Winter projects??

[Fuglet01]

With the snow coming any time now, what plans do you have for your bike over the winter? Or have you picked up a new project to work on?
Myself, I plan on taking my K-4 from an 88 to 117cc and also plan on changing the front fork springs. They are too long and the front end pounds quite loudly when the forks rebound. I will take the cylinder and piston and put them in my daughter's pink 76' ct.
When rose are done I have a 79 xl 100s that I want to restore as well as a 86' TRX 125 I traded my generator for. And if time and funds permit, I have my wife's 1980 ct70 and my youngest daughter's z50A-K1 that need a bit of attention.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

 

[Adam-NLV]

With the snow coming any time now, what plans do you have for your bike over the winter? Or have you picked up a new project to work on?
Myself, I plan on taking my K-4 from an 88 to 117cc and also plan on changing the front fork springs. They are too long and the front end pounds quite loudly when the forks rebound. I will take the cylinder and piston and put them in my daughter's pink 76' ct.
When rose are done I have a 79 xl 100s that I want to restore as well as a 86' TRX 125 I traded my generator for. And if time and funds permit, I have my wife's 1980 ct70 and my youngest daughter's z50A-K1 that need a bit of attention.


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

Got this 1979Bright Yellow with matching engine this week, it's pretty much plug and play. Gonna change the decal and polish up the paint with some Mguiers rubbing compound, plus do some engine detailing before assembly. I'll put all balls in the steering stem...just stuff like that.
I should have a lil runner by mid-winter!

View attachment 18651 View attachment 18652

 

[motoman287]

I hope to wrap up my '93 mod bike. I still need to order a shifter, kick lever, G'craft aux. tank, and exhaust (leaning towards an Over), and also put chain and sprockets on, find a throttle cable and clutch cable bracket, powder coat the peg assembly, and that should about wrap it up. Riding season in WI won't be anytime soon, so I definitely have time. It's slow going on any of my projects, because I only have access to them on the weekends.

I also have an '81 that was my original resto-mod candidate. I had it completely torn down when I found the '93. It's mostly there, almost all of the hard-to-find goodies are there, so I'm torn between putting it back together and selling it, or parting it out. The frame does have a title, but the motor has a 4 speed manual clutch installed.

Lastly, I smoked a deer on my old endure about 6 years ago, an '89 Yamaha XT600. I have all of the pieces to put her back together, so maybe I'll finally do that if time allows.

Nothing like stoking the wood stove and getting cozy with some bikes in the shop...

 

[69ST]

Nothing like stoking the wood stove and getting cozy with some bikes in the shop...

Amen to that brother! Did that for decades...until the insurance industry decided that it was suddenly an incipient fireball that couldn't be prevented by any means known to mankind. :14: Still have fond memories, though. Used to enjoy leaving the side door open, watching the snow fly - through the shimmering air.

 

[Enginedoctor]

...Still have fond memories, though. Used to enjoy leaving the side door open, watching the snow fly - through the shimmering air.

sounds like a poem. or the beginning of one. i think many of us share similar fond memories, and yes wood fires seem to add character to them.

i don't have any plans for my 70 this winter, i like it the way it is. i did buy a 124 tak superhead recently that i'd like to find a donor body for. i might add a 5 speed trans and make it a rider. my bike is great for around town, but on country roads, i need something that can cruise 50+
I also have a half-built st90 that will hopefully go together, and an 80% built ct90 my friend wants to buy. quite a few things on the docket this winter.... i've got a good wood pile though

 

[mfw]

I have a 68 z50 that I am going to have painted and start putting back together.

I have a 69 z50 that needs a kick start shaft replaced and reassemble the entire bike.

I have a new clutch to put in my K3. I paid for a local shop to do it but they didn't fix it correctly.

I am hoping to get my 86 TRX 70 together for my son. I have 2 fuel tanks with pin holes. Need to find one without or a repair shop to fix. both are difficult.

MFW

 

[b52bombardier1]

Hello,

First up and currently in work is the restoration of a 2006 Honda Foreman 500 that I picked up utterly worn out but cheap. The machine shop top end work is done, need to work on two clutches and split the cases but I'm afraid of what I will find from the grenaded piston - definite need for a crankshaft.

Then I need to get turn signals on my 76 CT90 - I have the parts but no time yet.

Then my brother in law dropped off a two cylinder Onan generator (4 kw BFA Type) a few months ago that I want to at least attempt to bring back from the dead. That should just about do it for the short winters here in Louisiana.

Rick

 

[rfranks]

My plans for the winter are two different projects, both of the same era. I have a 1969 z50 that I have started to restore. I am having the motor finished in the next week or two. The second project is a 1970 Schwinn Sting Ray Cotton Picker Krate. I have the the parts now and it is time for paint and plating.

 

[Ponytail]

New to the Forum. Just picked up an '81 CT70 in good shape overall. I don't think it needs to be restored just cleaned and polished up. Any advice is welcome.

 

[motoman287]

Looks like I picked up two more to keep me occupied over winter. $900 for the pair. The '77 is basically turn key, the '78 is more or less parts. Picking them up next Monday, and will post better pictures then.

 

[theraymondguy]

New to the Forum. Just picked up an '81 CT70 in good shape overall. I don't think it needs to be restored just cleaned and polished up. Any advice is welcome.

Don't be afraid to start your own post in the projects section - Good to see another Canuck on the forum!

 

[Fuglet01]

New to the Forum. Just picked up an '81 CT70 in good shape overall. I don't think it needs to be restored just cleaned and polished up. Any advice is welcome.

Where in Northern Ontario are you?


If it ain't broke. It soon will be!

 

[kirrbby]

The forums have been too quiet lately. I'm bumping this thread up to see if anyone is workin on, or gearing up to start workin on, their off season projects or modifications. Are you planning to start a project thread? Build a bike? A motor? Please tell us what we have to look forward to.

I'm planning to finish (kinda) my Scrappy Softail project, and start another...my ODB (Ol Dirty Bastard) A rusty old beater CT with a big shiny engine and exhaust.

 

[Deoodles]

Funny you should ask. I want to restore my K3. I have looked at for over a year and decided it deserves to be done. I haven't had any luck with finding nos headlight ears for it and it's been stopping me from starting. I may begin soon anyway.

 

[kirrbby]

A K3 restoration would be awesome! I look forward to seeing that one started. Those fork ears are a toughie tho. I'll keep my eyes pealed for you.
I saw a K2 set come up recently. I haven't seen nos K3 ears in a verry long time.

 

[69ST]

K3-76 are the same...good ones are billet unobtainium. The rest are verry difficult to repair; that's not the same as impossible. Still, when you break down a restoration project, it's just a series of small(er) projects that get assembled at the end and most things are bolt-ons, which can be R&Rd at any time. HL ears fall into this category. There's enough body & paint work, chrome, and mechanical stuff...none the least of which is the engine, that'll keep you from getting bored, i.e. nothing to do, for many weeks. Think of it this way, if the bike is restored & ready to go, except for those HL ears then you're less than an hour away from perfection, when you source them; OTOH, if you wait to find a set and begin the restoration process only then, you'll have the entire thing to do, from scratch, and probably during riding season.

 

[Deoodles]

I haven't seen a set in the last 2 years that I have been looking. Bob has a point about it only taking an hour to complepte but if it takes 2 to 5 years to find them it kind of defeats the purpose of the project in my mind. The bike is titled. So it would have to remain K3 to be road legal. I am having a difficult time getting excited about this rebuild not having them.

Is the rumor false that CHP was going to repop the ears?

 

[kirrbby]

I think Bob was thinking you probably had the old bent up set on your bike that you could use while your looking for new.

Haven't heard anything about the repops since Nils was talking about them. Can't remember his lh handle..?

 

[69ST]

I know that I've seen at least 1-1/2 pairs on ebay since 2016. No, that doesn't qualify as predictable, let alone readily available...or...holy-grail either, and that's the point. If there are 2 NOS pairs out there (and, realistically, there are probably way more than that) sooner, or later, they'll show up on ebay... for a price. At that point, it becomes a question of whether anyone is willing to enter the bidding war, if there is one. As I said previously, damaged originals can be repaired; it boils down to finding the talent needed and the price. The tradeoff will likely be time vs OEM perfection. Even NOS may need new chrome; the original chrome didn't always look that good and, lacking a base layer of copper, it wasn't durable.

Sticking with the purist-concours approach, HL ears are a sticky issue. The question, to my way of thinking, is whether, or not, you're willing to make them the lynchpin of the entire project. It's a matter of "when" not "if" acceptable K3-`76 HL ears can be had, along with "how much" and that gap is going to be relatively small, regardless of "how" you go about that.

IMHO, the turn OEM turn signals on these bikes take the top spot for bad design. Extremely difficult to repair when damaged and virtually guaranteed to get damaged. IOW, once you have that perfect set for your 100-point resto does it really make sense to install them for anything other than display purposes? At a minimum, I'd use shorter stalks...to get them at least partially out of harm's way. Flexible, polymer, stalks would be even better. Which segues nicely into a third option, custom/aftermarket front signals...bolt-ons. That opens up a lot of viable options, since the originals could be easily swapped at any time. Your local DMV isn't going to care if your front signals are not purist-correct, as long as they are present and functional. Obviously, you're the only one who's opinions count...your bike, your call. That said, if you're as itchy to get this project done as it seems, it is possible to do everything else, have the bike functional and concours-correct, except for the HL ears...either to bridge the gap between project completion and HL ear completion, or for practical reasons. I mean, with everything but those HL ears done, the bike will still be a lot nicer than it is at present, won't it? Make no mistake, over the years, many of my projects have been derailed for want of some unobtainium part, or other, too. I understand what you're dealing with. But, this isn't running gear...

 

[OLD CT]

I have this one Ray. Needs some ''love'' if it's possible,CHEAP for you!