Carb's

Stripped the carbs down today off the CB, not in too bad a state overall but the main jets and the needles were full of a browny gingery cack which took a bit of cleaning, living the living room stinking off carb cleaner an petrol!, lets say I wasn't flavour of the day when swmbo walked through the door.

This is off number 2, I don't know if you can see the sludge in the bottom of the float bowl but all four cylinder's where roughly the same.

So that's another job crossed off the list an I am pretty sure this is the cause of the lack of top end, when I refit them on the bike I will put an in line fuel filter between them and the tank just in case there is sediment in the tank.

A few more pic's

A few pic's I took today of the "Z", I think it's going to be quite a bit of fun building this one up, but the wiring does look er how shall we say interesting to put it kindly.
Have started to make a wish list and from what i can tell most of it is there, so that makes the job a bit easier.
I will probably start with the loom, see if I can sort it out or if not there is a spare that came with the bike, not 100% sure it's for this model but I think I can make a good one out the two, failing that I will shell out an pick another s/h one up.

New project arrives

Well the new project arrived today as planned, There is a Z in the shed, a Z650 to be precise, I didn't want to say too much before as I thought I might put a hoodoo on the deal, not quite sure what direction I am going to take with the old girl but it won't be a restoration or a cafe racer that much I do know.
I will take some better photo's tomorrow and post them up.

Here is a photo of a KZ650 that I owned in 1995.

Moriwaki Kawasaki

A friend of mine was telling me the other day about how he fancied building a Moriwaki replica, or taking a ZRX1200 and turning it into a tribute to the Moriwaki super bike's of the early eighties.
So as my knowledge of them equates to the fact that Wayne Gardener raced them and that was it I did a little digging around the net and this is the best I could find, click on the link for Motorcycling Australia in the cool site list.
It's quite an interesting site but I have decided to see if I can dig up any more info on the Bikes and it's competition and hopefully post it with pictures to my blog.

CB 750

Right as you can see from the photo's I have got a bit further, the Carb's have been removed and the engine has been removed.
The carb's came off relativley easy, with the rubber's to the manifold or the airbox showing no signs of perishing or exssesive hardening so they will be re-used although the airbox may be dumped in favour of K&N's, don't know, still to make my mind up on that one.
The carb's will have to be stripped though as the old girl struggles to make over 70 and i suspect that they are full of gum as the bike has been stood up for a few years, she makes good compression over all four cylinders, no misfire so i am pretty sure it is a fuel prob.
I forgot just how heavy these engines are, Jesus! with a lift a twist a wrench an a pull it was free an me plums dropped into the top of my socks, i soon put it down i can tell you, still it's out now an i have put it on the jack so i can move it about more easily.
I won't be stripping the lump, just shim it service and paint it and that will do I think.

News Flash!

New project coming soon!!!!! Not going to say too much at the moment but the garage might just get a wee bit fuller in the next week.

Here's a good tune to keep you going until further updates are available.

Well I have been back in that garage over the last couple of days and have achieved a fair bit on the Tiger front, new plugs fitted, new air filter and repaired a couple of broken hoses to the air box.
Everything has gone very smoothly,I think i might buy a lottery ticket!, today was always going to be crunch time though, i knew the front sprocket nut was going to tight, we have been eyeing each other up for the last week and a i have been giving her liberal doses of WD-40, bot today was the day i was going to have face this potential Banana skin, I had visions of either the nut rounding off or sheering the end off the shaft!!!!
Anyhow I selected 2nd gear put my foot on the back brake and put on my breaker bar and pulled for all my worth and it didn't budge a millimeter, so a bit more weasel pee sprayed on it a few loosener's with the copper an hide and a bigger breaker bar and I pulled like my life depended on it and i am the best part of fifteen stone when it suddenly went lose! but not with a crack like it had just come undone but very slowly like the shaft had just sheared, I slowly removed the socket to inspect the damage I had done and to my great surprise and I hasten to add relief the nut had come loose, so after a quick clean up the new front sprocket an chain was fitted.
All that left me with was to free of a sticking piston in the rear brake and fit new pads which went without drama so all this leaves me now is to change the oil an filter and get another battery and Tigger will be ready for another year off adventure.

Tiger feet

Had time today to get round to sorting out the tyres and wheels on the Tiger, started out by degreasing the inner swingarm and the rear hub, I had taken the rear wheel out the other day and dropped it off to get a new tyre fitted so i wanted too push on and get it back in and get the front tyre changed and the wheel back in the bike today, I always tend to feel a bit nervous having the bike sat on a jack while the front wheel is out, many moons ago i had a superb front paddock stand but that seems to have got lost over time and a few house moves so its a trolley jack and axle stands affair.
I am pleased to report though it all went smoothly and went together with no drama which is just the way I like it!, I also got the new rear sprocket fitted while the rear wheel was out that's another job off the list, tomorrow i will change the front and fit the new chain.
I don't know if its just me looking through rose tinted glasses or not but didn't Gunk use to be a decent degreaser? it seems a very watered down product now.
I stayed up to watch the WSB preview on motor's TV the other night, now theres half an hour of my life i shall never get back!!!, Barely fifteen minutes on who's riding for who with a couple of short interviews and the rest of the program was highlights from last years series, come on make an effort, talk about being disappointed, I am looking forward to the series getting underway though and at least this year we will have some British interest to cheer on, as i was a big fan of Rocket Ron i shall be cheering Leon on....

CB750

Well that's got her clothes off!

A good tip when you are taking something like this down to the bare bones is to take lots of photographs, i am not going to bore you to death with pictures of every nut, bolt an washer but when you have had your project in cardboard boxes for six months the old memory can get a little fuzzy about the finer details.

What a fine looking power plant eh, all those fins and lovely chrome covers whats not too like?
modern retro stuff tends to leave me a bit cold, its like they try to hard to replicate what they have already designed but fall short of the mark.

For all you 750 Honda fans you should check out
http://www.cb750cafe.com/ this guy is a proper legend, his creations are awesome and the Koppa cafe is also featured in this months Back street heroes.

Beer

As beer should be a important part of our diet's, with it being full of natural ingredients i thought i would test a few different ones from time to time and report back my findings.
So to begin with i decided to try Wells Banana bread beer. It reports on the label " that long ago ale was known as liquid bread" now i like this kind of thinking, and basically it carries on to say that to there finest malt blends that they have added fair trade nannas to awaken the senses with there own natural mineral water, well on appearance it is light in colour but not over aromatic and to be honest i could not really smell bananas, even upon tasting i could not defiantly say there was really a recognisable banana flavour but it was quite enjoyable but a tad sweet for me, unfortunately for me though it did not agree with me, probably to rich for my Constitution and repeated quite heavily all the following day which did taste of bananas! leaving me feeling quite wretched all day!
So to sum up, not for me i like to drink my beer and enjoy it for one night not have to taste it all the following day, one question it did throw up on another matter though was why are crisp manufactures so flippin tight these days?

Winter jobs

As I am banned from riding through the winter by the missus due to me getting off my bike last February before stopping it first, I am dividing my time between servicing Tigger and building myself a cafe racer out of a Cb750 that i got from my brother-in-law Allan

I must admit this is a project i am quite relishing, I love the cafe genre but having owned, ridden and pushed a couple of British machines in the past including a 1966 Tiger 100 cafe racer that had an uncanny knack of shedding parts on nearly every outing!, I thought i would play it safe an build something out of an early eighties jap bike and the Honda came along just at the right time although being a present from his wife I never thought he would part company with it.






Project Honda upon arrival.


First job being to lose Flash Gordon fairing!






Vast improvement and I have hardly scratched the surface yet, watch this space!

Beginnings

Welcome to my blog, from these pages I hope to share with you the trials an tribulations of my motorcycling adventures (some may say disasters) including the rebirth of my CB750 and ride outs around the Scottish countryside on Tigger the airfix Triumph 900 as i affectionately refer to her.

I have been riding,repairing and generally messing about with bikes for the best part of twenty five years now although I had a break from riding for about four years while I pursued other interests, I found my way back to my first love around this time last year, my wife thinks I am having a second childhood and my mother reckons i never grew out of my first! and I think they both might be right, so if you are sitting comfortably, then we will begin.......