Finished

After spending the past week on final tuning, riding up and down the road, listening/feeling for every little hiccup or pop from the exhaust and making small adjustments to correct, the bike is finally finished! It starts cold with the lightest touch of the starter button, idles perfect, pulls hard, and is a blast to ride. 

Compression is right at 175 psi and the spark plugs show a nice dry, golden brown color. This bike is ready to tear up the pavement once again! 

  

Can't We All Just Get Along

One of the most difficult things to figure out when modifying stock components is how to make everything old work with everything new. In order to maintain the front brake light I drilled a hole in the perch and fitted an oem brake switch inside. 

There are many obstacles any time you make a modification because so many parts are interlinked. Take for example the led turn signal indicator in the new speedo. The fact that the oem wiring is set up to reverse polarity to the indicator made the led only work for either the left or the right but not both. Since led's only work with polarity one way, extra diodes and a slight wiring change was needed to make everything work properly again. 

Handlebar controls

These simplified controls really help clean up the front of the bike. I have been running this same setup on my cb450 for over a year and they work great! This is actually a cabinet hinge cut/drilled/ground to size then polished for that nice finished look. 

RH controls headlight (high/low/off) and electric start.
LH controls turns signals and horn. 

Upholstery

The seat just came back from the local upholstery shop. The quality of the material and the stitching used is top notch! Just a few more details and this bike will be tearing up the pavement once again. 

SS Engine Bolts

Today I changed all the old soft aluminum engine bolts with new SS bolts that I ordered from boltdepot.com. An impact driver is the simplest way to aid in removing the bolts without destroying them. However, when all else fails use a slightly larger philips bit in a 1/4" socket, hammer it into the bolt head, and use a ratchet to pursued them to come out. 

 Before

 After

Turn Signals

It's great when things work out just right (how rare that moment is). My turn signals I bought from DCC (Dime City Cycles) were the exact same thread size and pitch of my headlight bolts. This allowed me to use them to hold the headlight, hide all the wires, and maintain a stylish look. 

Exhaust

I started working on the exhaust after deciding to go with my scrambler style pipes. The headers were ceramic coated to lower heat and prevent rust. The mufflers have been sealed on the pipes to avoid any exhaust leaks. The next step is to wrap the exhaust with header wrap to help keep the riders legs cool.