Jan/Feb 2022 BOTM - Winter Project Bikes

[riot]

Got a Winter project? If it's motorcycle related, post it up!

Rules - is it or can it be attached to a motorcycle? If yes, enter it!

Suggested qualitative judging rubric:

• Difficulty level
• Awesomeness level
• Back story quality
• Warms the cockles of your heart (at least the motorcycle ones)

You do not need a nomination, just enter. Remember photography counts for a lot here!

Entries close on/around Feb 7th-ish.

[riot]

Bump?

[Captain 80s]

1990 VFR750F. Bought two days before xmas, 2021. From the OfferUp ad:

1990 Honda VFR 750 $1

aa91c51ede184f39b17ff483ee09517d.jpg


Description

Needs 1 small part. Make offer or trade.


Well... shit. DON"T need another bike. But I gotta inquire.

Message the dude thru OfferUp:

"Is the title in your name? When was the last time it ran?"

Response: "It just needs one small part"

"Yeah. I read that. Are you the titled owner and how long since it has ran?"

"Yah, I got the title. A few years. Started dumping fuel out of this part when I was trying to start it"

OK then, we got some info to go on now. I call him and we talk and he seems like a decent dude. I tell him normally I would just come out and look and talk to you in person. But it was a pretty good trek to check it out, so I tell him that and ask, "so... what do you think you wanna get out of it?"

"I don't know, five hundred bucks. I'd probably take 400, I just wanna get back the money I put into it before it got parked."

It's on. We make arrangements for DEC 23rd, my first day off for the Holidays. It's a ferry ride over to Kingston with a trailer, so a $30 tab there. Then down the peninsula to Port Orchard. Couple hours easy. Get there and it's a beauty day, so I'm able to roll it out of the spot you see in the above pic. First thing... Fox Twin Clicker. Good start. The 8 spoke wheel is probably worth what I'm paying anyway, so no risk really. It's all there. Tank is off, but it is drained and 100% clean on the inside. Fuck yes. Original Honda key, owner's manual and tool kit. Asked about a seat cowl and he just looked puzzled... "never mind". New chain and sprockets (chain is pretty rusty). Essentially brand new (5 years ago) Michelin Pilot Power tires. Steel braided lines up front. 70K miles... doesn't really matter on these engines. Look down at the shiny oil filter and pop the dipstick. Oil looked like it just came of a bottle. Cool. It got ridden home from the shop and pretty much parked. Notice the drain plug and adjacent oil pan has been drilled... that actually makes me happy. It means somebody might have gone thru the front end to match the rear shock at some point for a track day or few. The forks feel like they have real springs in them and somebody updated to the later fork caps with pre-load adjustment.

He shows me the "one small part" it needs. "I think it's some kind of fuel separator or something". I am playing dumb. "yeah? huh." It's a plastic vacuum valve with a broken nipple for the emissions that is gonna end up in the trash anyway. "Fuel was coming out of that broken off part". I know it's just dirty carbs at this point.

"you said you'd take $400?" "yep" Exchange money and title / bill of sale and load it up.

signal-2021-12-23-12-07-17-648[1].jpg
Not pretty but hey. Every piece of bodywork has issues, but that tank is really nice. Oh yeah, a Corbin... whatever. Decide to make it a big round trip and drive around thru Tacoma (over a toll bridge) and back up thru Seattle. I left around 9am and got home around 3pm. Pretty good day. At least it was a beautiful day for driving.

Here's back home after a quick strip.

PXL_20211224_195723616[1].jpg
So the winter plan is to clean the carbs and get her running. The carbs are already out and while not great they are not terrible. Very doable. I already have the PAIR system and emission crap eliminated. I bought a 2003 rear wheel to replace the 8 spoke for personal use on my 95 (likely). Then go thru the systems and make it ride-able.

Brakes front and rear are sticking and need to be serviced. Hopefully the pistons aren't pitted.
Flush the coolant system.
I'm sure the fork seals are gonna start leaking the next time I just look at them.
I have a plan for adapting a slip-on (D&D), I think it's gonna work perfect.
Stock 1993 shock on the way (w/ rebound damping) so I can remove the Fox for rebuild (it still passes the critical seat-bounce test we all learned on showroom floors).
New inner / rear fender to replace this hacked unit.
Try and go thru the bodywork to make it mount better and look more presentable.
Gonna modify the passenger peg brackets to remove the peg portions.

And go from there...

Well... there's my entry!

https://vfrworld.com/threads/found-an-8-spoke-wheel.59962/

---

[Yoshihns]

Good find on the VFR. Looks like it just needs a quick going through and it'll be ready for the Spring VFRD ride.


Are these project bikes we're going to get done in the next month or two, or just project bikes we're planning on working on? Definitely have one queued up if the parts ever show up.

[jspeed53]

Hmmmm!

wildwhl - Bill, you’re not finished polishing that CBR954 are ya?

[wildwhl]

Hmmmm!

wildwhl - Bill, you’re not finished polishing that CBR954 are ya?

I'm thinking about which one belongs here...

WW/R

Screen Shot 2022-01-13 at 8.55.28 AM.png

[riot]

Good find on the VFR. Looks like it just needs a quick going through and it'll be ready for the Spring VFRD ride.


Are these project bikes we're going to get done in the next month or two, or just project bikes we're planning on working on? Definitely have one queued up if the parts ever show up.

Well, I can say it definitely doesn’t have to get done before you enter - that’s the whole point of ‘project’! I suppose some progress would be positive, but in the end this thread is about two things:

1) Sharing a good story about what you’re up to in the off season,
2) Getting a bit of motivation to keep going.

It doesn’t have to be a hawk, obviously I know a lot of guys here have other bikes. It doesn’t even have to be a whole bike, it could just be some parts or an update to a bike. I would like to keep it Moto-related though, so probably your bathroom remodel or CNC speakers should not be entered - however I still love reading about this stuff in “off topic”!

[SPA]

Captain 80s SCORE ❣️

[6]

Give me a day to get pics... But!

My son just turned 16. He has wanted a hawk since he could say the word. 69Falcon sold him (at a very generous price)a bike he has had around that was mostly complete but pretty much being used as a parts bike. Motor in the frame roller but missing everything from the frame and motor up/back. Its his first street legal vehicle.

It needed a subframe, we had the spare WW one for the race bike, it got that. He bought a battery with his Christmas money, I'm going to make him a batt box, we are going to help with advice and wiring.. Other than that he will turn ALL the wrenches. Its a stout sounding motor. Apparently an ex race bike. Its getting the WW Subframe, RS 125 tail, braided lines, clip ons, new EBC's and a pipe, some misc bits and pieces that are laying around.. . Other than that, stock. He can mod as he learns how to.

Oh, and we let him have the bodywork off the race bike (for now) I am not going to pretend that didn't sting chuck and i just a little... Maybe a lot.. But that set of well used parts means more to Wes than it ever could to us. so...

Over thanksgiving he did all the work (with some help and advising from chuck and I) to get the subframe on and get it running. it started and drove for the first time his last night here. Wes was the piolet!

Its going to need a lot. It needed a lot to become what it is now. With any luck it will be done early summer. His goal is to ride to to Utah. I advised to not do that too early in his riding career, it may kill the love of bikes forever! (highway hawks )


I'm proud as hell of that kid. I remember riding him around the lawn doing house laps with him on the tank of my R6 ( I was a young father).. He could barely walk... Now here he is, not that far from being able to be out recklessly endangering his own kids.

[SPA]

Right on 6

[Yoshihns]

I think I've mentioned it here before, but this is the next keeper that's on the chopping block waiting on parts.

2005 Benelli Tornado Tre 900
I've only seen two of these in my entire life. First one was maybe early 2000's at a weekly bike night meet. The second one was an ex racer out of Virginia IIRC who brought his collection of awesome up to PIRC for the MA race a couple years ago. So one day perousing the Copart salvage auction site, I'm going through the listings for bikes in the few cities around me. I nee one listing where the title was just "Bene". No model info or anything. Looking at the pictures, and I know exactly what it is. So I watch it and bid on it when it comes up. Good thing these things are rare and the people who listed it had no idea what it was, cause no one else bid and I got it for $700 with fees and everything.
Now, this is my made up version of the back story, but I think it's pretty close to the truth so I'm sticking with it. The bike had fire damage, but it was really unusual damage. The seat and the front fairing all caught fire and melted, but the tail and lower fairings were all fine. Most of the other parts were fine too. Based on the squared off tires, the fact the seat was recovered with some gawdawful purple-y velvet fabric, some little LED things stuck here and there, and the name on the title, some hispanic guy with cash was swinging around and pissed off one of the ladies, who went and set the bike on fire to get back at him, and he was able to put the fire out sorta quickly. And insurance totaled the bike cause Benelli was out of business by then.
Didn't (and still don't) have anywhere to really work on it. Sat for a bunch of years in a corner. Finally decided to just order all the parts for it since I knew it would take months to get them, and I saved enough play money to go all in. Make the list, find the vendors, put in the orders. My mistake for trusting the dealership in Belgium, cause I ordered almost $3k in parts from them may 2019, and haven't heard from them since January 2020. While waiting for funds to recover again, I drag it out to the community garage and start stripping away the damaged parts. Try to power it on, and feel that the battery gets pretty warm. Go through the harness and find where the wiring melted together a bit. Get that cleared out, and it start right up! Even with the melted dash.
Now I'm waiting on parts from the German supplier. Just waiting on a new seat, they have the rest. And because I'm an idiot, I went full on Larry Enticer and ordered almost a complete set of CF fairings from a guy in Slovakia.

So I sit here and wait for parts, wait for fairings, and wait for a non-stupid housing market so I can have my own garage and finally get serious about getting this beauty back on the road.



Still worked enough!

[hawkati]

Ah - yes....rebuilds, I have a few but then again too few to mention...
yeah nah - I've four bikes, Nun of which are going atm.

996 - total rebuild after spannering it at Donington.
Hawk - Africa twin engine is in the frame - got to sort loom and other leccy bits then a general tart up.
Unklefukker- cbr400 with 918 blade engine. Up, running as a trackbike but I need to make it road legal for charity ride.
hawkati - my original hawk, with 996 front end viffer rear, April aprillia mille engine & ducati clothes - so not being worked on that it's no longer funny.
20211107_150405.jpg

[joel]