Project Lucky Strike

A lot of life changes are happening so I have been busy elsewhere and not really applying myself to the bike projects.  Now that I have the house mortgage all figured out I can breath easy and get back to it.

The Suzuki is getting all decked out in Lucky Strike livery circa 1990's as an homage to Kevin Schwantz.  I got some fairings from Ebay that were painted and decaled.  They  are OK - from China with love.  So the tank and rear seat cowl need to get painted to match.

I stripped off the paint using an aircraft paint stripper.  There were 4 layers on the tank.  It worked pretty good and got the tank to bare metal.

Here is a close up of the tank - the stripper just makes it bubble and lift up.  Again it worked ok.  Some of the really thick areas didn't lift up and I ended up sanding them.

I filled all the small dents and sanded the tank.  Then I etch primed it, then hit it with 3 layers of high build primer.  Then I sprayed it with a light guide coat of black and block wet sanded the tank down with 400 grit.

Scott Ru$$ell

When I was a young lad I was infatuated with motorcycle racing.  I liked the American riders at the time in MotoGP.  And in the AMA racing I like Miguel DuHamel because he was Canadian. And Scott Russell because he was a bad ass at Daytona.

From Wikipedia:

"Raymond Scott Russell (born October 28, 1964), aka Mr. Daytona, is an American sports car racer and former championship motorcycle road racer, born in East Point, Georgia. He is a former World Superbike and AMA Superbike Champion, has won the Daytona 200 a record five times, and won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 1993. Russell is the all-time leader in 750cc AMA Supersport wins."

Russel wore a helmet made by Shoei that was designed by Troy Lee Designs.

Today thanks to EBay - this showed up in the mail.

 I Love It.

Long Live the 90's!

Waiting for Parts & Future plans

I buy a lot of parts for the bikes I repair on Ebay.  If you can wait for delivery this is the way to go for inexpensive parts.

I also input all of the data and expenses I have for these projects into Quick Books so I can track the spending and don't go overboard.  I have a budget for each bike that is below their current market value and my hope is that once they are fixed I will be able to sell them at a small profit.

The proof of that will be when they sell I guess - but so far I am enjoying it immensely and getting some dirt under my fingernails.

I have swing arm spools and bar ends on order for the R1, plus Rossi FIAT fairings that were custom made in China - I will need to get some decals but am waiting for the fairings to arrive so I can measure it all up.

I have fairings on order for the GSXR; also mirrors, ram air ducts, some Schwantz decals, turn signals, windscreen, choke cable and rear brake lever.  So far we are well in budget.

The 1993 CBR gets a lower triple tree, a clutch adjuster, new levers, signal lights, and I will need to paint the tank/wheels.  I am going to use the leftover fairings from the 1991 to save some $$$$.  It also has a need for tires.  This one will be close to the budget but I think I can make it work.

Project retro (1991 CBR) is done with the exception of fitting the bodywork better and cleaning up some odds and ends.

Let the waiting commence ; )

On and On - 1993 CBR

I set aside the Suzuki and started to make progress on the blue 1993 CBR.  It had had a rough life.
The Ebay carbs I bought arrived in the mail - damaged with a vacuum bowl broken.  I replaced it with one from the old carbs.  I then got some money back from the seller - so overall they only cost me 75 bucks (that's a good deal).

Once the carbs were on I added some new spark plugs and some fresh gas and lo and behold it started !  Nice.  These old bikes are hard to keep down.  I shot a short video of it and sent it to my friends (Nerd!)  They were not as enthused as I was : )

The front forks on this bike are messed up.  It appears that the top cap and tube are bent, as are the lower triple trees.  Yesterday I had swapped out upper tubes and internals from a 1996 F3 into project retro - converting it to a modern cartridge style. So I took those uppers leftover uppers and installed them into the lowers from the 1993.



Here's a shot of the disassembled fork -

The lower triple is messed up.  I ordered a new one from Ebay.  And then I cleaned and painted the upper triple.

I replaced the brake and clutch lever as they were both damaged.
It's coming along - I'm not sure if it will be worth a lot when it's fixed but right now I have most of the parts so it's a cheap project.