When I first got the bike home, I tore into it like a mad-man. I was so excited to start working on a new project that I ripped the motor out, and had it in pieces within a day. Unfortunately, this was also the time I had just bought a new bike for the street (an 01' Triumph Tiger 955i) and it had taken most of the summer's worth of attention I had.
So a couple years later, I look in my garage and, sure enough... no "Honda Gnomes" came and did the work for me... So, I manned up and said... "That's it... I'm getting this done." Within a months time I went from parts on the bench, to something that resembles a completed motor...
I first started with that PESKY bent shifter shaft... As you can see here.
I originally didn't notice the shaft until I placed the new case over it, when I couldn't shift... I knew there was an issue. So, off came the case, out came the shaft, in went 100% BRAND NEW bearings in the ENTIRE motor... and 100% BRAND NEW seals everywhere. (Kick shaft, shift shaft, crank shaft... everywhere.)
Then I was able to bolt the entire motor back together using Grade 8 M6 Allan head bolts... rather than trying to use the stock phillips-head machine screws. By the way... this would be a good time to mention that ANYONE doing any sort of motor repair to a bike with phillips-head machine bolts should invest in an Impact Screwdriver. Best invention in the world.
The transmission looked in amazing shape too... no wear on anything.
Anyhoo... after re-assembly, a quick compression test (142psi), and a dry-run through the gears (all 5 are MINT) I decided to give her a good coat of high-heat gloss black paint. She came out stunning.
Before:
After:
So, with the motor in good order... getting spark, good compression, new gaskets, seals, and bearings... my attention moves on to the other parts of the bike... there's a lot. Damn it.
Took the front end off, rebuilt the forks with new seals, stuck some new 10w oil in the forks (a tad too much unfortunately) and now they're stiff as boards... after a quick suck with my brake-fluid syringe and a re-measure, they're good to go. Unfortunately, I am NOT keeping that deep red color... I am going with the Honda "sunrise" red color. much brighter and a good throw-back to the 80's MX bikes.
A quick mock-up of the boots and fender... and she's looking quite good!
The seat-pan was in HORRIBLE shape... I could literally fold it in half. After some quick welds, and gorilla-gluing the rest rubbers in-place, I was able to give it a shot of black paint, re-fit the foam, and give it a new seat cover... looking mighty nice.
The front spokes were in aweful shape as well. Someone had painted the whole front wheel silver (grrrrr) with a spraycan and it did not look good at all. After stripping the spokes down to bare metal there wasn't a whole lot left to them. Luckilly, China makes them for cheap... Lol. I found a set for 40 bucks on e-bay brand new. They worked out well.
Before:
After:
As you can see, I took the time to paint the hub black and the speedo-ring gold. Starting to look really nice. Some Aircraft Stripper took the silver paint off the rim leaving the chrome untouched. Why on earth would you spraypaint silver over chrome? Some people.
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