CAFE RACER PROJECT - RE-BUILD DAY 1

RE-BUILD DAY 1

Today was a big day.  As you can see from the picture above, my bike is finally starting to come to life.  The work I thought I was going to be able to get done this past Saturday didn't happen because the frame was not able to be picked up from the powder-coaters before they closed the Friday prior.  I was bummed because I was looking forward to putting all the new parts back on, but two more days didn't kill me.  Around noon today, I received word from Justin that he picked up the frame and he'd keep it at the shop for me until I got off work to start the rebuild.  After I wrapped things up at work for the day I stopped by my apartment to pick up my toolbox and head out to La Habra.  Everything else was still loaded in the car from my failed Saturday trip.

The pictures below represent what I was able to get done before they closed at 6:00 pm.  The new powder coated frame looked amazing and I am very pleased with how it came out.  The new battery box and the rear frame hoop with a slight kick also look fantastic.  There were even two brackets you can see behind the rear shocks they installed prior to the powder coat for my new turn signals.  They will hide nicely.  We won't bolt the seat down until everything else (including tank painting) is complete.  It will be the finishing touch, but I set it on to make sure it fit and looks okay and it was puuuurrrty.

First, I attached the kick-stand, swing arm and the rear shocks, followed by the rear wheel, then the front forks, triple tree, clip-ons, tach & speedo, headlamp brackets and front wheel.  Overall it went really smoothly because I did a lot of prep work over the weekend.  The gel grips, brake & clutch levers, and left control switch were already mounted on the handlebars, so that saved me a couple mins.

 It feels really solid when I was rolling it from outside back into the garage.  It is going to have a completely different feel to the ride, which I'm pumped for.  I'm sad that it's slowly coming to an end but at the same time, I'm already thinking about what my next project could be.  

On Friday of this week,  Justin will be putting the new gaskets on the engine along with the new allen bolt heads and new points so we can pop that sucker back into the frame and they can begin the rewiring.  After that is done it's pretty much down hill.  I could probably do the gasket portion myself but I don't have the tools to take out the stripped screws on the engine covers so it'll be easier for him to do all that in one go.  I'm hoping a week from today, the new wiring can begin.  That will put me at a completion time frame of about mid-January.  Not a bad way to start the new year…achieving a goal.

  

I will make one more trip over to the garage this Friday after I receive my new headlight so I can put that on, along with the rear taillights and brake light/license plate holder.  The ignition switch will probably end up going back on at that point too.  I'm going to buy a new 12v battery in the meantime and order the linkage for the rear sets.  There are a few other items en route to me right now but they will be slightly delayed due to the Holiday.

Check back soon for more updates!