Hi guys, great site you have with lots of fantastic info for some one new to these bikes. I just picked up a 1980 off a buddy who had big plans but little money or time. The bike has been around with various previous owners taking a stab at customizing it. Here's how she looked when I brought her home:
Bike seems to run and ride OK but has a lot of less than ideal 'modifications'. My plan is to strip it right down and rebuild it as a scrambler / brat style bike for general resale or for a family member who wants to get into riding. Everything will get cleaned up / repainted and I'll replace parts as I go. One thing I know for sure I will be doing is replacing the hand controls and wiring harness. The bike has all sorts of electrical gremlins and the harness on it now has been completely butchered.
At home in my tiny corner of the garage I started looking at the stance and what I wanted to do (longer shocks definitely).
Before stripping the bike down I built a new under seat electronics box and a bracket to secure the battery and mount the starter solenoid. Came with a brand new AGM battery which fits perfectly in the frame, which was a nice bonus! I have a new plug style fuse box on the way that will be mounted to the bracket and then through the bottom of the box.
Once I was sure everything would mount up ok and all the electronics would fit in the box under the seat I went to work and stripped the bike right down.
Next step will be de-tabbing and smoothing the frame and cleaning up some of the welds. Besides a little dirt and grease, the engine and frame both appear to be very clean and well taken care of. The engine especially looks like it will clean up really nice and shouldn't even need paint. Anything I should be paying extra attention to on these frames while I have it in this state? I have seen some people adding gussets etc but I'm not sure what if anything is really recommended as this is the first time I've worked on one of these.
Bike seems to run and ride OK but has a lot of less than ideal 'modifications'. My plan is to strip it right down and rebuild it as a scrambler / brat style bike for general resale or for a family member who wants to get into riding. Everything will get cleaned up / repainted and I'll replace parts as I go. One thing I know for sure I will be doing is replacing the hand controls and wiring harness. The bike has all sorts of electrical gremlins and the harness on it now has been completely butchered.
At home in my tiny corner of the garage I started looking at the stance and what I wanted to do (longer shocks definitely).
Before stripping the bike down I built a new under seat electronics box and a bracket to secure the battery and mount the starter solenoid. Came with a brand new AGM battery which fits perfectly in the frame, which was a nice bonus! I have a new plug style fuse box on the way that will be mounted to the bracket and then through the bottom of the box.
Once I was sure everything would mount up ok and all the electronics would fit in the box under the seat I went to work and stripped the bike right down.
Next step will be de-tabbing and smoothing the frame and cleaning up some of the welds. Besides a little dirt and grease, the engine and frame both appear to be very clean and well taken care of. The engine especially looks like it will clean up really nice and shouldn't even need paint. Anything I should be paying extra attention to on these frames while I have it in this state? I have seen some people adding gussets etc but I'm not sure what if anything is really recommended as this is the first time I've worked on one of these.
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You could terrorize the neighborhood in that black beastie!
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