Late Night Love Affair

So I'm still working lots of overtime, averaging about 70 hrs a week so I have precious little time to spend with Nixon. Lately we have been spending lots of late nights together in front of the TV while I massage her with my Dremel tool.

I am still making progress, I swear. Here is a taste of what's to come.

Out of the Closet

I have been working a lot of overtime lately so I get home pretty late at night, too late to turn the air compressor on to finish stripping the paint and rust off of the swingarm. So, I've been working on the small parts that I could do by hand. I finished cleaning and sanding almost all of the small bits that will get the brushed finish with the exception of the motor mounts. They have a lot of rust on them and are going to require some grinding and sanding with the air tools along with the swingarm. After I got the finish how I wanted it, I cleaned the parts with denatured alcohol and then sprayed them with the high heat clear enamel I've been using. Since I'm not home when it is light out, I had to paint the parts under one of the flood lights out in the yard. On the first set of parts I painted, I wasn't in the best spot and couldn't see very well. I ended up putting too much paint on the parts and got a bunch of runs. So now I will have to sand those before I do the second coat. The other half of the parts came out very well, e. Except, I ran out of paint before I got the second coat on all of them. The picture shows some of them hanging in my closet drying. I didn't want to leave them out in the garage overnight because it is starting to get cold. Once they are all fully painted, I will cure them by hanging them in front of the space heater like I did the other parts.

[Insert Clever Title]

Time to update this slow rebuild process. I recently changed jobs so I haven't made great progress in rebuilding Nixon, but I am slowly chipping away at things. It is just a matter of taking something completely apart, remove 35 years worth of dirt and rust, cleaning and then painting it. I've got the Carbs done and they look great. I also finished the guages, the toolbox and the exhaust collars. I'm currently working on the swingarm. I replaced the old cruddy bushings with some nice new bronze bushings. The swingarm is going to have the brushed metal finish so I am cleaning all the paint and rust off of it so I can sand it.


I also got the cylinder head back from the mechanic who installed the new valve guide and refurbished the valve seats. They should work much better now. Found out I need to replace one of the cam followers so now I am on the hunt for one of those. Now all I need is a gasket set and the head is ready to go back together.

Baking Brownies

I got the rest of the head disassembled and all of the parts bagged and tagged. I bought a used cam chain roller and a new valve off of ebay to replace the broken/bent ones. I spent last weekend cleaning off all of the mating surfaces that will be getting new gaskets. There was some old gasket glue on them and I wanted them to be clean, smooth and shiny. I also cleaned off all of the buildup in the combustion chambers and in the valve ports. When I cleaned out the exhaust ports, 35 years worth of carbon dust came billowing out. Good thing I did that outside. I also noticed that the exhaust valve seats were pretty cruddy. I think they were not seating right which might have led to some of my low compression and poor engine performance. Although it is hard to see in the picture below, there was a whole lot of crud baked on there.

I also painted some of the other parts I had previously cleaned and given the brushed metal finish to. The brushed metal parts are painted with a clear enamel and the satin black parts are painted with a black enamel. The enamel should be heat cured for full hardness, but I didn't want to stick my parts in my oven. So, I hung them in front of a small space heater I had for about 20 minutes each. The second picture is the tachometer being "baked". They got too hot to touch and hopefully that is enough. I still have some more parts to do as well as the carburetors.

No Dissassemble Johnny5!

Made some more progress on the engine last weekend. I removed the exhaust cam, torsion bar springs and valves. The torsion bar springs which are the hallmark of this engine were a lot easier to get off than I had expected; a lot easier than I hear standard coil springs are to remove. Lets hope they are just as easy to reinstall. I've already made the special tool required to install them out of a cheap socket. The left exhaust valve is the one I bent. You can see it kind of pointing off to the side in the second picture. Since the valve guides that the valves slide in are reamed to exactly fit the stem of each valve, the bent valve was obviously not going to just slide out. I thought about cutting it just above the valve guide with my trusty dremel tool, but decided to try to bend it back as straight as I could first. I got my big set of channel locks and started bending. It took about 20 minutes of bending and rotating and bending again, but it eventually just slide out. I know the valve is scrap and I am going to replace the guide as well just to be safe. Next I will take the intake cam, springs and valves out. The head and valves will get cleaned and the valve seats redone.

I also took the cylinders and the pistons and piston rings off. As I said, the bike had low compression and was blowing smoke before I bent the valve so the cylinders and rings will get redone as well. I'm going to go ahead and polish the pistons and head as well while I have the engine apart. Now I just need to find a good machine shop.

Pop The Top

Engine disassembly has begun. To remove the top end which houses the overhead cams and the valves, you have to remove the cam chain that feeds through it. I had to buy a chain breaking tool since the master link on the cam chain is riveted. Once I received that, and figured out how to use it, I was able to get the cam chain off. The directions in the motorcycle manual say to make sure to tie off the cam chain so that it does not fall down into the engine when you break it. I did this with electrical wire, which I quickly discovered was not strong enough. Luckily, I had not pushed the chain link pin out all the way and the chain got caught on something before it fell all the way down. I got some wire hangers and bent those up to hold the chain. I took the head off and took a peek inside. The pistons and cylinders didn't look too bad. The valves looked pretty cruddy though. I could see the valve that I bent would not close all the way. Definitely going to going to need to be replaced. I also notice that the pin for one of the cam chain rollers was loose. I was actually able to pull it out and I couldn't figure out how it was supposed to stay in. After looking it up online, I realized that one end was supposed to be deformed like a rivet. Apparently that deformed part had broken off of mine. How did this thing not explode when I took it up to redline?

Breaking the cam chain

The broken cam chain roller pin

Gone to Pieces

And so, the teardown begins.....

A Broken Heart

OK, where do I begin? I borrowed a compression gauge from Autozone because I wanted to see if low compression was causing my idling problems. Nixon is also burning oil so I figured the rings were worn. I got reading of 130-135 psi in each cylinder. I was told it should be around 180 and anything below 150 warranted new rings. So, I figured I could ride it the rest of the summer and replace the rings and hone the cylinders this winter, since that means pulling the engine off of the bike. But first, I had to fix this pesky oil leak from the ignition housing.

I may get a bit technical here so if you don't care, just skip this part. I actually didn't know about all of these parts until I opened it up. I ordered a new gasket for ignition housing. When it arrived, I took the housing off, and discovered that the housing also acted as the bushing that the exhaust cam spins in. So I took the housing off and cleaned the mating surfaces and gave them a light sanding and cleaned them with some denatured alcohol. I spread a thin film of gasket glue on both surfaces and then put the gasket on the engine. I then put the ignition housing back on and sliding cam back in the bushing. But, it wouldn't go all the way back on. There was about an 1/8th of an inch gap between the housing and the head. Hmmmm. It was kind of tight when I pulled it off. I tapped on it a couple times to coxe it in. Nothing. I started turning the screws and the seemed to be closing the gap. They were kind of hard to turn, but as long as I kept going around the bolt pattern, the housing continued to go on. I finally got the housing all the way on and put the rest of the ignition parts back on.

Since I had take one of the valve clearance locking nuts off to get the housing off, I had to reset the valve clearance. This is where everything started to go wrong. I took the altnernator cover off so I could rotate the engine. Oil started gushing out. Normally, this doesn't happen. In fact, you have to have this cover off when you set the timing so only a little oil sprays out. But this time, it kept coming and coming. I had to scramble to catch it all and all I had was paper towels and plastic grocery bags. I seemed to have that under control and then noticed that one of the grocery bags had let the oil through and it was now all over the garage floor. Unfortunatley, my garage is carpeted with industrial carpet (don't ask) so the oil made quite a mess. After I had that as clean as I could get it, I went back to setting the valve clearance. I got the valve cover off and checked the valve clearance. There was A LOT of clearance. Hmmmmmm. I tried rotating the engine and it was very hard. And, I didn't see the valve move. Uh-oh. That's when I noticed it. I could see the end of the valve. I shouldn't be able to see that. The cam follower was supposed to be on in. Where was it? It was NEXT to it! Huh? I took the ignition parts off again and started to take the ignition housing off. I heard a loud pop and the cam follower popped up and sat partly on the valve. I took the housing off and the cam follower fell off next to the valve. I managed to get everything reassembled the way it was supposed to be and the housing went on all the way easily. But now the cam follower was only slightly sitting on the end of the valve and that's when I realized exactly what I had done.

I BENT THE VALVE! When I took the housing off, that allowed the cam to shift a little, and the cam follower fell off of the valve. I didn't see this because the valve cover was still on. When I put the housing back on, the cam follower got stuck between the valve and the cam bushing. When I forced the housing on, the bushing pushed the follower which pushed the valve to the side which bent it. Engines don't run with bent valves. I'm screwed.

So now, I have to take the engine off of the bike and take it apart and replace the valve, the valve guide and probably a bunch of other parts. Since I'll have it apart, I might as well redo the rings and cylinders. So, it looks like I won't be riding for awhile. I have no idea how long it will take to do all of this work. Oh well. I bought this bike so I could learn how to work on engines, so I guess now is my chance. I was just hoping to get a good riding season out of her first.

What a QT

Nixon has been behaving pretty well lately, besides the growing oil leak from the points housing, so I rode her into work again this past Friday. It was a really nice ride into work in the morning. Kind of cool and the traffic wasn't too bad. She died right as I was pulling into my parking spot. So at lunch I went out to check the spark plugs. I could only get the left one out with my mini plug wrench I keep in the toolbox on the bike. It was black and sooty. I know it blows some smoke when it is running, so I think it is burning oil. Sometime in the next few weeks I will do a compression check to see just how bad the piston rings are. I am guessing that low compression is the reason she is not running as well as she could.

The ride home started out pretty nice. I took the long way home through some of the nice neighborhoods of East Cobb. Track my route on Google Maps! I went over across Paper Mill and then up Johnson's Ferry. I rode by my friend Shawn's house to check out is yard (the roses are in bloom) even though I knew he wasn't home. On the way up JF, with all of the stop lights, I started getting pretty hot. I had my leather jacket on for protection. Sitting atop a running air cooled engine in 80° weather at a light with a heavy leather jacket on can sure heat you up. I headed over across Shallowford Rd and end up in downtown Roswell (where the pic below was taken). I decided to stop at a gas station there to get a drink and try and cool off. I had $1.05 and the cheapest drink they had was $1.06. I got back on the bike, thirstier than ever and continued home, rolling slowly through historic downtown Roswell. When I got to the next major intersection, I found what I was looking for, the QT! They have a huge selection of fountain drinks, slushies and coffee that are really cheap. I got myself a cold beverage and hung out in the parking lot like a hoodlum until I was done. I cruised the rest of the way home feeling much better.

Getting Buff

In preperation for the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club (VJMC) show this past weekend, I wanted to finally get my side covers on. Unfortunately, I was missing a few pieces. There are two long posts that screw into the battery box, and help hold the side covers out in the correct position. They also hold the stock air filters on, but I don't have those. I couldn't find any for sale on ebay so I put the word out on the "Do The Ton" motorcycle forum. A very generous guy from Seattle sent me some of his extras from his parts bike. He actually sent me two sets. I ended up sending the second set to a guy in California that needed them as well.

One of my side covers that I got with the bike is chrome, so I just left it like that for now. The other one was an ugly sparkley blue color. I used a wire wheel and stripped all of the paint off of the outside. I then sanded it a couple times with different sand papers, then a scotchbrite pad, and finally some very fine steel wool with some metal polish. I cleaned it with some denatured alcohol and then painted it with some clear high heat engine enamel paint. As I was painting it, I saw that I was getting some major runs. So I quickly cleaned all of the still wet paint off and tried again. This time I did a couple light coats. It turned out really nice as you can see in the bottom picture below. I plan on eventually taking all of the sheet metal down to this brushed steel look, including the tank (which I need to get a new one because the current one is rusted through and leaks a little). I also bought some side cover emblems on ebay for about $10 and got the hardware needed to mount the side covers at Home Depot. The stock bushing that you are supposed to use are available on ebay for about $20. Instead, I got some rubber washers and some vinyl tubing that will do the same thing for a couple bucks.

The actual bike show wasn't exactly what I expected. They were looking for pristine or restored original bikes. Not modded cafe racers. But I had fun, saw some awesome bikes and met some cool people. It was in Marietta so it was a good 40 minute ride over to there. Since Nixon was in the show, I had to stay there the whole time so I got kind of bored (and hot) at the end. I didn't win any awards, but I wasn't really expecting to.

See my pictures from the VJMC Show May 9, 2009

Loser

I entered Nixon in her first auto show on Friday. They had a car/bike show at work to raise money for the March of Dimes. She isn't all that pretty yet, but she is an antique. Besides, it was a good excuse to ride her into work and donate a little money to charity. The ride in was fairly nice. The sun had just come up so it was still pretty cool and the traffic wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It took about 45 minutes to get to work, including a fuel stop.

There were some nice cars at the show, including a couple Porsches, an NSX, a triumph, old corvette and beetle. The only other bikes there were a couple of gaudy HDs. Nixon didn't win anything, but I had a good time talking to other guys about there cars and my bike. We aren't allowed to take pictures at work, so I don't have anything to show.

The ride home was not as enjoyable as the ride to work. By that time, it had gotten up above 85 and the traffic was terrible. I had my heavy leather jacket on so I got pretty sweatty sitting at all of the red lights with the heat coming up off of the engine. At a few of the longer lights, I shut the bike off to try to keep it from overheating. I'm not sure why yet, but she tends to die if I sit at a red light idling too long. I may just need to get the carbs dialed in.

The Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club show is coming up in a couple of weeks in Marietta and I expect to see lots of cool bikes there. I also just ordered a new phone with a 3MP camera, so hopefully my pictures will be much better soon.

Back in the Saddle

My Dad was gracious enough to bring Nixon down from SC last weekend so I was able to get the stock CL exhaust put on her. The rust spots on the heat shield notwithstanding, I think it looks pretty good. It sounds pretty good too. Not loud, but when I really wind it out, it is loud enough. I still need to find a removable muffler tip and I need to shorten some of the new screws I bought to attach the heat shield. Last weekend I rode her up the road to Birmingham, GA through some nice farm country, and then back down to my sister/brother-in-law's house. On the way back from there, It started raining on me, but it was pretty light, and it was only for a couple minutes.

Today, I only worked a half day, so I was working on adjusting the position of the exhaust when my wife called. She was at the nail salon with my daughter and she needed me to bring them the nail polish they were going to wear to a wedding next week. So.....I adjusted the exhaust (it was kind of sticking out a little) and tightened it up and cranked her up. The nail salon was only about 6 miles away and it was a nice ride. There were thunderstorms all around me, but it never rained on my. I did notice, however, that the front end was bouncing a bit. I think the spokes on the front wheel need to be adjusted. I think the front wheel is not true, or is out of balance. Otherwise, the only problems I had was some sputtering in the mid RPM band. I still haven't gotten the carburetors fine tuned yet, so I guess that is next.

I think the camera on my phone is starting to go. This picture is super fuzzy.

Shed Some Light

I still haven't gotten my bike back yet so I figured I would post some pics of a little mod I did. I replaced all of the bulbs in the gauges with replacement LED bulbs. They are much brighter and use a lot less power. I will need as much power as I can get when I replace my old headlight with a new H4 bulb. The last picture shows the difference between the LED bulbs and the incandescent bulbs.

Setbacks

I finally talked my dad into bringing Nixon down to my house in Atlanta next weekend. So I hope to get the stock CL exhaust ready to go for when it gets here. I have to finish polishing it and get some new screws that hold the heat shield on.

I also just bought a pair of rearsets on ebay for $30 shipped. I'm very excited. The rearsets are basically new footpegs that mount further back, allowing me to get my knees out of my chest when I am fully tucked in. It will hopefully be more comfortable. They came off of a 2005 Yamaha R6 that apparently went down. The end of the peg on the shifter side is broken off and the shift lever is bent. However, I'm hoping to install them so that I won't need the new shift lever. I am going to try and mount them so that I can just swing the stock shift lever around so it is pointing backwards. The shift pattern will be upsidedown, but I think I would like that better anyway. I haven't recieved them yet, but here are the pictures from the auction.

The Beginning - Part 3

I guess it is about time I finished the story about how I got nixon.

So as I was watching craigslist for CB350s, I happened to see a listing for a CL450 in Atlanta. The 450 is a little bigger that the 350, but very similar. The CL designation means it is the Scrambler version of the CB. It is designed for riding on dirt roads and trails so it's exhaust pipes sweep up and to the side and the handlebars are a little beefier. The picture in the ad looked pretty good and it was running. Since I was in SC, I had to wait until Saturday morning to go see it. This time I just took my car figuring if I did buy it, I could just come back later and pick it up. I had a funny feeling I might actually get this one so I stopped by the bank and got some more cash out so I would have enough on hand.

When I got to the guy's house, he had it out in the driveway. He had been trying to get it to start but to no avail. He said the homemade starter button had fried and he couldn't start it with the kickstart. I looked it over quite a bit. I liked the paint job and it looked to be in fairly good condition. There was a some rust in the tank and it had been modified somewhat. It didn't have the original seat, no passenger pegs, different tail light and the start button was relocated under the seat with a Radioshack special. I tried kicking it and got nothing. For some reason I felt I needed this bike so I offered the guy $250 less than he was asking since it wasn't running. He took it. In retrospect, I probably overpaid for it a little, but I had a bike. The guy even offered to tow it back to my house for me.

Now the funny part. As we were exchanging money and filling out the paperwork, we started talking about the bike and some other things. It turns out that he had bought the bike the previous year on ebay from a motorcycle shop in Greenville, SC. The same shop I used to take my old bike when I was in high school. The same shop I was going to be taking this one to get running again. I don't really believe in coincidences so I know there is some reason I ended up with this bike.

Well, he towed her back to my house and that weekend I started messing around to try to get her to run. I jumped it off of my car and the starter button worked fine. The motor turned over but didn't run. All of the lights and the horn worked. I was in business. I took the spark plugs out and they were very black and sooty. I bought some new ones and stuck those in. It fired right up and ran for about 10 seconds. I had brought her back to life! It was awhile before I got her running well enough to ride, but I was very happy I had not bought a piece of junk (although I think my wife has a different opinion).

The day I brought Nixon Home

Long Distance Relationships

I recently left my job in Greenville, SC when I was able to get a job back near my house in Atlanta. It is great to be back at home all week and spend more time with my family. The only problem is that I didn't have a way to bring Nixon back with me when I moved my stuff back. So, she is still sitting in my parent's garage, cold and lonely. My dad said that he would come down to visit soon and bring her with him on his trailer. So I have been collecting some more parts and working on the stuff I do have here. I should finish cleaning the other (stock) exhaust I have this weekend and will re-assemble it when the muffler gasket I ordered comes in. The center mounting point for the exhaust is on the passenger footpeg bracket with the previous owner cut off. I am going to run it without mounting it there until I decide if I want to keep it. Then I will figure out some way to replace that mount. Probably with a P-clamp on the frame.

I have also been looking for some places to go riding around here. When I first moved to Atlanta back in '97, I lived a lot closer in to the city where there was a lot of traffic. That is why I stopped riding my old CB400t and sold it. Now I live in Roswell which is further out. In fact, if you go about 5 minutes north of me, you are in horse country. Lots of farms and back country highways. Lots of nice riding territory. I also found a restaurant near me that has a very cool hot rod 50's theme that goes well with the cafe racer style. It is called Ethyl's Diner and it is in the same building as Andretti's indoor go-karts. Last summer they had Thursday "Bike Nights" so hopefully they will do that again this year. I would be cool to get some local cafe riders to show up.

The Thaw

The weather really warmed up this weekend so I rode Nixon in to work on Saturday. I gave my notice last Friday so I will be moving back to Atlanta next week. I'm very excited about not having to commute to Greenville and back each week. The only problem is I'm not sure how I am going to get Nixon back to ATL.

Anyway, it really warmed up around lunch time. I think it was around 60 or 65F. I didn't even have to wear my neck cover. I rode over to Circuit City, taking the interstate on the way there. I passed a couple cars doing about 80. Nixon seems to like going that fast. I think she will hit the ton. CC is going out of business, but their discounts were only 25% so I didn't bother going in. I rode back up to Bi-Lo and bought a sub for lunch/dinner. The guy behind the counter looked at me kind of funny when I shoved it in my backpack. I then took the long way back to work, going up Parkin's Mill, out past Hitachi to Mauldin Rd, then back down to Fairforest. The waste water treatment plant was pretty stinky. Then went back to the office to toil away the rest of the day before dropping Nixon off at my parents and driving back to ATL. I have slowly been taking the corners more aggressively. Partly because I'm still feeling out the new rear tire, but also because it has been awhile since I have really ridden. I'm getting much more comfortable now.

On Retainer

Well, I was able to fix the transmission. Luckily it was very easy to fix, once I figured out what was wrong. There is a small retaining ring on the shifter shaft that holds it in position. The retainer had somehow popped out of its groove which allowed the shaft to slide out of position. The little arm at the end of the shift shaft came disengaged from the shifter drum and.......no shifting. I popped the retainer back into the groove and everything works again. I rode it to work today to see what else was going to break but everything went smoothly. I went to get Chinese for lunch and took her on the highway to see how she like to go fast. Surprisingly, I think she would cruise at 70 fairly well, it was just a bit windy, and cold. I was behind a semi for a little bit and was really getting blown around. On the way back from lunch, I got her up to 85, I think. It didn't seem like I was going that fast. I'm not sure I trust the speedometer much. I will have to have someone else go with me when I try to hit the ton to verify I did it.

Plead the 5th

Last night I got my new rectifier ($3 at Radio Shack) put on and put my new (to me) tail light on. I had to modify the tail light bracket with my dremel tool to get it to fit. I spent the next two hours diagnosing some electrical issues, one of which turned out to be a loose ground wire to the tail light and rear turn signals.

I rode the bike in today so I could make sure everything was working properly before I went on a ride with Schofield tomorrow. While running some errands at lunch, the transmission started acting funny. At one point, when I tried to downshift, I felt the shift lever bobbling under my foot. After that, it would no longer shift gears. I was now cruising down Woodruff Rd stuck in 5th gear. I pulled into a parking lot to check things out. The clutch seemed to be working OK, but it would not shift. So I managed to get the bike back to my parent's house, only using 5th gear. Surprisingly, I was actually able to get the bike going from a stop in 5th gear, but it took alot of clutch work and lots of throttle. Now I get to spend the next week trying to fix this. Hopefully I don't have to pull the engine and split the case to get to the inner transmission parts. I'm also very glad this didn't happen on my ride tomorrow.

The old rectifier with the new one as well as the wiring harness I put new heat shrink on:

Tachy

I finally got to ride Nixon again today. I had to stop a couple times on the way to work this morning to adjust the brakes. I put them back together last night, but you can't really adjust them until you ride it. Headed out to Donaldson Center at lunch. I wanted to run a familiar route in case anything happened, I would know where I was. I stopped to make one last brake adjustment before running around Perimeter Rd. After I made the loop, stuck behind a semi for about 5 minutes, I headed south to cruise past some golf courses. I missed one of my turns and somehow ended up back in Mauldin. It was alright though, as the road was kind of curvy and there was some nice farmland to see. On my way back to the office, I decided to do a quick speed run since I had my new back tire on. I got it up to about 75 going down the long hill on Ridge Rd. My speedometer was acting a bit flaky so I'm not actually sure how fast I was going. When I crested the hill, the speed limit dropped to 30, and that's when I say the Sheriff's Office car headed my way. I had slowed down to about 50, but the freshly adjusted break quickly brought me back to 35. All in all, a good day. Nothing fell off, but the tachometer cable broke. I was expecting it because the outer casing is cracked and it kinks when you turn the wheel. Also, the turn signal indicator on the gauges stopped working when the right side turn signals were on. Probably just a loose wire. I hope to get some more riding in next week.

Rearview

I got one of my Christmas presents in the mail yesterday (that I bought myself) so last night, I installed it. It is a rear view mirror that attaches to the end of the handlebar, rather than inside of the hand grip. They give you a little better visibility and also give the bike that English cafe racer look I'm kind of aiming for. First I had to remove the grip by blowing compressed air under it so that I could get the plastic plug out of the end of the handlebars. Then I used the compressed air to put the grip back on. The grip is rubber and is just a little bit smaller than the bars so it doesn't need glue to stay tight. Blowing air under it inflates it slightly kind of like a balloon, and you can move it around. Then I used an exacto knife to cut a hole in the end of the grip, using the inside of the bar as a guide. All you have to do after that is stick the mirror in the hole and tighten everything down. I will have to wait until I can ride it to make the final adjustments. I also bought a couple small chrome hole plugs from Lowes that fit perfectly in the old mirror holes on the control housings. I think it looks pretty good. I chose to only have one mirror (only one is required by law).

It's Snowing!

Since it has been so cold, I have been doing some more work on Nixon. It actually snowed in ATL this weekend, for a few minutes anyway. I guess I'll just run down the list of things I've done.

I repolished the rear wheel and polished the rear shocks, brake stay and brake rod. I reassembled the rear end and aligned the rear wheel. The new rear tire looks noticeably skinnier than the old tire.

I put installed a new tachometer cable oil seal in the tach drive unit and painted and lube the tachometer cable. I also installed a new speedometer cable that I bought. I also adjusted the position of the mufflers so they are closer together and moved the kick start lever back a bit. I think it is bent because it sticks out away from the bike a little bit and hits my leg. I will have to het it up and bend it back. I also took the front wheel apart and inspected and cleaned everything. Then I installed the new front wheel bearings I bought and packed the speedometer drive unit with grease. Then I took the front fender and fork brace apart and cleaned them. I painted the inside of the fender to keep it from rusting. The shows the primer. The final color is flat black. All I have left to do now is finish polishing the front wheel and forks and reassemble everything. I'm hoping to have it on the road by Friday when it is supposed to be 60°F.