I know - I’ve completely abandoned this blog. I promise when I figure out what to do with this, I’ll start updating this.
I work on my motorcycle pretty much every week and I’m usually too exhausted/frustrated to write about it afterward. Plus, it is scooter time right now.
Had a hell of a time this weekend trying to get rid of the gasket material off my valves - hopefully this will get finished up tonight so I can put it all back together.
Pictures / video when I have ‘em.
Check out Sideburn Magazine! It is this mag based out of Britain that focuses exclusively on dirt track racing. They bill themselves as the world’s best “go fast, turn left” magazine.
I’ve ordered my first copy from the UK. Hopefully they have some great custom scramblers in the first issue somewhere. Check out the website for some cool pictures from the latest issue, as well as a ton of great link for dirt track racing (mostly UK though).
Tonight was a really good night! I ordered a cam chain tensioner from Bore-Tech on Friday, and it arrived on Monday! The tensioner is very quality, and it has no moving parts so it will never wear out. I really recommend checking them out if you want some performance parts for your Honda twin. If I were made of money, I would have picked up some pistons as well.
Here is the old tensioner:
And here is the new tensioner, used by vintage racers the world over!
It was 130 dollars, but the cost of a new old-stock cam chain tensioner isn’t much less.
Also, I picked up some pretty nasty stuff called “Chem-Dip.” It is basically a paint can full of his crazy nasty solvent that cleans up metal parts. It works great! I have one piston soaking in it tonight, and tomorrow the other one will go in. This will remove all that nasty carbon that has baked onto the piston. On Wednesday, I’m going to dump that stuff in a shallow pan and soak my valves in them. This should get everything quite clean and prepped.
I also rebuilt my front brake and adjusted it so it is very responsive. I think I will do my rear brake tomorrow, while the engine is still off the bike.
The only thing I need to pick up is a few metric bolts that were stripped out, and I need to pick up some gasket remover to clean off the rest of the baked on gasket from my other parts.
I figure that I will start putting everything back together on Thursday night, and be done by Sunday morning. I will finish my time lapse video then as well!
Check out this cherry ‘72 Honda CL 350 in the same “Candy Panther Gold” as my bike. I love the homemade pipes, and the thing is about as clean as they come. Unfortunately, the link doesn’t go much into what he did to the engine to make it a racer, but the picture says a lot.
Awesome!
So I took my valves into Garage Company, and they look fine. It looks like most of the gunk on them is from those rings on the the right piston letting oil blow by and burn. So!
This weekend:
Finish cleaning old gasket material off of engine
Clean pistons and valves
Prepare cylinders / measure tolerances
Measure and adjust (newly cleaned) valves and make sure they are ok
Make decision if I should order a new performance cam chain tensioner.
Update: I bit the bullet and ordered a new cam chain tensioner. I’m saving myself money and another rebuild in the long run.
I rebuilt one of my two carbs last night, but ran out of carb cleaner. I’ll finish the other one tonight.
Depending on how much time I have, I might replace my front brakes this weekend too. I’ll update tomorrow with lots of pictures!
This Saturday, I’m taking in my valves to Garage Company, a local motorcycle shop that is also probably the coolest place I’ve ever been. Check out their website and read their history.
You can also see the custom bobber they made for some race car driver - it is the coolest one I’ve ever seen. The big fat vintage tires give it an awesome look, I’d really like to take this bike for a spin. Fat chance.
Here are some pics straight from their website:
(Visit their website for bigger versions of these pictures)
Anyway - a very cool shop, so we’ll see what they say on Saturday. I should be rebuilding my carbs tonight. The last few nights I’ve mostly just been cleaning my engine and trying to remove as much of the old gasket material off the engine. This is proving to be a much bigger job than I thought. Those gaskets have had 36 years to really bond to the aluminum, and I want the surface to be absolutely clean when I stick those new gaskets on and put the engine back together.
I am a little on the fence about my cam chain tensioner - I want to replace it but I don’t want to drop 130 bucks for a new one. I might be shooting myself in the foot not doing this though. I’ll make the decision tonight.
So - after I hear back about my valves and depending on how long it will take to get them cleaned/adjusted etc., it looks like maybe next weekend I’ll be putting my bike back together. Also - I’m editing my timelapse video of me pulling my bike apart - but I’m going to wait until I get the one of it being put back together before uploading it to YouTube. Should be fun!
Image Credits: Garage Company
From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
“Each machine has its own, unique personality which probably could be defined as the intuitive sum total of everything you know and feel about it. This personality constantly changes, usually for the worse, but sometimes surprisingly for the better and it is this personality that is the real object of motorcycle maintenance. The new ones start out as good-looking strangers and, depending on how they are treated, degenerate rapidly into bad-acting grouches or even cripples, or else turn into healthy, good-natured, long-lasting friends.”
Hey everyone - I made some major progress with my bike!
I’ve managed to pull the engine off the bike, and tonight I actually pulled off the head and got into the cylinders. I have pictures and all sort of exciting stories after the jump!
Well, I didn’t receive my gasket set today - but I expect to tomorrow so I decided to tear into my bike. I’m really glad I did, because this is going to be a much bigger job than I realized.
I’m actually filming my entire rebuild in time-lapse, so look for some YouTube videos showing me mess around on my bike.. in jerky fast motion!
After the jump, I go into what I did tonight, and include a few pictures.
So last week I was the lucky winner of an eBay auction for a complete gasket set for my bike. I also ordered a bunch of parts (brakes, engine screws, carb gaskets) from a really outstanding site for vintage parts: MR Cycles. After a phone call to the company, it turns out it isn’t “Mister Cycles,” but rather M-R Cycles. But I ask you, which one is more fun to say?
So, it being only Wednesday, I can only hope that the gasket set will arrive before Friday and I will start completely tearing down my bike. If the parts don’t arrive by Friday night, I will postpone the work until next weekend.
Whenever it happens, I will have lots of pictures and lots of updates here. I even plan on doing a little time lapse video of my bike going from whole to pieces to whole again. I am really looking forward to it.
Head over to MR Cycles for a very helpful (and printable) Honda parts manual for just about any bike.
Also, the forums at hondabikes.net have been very helpful, although it is almost impossible to register with them. They don’t allow Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo accounts. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? However, there is a lot of great information on vintage and modern bikes there.
My bike with the tank removed
Hey everyone, this is going to serve as the blog for my current motorcycle project - the rebuilding and “restoration” of my 1972 Honda CL350. I put restoration in quotes because I am by no means trying to make this a show bike. In fact, quite the opposite. I want to make it the rock-solid bulletproof workhorse that Honda bikes are famous for.
I also want to take a little trip with my bike too.
A big trip, actually. I’d like to travel up and down the west coast later this year for a few weeks, camping and taking the long way to a multitude of destinations. I also want to do it on a 36 year old 350cc motorcycle. I’m not crazy!
I enjoy the challenge of riding an old motorcycle as a daily driver. Parts fly off, the engine can sometimes need endless tinkering, etc. I also enjoy the size of my bike - fast enough to hit 100, but comfortable cruising along at 65. These two statements sum up why I want to take a bike originally engineered for “around town” commuting and light offroad use and see how far I can take it up and down the west coast.
Anyone can buy a new 1200cc motorcycle and drive it all over the country without doing anything more to it than filling up the gas tank. That may work for some people, but I want a little more adventure in my adventure. I believe that owning a motorcycle (especially a vintage motorcycle) is about getting your hands dirty and knowing your bike inside and out, and being able to fix anything on it when you are stranded between Barstow and Las Vegas without a car around.
Anyway, you can read more about my bike at this page, which will always be linked above under the title “About the Bike.” I will be updating this with the progress on rebuilding my bike’s engine and preparing it for the trip.
As for this blog, I plan on using it as a place where I can share my preparation for my trip, as well as a place where I can actually document my trip when it happens. Hopefully it will be be varied enough to not bore my non-mechanically inclined friends - I think travel is all something we can identify with no matter how you plan on doing it.
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