Getting it plated next week! Thanks!

Had ya told me a month and a half ago I'd fix up a 28yr old motorcycle, I'd say you were loco! Gaskets, fluids, filters, brakes, wiring, hoses, carbs, manifolds, boots, tires, paint etc etc etc...

BUT, today was pretty satisfying. After I dropped the carbs back into the new intake manifolds and boots, tank on, gased it up and started up without too much issue. Some smoke burned off I'm assuming from the grease around the exhasut flanges I applied, but settled down pretty quickly.

Had it on the 3km circuit around my street 4 or 5 times and will be plating/insuring next week!

Thanks for all the great posts/content on the forum and willingness to help with most any issues!!!! This is a fabulous resource for wannabe bike mechanics!

 

VERY nice.

Did you put the chrome front fender on it? (It's not stock.)

 

Thanks BigFitz, Yup! The fender came off an 81' 550, picked it up on Ebay for $22. Gotta love it.

 

THAT's what looks odd on the front end! It's a d*mn fine looking 650 seca!

 

NOT odd, Old-School:



(Except the Norton's only looks like chrome; it's polished stainless.)

 

damn beautiful bikes. very jealous of you both

 

love the norton! The fender that came with the bike had seen better days...cracked, bent, dinged...the *new* one is identical to what was on the bike style wise...just chromed. I really like the look of it, plus the old round/chromed mirrors off my ACE look good IMHO!

 

The 550 Seca and 650 Seca fenders are identical other than finish; they carry virtually the same part number. The 550 had the chrome one only for '81, after that they were painted too.

I've been going back and forth in regard to my 650; I'm really tempted to put a chrome one on it; you're not helping.

 

The title "Getting it Plated", thought it was gonna be some kinda "BLING" ama thing. :roll:
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

Oh I meant odd for the 650...I'm just used to seeing more paint up front

 

Bike looks great!

 

Its funny, I didn't like the look of the painted fender at all...didn't help it was beat up I suppose.

Gold plating it....didn't think of that! Interesting! Heh, the bank account kinda feels like I plated the bike - but read a post here that said doing this stuff yourself means its right, the time and care was taken and then sense of accomplishment can't be duplicated. Its so true!

I bought a new petcock for it and was intending to put an inline fuel filter on the bike, but the orientation of the valves are slightly different and I can't make the filter I got fit. May see if I can find a smaller filter....but would be concerned about restricting fuel flow.

 

Take a look toward the end of this article; http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=25058.html I included a pic of all three styles of in-line filter chacal carries. I used the smaller straight-through style on my 550s, not sure what will work on the 650 yet.

The "standard" petcock I rebuilt for the article is for my 650 Seca.

 

Thank for the pointer...The rebuild kit for the petcock was $40 and got a new unit for $85...didn't see the point mucking with the old one. Will check out the article. Need to order a clutch switch harness from Chacal anyway as well as some side cover gromets.

 

dealer sells the rebuild kit for 34. there's another bike store that sells em for 22. and it don't come with the spring inside the switch.

but you've got a different bike.

 

Fitz... You tease me...

 

I bought it brand new; got to see it in the crate.

I have all the assembly leaflets, checklists and factory paperwork; it came with a '73 pattern seat (that's a genuine replacement on there now) and some other odd bits even though it's a '74. (February '74.)

Every one of the 45K+ miles are mine; I've been all over the Country on it.

It's never been "rebuilt" although part of maintenance on an old British bike is regularly removing the head, decarbonizing, lapping the valves, replacing seals, etc. I used new-tech parts last time so it should last longer. Although the head's been off 3 times, I never saw need to pull the cylinders.

It still hauls serious bunnies and sounds great doing it.

Bring back memories?



(yours probably didn't have turn signals though.)