My 750L build thread

[Theo]

Alright, well I thought I would join everyone else and start a build thread of my own. But before we get to the build, let me give you some background information.

I was cruising craigslist for a cheap beater bike for the winter here, and that's when I found the ad for the my bike. It was listed for $150 and at the price I thought, how could I pass that up. The ad said it needed some work, but I thought, for $150, what the heck. Man if I only knew what I was getting myself in to. Ever since getting this bike, it's consumed my whole life. My room is a complete mess with bike parts everywhere. I think about working on this bike all day long. And in a couple of weeks, I'll be taking some welding classes, all because of this bike. It's pretty exciting.

Okay now that that's out of the way, it's on to the bike. When I picked it up, the PO had removed most of the parts off of the bike with the intention of chopping it. The engine was partially disassembled to replace a leaky base gasket and the frame was left outside to rot away. I've spent many hours scraping the rust away and I still have a long way to go. He also chopped off the rear seat rails so that's why I'm learning to weld. Well I'm not sure what direction I'm going to go with this bike but it won't be anything too radical.

Now for the pics.

How it looked when I picked it up

Only 18000 miles

Bike stripped down and now in my room (I know...I need a garage)

A rough draft of what I think it will look like when done (subject to change with out notice)

More pics to come in the future.
-Theo

 

[Charlie G]

Theo,

Looks like your making steady progress on the bike. Looking forward to seeing it come along.

cg

 

[Beaver]

I like your plan of where you want to go with the bike, and I totally know what you mean when you say 'subject to change without notice'

 

[Richharr]

looking good, I like that front end on the draft

 

[Theo]

looking good, I like that front end on the draft

Haha...yeah I stole that from your bike (good eye). Hope you don't mind ray:. And thanks to all for the compliments.

 

[Tarbash 27]

I have a clean set of forks for that bike if you want. Also a clean lower triple clamp cover.

 

[Theo]

Alright...well I got some things done this past week so I thought I would share. I reworked my gauge mount to put the tach and speedo closer together. I put some harley turn signals on so now I will have running lights. And the biggest thing of all is I was able to use someones garage and I stripped the whole frame of paint. Oh and a big thanks goes out to tarbash for supplying me with the awesome forks you see in the pictures.

Stock gauges (so far apart)

Where I cut (also stripped the paint and rounded the edges before I took the pic)

Flipped them around

Much better

Drilled out the hole for the side reflectors to fit an 8mm bolt

On the bike

frame before

after (also chopped off the passenger peg rails)

And a quick mock up

 

[Theo]

Oh and after some searching on the internets, I found the original for sale ad for my bike from 2005. This is how the bike looked before the PO started tearing in to it.

 

[Macguyver]

Looks like you have already sunk a bunch of time into this project!
I can see where you are going with this bike, and I like it!
Keep up the good work, and keep posting pics!

 

[504-Ranger]

love the bike man! gives me alot of ideas of what to do to mine!

 

[Theo]

Looks like you have already sunk a bunch of time into this project!
I can see where you are going with this bike, and I like it!
Keep up the good work, and keep posting pics!

love the bike man! gives me alot of ideas of what to do to mine!

Wow thank you both for the compliments. You know, I honestly didn't think anyone would think much of what I was doing so it's nice to hear the opposite. Yeah I've put a lot of time and effort in to this bike. This is pretty much what I do in my free time. Also, every time I think I'm getting closer, I can think of 10 more things that need to be done. But isn't that how it always is. Thanks again for the kudos.
-Theo

 

[Guest]

Keep up the hard work theo!!

 

[midnightcafe]

do it! good improvement for sure.

 

[Theo]

I can't believe it's been almost one month since I last updated this thread. Well it's sad to say that I haven't really done much since then. The bike still sits the way it does in my last post. I just finished another round of stocking up on parts and now have almot everything I will need to complete the bike. Just have to save a few more paychecks until I can finish off the list of things to buy. I've also started earlier this month taking a metal working / welding class so I'll hopefully be making things for my bike soon.

What I've done since my last update:
- stripped most of the paint off the gas tank and discovered i had more than the one dent. Whatever paint the PO used, it's really tough and makes a gigantic mess. Not good to do indoors.
- Tried to bondo said dents, but discovered bondo really smells and shouldn't be done indoors. I'l have to wait until the weather gets warmer before I can finish.
- Went through a polishing phase and polished the brake and clutch lever, the handlebar clamps, the carb tops and float bowls, and the signal cover. I'm not really sure what I'm doing different from the last time I polished, but without even trying to, I was getting mirror shines on them.
- Started on the re-wiring of my bike. It's slow going because every time I start, I get really tired and fall asleep.
- Started making the seat pan
- Mounted the coils. Had to make a bracket for them because they just wouldn't fit in the stock location
- Bought a set of thread chasers and cleaned up all of the threads.

As you can tell, I'm listing things just to make it seem like I've been more productive than I actually was.

Polishing:

chopped the ball off. Did the same for the clutch lever. Now I have no balls.

Things I should be doing soon:
- Making my own handlebar switch controls
- Making my own dash gauge set up
- And trying to make a fake oil tank to put my battery and electrics in:

 

[Richharr]

like the progress, but I get stuck on the sprung seat, kind of weird on a sprung bike. just my opinion.

here a couple to ponder

 

[Theo]

like the progress, but I get stuck on the sprung seat, kind of weird on a sprung bike. just my opinion.

here a couple to ponder

Thanks man. Yeah I know, sprung seat for hardtails and solid mount seats for sprung frames. Or do you just think it doesn't look good. I did some mock ups and photochopping, and it looks really good with both. I'm gonna finish making this seat pan but nothing is written in stone yet. I might still decide to make a low profile bench seat.

 

[Theo]

l
here a couple to ponder

Damn it Richharr! Now I'm second guessing myself. I do like the look of a rigid seat and that second bike is sweet. I've seen that bike before but didn't realize how good it is. I'm going to have to think about this some more. Decisions...:-k

 

[po-boy]

I agree on the comment bout the seat. Solo pans just dont look right w/o the lines of a hardtail frame. I struggled w/ the same issue and this is draft 1 of what I'll end up doin on mine.These GS bike were not made to be simply chopped like some of their Japanese cousins, ask me how I know...

 

[Theo]

Well some progress. I finally finished making my handlebar switch housings. It took me a while but I was finally able to figure it out.

I started with a couple extra handlebar clamps I had laying around and polished them up

I then got some 10mm x 1.5mm banjo bolts and drilled a hole all the way through the head

I then tapped the handlebar clamp to accept the banjo bolt threads and threw in a couple of switches.

And a dry fit on the handlebar

I still have to glue the switches in place and make a bottom part to make it an actual clamp, but that will be the easiest part. For the bottom part of the clamp I'm going to use some metal strap. But that might look a little sloppy so if I can find some suitably sized aluminum, I'll make it out of that. Now that I have a proof of concept I'm gonna get some more banjo bolts and make the switches for the other side.

 

[Macguyver]

Which switch is which?

Which switch is which?

Those switches look killer Theo!
Now you have me second guessing my plan to use aircraft switches on my bike!
Are you going to keep the switches naked, or are you going to put a weatherproof boot over them?

Loving the build man, great job so far!