Nixon and Me

Round and Round We Go

2011-10-27T12:10:00.002-04:00

Barber - Part 3

About 11 am it was time for the parade lap where you can ride your bike around the track. About 10 of us from the show joined about 50 other bikes to do a couple laps. We had to follow behind a motorcycle cop keeping the pace so we couldn't go too fast, but it was still a lot of fun. If you dropped back a bit, you could go pretty fast for awhile until you caught up to the pace bike. In one sharp corner I dragged my toe on the ground. I need to learn to keep my toes up.

We took our bikes back to the show and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, chatting and watching the races. One of my favorite memories of the afternoon was seeing about 10 people all sitting around Jason from Dime City while he told the story of his recent trip to Bonneville while he sat on Troybilt's bike, Willow.

As the sun set and the festivities wrapped up for the day, a group of us left Barber and had a blast riding the back roads back to Kanticoy's place. We spent the rest of the night sharing stories, beers and some awesome BBQ.

A little later the guys from Dime City showed up along with Mark Wilsmore of the Ace Cafe in London. It was pretty cool to have some cafe racer scene celebrities hanging out at the party. We all got together for a group shot at one point to commemorate the event.

The next morning I slept in until 7 when the rooster started crowing. After some much needed coffee some of the guys helped me get Nixon back in the trailer and we headed back to the festival. I spent the morning walking around the huge swapmeet area with CCRider and some of the other guys. Around noon I said goodbye to as many people as I could find on my way back to the truck and headed back home. It was a truly great time and I can't wait to do it again next year.

(Thanks to Kioskguy and Mothgils for the photos)

The Queue

2011-10-25T17:52:00.001-04:00

Barber - Part 2

I woke up around 6:00 shortly after it got light outside. I find it hard to sleep late when I'm camping. Besides, I had to get some caffeine in me and fix my bike before the show. I chatted with some other early risers and messed around with my bike for awhile. I put a new spark plug in the side that wasn't firing and it fired right up and ran fine. At about 7:30 xulf13 wanted to take his repaired bike for a test ride so Fix and I went for a morning ride with him. I needed to check my bike too.

We rode for about 30 minutes, stopping to get some gas and chat with a Harley rider who was asking us about our bikes. On the ride I noticed that my engine wanted to race up to about 5000 rpms from idle. There wasn't much I could do to fix that before the show since we had to leave Kanticoy's by 8:30, so I decided to just live with it for now since it was running fine, except at stoplights.

When it was time to go to the show, about 12 of us all fired up our bikes and headed out. That was a sight to see and hear. On the way, several bikes broke down (not unexpected) and then we ended up stuck in traffic waiting to get into the festival for about an hour. My bike kept revving up so I ended up pushing it most of the way as we waited in the traffic. We finally made it to the spot where the cafe racer show was and I got to take my leather jacket and helmet off and cool down for awhile in the shade.

I put my bike in line with some others, next to CCRider's awesome 450 and hung out, checking out the other bikes and talking to the builders.

Some close-ups of Nixon

(Thanks to Kioskguy and Mothgils for the photos)

A Pilgrimage

2011-10-25T17:17:00.001-04:00

Barber - Part 1

A couple weeks ago I made what will hopefully be a yearly trip to Birmingham for the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival. If you like old bikes, you have to go to this. There is a giant swapmeet, vintage bike races, dirt bike races, several bike shows, auctions, blah blah blah. You could spend three full days there and not see it all. This year the motorcycle forum I am on, DoTheTon.com got together with Dime City Cyles out of Florida and the producers of Cafe Racer TV to put on a cafe bike show. Since Nixon is nearly finished (they're never really finished are they?) I decided to enter my bike. To save you the suspense, I didn't win anything, but I had a great time.

A couple days before the show, I had to do some last minute work and apply the brushed finish to Nixon's tank. This took several evenings of sanding to get it to a point I was happy with. I didn't have time to rebuild the carburetors or seal the tank, so that will had to wait.

Friday afternoon I put the tank back on, loaded it in the trailer of my Dad's truck and headed off to Birmingham.

Kanticoy, one of the DTT members was gracious enough to let some of us from the forum camp out in his yard a few miles from Barber Motorsports Park. When I arrived it was dark and as always happens and any vintage motorcycle get-together, there were several bikes being worked on by flashlight. One of the members, xulf13, had taken a spill riding The Dragon on his way to Birmingham the day before. He had already gotten a new set of forks and was replacing his front end. Kanticoy helped me unload my bike from the trailer but when I tried to fire it up to park it with the rest of the bikes, it would only run on one cylinder. I decided to wait until morning to diagnose this problem and just pushed it over there. I set up my tent and had a few beers with some of the other forum members I was meeting in person for the first time and some I had met on our trip to Tennessee in July.

The Old Crap Riders

2011-08-26T17:16:00.001-04:00

I recently found out that a group of people who ride vintage bikes meet at the Handlebar regularly. Since Nixon is running fairly well now, I rode over there this week to check it out. There were a bunch of really cool bikes there and some cool people too. I will have to go back.

In other news, DoTheTon.com and Dime City Cycles are having a cafe racer show at the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival in October. I entered Nixon so now that means I have to get in gear and finish her. There isn't a whole lot left to do before the show except for seal the gas tank and apply the brushed finish. And, I need to clean the carburetors out again and put the new seals I bought for them in. Hopefully that will resolve my idle issues and the gas leak.

Pics from the Handlebar:

Pain in the Ass

2011-08-03T17:44:00.000-04:00

The Dragon - Day 3

I tried to sleep in as much as possible on Sunday because I knew I was going to need my rest for the ride home but I still got up around 9:30. We all took our time eating breakfast, drinking coffee and packing our stuff. Fix and Ryan had left early because they had a long long ride back to Michigan. Sometime during the ride on Saturday the screw holding the back of my gas tank on had fallen off (gonna have to use some loctite on that next time). Plastic gave me some zip ties to use to hold it in position. Zip ties are the modern duct tape. We said goodbye to DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil as they headed back to Cleveland. The rest of us headed over to the other part of the camp to say goodbye to the rest of the guys.

We hung out and chatted over there for awhile and then CCRider and I decided it was finally time to head out. We roared back across the dragon, headed for home.

We stopped in Robbinsville to call and let our bosses know we were still alive and on our way home and then headed out again. This time we stayed on Hwy 28 and headed south. The section of Hwy 28 south of 74 was actually quite fun and at some points rivaled The Dragon with respect to the curves. On one sharp right hand turn I was leaned over so far that the toe of my boot dragged on the ground. That woke me up. We ended up stopping at an abandoned gas station to give our butts and arms a rest. While we were standing there, we notice some storm clouds rolling in and heard some distant thunder. We quickly headed down the road towards Franklin NC to try and get ahead of the storm. Nope! We ended up riding right into a heavy downpour. To make matters worse, as we pulled into town, we got stuck behind a giant dually that was spraying water everywhere. As the rain got harder, he slowed down until he was going about 10 miles an hour. After sitting at a light which seemed to be about 10 minutes long, we rolled into a gas station soaking wet.

We hung out there for about an hour waiting for the rain to pass and ate lunch. Yum! Gas station hot dogs! We geared up and headed out onto a very wet Hwy 64. Once we got back into the mountains, the scenery was beautiful. It was hard to resist the urge to look over the guard rails down at the amazing waterfalls. But if we did, we would probably end up down there. We stopped at this awesome place where you could drive behind a waterfall.

As we were leaving the waterfall, CCRider's bike started acting up. It seemed to be running on one cylinder. He goosed it a couple times and with a puff of black smoke the other cylinder started firing again. I think the altitude was starting to get to his bike. We continued on and eventually ended up in Highlands, NC. We didn't intend to stop but as we were sitting at a red light, CCRider's bike started misfiring again. We pulled over for a minute and he got it going again. As he pulled away, suddenly my bike wouldn't start again. A minute or two of jumping on the kickstart and she finally fired up. Off we went.

We stopped for gas one more time in Sapphire, NC. Again my bike would not start. This was getting annoying. I tried for several minutes and couldn't even kickstart it. CCRider ended up giving me a push start and she finally fired up. I took off before she had a chance to stall and we headed for our last stop. The road finally opened up and we were able to put some miles down.

As I was riding it dawned on me what the problem was. When I rebuilt my bike, I had put a new halogen headlight in with a 55W bulb. The stock bulb is something like 35W. So I theorized that the charging system could not keep up with the power consumption of this new bulb and the battery was getting drained. I figured if I rode with my headlight off for awhile, the battery would have a chance to charge. Unfortunately, it is NC law that motorcycles run with their headlights on. So now I had to keep an eye out for cops and turn my light back on every time I saw one.

We finally pulled into a gas station in Hendersonville to take another break and say our goodbyes. Thank you CCRider for making the journey with me and making the trip much much more enjoyable.

On Hwy 25 we went our separate ways and I cruised on back home to Greenville. When I got into Greenville I stopped at an auto parts store to get a new, smaller headlight bulb, but of course they didn't have any. The guys at the store came out to look at my bike and were shocked that I had just made such a long trip on such an uncomfortable looking motorcycle. At that point my butt, arms and hands agreed with them. I finally rolled back up to my parent's house extremely exhausted but very happy. 650 miles of beautiful mountain roads. When can I do this again?

My route home:

View Larger Map

Fire in the Sky

2011-08-02T21:28:00.004-04:00

The Dragon - Day 2 - Part 2

So after everyone got geared up again and got their bikes started, and Plastic got gas AGAIN, we took off for the Cherohala Skyway. Part way up the mountain, the clouds started settling in around us and it started to sprinkle. The ground started getting wet so we slowed down a bit. We pulled over at an overlook to take another break. Apparently the mexican food had already started working its magic on some of the guys.

DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil waiting for us to catch up.

Most of us arrived eventually.

After waiting awhile, we noticed that CCRider, Kanticoy, Cyclefreak and Patrick hadn't shown up yet. Since there really is no cell phone reception around there, we couldn't call to see what happened. We figured whatever it was, they could handle it. When we went to leave, Plastic's bike wouldn't start. All is electronics under his seat were exposed and we figured the rain screwed something up. POCPhil gave him a push start using some fancy racing technique and we were off.

We made it almost to the end of the skyway before Plastic's bike finally ran out of gas. Apparently putting knee dents in an already small gas tank doesn't leave you with much range. I found a water bottle in my backpack and Fix pulled a fuel line off of a carburetor on his bike and filled up the bottle. Plastic ended up putting two bottles worth of gas in, hoping that would be enough to make it to the gas station.

Plastic got another push start and everybody started to leave and then my bike wouldn't start. I thought the wet conditions might be affecting my electronics too as I have never ridden Nixon in the rain. I used the kickstarter, and after a few attempts, she fired up and Jewbacca (who had stayed behind with me) and I were off to catch up to the others. We met up with them a few miles down the road at a gas station where Plastic had actually managed to make it.

At this point, after giving Plastic another push start, we turned north on Hwy 360 which was less curvy than what we had been on, so we open up the bikes and hauled ass through some beautiful farmland. Well, we all hauled ass except for Jewbacca (AKA Captain Slow) and Fix who was following behind him. 360 makes a 90 turn and after a few miles we all stopped to let Jewbacca and Fix catch up. They didn't. After waiting for awhile, we figured that again, whatever happened they could handle it, and we continued on (after giving Plastic another push start). So at the end of that trip, of the 12 guys that started together, 6 of us made it all the way together. About half an hour later, Fix showed up alone. Another half hour later Jewbacca finally showed up. Apparently they had missed the turn in Hwy 360 and took a longer route back.

We were all hungry so we headed over to the other part of the campsite to get dinner and see what happened to the other guys. Apparently CCRider's clutch cable had snapped back when we were leaving the restaurant. They ended up buying a pair of vice grips and clamping it onto the the cable at the clutch lever.

He rode The Dragon like that! Back at the campsite they made a torch out of a propane bottle from a gas stove and a spark plug socket and made a new solder bulb at the end of the cable. Amazing McGyver stuff. When we got there they were in the middle of rebuilding the carburetors off of Troybilts Goldwing.

We all ate dinner and relaxed after our long ride. Most of the guys headed back to the other part of the camp while CCRider and I stay to help with the bike. Well, I provided moral support anyway. They eventually got the carburetors back in the bike and got it running again.

When we got back to our part of the campsite, the drinking was already in full swing. And that's when the inevitable happened, the fireworks came out. We all sat back and watched while POCPhil launched a bunch of bottlerockets and mortars. When he got tired of that, he started blowing stuff up (including the gas bottle used by Plastic earlier). Eventually the owner of the camp showed up. We thought we were in trouble, but he had just come to get the money some guys owed him for their camping spot. Ha! Not too long after that, we all fell out and went to bed.

Dry as a Bone

2011-08-02T20:51:00.000-04:00

The Dragon - Day 2 - Part 1

We all rolled out of bed around 9 and headed next door to the BBQ place and got some breakfast.

We finally headed over to the other part of the campsite and met up with Kanticoy, Cyclefreak, Patrick, Troybilt and Beatnic. We hung out there for awhile, drinking some more coffee until Shane had had enough and decided it was time to go on our ride. We all hopped on our bikes and headed out and across the Dragon to Deal's Gap.

We gassed up, got some drinks and peed before heading out 28 west.

We passed a Miata that had taken a spill and lost one of its wheels. As I was riding I noticed the bike was pulsing as I accelerated. I figured the chain might have too much slack in it. We stopped at a gas station so some people could gas up and I got my tools out and tightened up my chain. Apparently Jewbacca had the same problem. Everyone got geared up again and we headed out.

At the next crossroads, POCPhil had to pull over because his bike died. He quickly realized some of his wiring was grounding out and blew a fuse. Problem was nobody had a fuse that would fit his bike. Luckily there were some smokers among us with some foil paper. Problem solved until we could get to Robinsville where we were headed for lunch.

We had been discussing earlier what we were going to have for lunch and it sounded like everyone wanted margaritas. Well luck would have it that the first restaurant we saw when we pulled into town was a mexican place. We all piled in the restaurant ready for a break.

Shortly after we settled in, POCPhil made a startling and devastating discovery. This place had no bar. It had no tequila. It had no BEER! In fact, we soon figured out we were in a dry county. Ugh. Well, it was probably for the best since we were going to be riding some more challenging roads. While we were eating, DJElliot made a new fuse for POCPhil's bike out of a straw and some aluminum foil. Is that really only rated at 15 amps?

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that the door to the tool box on my bike was open. My first thought was that someone stole some stuff out of there. But why would they do that? And why would they only take some of the stuff? Then I realized that I had probably left the door open the last time we stopped when I was tightening my chain. As far as I can tell, I lost a crescent wrench, two allen wrenches and a flashlight somewhere on Hwy 143.

This was our route for the ride on Saturday......well it was the route for most of us.

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Specialty Tools

2011-08-01T22:19:00.005-04:00

The Dragon - Day 1 - Part 2

CCRider and I unpacked what little we had brought and hung out for awhile waiting for some more guys to show up. We hung out outside in the hot sun and watched Jewbacca work on his carburetors and tail light wiring. [Side Note] For the uninitiated, when ever you are dealing with a group of vintage motorcycles, without fail, every time you stop, someone will have to work on their bike. It's an unwritten law. You will see this unfold as the story goes on. [/Side Note].

I got tired of waiting around and rode down the road for about 10 miles where I finally got cell phone reception and made some calls to let people know I was still alive. When I got back, ChimeraMW and his brother Jason had shown up. After BSing for awhile, we decided to take a ride back across The Dragon. We made it up to the scenic overlook and stopped to take a break.

We soon realized Jason and Ryan were not with us. We waited around for awhile in case they had been pulled over by the cops or something.

This is when I noticed a puddle forming under my bike. Yeah, it was gas. I figured I was probably going to need that gas so I tried to figure out the problem. The left carburetor bowl was leaking. So, there at the overlook I took the bowl and gasket off and tried to clean them as best I could and assemble everything tightly. It didn't work and it kept leaking. ChimeraMW was getting concerned about his brother since they still hadn't shown up, so they all headed back down the mountain. I cleaned the gas off my bike as best I could and took off back to the campground. Turns out Jason had some electrical problems and kept blowing fuses. Plastic rode back with me and he took his truck to get Jason's bike. I decided I would just shut off the fuel valve from the tank every time I stopped so the gas wouldn't leak out of the carburetor. I had to do this for the REST OF THE WEEKEND.

When we got back to the campsite, DJElliot, Shane and POCPhil had shown up. I decided to ride with Plastic and Jason back to his house (which was about 15 minutes away) to drop off his bike. We ended up sitting over there for a couple of hours trying to help him diagnose his electrical problems. We didn't figure it out. So Plastic and I headed back to camp. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, drinking beer and telling stories (some more believable than others).

Adventure Time

2011-08-01T21:32:00.002-04:00

The Dragon - Day 1 - Part 1

This blog is finally going to get out of the rebuilding phase and get back into the funny stories again. In case you didn't know, I've been frantically trying to get Nixon roadworthy again so that I could take her up to Tennessee for the second annual "DoTheTon.com Summer Get Together" or DTTGTG2011 as it will henceforth be known. As you have seen, I succeeded.

6 AM Friday morning I went over to my parents where Nixon is currently housed and did an extensive pre-ride check, checking all of the bolts and fluids and lights and everything I could think of. I packed as many tools into my backpack as I thought I could stand and headed out!

Since my shakedown ride ended with a Fail, I was pretty nervous about the trip I was undertaking. But as some wise people once said "somewhere in between boring and suicidal lies adventure". I fired her up and left about 7am headed for Asheville, NC where I was to meet CCRider from the forum (I'm going to use their screen names to protect the innocent......er guilty). Nixon chugged along great all the way up to Asheville. I stopped for gas and then met CCRider at the first overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Hwy 191 intersection. Although I have been on the forum for over 3 years now, this is the first member I actually met in person.

His bike is the same model as mine, but yet so different. I love custom bikes. We headed west on the Parkway stopping a couple of times. At one stop I noticed my rear sprocket looked funny. There are two bracket things on there that keep the nuts from coming off. One of them had somehow come apart and got chewed up by the chain. I did my best to use what was left of it and we continued on. After a few more hours of riding, we stopped at the base of the Tail of the Dragon and ate lunch at Deal's Gap.

From here, we had about 25 miles to go to get to our campground, but to get there, we had to ride The Dragon!

We finally made it to The Punkin Center MC Resort where we were staying and met up with Jewbacca, Plastic, Fix, and Ryan.

My Route

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Falling Flat

2011-07-28T15:31:00.003-04:00

I've spent the last to weeks trying to get everything finished and all the gremlins worked out. I had to have some of the welds on the tank redone due to some pin holes. I've also been struggling with some poor idling issues. Through this process I have put about 80 miles on the bike. Last night I planned to take Nixon on a 40 mile shakedown ride to make sure everything was OK and I would make it to TN this weekend. About 3 miles into my ride, as I was turning a corner, my rear tire went flat. That was scary! I nursed it over to a parking lot and called for help. My brother-in-law showed up with a pump. The pump didn't work so he went a bought a new one. That one worked but wouldn't inflate the tire. So we put it in the back of the truck and took it home.

This morning I took the wheel to the local motorcycle shop and had him replace the tube. From looking at the tire and tube, this is the best we can figure out. When I put my new valve stem caps on, the o-ring in the cap got pushed down into the valve and was slowly letting air out. I didn't realize the tire pressure was low. When I went around the corner, the tire deformed and ripped the valve stem out of the tube causing a sudden flat.
It is now fixed, but I didn't get to take my shakedown ride. So tomorrow morning I head out to TN and with good luck, I might actually make it.

Order From Chaos

2011-07-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

It was finally time for final assembly! My friend Dave came over the other night to help me assemble the bike. Of course, on his way over, his bike died and I had to go rescue him at the gas station. I think it was just a bad battery. We got back to the garage about 10 minutes before it started pouring. Good timing! It took us about 4 hours (or 6 beers) to get most of the bike assembled. For the most part, everything went smoothly. I had to put the forks on a couple of times because I kept forgetting things like the gators and headlight ears. After we got everything together we realized that the fuel tank bungs were in a very bad location. When we built the tank, I did not have the engine in the frame, so we weren't quite sure where any interferences would be. I dropped the tank off at the welder's the next day and he quickly moved them and had it back to me on Sunday.

I spent the whole next day and most of the third day working on the wiring. Since I moved the battery and most of the electrical components to the the seat hump, all those wires had to be extended. I also had to extend the key switch wires since I moved that to the dash. Luckily my dad helped me out with the wiring or it would have taken a lot longer. *Note to future builders: Get a real soldering iron. It made things much easier and more than paid for itself with the time saved.* I cleaned all of the wiring up and rewrapped the wiring harness. I still have a little bit of wire organizing to do under the seat, but I will do that after I know everything is running right.

I have spent the rest of the time attending to small details. As I was looking at the rear brake setup, I realized I had the brake cam in 180° out of alignment so the brake arm was sticking up instead of down. To move it, I had to take the back wheel off. As you can see in the pictures, I had the bike up on a platform (a cooler to be technically accurate). When I took the back wheel off, it was no longer balanced on the platform and tried to tip forward. My dad tried to stop it but it fell over on him. Luckily it did not hurt him. The bike didn't have much damage either. All it really did was bend the rear brake stay which was hanging down at the time. I guess my dad broke its fall. We just bent the brake stay back.

So now, it is pretty much complete. I need to adjust the generators and the timing so I can get it running. Then I have to take it over to the welder's house so he can shorten the rear brake rod and shift lever so they fit properly. Then I have to apply the brushed finish to the tank.

Almost there!

Engine in!

Suspension and wheels on!

Ooops! That's not going to work.

Underseat wiring.

Ready to roll!

And I Want It Painted Black

2011-07-07T15:20:00.000-04:00

Since all of the fabrication work is done and all the mods have been made to the frame, it was finally time to paint the frame. First I cleaned all the old paint and grime off of the frame. That took a long time! Although it wasn't necessary, I used a self etching primer on the frame to keep it from rusting and help the paint stick a little better. Since I don't have any time or money left to powdercoat it, I sprayed it with a satin black epoxy paint. It turned out really nice. I also finished up the fenders which needed a little bodywork done. With the exception of the brushed finish on the tank and seat, everything is ready for re-assembly! Most of that will take place this weekend. I will have some wiring modifications to make and I still have to work out the rear brake arm and shifter, but I will still hopefully be finished before the end of the month.

Fender Bodywork

The primed frame

The frame painted and drying

Curves And Flats Are Where It's At

2011-06-15T17:48:00.000-04:00

As my self imposed deadline of the end of July quickly approaches, most of the fabrication work has been done. The tank and seat have been made and mounted to the bike. We are currently working on the mounts for the rearset foot pegs. The last item will be a license plate bracket and then the rest of the work is mine. I am going to have lots of cleaning, sanding and painting to do over the next month.

I've decided not to show the whole bike until I'm done, but here are some teaser shots of the tank, seat and the new mount for the tank and seat. Oh, and the electronics tray under the seat hump.

What the buck?

2011-05-04T09:37:00.001-04:00

So my welder and I didn't have the same vision when it came to the tank, so he asked me to make him a wooden buck for him to form the tank on. I designed what I wanted with the CAD software I use at work and then used that to make templates to cut and shape the wood. It took a little while, but at least the tank and seat will look exactly how I want them. I will be dropping them off today so he can start working on them.

The Design

Making the Buck
My dad glued up some pine boards and then we cut out the general shape (using templates from my CAD model) using a really big band saw. I then used a large file and a sander to get it to the final shape. I made cardboard templates to help be get the corner radii right and keep things consistent.

The Finished Product

The final tank won't have a pointed front because it will be cut out for the frame tunnel. Also, the seat will be trimmed to match the profile of the tank where they meet. The flat part of the seat buck is actually a little long so we can trim it to fit.

Here is the lonely engine waiting for a bike to call home

and the three tanks that didn't make the cut

Less Talk More Action

2011-03-10T17:27:00.004-05:00

Now that the progress is out of my hands and into someone else's, things are actually happening. Got a new bracket for the coils and condenser fabbed up. Modified the gauge bracket so the ignition switch could be mounted up top. Now the tank and the seat are getting made. I had originally planned on modifying a CB750F tank, but after we realized the tunnel wouldn't fit down on the 450 frame, we decided to take the plunge and just make a new tank from scratch. (I think my welder just wanted to try his hand at making a tank). So, here are some pics of the progress.

Tanks A Lot

2011-01-20T09:12:00.006-05:00

I got another tank. So now I have three. I'm hoping this is the one. It is a 1978 cb750f tank that I paid too much for and was apparantly sitting out in a salvage yard because the front corners are almost rusted through. Luckily that is on the bottom and can be fixed and hidden. So I stuck it on the bike to see how it looks. It is BIG! I think it is twice the size of the original, but I like it. It was obviously not made for this frame, so a couple modifications will need to be done like modifying the rear attachment bracket so it sits down over the frame rails and is level. I'm also going to get some knee dents cut in and one other trick detail that will stay a surprise. My next step is to finish up the back wheel so I can get the bike over to the welder and we can get the tank positioned properly.

Nixon's Noel

2011-01-05T21:22:00.003-05:00

So Christmas was good to me, or rather I should say Nixon. I got a bunch of parts including new clipons (handlebars), a small sealed battery that will go under the seat and some other parts that I am keeping as a surprise for her unveiling (whenever that is). I also got some other stuff sanded and ready for paint. I got the rear brake panel done as well as the new headlight. I am still working on the back wheel. I'm also still looking for cb750f tank (come on ebay!). To see how it would look, I printed out a full size picture of one and taped it too the bike. I think it looks more like what I want than the cb350f tank.

Slow and Steady

2010-12-14T15:25:00.002-05:00

...wins the race. Yes, I have lots of excuses. I moved again. I'm trying to sell my house. Yadda, yadda, yadda. You don't care. I did manage to buy a tank. It is the kind I was looking for and I got it for only $40 shipped. But, it has a large dent in the top that is going to take a good amount of work (read $$$) to get out and it is too rusty to use how I wanted to with the brushed metal finish showing. I put some of the bike back together with the tank on it to see how it looked. Now that it is on there, I'm thinking I want something longer. Ugh, the search continues. I'm currently working on cleaning and painting the rear wheel. I expect that one will take even longer than the front wheel.

Mockup with 11" shocks and the triple tree lowered 2" on the forks
(No, I will not be using that seat)

444 CCs of Environmentally Unfriendly

2010-10-04T18:42:00.011-04:00

Not a whole lot to post about except I've finished the engine! All it needs is some oil and to be put back into a bike and she is ready to push me down the highway at speeds grandmothers are afraid to drive. It got a very thorough cleaning and scuffing with sandpaper and another good cleaning with some lacquer thinner. I used high heat primer and satin black to paint it. It came out really nice. I then replaced all of the bolts with new polished stainless bolts and put everything back together. My dad helped my get the pistons back on. Then I put the head on and fed the cam chain through the guides. I got the camshafts aligned and riveted the cam chain back together. I Set the valve clearances and put all of the other stuff back on. Now, if only I could find a tank.....

Priming the Bottom End of the Engine

Painting the bottom

Painting the top

The pistons and cylinders are on

Feeding the cam chain through

All buttoned up and looking pretty

Deep Contrast

2010-09-14T22:34:00.005-04:00

Quick update tonight. I got the top end put back together. Put the valves, valve springs, cams, cam followers and cam chain guides in. I put the valve covers on and put it on top of the jugs to get an idea of how it's going to look. I like it! Now I am cleaning the bottom end to get it ready to paint. I should have a finished engine soon! Now I just need to find a tank.

40 Spokes

2010-09-06T23:19:00.005-04:00

The Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival is fast approaching and that has really got me motivated to get some work done on Nixon (and the fact that I'm back working 40s again for awhile). Since I got my wheel stand put together last time, I figured I'd start in on the wheels. I got the front wheel trued on the stand and then started cleaning it. The spokes were pretty cruddy and a little rusty so I took some sandpaper to them. After working for about 2 hours and only getting 5 spokes done, I decided I needed some power tools. I set to work on it with the pneumatic die grinder with an assortment of sanding pads and wire wheels and in no time she was clean as a whistle. I then spent a couple hours applying the brushed metal finish to the hub and spokes with some sandpaper. I taped up the inside of the hub and the rim. I found if I used a hole punch in the middle of a piece of tape and then cut a slit to the hole, the tape would fit perfectly around the spoke nipples where they meet the rim. I clearcoated the hub and spokes to keep the brushed metal finish looking pretty with the high heat engine enamel I've been using on everything else.

After that cured for a few days, I taped those up but left the center of the hub and rim exposed. It took awhile to tape all of those spokes and get the edge at the center of the hub trimmed right with my exacto knife. That was seriously the longest taping job I've ever done.

I painted the hub center and the rim with satin black epoxy paint. The epoxy paint is supposed to hold up better than regular enamel paint so I figured I'd give it a go. I must not have gotten the chrome on the rim scuffed up enough in some places because the paint did this weird thing where it would get anti-bubbles. Little spots where the paint wouldn't stick. I did three coats within about 10 minutes of each other and that seemed to cover up most of those spots. You can still kind of see it if you look close, but who's going to be looking that close at my wheels as I speed by them at 100 mph?

Now I just have to do the back wheel. :/

Stand in the place where you live

2010-07-25T17:37:00.005-04:00

My assignment in Greensboro is coming to a close so I figured I better get back to work on Nixon. I made some time to build a stand to hold the wheels so that I can adjust the spokes and get them true and also to help me paint them. In true low-budget fashion I snagged some scrap wood from some shipping containers at work and found some random bolts, screws, nails and washers in my dad's garage and threw this baby together. Actually, I designed about 4 months ago, I just haven't had a chance to build it. It has a couple cool features. Since the wheel hubs are different widths, I made the upright post spacing adjustable. The picture below shows the narrow front wheel. I put little spacers down at the bottom of the posts. So, to mount the wider rear wheel, I will just take the upright posts off, turn them around, and bolt them back on and BAM! They are 1.5 inches wider. There is also what looks like a random screw sticking through one of the uprights. That thing is actually there so that I can see how true the wheel is. I screw it in until it almost touches the rim. Then as I spin the wheel, I can easily see how much it moves side-to-side with respect to that screw. Simple. Now all I have to do is find the spoke wrench I bought and figure out how to use it. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to paint them yet. The rims and the part of the hubs between the spokes will be satin black. The hubs will get the brushed finish. I haven't decided what to do with the spokes yet. They are pretty cruddy, but may clean up with the proper tools and some elbow grease.

Off Track

2010-02-27T14:02:00.002-05:00

It seems this blog has turned into a documentary on the rebuilding of a motorcycle instead of the crazy things that happen while riding. Oh well, I guess I can get back to that when she's done. For now, even though I'm in Greensboro, I've managed to finish some more parts. I finished the engine mounts, jugs, cylinder head and the starter (shown below). Right now I'm working on the wheels. I need to make a stand for them that I will use to paint them and to true them up with the spoke wrench (not in that order).

Late Night Love Affair

2009-12-22T00:36:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-03T00:35:00.002-05:00

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]

2009-10-18T22:24:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-12T13:08:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-07-29T09:22:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-22T18:32:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-30T09:27:00.008-04:00

And so, the teardown begins.....

A Broken Heart

2009-06-17T10:37:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-19T12:40:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-13T09:17:00.007-04:00

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

2009-04-27T16:47:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-10T18:54:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-29T09:46:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-19T09:14:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-10T17:57:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-04T09:47:00.004-05:00

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

2009-02-10T00:42:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-31T21:56:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-29T21:03:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-23T14:52:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-20T19:05:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-01-20T18:28:00.009-05:00

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.

Winter Cleaning

2008-12-22T22:35:00.002-05:00

I'm still waiting for my new rear tire to come in so I have slowly been taking more and more parts off of the bike and cleaning/polishing them. I finished polishing the gauges and I'm waiting for it to warm up a bit so I can paint the bracket that holds the gauges. I also had to buy some new rubber gaskets for them as the old ones had pretty much rotted away.

I cleaned up the rear shocks the other night while watching TV and I've started on the front wheel. I took the front brake apart and everything seems pretty good there. The previous owner must have recently replaced both sets of brake shoes. I took the front wheel bearings out to clean, inspect and repack them with grease but I found they did not turn very smoothly. Not like the rear ones at all. So, I went ahead and ordered a new set for $10. Hopefully I got the right ones.

I probably won't be updating this blog for a month or two since it is pretty cold now and I'll just be cleaning and polishing instead of riding. If anything humorous happens, I'll let you know about it.

Speedo

2008-12-11T09:08:00.003-05:00

When I bought Nixon, the rear tire had a substantial groove cut into the side of it, probably from rubbing against the fender when misaligned. I tried to buy a new tire this summer, but all of the suppliers were out, so I have been riding around on it. On my way home from work last Friday, it finally gave out. The tire split in the groove about a 1/4 of the way around the tire. Luckily, it has an inner tube so it did not blow and I was able to get home.....slowly. Oh yes, and the speedometer cable broke that day.

Since I can't ride it until I get a new tire, I decided to go ahead and disassemble the front end and clean it up. I somehow managed to get the frame balanced on a block of wood so I could get the front and rear wheels off. I also took the gauges off. I'm starting with the speedometer. It was kind of rattling around in the housing. It turns out that the two screws on the back that hold it tight to the housing were missing. I found two screws in my dad's box-o-screws that would work. The paint on the gauges is faded and chipped with lots of ugly touch-up paint so I started sanding them to get ready to repaint them. I noticed the metal underneath was bright shiny steel. So, I ended up sanding all of the paint off and polishing the steel. I figure if I don't like it, I can always paint them. I finished the speedometer last night after about 2 hours of sand paper, steel wool and metal polish. Now it is the tachometer's turn to get buffed.

It's a Start

2008-12-04T15:31:00.003-05:00

It has been too cold here to ride lately so I've been doing a little work on Nixon. I'm in the process of repairing the damage I did to the stock exhaust system I did when I tried to take it apart to clean it. I had to cut off a broken bolt and drill it out. I will have to get a new one welded in. I also tried to get one of the heat shield bolts out but have not yet succeeded.

When I bought the bike, the starter button that should have been in the right hand control housing was missing. A previous owner had wired up a cheap radio shack switch under the seat to activate the electric starter. I bought a new button and spring, but when I took the control apart, I realized that there was also a bracket in the housing that was missing. They don't sell that part separately, so I would have to buy a whole new control. Instead, I figured I would put my engineering talents to use and make one. When I was putting the new handlebars on, I took the bracket from the horn button on the left hand control and used it to figure out what the one for the starter button would have to look like. I made a paper template. Last night I used some aluminum sheet I got from a friend who is building an airplane to make a new bracket. I used my dremel tool to cut out the shape and then bent it into the proper form. I actually had to make three because the first two broke when I tried to bend them.

I got the button and bracket installed and reconnected the correct wires at the battery and tried it out. It worked! However, when I tried to put the control housing back on the bars, it wouldn't go on. I realized that all of the wires come out of the bars right where the bracket was. When it wasn't there, they had room. Now they hit the bracket. As I tried moving the wires around the wire to the starter button contact broke off.

I ended up grinding a good amount off of the bracket to try and clear the wires. I also had to solder the wire back onto the contact. After a lot of pushing and twisting, I managed to get the control back on and tightened down. I think the bracket is pushing on the wires, but there isn't much I can do about it. The new starter button works so I removed the old one from under the seat. Woohoo! That only took 2 1/2 hours.

Shiver

2008-11-22T10:41:00.002-05:00

The warm weather on Thursday fooled me into thinking it would be warm on Friday too. Nope, high of 44°! I made another attempt to ride around Donaldson Center again. This time I made it all the way without the bike dying. As I passed the golf course, I saw two of the guys from work that had left earlier to go play golf. I waved to them as I went by. They were right by the road so I turned around to say hi. I pulled up by them just of the rode and they were looking at me like I was crazy. After a couple of seconds, I realized I didn't know these guys. No wonder they thought I was nuts. I left feeling like an idiot.

When I left work to go home at 8:30, the temp had dropped to about 30°. When I tried to start the bike, it made a very weird noise, kind of like a goat screaming. Something I've never actually heard. I tried using the kickstart, thinking there was something wrong with the starter, but it still did it. I put it into gear and pushed it a little ways thinking the clutch may be stuck. I tried to start it again and it made the sound one more time and then it started. I let it warm up for about 2 minutes while I got cold. I don't really know what was wrong, but at least it started.

I rode home and decided that I needed some new gloves and some riding boots because my wrists and ankles were getting very cold. About half way home I noticed one of my front blinkers looked a little funny when I turned it on. I stopped at the next intersection and found that one of the turn signal lens screws had fallen out and the lens was hanging on for dear life. I couldn't feel my fingers so I decided it would just have to hang on until I got home.

On The Catwalk

2008-11-20T21:21:00.007-05:00

Since I got the bike back together last night and today is the warmest it is going to be for a few days, I rode her into work so she could pose for some pictures. I charged the battery over night, put some air in the tires and tightened a few bolts and screws in the morning. She seems to be running pretty well now. Those new jets must have done the trick. Here are some of my lame attempts to get artistic.

Cool Runnings

2008-11-20T00:45:00.005-05:00

Everything went back together pretty smoothly last night. I got the cables lubed. That was a bit messy. I held a paper towel over the cable luber to catch the stuff the came out of the gaps. All the wires found their mates correctly the first time, so nothing fried. It was a little hard to work on the bike since it was about 40 degrees in the garage.

Ooooooo...Shiny

2008-11-19T13:00:00.006-05:00

The new handlebars are almost done. Everything has been polished and the controls are mounted. The only things left to do are to reconnect all of the wiring and re-attach the cables. Since I have the cables off, I thought now would be a good time to lube them. One of my friends let me borrow his cable luber, so I will do it tonight. If all goes well, and I can figure out which wires go where, she should be ready to ride tomorrow!

Gone Fishing

2008-11-14T08:51:00.003-05:00

Last night was spent performing the arduous task of fishing the hand control wires through the new bars. I knew it was going to be hard, but that sucked! I removed the old heat shrink from the wire bundles and re-wrapped them with electrical tape. I wrapped the big bundle for the right hand side in two separate bundles, thinking it would be easier to pull them through separately. WRONG! I ended up undoing all of that and wrapping them as one bundle.

I fed a nut through the bars that was tied to some dental floss. The floss was tied to some speaker wire. I then taped the speaker wire to the ends of the wire bundles. The left side with only 4 wires went through relatively easily. The right side with 9 wires......not so easy. In all, I made 5 attempts to pull it through. On all but the last one, the speaker wire would pull out of the wire bundle. On the third try, I was so close I could see the end of the wire bundle through the "exit" hole, but I couldn't grab it. The main problem was pulling the large bundle, that just barely fit in the tube, around the 90° corner of the clubmans.

But in the end, and after two dirty martinis, I got the wires through. Next week I will finish polishing the parts I took off and reassemble everything. I think I will borrow a camera and do a little photo shoot as well.

Grindhouse

2008-11-13T09:48:00.005-05:00

Last night I spent a couple hours putting holes in my new clubman bars to run the wires through. Who knew steel was so hard to cut through! I tried using a drill press, but since I had to lower the bit with one hand, I could only hold the bars with the other. I couldn't hold it steady enough. I tried putting it in a vice and using a cordless drill, but didn't make much progress. So, in desperation, I whipped out my trusty Dremel.

I used a heavy duty cut-off wheel to carve a square hole in the bars. Then I used a grinding wheel to make the ends round. The tubing used in the bars is much thicker than I was expecting for $18. The first hole I did was one of the ones at the hand controls. These get covered up by the controls so nobody can see how bad I butchered them. I used this first one to perfect my technique. The other two went much smoother now that I had a process. It still took a long time though. Finally, I used one of the small sanding drums for the Dremel to clean up the holes and remove all of the sharp edges. I will have to remember to coat the edges of the holes with something to keep them from rusting.

Christmas in November

2008-11-11T10:40:00.007-05:00

The handlebars I ordered finally came in this weekend and the carburetor jets I bought finally arrived so I was able to do a little more work on Nixon last night.When I bought the bike, it had a 145 main jet on the LHS and a 130 main jet on the RHS. No wonder it ran kind of rough! After giving up on the Honda dealer, I found a guy online that had some extra jets from a jet kit that he bought to tune his bike. He sent me a pair of 135s, a pair of 140s, and a pair of 145s. Since the LHS was the side that kept fouling the plug, I put the 135s in. Unfortuantley, I'll have to wait until I get the bike back together to see if they help.

I also mocked-up the handlebars to see what position I wanted them in and to make sure they wouldn't hit anything. They fit great and I think they will look pretty cool. I marked them so that I would know where to put the holes for the wiring. Then I polished some more of the handlbar hardware.

The Beginning - Part 2

2008-11-10T14:47:00.005-05:00

So I was watching Ebay and Craigslist everyday for something I could afford. Most of the stuff I could afford were being sold as parts bikes, and most of the stuff that ran, I couldn't afford. The other problem I had was when I was looking. It was the summer, and gas prices were high. What I was interested in was usually gone by the time I could go look at it. One weekend, I called a guy selling his bike for $600. By the time I got the kids in the car, borrowed my brother-in-laws truck and trailer and drove to the guy's house, he had already sold it.

As I waited for my bike to find me, what I was actually looking for became more clear. I didn't really want a cruiser type of bike. I couldn't afford a newer sport bike. I decided what I wanted was a "cafe racer". These are typically older Japanese bikes that have been modified somewhat to make them look (and sometimes ride) more sporty. Most of the ones I saw started out as old clunkers and were cleaned up with new handlebars and seats added. They usually have smaller displacemensts, 250 - 500 cc, just enough to hit 100 mph (The Ton). Well, I should be able to find an old, small Japanese clunker for $500 right? Something old enough to have a kickstart.

I started focusing in on a 1968-1975 honda CB350. They are small and nimble with enough power to hit the ton. They were the highest volume selling bike in history and they are often made into race bikes for vintage racing so parts are readily available. Lots of people have made them into cool little cafe bikes. Several of them popped up over the summer, but the owners either wanted too much for them in the condition they were in or they did not return my calls.

To be continued......

1970 Honda CB350

I've Got Blisters on My Fingers

2008-11-06T22:54:00.003-05:00

Tonight I started cleaning and polishing the handlebar hardware. I was surprised to find that the handlebar clamps are actually cast aluminum. They had been painted black but I thought they would look better polished next to the chrome bars. I also pulled the wiring out of the old handlebars, getting a blister in the process. The 35 year old plastic tubing around the wires is very stiff. I will probably have to rewrap them in order to feed them through the new bars. I also quickly cleaned and polished the old handlebars. Hopefully someone will buy them on Ebay.

The Rat's Nest

2008-11-06T11:39:00.008-05:00

So far, the only modifications I have made to the bike are the parts that have fallen off. My goal is to convert it into a cafe racer style of bike. The first major thing that I am doing to accomplish this is to swap out the original handlebars for a set of clubman style bars like the ones below.
These are very low and actually go fwd, wrapping around the gauges before they pull back putting you in a much more hunched over, racing type of position.

I ordered the bars but they were on backorder for about a month. The dealer finally called to say they were in. When I went to pick them up, we realized that the distributor sent the wrong ones. Sigh. I guess a few more days won't kill me.

So last night, I removed the original handlebars in preparation to put the new ones on. Surprise! Most of the wires run inside the handlebars. I guess I should have realized this, but I just didn't think about it. So I spent about an hour, going through the rats nest of wires and connectors behind the headlight disconnecting all of the handlebar wires so I could take them off. I have a feeling that it will take even longer to get them all reconnected in the right order.

Grocery Getter

2008-11-06T11:16:00.003-05:00

At dinner time last night, I headed to the store to do my grocery shopping. I always ride with a backpack that has some tools in it, so I just put my groceries in there. I don't buy much. On the way there, the left cylinder kept dieing. I figured the plug was getting fouled again. Also, I noticed that my turn signals had stopped blinking. After leaving the store, I stopped at Advance Auto. I bought an electronic flasher, a couple spark plugs, a spark plug wrench that fit in the toolbox on the bike, and some dielectric grease. I had to borrow a wrench to get the old plug out because the new one didn't have that much leverage. I also replaced the flasher.

I also noticed that the taillight was not on. Taking the lens off, I saw that two of the three screws holding it on had fallen out. I checked the bulb which was fine. I found out later that one of the wiring connectors had come loose. So I put everything back together and headed back to work.

But, the left cylinder kept dying. Hmm, that's a brand new plug. What gives? For some reason I tried switching the fuel valve to reserve. A couple seconds later, it was fine. Apparently, when the gas is low, it does not flow to the left carb as well since it is further from the valve.

I made it back to work ok and made it home. I must remember to fill it up next time.

Donaldson Center

2008-11-06T11:04:00.003-05:00

So after this weekend's valve clearance adjustment, timing adjustment, new left spark plug and carburetor re-sync, she seemed to be running pretty well. It was a nice day yesterday so I decided to ride her into work so I could go on a nice ride at lunch. I headed out to Donaldson Center and made one loop around the perimeter road. That was pretty enjoyable so I decided to make another loop around in the opposite direction. A 1/4 mile down the road, the bike lost all electrical power. I stopped and lifted the seat to discover I had forgotten to put the battery cover back on after charging it the night before. I replaced it and the bike fired right up.

Another mile down the road, it died again. After sitting for 30 seconds, it came back to life. It did this several more times as I tried fiddling with the ignition and some other things. Then, it wouldn't come back. A nice guy on a black Hyabusa stopped to see if I needed any help. I replaced the fuse and it came back on, so he left. As soon as I hit the street again, it died. I finally figured out that the fuse was loose in its holder. I tried tightening up the clips in the holder and that seemed to fix it.....for now.

The Beginning

2008-11-05T19:00:00.002-05:00

I'm not really sure what your are supposed to put in your first blog post. I guess I should just give a little background as to why I'm doing this.

In the summer of '08, I really had the urge to ride a motorcycle again.

In high school and college, I had a 1981 Honda CB400 that I had bought for $500. I really liked riding it. When I moved to Atlanta, I didn't want to ride it in all of that traffic, so it sat for 2 years until I sold it, for $500.

So, since I was back working in SC where there isn't much traffic, I set out to find another bike. My wonderful wife finally gave in to my incessant pleading and said, "Fine, but you can only use YOUR money, not OURS." That means I would have to use my birthday and Christmas money, which when you are an adult, doesn't come in by the truckload. The most I could muster was about $500 after Christmas and asking everyone to just give me money for my birthday.

Now, the quality of bikes that you can buy for $500 is not very good. In fact, it is pretty rare that you can find anything that is actually running. So, I started watching Ebay and Craigslist every day to see what would pop up.

To be continued....