Cafe part duh

[musicman]

Lots of progress today for once, this was my only day off, now I get to work 12 days straight before I get 1 day off again.

Did mostly wiring work, got the fuse box finished up, R/R mounted, figured out where I wanted the baby battery and electric flasher (that doesn't seem to flash... cool). Also got the exhaust all bolted down with new bolts, Mac slip-on mufflers, new oe gaskets and plenty of copper anti-seize. Love the mac mufflers, my collectors were rotted out, these sound great, fit great, and I like how they look.

On the battery, it's a tiny little 12v battery I found online, no electric start. Primed the carbs and the old beast came to life after sitting for about a month in a couple kicks. Adjusted the carbs a little and it seems to run good with my current jets, was a little rich before now it acts pretty close. More will be known though when I get it back on the road.

Can't wait to ride this thing again, lots to do first though, like buy new gauges, mount the license plate, build the new seat, finish the headlight, etc.

Crappy cell pics

[kilroy]

I like it.

[musicman]

Thanks

Ordered some LED bulbs for my chrome bullets, gonna ditch the weird turn signals in the back. The bullets I have came with a weird bulb, 1157 base but a tiny little glass dome, very short, and hard to find. They burned out when the old R/R croaked, hopefully these LEDs I ordered fit, the dimensions seem right... Also ordered 1.9" gauges, LEDs for neutral and oil dummy lights, all in theory the seat is the last big thing. Need to find someone to send it to so it can be done right.

[musicman]

Took it for a ride around the block today, felt good to ride this thing again! Cold and wet out, didn't stay on it very long. I have the stock seat on it right now, since I'm going to be taking the blade to the old modified seat. The fork bag looks kind of goofy but it's stuffed with all kinds of stuff, like the tool kit, some extra tools, wire, battery powered soldering iron, solder, wire nuts, a multi-meter, wire strippers, just in case! Everything works, my little LED's in the headlight bucket do their thing, turn signals all work great, no battery and the charging system seems to be able to keep up with the demands even at idle, headlight doesn't go dim like I thought it would. Runs fantastic too, jetting seems really close. Starts cold with a couple kicks too, really happy with it.






And a running video:

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll291/musicman_sax/?action=view&current=2013-02-05_11-37-55_184.mp4

[T8erbug]

Very clean bike. Simplicity is beauty. Nice work

[Tim Tom]

Nice looking bike. Very clean. That fork bag does looks goofy. Would be cool if you could tuck it into the rear triangle of the frame under the seat. Make good use of that space and lighten up the forks a bit.

Nice work!

[musicman]

Thanks for the compliments

Good idea with moving the bag under the seat, I'll probably do that.

[msy3]

where did you get the guages? nice build

[musicman]

Dime City is where I got the gauges.

[tkent02]

Can't wait…. What's the final design for the seat?

[musicman]

Well I'm not really sure at the moment, I need to spend some time in photoshop I think. What kind of threw me off was the condition of the seat pan in the stock seat. I was going to cut the pan up in the modified seat, but I put it on today with the thought of cutting the stock seat up instead. That won't work, when I got that seat off ebay it wouldn't even bolt on without some "massaging" (bfh). I think it was on a bike that was dropped or wrecked. Seeing the bare pan for the first time, it's got a few cracks and lots of distortion, don't really want to use it.

The modified seat is on the bike's original Michigan pan, so it has some rust naturally. I'm kind of nervous about cutting that one up since these early pans are really hard to find... Since I'm down to one seat now I'm going to wait until summer when I'm working 2 jobs again so I can afford to have the upholstery done.

[musicman]

I think I found the style seat I want to make, something like this

[musicman]

Thought I'd show the bike with the old seat on. I tried fitting the tool bag under the seat but it's too big... need to order a smaller one that's soft leather.

[musicman]

Been enjoying my bike Rode to work in the rain the other day in fact, and probably will all this week. I love it, don't care about the paint too much since I'm going to re-do it this summer, and I don't mind it being dirty. Imagine that, a cafe that's actually ridden Runs like a top with the new mufflers, the old rotted out ones must've been restricting it something fierce. Starts the second kick too even when it's cold. Still has nasty blow-by though Got pressure on the vent hose from the valve cover, it'll have to be torn down and made a 650 I guess, oh what a shame

So strange, I don't understand why I enjoy this bike just as much as my FJ, with the condition this engine is in it's probably making close to 100 less hp. Someone told me it's more fun to ride a slow bike fast than it is a fast bike slow... must be true.

Just a status report, I'm a happy camper so far

[musicman]

Got started on the seat yesterday, made a MESS, dang foam goes everywhere. Used the bent stock pan I had laying around as well as the stock foam. It was too soft so I ended up adding in some stiff stuff to get things to where I wanted it. I like it, now it needs to be covered.