lol: i went for a eighty mile jaunt yesterday on mine and twenty seven year old bias plys dont like cruising at 65 :lmao:

:lol

let me ask yo something now. are you retarded? 27 year old rubber on the street? thou tempteth the vengeful hand of disaster to striketh upon you.

nah i figured out a while ago that really am the center of the universe and how to manipulate it. If i go out everyday knowiing they will fail they wont. 'Course me telling you this means they'll probably be flat when i get back home from work today :lol: eh its on the list for soon

Hi Heather

There was a thread over on the kawasaki triple forum where someone had not heard of Bridgestone motorcycles. I linked your picture of the dual sport and posted it in the thread.

One guy who replied , H2Rtuner is very knowledgable and posted some info on them. http://kawasakitriplesworldwide.com/...hp?f=2&t=50823

Jeff

Cool. I am a member at http://bridgestonemotorcycleparts.com which is owned by the guy he is talking about with all the OEM parts. There is a surprisingly good group of folks with these out there.

Good to hear you have a good source for parts. :dthumb:

I was slightly surprised to learn this about the Bridgestone Motorcycles

More info in that thread :dthumb:

She's Alive!!! The Honda started up fairly easily. Rebuilt carbs, new spark plugs, new ignition switch and changed out the oil and there she blows.


We had to take headers off to get the center stand off and we didn't bother to put them back on before we started it. But good thing was, we could see the fire from each cylinder, so we knew they were all firing. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azqd0WMJbqg

Sweet!!

congrats heather! Arent old hondas great?

Awesome. With me, firing up an old bike that has been sitting for a long time is almost spiritual. I start thinking about what was going on the last time it cycled air through it's carbs. Several years ago my father in law and I acquired a Matchless G80. 53ish i think. The last time that thing was on the road was when the Beetles were in full swing.

Thanks! Yeah, this thing has had some serious jimmy rig things done to it that we keep finding. :lol: Considering my father in law was the last one to have it running and he was 22 when he parked it, it's simply miraculous that this thing wasn't toast. :lol:

Misleading thread title..

Absolutely. This one was parked when my husband was born in 1982. I was thinking about how different my in-laws lives were at 21 and 22 than mine and my husband's at that age. They were having a baby, just got married and parked a 5 year old bike and never thought about it again until that babies wife asked for it 27 years later. :lol:

Heather's stock toys are quite sufficient. :D


Nice to see the old guy firing, Heather.
I can't wait to see it back in riding form. :dthumb:

I should work on dad's old Kawi when I get home
a '79 90cc 2 stroke. Dad said it would do 55 on the flat if you gave it enough time! :lol:

If you don't have a deadline, or really have to have it, it can be fun and frustrating.

Great job Heather. I can't wait to see more pictures of it.

Here's what we've done so far:

-Rebuilt the carbs
-Replaced the spark plugs(not the coils, they were fine)
-Changed the oil and filter
-Replaced the old air box with 4 pod filters
-New battery
-Replaced the ignition since we never found the key for the old one
-Rewired the starter switch
-Cleaned the points. They looked great
-Repacked the bearings on the rear wheel, drum and shoes looked okay
-Replaced the bent center stand
-We've shot black satin Rustoleum on the replacement center stand, kick stand and battery box. We are still working on scrubbing the swing arm off so we can paint it and we plan to rattle can the back of the frame just because.
-We bought a new tank because ours had a squishy spot on it. We'll need to acid wash it or something and repaint it.
-Sawed off the bolt on the clamp deal that was holding the muffler in place(the one pictured in my avatar) because it was rounded off. Will need to replace the muffler, the headers were fine.
-We are trying to clean out the master cylinder because there was gel like crap in there. I call it master cylinder vomit because that's what it looked like. :lol: It's taking a lot of soaking.
-Reorganized the wires up front behind the headlight because someone had gotten them all goofy and twisted.
-A lot of straightening things out since it was obviously dropped. My husband does all of this because it's very precise, time-consuming work and my dad and I just don't have the patience. :lol:


Still left to do:

-Drill out and replace the bleeder screw on the front brake and possibly rebuild the caliber piston
-Finish cleaning out the master cylinder
-New Chain
-New tires
-polish the chrome on the wheels and fenders
-paint the frame
-paint the swingarm
-acid wash(or something) the tank and repaint

The few :skep: not sures:

-Kickstarter
-Transmission as a whole
-Electrics
-Clutch...we haven't done anything with it except shoot some WD-40 down the cable the get it moving again. Whether it works, we have no clue.
-The throttle return spring sticks a little...doesn't go all the way back without coaxing. Not sure how to correct that.

I'm sure there are more in each category, but this is all I can think of right now. :D

What it looks like now. She's a little bare. :lol:

The other side. You can see the swing arm clamped down in the back. My dad was taking the die grinder to it to remove the rust so we can paint it.

I see multiple carbs...

You said you rebuilt them..

Did you sync them? This is highly important...

They were already synced. We're waaay past the carbs now. :lol:

Sorry... wasn't paying attention to the thread... just noticed it wasn't in the list.

Gotcha. :wink:

It's been sitting in the corner for over 20 years now. Pretty sure there is no rush! :lol:

So, I was dreaming this morning that the carbs were out of sync. :lol: Thanks a lot.

This thread is renewing my desire to get an old standard to tinker with.
I must remind myself that I don't need more projects or cash sinks.
:rolleyes:

:lol: Evan's been out in the garage tinkering with the Norton. OK, so he's probably throwing tools at it and cursing... he's been out there a while, I'm scared to go check.

All thanks to you.