drty's bobber

So I've had this bike for a month now and I've been holding off on posting until I had some decent progress completed. I live in an apartment so my dining room has been converted into my garage for the winter. I did lay a tarp down under the bike so I'm hoping I'll get my security deposit back

So far I've updated my fuse box, removed the carbs, fenders, battery, headlight, turn signals, tank, and bars. I chopped the back of the frame off behind the springs, changed the stock bars to clubman, removed the badges from the tank and filled the holes with bondo. I removed the reflectors from the frame and took a grinder to the mounts. The holes on the rear fender from the license plate bracket and tail light are getting filled in so I can reuse the fender.

I'm at the point now where instead of taking stuff off, I'm putting it back together. I want to replace the turn signals with something smaller, relocate the license plate and tail light, and cut up the factory seat and make it a solo.

The only issues I have now are the starter button(it fell out and I don't want to buy a whole new housing), the throttle sleeve(PO broke the back half off when replacing grips), the angle of the brake mc is off a bit now with the new bars, and the clutch cable is too long and hangs in front of the headlight.

We have long winters up here in northern NY so I'm taking it slow so I can get this bike exactly how I want it. I'm not doing anything too extreme and don't want to dump a bunch of money into it since it is my first bike and there's a good chance I'll wreck it :twisted:

If anyone has any tips, I'd really appreciate it. All feedback is welcome; both positive and negative.

 

The angle of the mc shouldn't be a huge issue unless your bars go down rather than up as the fluid exits/enters on the left side. The clutch cable can be rerouted to pick up the slack or you can do it the right way and get your cable shortened (barnettes and motion pro do this) all you have to do is send them your cable and they will make a custom one for fairly cheap. With the starter button all you have to do is find a new 12v dc momentary switch and pull the wire out of the bundle that goes into the throttle controls and wire it up. Or just order a new control from xj4ever.

 

Its not that scary to rewire a starter button, i found a small red momentary at Fry's for like 3 bucks that had (if i remember right) a 5/8' shaft. i used on my CB360 survival rat. i actually ended up putting it right in the headlight bezel since it was really the only place i had enough area to hold the wires.

the nice thing about the momentary switches is that its reasonably fool proof, one wire in, one wire out.

 

If you did not want to send it off to motion pro, I would suggest that you take your clutch cable into a local motorcycle/dirtbike/atv shop and find a shorter cable with the same type ends .

The other two are right, the starter button is an easy fix, just find a momentary button and a place to mount it.

As for the mc, you can reuse the old one if the angle issue does not bother you, but if you would like to get one more to your style, just make sure you get a size 13 or 14 bore (bore size is usually cast into the side of the mc...11, 12, 13, 14... 1/2...etc). A lot of guys run the remote reservoir from an R6 which I think looks good...

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I ordered a new throttle sleeve from bikebandit. Not bad for 8 bucks. The MC shouldn't be an issue since the left side is slanted down slightly. I ran the clutch cable behind the headlight housing so it isn't noticeable now. As far as the starter button goes, I just need the plastic button itself. I don't think I'll have to rewire anything. And the housing with the killswitch would look kinda goofy with the button missing out of it if I put a start button somewhere else. I'm going to go to the local parts store and try to find something similar that might work since I haven't been able to find just the button online and I'm not going to spend 120 bucks for the whole unit.

 

I had the same problem with just the start button missing, chacal has them for sale at a good price and I got it pretty quick. It was an easy fix as long as you have the other parts inside the housing.

 

You're grinding in your dining room? Is the whole apartment covered in metal dust?

 

this sounds exactly like my situation. Although i am a little further along than you. I have the bike back together now and have moved it out of my dining room and back into my (unheated, no power) garage.

MY problem however is that as of today its not getting any spark to all four plugs. Now I may or may not have hack sawed the tail off while the TCI box was installed with or without the battery disconnected. I cant remember. But i just put new plugs in today and no spark on 1&4 (thats all i checked so far).

You need to post some pics of your progress...here are mine.

Before

After

 

Thanks spegal. I'll be sure to get a hold of him for the button.

The carpet in here should have been replaced before I moved in anyway so if it is covered in metal dust, it blends in nicely with the stains and cigarette burns. If this place was actually decent looking I might have reconsidered doing the work elsewhere.

Captain, the bike looks great. I'm keeping the stock airbox on mine simply because the bike runs fine how it is and I don't want to deal with the unnecessary hassle of jetting my carbs and getting it to run as good as it does now if I were to put pods on.

I'll try to get some pics up soon but lately all I've been doing is working and sleeping so I haven't spent much time on the bike.