The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

[Blind_Io]

If you are going to take the carb apart anyway, just take out any rubber or plastic parts and soak the whole thing in carb cleaner. Easiest and fastest way to clean one.

You can get it by the can (like a paint can) at most auto parts stores.

[Spectre]

He may have some issues with getting parts.

That said, I had the local Honda dealer clean the entire rack of carbs from my CB700 (because I had to spend time cleaning up the bike and working) for $100. That was a discount from the usual price, but I'd be surprised if it cost more than about $50 to clean that carb on that XT.

[BlaRo]

Originally Posted by Bugatti's Aftershave

Some sad news. I have just come to the realisation that I can't keep my bike. One of the main reasons is that my summer has recently become completely chaotic and I literally have no time to fix up the bike nor get my license. Another reason is that there is no garage space plus it's raining almost every day here, and it seems as though I'll be letting a perfectly good bike go to waste (and rust). Finally, the seat height is obscenely tall and that fucker is about 350 pounds. Today I laid it on its side to have a look and found out that I couldn't really pick the damn thing up. That was embarrassing.

So, unfortunately I think I'm going to have to sell it and buy a lighter and more modern dual-sport within the next year or so. Will one of you motorbike gods suggest what I should put as the asking price on Craigslist? It has insurance, was running until recently because it needs a carb flush or so, has working lights/brakes, and the tires have good tread. Very sad.

Damn, that sucks. You can't leave it at a friend's house and work on it over winter break or anything? Haul it into the attic? Dump it in an abandoned swimming pool? No? Oh well, nevermind.

And if I'm not mistaken, didn't you get it for the princely sum of ZERO dollars? Either way, you have nothing to lose on a bike you've barely begun to work on. You could ship it to me and I'll take a look at it...

Take it for a nice wash and get some steel wool to brush off some surface rust. If anything, the next owner will think it's in better nick than it is. And if you're planning to do any carb work, allow me to toot my own horn here: I've been down that road before, and consider yourself lucky you've only got one, blah blah blah. Strip the carb down to its body, taking off all screws, things that screw in, float, needles, and miniscule jets. Dunk or soak that shit in carb cleaner and leave it overnight, then wipe it off and reassemble. If it takes you more than a weekend, then you're doing it wrong.

The old-school Honda logo used on their old race bikes (I believe). It's going on my revised tach as a more "period" logo than the red wing that was there before.

[Spectre]

BlaRo: I may ask you to help me design some replacement faces for my Nighthawk's gauges - with the red wing, though.

That logo isn't the racing bike logo, it's just the old Honda motorcycles logo.

[BlaRo]

Originally Posted by Spectre

BlaRo: I may ask you to help me design some replacement faces for my Nighthawk's gauges - with the red wing, though.

That logo isn't the racing bike logo, it's just the old Honda motorcycles logo.

Sure, can you scan the original gauges first? Preferably into a vector program if you have one.

[Spectre]

Yah, I have a scanner. It'll be a while - I'll have to get a spare instrument pod. Mine was damaged in the PO's crash/drop, but it'll have to do until I can get a replacement in there. When I get that, I can take the damaged one apart and scan it in.

Tomorrow's agenda for me: replacing my damaged airbox, refitting rack of carbs, changing the plugs, feeding the carbs from a bottle to see if the old beast runs. I'm short two control cables (choke and throttle return), so I have to wait for them to get here before I can ride the beast.

[mmap]

My baby.... She might not be the prettiest, but damn if she isn't fun! I just Loooove the sound it makes on full throttle and engine braking. V-engines, there's just something about them.



It's been raining for the last week, so I've been keeping my ass of it and the itch to ride is getting worse every day... I just may have to invest into some riding gear for rainy days (even though I promised myself when buying that I simply wouldn't ride it when its wet..., oh well)

[Blind_Io]

I picked up my new bike last night, a 2000 Honda Magna with 16,831 on the clock. I need to do some TLC on her before she's ready to show off, especially on the pipes. The last owner's saddlebags dropped onto the pipes and melted, so I get to scrape and polish that mess along with some general cleaning. The chain is really slack right now so I need to clean and lube that then reset the rear wheel to the right chain tension. Once I do that, she should be ready to ride.

[Spectre]

What's a chain, and why should you tension it? (Says the man with a shaft-drive bike)

On a more serious note, I got my rebuilt carbs back and I'm going to go bead blast them tomorrow, followed by painting the carb bodies black. I also replaced all the external carb hardware with stainless steel fasteners. (This is important because *everyone* prior to the advent of EFI on bikes used soft screws that rounded out and were a PITA to remove if they'd been in the carb a while.)

Had to work this weekend, so the rebuild schedule's gotten slowed way down.

[KaJuN]

Shaft drive FTW!

Originally Posted by mmap

My baby.... She might not be the prettiest, but damn if she isn't fun! I just Loooove the sound it makes on full throttle and engine braking. V-engines, there's just something about them.



It's been raining for the last week, so I've been keeping my ass of it and the itch to ride is getting worse every day... I just may have to invest into some riding gear for rainy days (even though I promised myself when buying that I simply wouldn't ride it when its wet..., oh well)

Nice looking bike! I know what you mean about not being able to ride. Last week was like that for me between all the storms and other stuff I had to do. I enjoy riding in the rain but thunderstorms are a no-no for me.

Blind_Io: congrats on getting the bike! I can't wait to see it.

[Blind_Io]

I bought a product called Grabit that is supposed to be fantastic for removing rounded, stripped and broken screws. I have not had a chance to try it yet, but for $20 it's hard to go wrong. It cost me more than twice that just to get four rounded out screws removed from my hydraulic reservoirs on my '82.

Yeah, I do miss shaft drive. As long as you change the final drive oil every few thousand miles you're golden. Lubing a chain every 800 miles is a PITA. I just hope I can resurrect this chain and don't have to replace it. I don't think it was ever adjusted after the bike was bought.

[mmap]

So I finally get to drive yesterday (the sun came out, YEY). And I was driving on these beautiful twisty roads in some gorgeous lake scenery we have here...

Anyways, I was going down a (really) steep hill at around 80-90kph and all of a sudden the exhaust backfires and the bike shuddered (either that or someone set of a small bomb right next to me ...unlike as there was no one around for miles). Gave me the biggest scare I've had for years. In the split second it took my brains to realise that the bike is still handling normally and nothing is wrong, I had time to think that the engine exploded or the rear tire punctured and even had time to decide where I'm gonna fall with the bike so that I don't kill myself immediately (nothing but trees and DEEP ditches to fall into...).

Definitely not something I wanna experience again too soon.

[Peter3hg]

Peter's Super Helpful Tip of the Day #1:

Don't touch your downpipes with the back of your hand when chaining the bike up.

[Spectre]

Ouch. That will do it. Do get that seen by a doctor soonest, lest it get infected or have other problems.

There's a very faint Euro-coin sized burn scar on the back of my left hand for similar reasons - only I'd accidently dropped my keys and they'd bounced under my Goldwing (at the time). Had my gloves off already, wasn't thinking, YEOOOOOOWWWW.

[Redliner]

Ouch. Seriously, go see a doctor.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

I bought a product called Grabit that is supposed to be fantastic for removing rounded, stripped and broken screws.

Wow, nice! I am still keeping it old school, has worked so far so why change....

[BlaRo]

Tell me how that Grabit thing works, I'm usually skeptical of TV infomercial products. Mostly because I don't see any reason to replace this:



For $5.99 you can't go wrong! So far it's worked brilliantly.

[Jon]

Just use a drill..

So long as you use something sufficiently bigger than the thread to get the head off and take some care you'll be fine. After the heads came off you can use a slightly smaller drill to bore it out. Again, as long as you be careful, all will be good!

(Of course this is only to save money assuming you have various drill bits and a drill!)

[Spectre]

Those work only if they can get purchase on the screw - sometimes it's so badly wallowed that even an impact won't help. Then you need screw or bolt extractors.

These work well for those things you don't want to try to drill:
http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/...rwinProd100512

[tigger]

Originally Posted by mmap

I'm diggin that purple paint, man . Seriously, nice bike. All this V-twin talk around here is making me want a SV650.


So I just went through the list of things I need to do to actually make my bike legal/not a POS/not a danger to everyone on the road. And I realized it's going to cost me. Looks like I'll have to grab a second job this summer. I need ...
-Rear tire
-Headlight
-Ignition coil
-Points (or a switch to CDI)
-Front brake shoes
-Fork oil and dust seals
-Chain
-Rear sprocket
-Grips
-Brake lever
-Either unmangle or replace my gearshift
-Front turn signals
-Horn
-Maybe clutch plates (I'll know the next time I try to ride wheelies )

... %$#@. Add registration fees to that, which will probably be exorbitant because I have no title for it. But hey, as soon as it's running it will pay for itself, considering it goes about 300% further on a gallon of gas than my Ford.