father son katana restore

[Guest]

so my 15yr old is in love with the katana and i figure what better way to appreciate this classic than to fully disassemble restore and reassemble one. we are starting with a pretty clean example and will be trying to keep her as stock as money will allow. started disassembly tonight and we will try to get an hour or two each night till shes done. the good strong running 1100 with cosmetic damage to engine case by ignition,all orig signals,pegs,well everything except exhaust. the bad is it has a substantial dent in the front downtube where the po struck a curb and broke the case as well and it needs a full cosmetic makeover. gonna try for a one month completion time

[GateKeeper]

Best of luck on the rebuild, hope you guys have fun getting the girl back to her prim and propper self...

Cheers

[steve murdoch]

Excellent way to spend quality time with the kid.
You build something stock?...this i got to see. lol.

[pete]

Nice one Steve, I'll be tuning in!

I see you just joined the Katana Australia forum the other day too... love the modified Kat and Buffalo of course

I'm peteGS over there... just "pete" was too short...

[Woodsy]

welcome aboard! No better way to get into biking than a Katana! I grew up on the back of one! I'm also on the katana forum, i'm 'Showstoppa' over there.

[amxsteve]

Well anytime you can get a teenager to do something other than Facebook or video games is a great thing. And yes stock is the way she stays as I already have the turbo kat.

[retcol]

Give a teenager a job while they still know it all! Good luck on your project.

[Battleship62]

Good for you in getting your son involved.

Over last summer my son's (15 then but 16 years old now) gearhead gene mutated and he suddenly got interested in anything mechanical or electrical. The motorcycle DNA must of also came to the surface and he showed me craigslist ad for a '73 CB175 for $400. He had been saving money doing extra chores and yardwork but instead of buying video games and CD's, he wanted to buy this bike. So under the cover of darkness it was brought home and stored in my work shed where it could be safe from his mother's wondering gaze.

It hadn't run in +15 years and it was in pretty sad shape but it was all there and I told him if he could get it running he could ride it. He is actually going to technical high school and is in the electrical-mechanical trade so he had a good start of the basics. I also have two MC shops that I know the owners and mechanics pretty good so when I stop by these places I take my son and have him interact with them by asking questions relative to troubleshoot and learning the tricks of the trade. He also bought the manuals and actually reading them and I teach him some other basics like importance of the torque wrench, how to use an easyout to remove a stripped out screw, the sweet smell of "bike cheese" on your hands, etc. Attached is picture of him when we got it home last summer.

Now if I could only teach him to pick up is dirty clothes and do his homework then I might be accomplishing something.

Cheers

[eil]

That is a cool old bike and you're a heck of a dad.

[amxsteve]

Just bought an oem exhaust and looking at that new seat on ebay but $700 to me is pricey. He is enjoying his time working on it. We're just pulling the mill today

[amxsteve]

Managed to strip her to the bare frame tonight and start cleaning. Disassembled and cleaned up the rear shocks which were in remarkably good shape save for some chrome peeling on the springs. Found the master link on the chain had no clip. Frame to be sandblasted and painted next week I hope. Anybody have a paint code for the frame silver and body colour would be appreciated. More pics to follow

[amxsteve]

New pics




As of today

[GSXR7ED]

Sweet thread! I plan on doing the same (disassembly) to my "T"...except she's my parts bike.

Keep us updated.



Ed

[amxsteve]

Well we sent the frame out and had her blasted. Should have taken a before and after of the large dent in the frame but here's the after.

Been kinda slow progress as we got the rambler on the go as well.anybody have a real clean seat for sale?