New Project: 1986 Honda Nighthawk 700 S

Are the tank and gauge pod NOS? They look amazing.
 
Nope. They were apparently in service on a 700 up in Ohio somewhere. Not sure how it died, but it only had ~37,000 miles on the clock when it was sent to the salvage yard and its parts were posted up on eBay. The tank has some minor scratching and the pod hood does as well, but most importantly, they both appear to be in otherwise fine shape - the pod's lens is intact and unclouded, and the tank shows no signs of rust.

Yes, I am assembling a larger spares collection for this bike. :D Finding one in as good shape as mine is getting to be very very difficult, and finding an intact R/W/B 86 is even more difficult. They didn't make many.
 
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Well, folks, consorting with the demons of Hel has turned out to be truly fruitful again. I sent them a spare clutch line that I had obtained for the purpose and they sent me back the prototype of a new clutch line that fit perfectly!

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It included the "impossible" fitting that Galfer claimed didn't exist and couldn't be had anywhere - this extended offset 90 degree.

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Very easy to install. Routing went easily and the included fasteners worked well.
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The Galfer lines were promptly relegated to the junk bin. After that, reconstruction continued.

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After I took it out for a spin, CJ tried his hand at a parking lot lap. Unfortunately, we both discovered that I'd not torqued the steering head bearings properly (they were loose and hammered on braking) and that there was still a little bit of air trapped in the brake system. The clutch system had bled down just fine; also, the forks were a little twisted in the trees, something that we were easily able to remedy.

The sharp-eyed may have noticed something a bit different about the headlight on that pass. As is normal for me, I took the opportunity to upgrade while I had the bike apart. It now mounts a Sportiva HID kit. The camera makes it look yellow, but it's really a 4300K (the OEM HID 'color' for most cars with HID) system. Sportiva makes their bulbs in the US from reputable parts suppliers' products, so we'll see how this experiment goes.

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It heads off to the Honda dealer Thursday; they will replace the swingarm bearings (which the bike needs) and replace the vanished driveshaft boot. They'll also bleed down the brakes and set up the steering stem bearings properly; I am out of time to work on this and have to move on to paying work (which has been keeping me very busy of late) and other projects.

I have also ordered in a reproduction polycarbonate windshield to replace the old cloudy one. That should arrive Thursday as well.
 
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Bike has now gone to the dealership for service. Got quite a few admirers and complements - always nice.
 
You're quite lucky to have a bike that gets so many admirers and compliments.

Seeing as my VT500 isn't currently in the best cosmetic shape, I usually get a reaction similar to this:

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If you look upthread, you'll note my bike didn't exactly start out in the best shape. :D

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Haha yes, the Shadow will get some much needed TLC as soon as my Nighthawk gets running.

That way I can get the Shadow in good enough shape to sell, so I can potentially replace it (with a GL1000, hopefully :-D)
 
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It just takes time, effort, and diligent eBay searches. :D
 
A belated update: Bike's back from the dealership; already taken it on a ride around town with CJ following on his Nighthawk.

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Unfortunately, the tach needle broke off on the way home, so I have to swap a new one on. It's unfortunately a common problem for this style of needle as it gets older.

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Unfortunately, the tach needle broke off on the way home, so I have to swap a new one on. It's unfortunately a common problem for this style of needle as it gets older.

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I feels your pain.

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I may have found a more common model to swap out needles from - it may even be the series of bike that Honda got the specific "split" type needle from.

In other news, here's more pics of the HID install. Except for some wiring that has to be run back to the battery and a sort of relay box, it all fits into the stock quarter fairing.
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The 'slim digital' ballast, which is about 2/3rds the size of my iPhone 3GS, is attached to the left wall of the fairing via some 3M body/trim adhesive doublesided tape (this is special tape, the type manufacturers and body shops used to hold on things like spoilers and rocker panels). This whole setup could just as easily fit inside a standard (not shallow) headlight shell.
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This is the power distribution box. The power wires from the battery come forward to this box (which is about the size of two USB thumb drives stacked on top of each other) and then run from it to the ballast and the tilt solenoid (which gives you high and low beams by altering the geometry inside the parabolic reflector through angling the HID capsule up or down). A further set of wires runs to the original stock headlight connector so it can figure out when the light is on and when to engage high or low beam mode.
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Here you can see the entire set installed. The black block plugged into the white-ish block is the power/sense connector plugged into the stock headlight socket.
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Hadn't flipped up pictures of this in a while. Here it's visiting CrazyJeeper's garage while he's assembling his Gold Wing.

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And, as things come in a circle, I come back to this.

This is what the box unobtanium comes in looks like.
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As for what's inside? A new in box, completely unmolested original Hondaline accessory for the 700, which almost nobody bought:
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Wow, that musta cost you a pretty penny! I saw a set of saddlebags on ebay for a 700 once, and they cost about as much as well-used 700!

Knowing you, I'm pretty sure you found a way to get these for cheap. :D
 
New Project: 1986 Honda Nighthawk 700 S

Wow, that musta cost you a pretty penny! I saw a set of saddlebags on ebay for a 700 once, and they cost about as much as well-used 700!

Knowing you, I'm pretty sure you found a way to get these for cheap. :D

With shipping they were less than $150.
 
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