Shiny's 1980 CB750 F...happy with pods.

[shinyribs]

Hold the phones! You have spoked rims. You got it easy dude! You can just leave your hub alone and lace on any rim you want. Lucky dog! You know, Harley's are running 17'' rears now and they are 40 spoke rims like a CB has. I changed a rear tire out on one the other day and it was a 160. Of course, 17'' rims to me mean sport bike profiles, but you probably don't want something that short. There are lots of options out there for wide 40 spoke rims ,though. I bet you could get a nice 4.5-5.5'' rim off ebay pretty cheap.

[shinyribs]

I think i got this rim fixed. I used some tubing bender dies in the press as...well, a die and pushed it around. I'd push it in to shape then heat it with the torch. After it cooled it would hold the shape pretty well, but would bounce back some,too. After a getting the hang of the amount of bounce-back it would do and adjusting my technique it turned out pretty decent IMO.

The very outer lip is still kinda wobbly and not very pretty, but the main hoop (if that makes sense...) is pretty durn good I think. Is .040'' runout too much? Or will the tire absorb that? It's got pretty much no runout side to side ( maybe .005- .010'' max), the .040'' is axially.

[Truck]

Haven't got them yet. tracing and electrical problem right now. But that is one of my first projects for the winter. I hear a Goldie shaft rim will drop right into place.  Good advice though on the rims. My biggist concern would be clrearance for the shaft to the rim/tire. Looking at the bike right now there isn't much room to go bigger.

[gkmaia]

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[Truck]

No idea. Once I get some heat going in the garage going to get in there, fix this lil electrical bug, then start playing around. I was watching some shows from Sturgis last nite and got some whole new ideas...   

[shinyribs]

gkmaia wrote

Nice!!!

What is you rear tire spec?

Thanks! Originally, when I first got the bike, it was a 140/70-17. Now it's a 170/60-17

[shultz_1978]

That rim look pretty darn good from my house.

[shinyribs]

Just got done getting this one all back together. Man, the Holiday's were rough!

Rims are pc'ed and back on the bike now. That bent rims seems to be doing just fine are the amateur straightening process I put it through. Triple digits tonight and no vibes or wiggles.

These tires are Shinko Ravens. Or 009's. The have a much less aggressive profile than the Rossi's did and making turns much more civilized. It was fun how the Rossi's would fall in to a turn,but it wasn't exactly a stable feeling. More for the track than the street I suppose. These 009's need to be pushed over some. but its smooth and predictable. The compound is much harder so I haven't pushed them yet,still scrubbing them in, but for what I do they should let me get more than my typical +/- 3k miles out of a rear tire. They have super deep tread grooves which already prove to be way more stable on the roads in my area that always seem to have a light dusting of pea gravel on them. I'm super happy about that. Sticky rubber on the road is great, but it can't grip the road if the gravel is holding it off. These deep grooves (and lots of them ) really help that. Anyway,blahblahblah...pics.

I also lowered the headlight and flipped the mounting ears upside down. In stock form they looked upside-down to me, so I'm much happier with this. Comparo pics:

Stock

Lowered


And a couple more because I'm an unashamed showoff...

Love this angle


I need to find a front fender for these forks( '95 CBR600 F3) and I'm having no luck. Holler if you find something.

[TOOLS1]

Parts for a CBR 600 F-3? GOOD LUCK! That is one popular bike!
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[shinyribs]

Dude, I thought parts for those bikes woulda been everywhere. I guess they just get used up and thrown away instead. Airtech makes a fiberglass one for 60 clams. I'd like to run a stock fender actually. I love how they look but the one I have won't fit over this tire.

[shinyribs]

Well,this bike has never ran perfectly. I was initially surprised with the amount of bottom end power it has, but it has always had a real bad upper rpm (8k+) stumble. I've chased everything I can think of and finally decided to try another set of carbs.Especially since my current carbs are kinda oddball. Since these particular carbs ran great on a similarly set-up bike I'm hoping this may be my answer. We'll see.

So stored carbs always need a little love. These were no different,as can be expected. But when they arrived in the mail and I opened them I saw one thing that I see all the time on bikes that is my personal pet peeve:a metal screened fuel filter. I'm a hardcore paper element filter only kinda guy. Here's why...










Of course, shipping a set of carbs will jostle them up,but these had silt in every nook & cranny. It had even been drawn up into the accelerator pump diaphragm. No stale fuel or varnish at all,but lots of silt. Use paper elements guys and gals,please.

All cleaned up now with fresh rubber bits throughout. Just need to do the synch thing.

[shinyribs]

Slowly plugging away at getting my new dash sorted out. The stock clocks were just massive. My new setup is a Stryker by Trailtech. Has a volt gauge with programmable warning lights for low voltage situations. It also has a programmable reminder for maintenance intervals. I really like those two features,but it has no tach. Which is OK since previous experience with Trailtech's tachs didnt really make a good impression on me. Besides, I prefer a digital speedo,but an analog tach, so my options were somewhat limited on what to use.

So far I've mad a simple little mount for the Stryker and dug out an old gauge cup for the mini tach that is supposedly on it's way here via USPS. I'll probably ditch the cup and just use the mount and clamp. But there's oodles of wired all around the headlight bucket that drives me nuts. It's ugly how the factory wired these bikes, but it's handy. It's nice to know that every electrical connection is either behind the headlight or under that one side cover. Easy road side repairs. So I think a windscreen will hide all that nicely. And it would protect the LCD screen on my Stryker from the sunlight ,too. But all the windscreens I see are way too tall for my taste. So I'll be making one.

Anyway,blahblahblah...the starting point...

Oil pressure gauge is just for mock-up,of course. But that's basically what all I want to hide.



Oh, and most of you are familiar with how the stock fuse box fits in to the top clamp on these bikes. Well, thats obviously not gonna happen with the CBR top clamp, so that will get mounted under the windscreen as well. It's just been flopping around behind the headlight bucket lately. Been irritating me.


And I never showed off the bar end mirrors Crys got me for Christmas. Cyclegear had them on sale for $25 for the pair. They are the folding type and they are actually quite nice. The folding joints works well and they are completely stable. Very good mirrors if you are in the market for some.



And the tach plug since I'm going away from all cable driven gauges.

[shinyribs]

Remember the Dolphin-head front fender? Well, it just so happens to bolt up to these fork legs...sorta. It fits the sliders nicely and sits the right height above the fender. The lower-most bolt hole on the fender doesnt have a place on the forks to screw in to,and it sits kinda cocked.


See?


A little repositioning of the rear bolt hole inserts and we got her laying right nice.


^Still ugly though. So I used a pair of tin snips to rough trim the fender and then smoothed it out the rest of the way with the belt sander. I was hoping I'd get lucky and not flake the paint (since it does look nice and actually matches) but that didn't happen. I might just paint the fender satin black, as I like that look pretty good, but to preserve my chances of having a color matched front fender I thought about getting some blue paint the go around the edge of the fender to hide the paint chips. Tacky? Probably.

I think I'll trim the nose of the fender back a little more. Maybe try to better match the profile of the rear of that fender up front.



My tach got here today. I really like how it illuminates. Not a bad looking piece in the flesh at all. Pretty pleased with it for $20 shipped.

[TOOLS1]

Oooooo That's a pretty tach. However that fender is UGLY! Looks like it is mounted backwards.
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[shinyribs]

I totally agree. It might get trashcanned, but I'm still optimistic(read:cheap)!

[TOOLS1]

However you would always be ready for a game of Jai alai.
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[shinyribs]

LOL. I have no idea what that is.

I'll fiddle with that front fender again in the morning. I don't know what I was thinking. The whole style of the bike is pointy,straight lines. I have no clue why I went with a rounded profile.

[shinyribs]

I worked on the fender some more. It's ok,but it's not perfect. You know the old saying:"Plan your work,work your plan"? Well, I didn't do that this go around. I jumped the gun and removed too much material on the first trimming,but it'll do until I come up with something better.



I bench synched my new carbs (which I've never done before) and I got pretty dang lucky.  I had to tweak carb 1 a bit, but this is what the readings were just off the bench synch.



And....the bike runs like a champ! I don't know what brand/seller these pods are from (I need to call my buddy that I got these from),but the carbs are just the stock ones off his '81 CB750 F. The needles are non-adjustable so, as far as we know, they are the stock needles. Jets are 140,68,35. Air screws are 2.5 turns out. Pulls to redline  HARD and has no bogs or flat spots while you are riding. It does have a weee lil bit less of the snappy feeling it had before, but I may need to tweak the air screws a touch to get the fine tune on that. Very,very little pop on decel. Pretty much what you'd expect with a fairly open 4-1. Air cut-off valves are still in operation. No foam inside the pods or tape on the outside(obviously), just using them straight out of the box. Literaly, just pods and a re-jet.

I'll have to really ride the bike and rack up some miles before I will say with confidence that "pods are working on my CV's'', but as it stand now (after 20 minutes of flogging it in the mountains) well, pods are working on my CV's. First time ever I've had this bike try to lift the front tire in 2nd gear. Not a wheelie, just WOT in first and fanned the clutch while I grabbed 2nd (@ ~ 60 mph)and the front skipped a bit. Felt good.

[TOOLS1]

Hey I found this on craigslist. It might look better on your bike http://kansascity.craigslist.org/mcy/4337139772.html
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[shinyribs]

Haha! Funny guy.