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I have decided to let my old thread die and start a new one here in the performance section, but rest assured that there will be both performance and appearance mods going on.
Due to breakneck changes in living situations my bike ended up living a sad fate outdoors under a tarp this winter (I am happy/crapping my pants to announce that my GF and I are closing on a house on monday, and it has a garage). And it wasn't a very pleasant winter at that. The only consolation I gave myself was that I would make it up to her in the spring. Well, the time has come to make good on that.
Some of you may remember that this is what she looked like last year:
This picture is very flattering. Upon closer inspection one can see that the rattle can paint is deeply flawed (as is some of my bondo/fiberglass work). The engine is cruddy looking. It usually only runs on three cylinders. And there are plenty other issues.
I also never much cared for the red.
So, last fall I scored a used motor on ebay for $40 with the intention of building a good looking/working motor out of the two. There is more info about that engine (such as the bonus Dyna ignition that it came with) in another thread.
Anyway, the first thing to happen was to give the carbs a good dippin and a whippin. Here is the end result of that laborious endeavor:
Of course one of the air mixture screws had it's slot shear off (no project would be complete without something akin to this happening). I have another mostly set of carbs in a box somewhere, the problem is that at the moment just about everything I own is in a box somewhere. But the mixture screw appears to be stuck where it needs to be, so no rush.
Here is the offending screw (literally and figuratively):
I installed the carbs, dyna ignition and new plug caps and plugs and did some jet tweaking. Did a little massaging and then went for a ride.
Here is some background info on this bike and me. When I bought her, I had never ridden anything like her, so I had no benchmark for performance. Sure it was at least as fast as most cars, and I had no problem keeping up with my buddies' older Harleys, but that isn't much of an accomplishment. She seemed slow to me, but I also knew that she was old and heavy. A buddy of mine has a 79 1000 that he spent last year dialing in his in. I rode it at the end of the season and immediately felt like crap. His was at least twice as fast as mine. I understand it being faster, it is a 1000 and mine is a 750, but I was sure it shouldn't be that much faster.
Cut to last week. My bike is at least 75% faster than it was last year. It used to struggle to get above 85/90 on the freeway. Now at 80 it is still pulling mad strong. I didn't get on the freeway so I don't know what she is capable of at the top, but I sure am smiling at the reds now. Granted it is nothing compared to the speed triple I rode last year, but for a 30 year old bike it has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
So, what do you do when you finally get your motor pulling like you want it to? If you're at all like me, you take it apart.
Here is the prepared set of parts from the donor engine getting ready to be installed:
Due to breakneck changes in living situations my bike ended up living a sad fate outdoors under a tarp this winter (I am happy/crapping my pants to announce that my GF and I are closing on a house on monday, and it has a garage). And it wasn't a very pleasant winter at that. The only consolation I gave myself was that I would make it up to her in the spring. Well, the time has come to make good on that.
Some of you may remember that this is what she looked like last year:
This picture is very flattering. Upon closer inspection one can see that the rattle can paint is deeply flawed (as is some of my bondo/fiberglass work). The engine is cruddy looking. It usually only runs on three cylinders. And there are plenty other issues.
I also never much cared for the red.
So, last fall I scored a used motor on ebay for $40 with the intention of building a good looking/working motor out of the two. There is more info about that engine (such as the bonus Dyna ignition that it came with) in another thread.
Anyway, the first thing to happen was to give the carbs a good dippin and a whippin. Here is the end result of that laborious endeavor:
Of course one of the air mixture screws had it's slot shear off (no project would be complete without something akin to this happening). I have another mostly set of carbs in a box somewhere, the problem is that at the moment just about everything I own is in a box somewhere. But the mixture screw appears to be stuck where it needs to be, so no rush.
Here is the offending screw (literally and figuratively):
I installed the carbs, dyna ignition and new plug caps and plugs and did some jet tweaking. Did a little massaging and then went for a ride.
Here is some background info on this bike and me. When I bought her, I had never ridden anything like her, so I had no benchmark for performance. Sure it was at least as fast as most cars, and I had no problem keeping up with my buddies' older Harleys, but that isn't much of an accomplishment. She seemed slow to me, but I also knew that she was old and heavy. A buddy of mine has a 79 1000 that he spent last year dialing in his in. I rode it at the end of the season and immediately felt like crap. His was at least twice as fast as mine. I understand it being faster, it is a 1000 and mine is a 750, but I was sure it shouldn't be that much faster.
Cut to last week. My bike is at least 75% faster than it was last year. It used to struggle to get above 85/90 on the freeway. Now at 80 it is still pulling mad strong. I didn't get on the freeway so I don't know what she is capable of at the top, but I sure am smiling at the reds now. Granted it is nothing compared to the speed triple I rode last year, but for a 30 year old bike it has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
So, what do you do when you finally get your motor pulling like you want it to? If you're at all like me, you take it apart.
Here is the prepared set of parts from the donor engine getting ready to be installed:
Sad to see the old thread die Beergood, it was a great read.
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