Project Volksrad - something abouts prophets, mountains and stopping

 "If the prophet does not come to mountain, the mountain will come to the prophet"... and it better not have early 1980ies Honda Goldwing integral brakes - 1st book of Greg, the Goldwing sermons, p. 1200.

With the plug wires hooked up correctly and a handful of fresh ones, which (added bonus) actually were long enough to route them properly things started to look a lot better on the engine front. 

So naturally the next step was to go through my box with old steel braided brake-lines and start converting the Goldwing from integral to conventional brakes. This would basically mean doing two things: Fit the front brakes with a double banjo bolt to handbrake pump. (Which would later be swapped out for a unit from a GSX600F with a 5/8" bore as the stock 14mm was leaking like a sieve.)

And the somewhat more elaborate part, of sealing up one port on the footbrake pump btw. the pump turned out to be somewhat of a show stopper as, just like its front counterpart, it was leaking and the old brake fluid had eaten away the paint on the frame. (Luckily repair kits are readily available and on the way.)

The actual conversion is pretty straightforward, as all I had to do was to cut the hardline with the fitting installed in the brake pump and then weld it up. Why the hardline? Because the flare on the bottom is what actually seals and whilst I am 99 percent sure that an M10x1.25 bolt and copper or ally washers would have done the job just as fine, this is kind of the more correct way to do it. 

The remaining port got a bit of cleanup with a brush and a file just to make sure it would seal well with a washer (it does, thanks for asking) and then really just route a brake line along the swingarm. Easy peasy really.

Which basically only left one hydraulic circuit left to tackle and for this one, as the name implies I went to a local hydraulics supply shop and bought a totally-not-a-brake-line to replace the bloated mess that was stock on this bike. 

Aside from a completely clogged up bleed nipple on the clutch slave cylinder things went about as smooth as one would expect things to go, when pretty much all the components are new or freshly overhauled. (Even though I overhauled that clutch slave four years ago.)

(Also in this picture - the new brake pump and slightly re-routed brake cables to make them fit a bit neater.)

Looks pretty good or stock if you ask me.

Bleeding went... well enough to be honest, but as for now Project Pickle, my new (to me) Suzuki SJ410 has priority over the Goldwing and before fitting the exhaust, I really want to overhaul the rear brake system entirely as the pump is leaking and brake pistons are "a bit" sticky or in other words, once applied won't let you move the big girl an inch. As such,  for now she's back in hibernation, but I promise it won't be another four years...

Project Volksrad - Goldwing reloaded

Of all motorcycles from the 1980ies the one I chose to bring back was a Goldwing 1200. A 700 pound amalgamation of steel, plastic and decadence. In a sense a vehicle that most likely represents the 1980ies like hardly any other. It is a testament to a time when striving for perfection in a (touring-)motorcycle meant installing each and every gizmo possible, creating a mountain of a motorcycle that is most likely best described as either a car with no roof or a couch with two wheels.

What we have here is a 1984 Goldwing GL1200 Interstate base model. In contrast to the higher spec Aspencade it comes with an analogue gauge cluster, no cruise control and no on-board air-compressor. It should have come with conventional brakes, but instead has the non-Euro spec integral brake system of the US-models.

So we left the old girl sitting in the shed almost four years ago getting assembled from various boxes of parts into a rolling chassis, basically only needing to be wired up completely or at least to see if the engine turns over and find out a bit more about its condition. 

At first glance the wiring looks very daunting and to be honest it gets kind of worse when you realise that there should be a lid on top of it all and there's actually most of the components missing.

There has to be given credit, where credit is due, whilst the whole setup is overly complex not only by 1980ies standards, it is broken down into individual modules, which can be removed (I am not going to say easily) and worked on separate from the bike, which does make the whole madness under the tank cover a lot more manageable.

Now if the routing of the spark plug cables makes you wonder a bit, it did make me wonder too at the time, but the manual clearly stated that it had to be done in this way.

Another nice thing is the cable management on the whole bike - if there's a plug, there's also a holder nearby. If not, the cables are routed incorrectly. Not so much an issue under the left side cover with only two plugs present, but a proper game changer under the "tank".

There are certain moment, when I would love to ask the Goldwing engineers what their reasoning was behind certain solutions: See this dipstick? Very nice, now look slightly to the left and a bit further up that's the filler port. My only assumption is that there were sidepanels available to essentially hide all of the engine, which would have made the filler plug inaccessible. 

Using quite a few photos from the internet to find out where each component is supposed to go the space under the tank cover is now well populated and there's still quite a few spots left in those cable organizers, which is fair enough as none of the radio-equipment and the like is installed yet.

No smoke and quite a few lights doing ... something ... on the dash, but not even remotely willing to do anything at the press of a button. To cut a rather long story short, the first issue was the retrofitted sidestand switch, which had broken internally and would NOT cut the ignition in only one position and with that I mean literally only a few degrees out and it would do nothing or only very erratic things. 

Then there was one plug going to the dash that was plugged in into the incorrect counterpart, but the biggest one was, the official Honda factory manual was wrong. Scroll back up, if you like, where I wrote that it looked a bit weird and not quite how I would have run the spark plug cables myself.

A quick check revealed that my suspicion wasn't all that unfounded and turns out in later editions of the same manual this schematic can be found:

Aside from the fact that one of the spark plug cables was so worn out (and too short to be trimmed any more), it was then just a case of add fuel and fire the old girl up. 

It was a this point that thanks to a tip from Lars I attempted to take the back cover off from the fuel pump body and instantly found the reason, why the pump would do absolutely nothing. 

What's next: Swap those spark plug cables for new ones, install the radiator and whatever is missing there. Then the integral brake system has to go in favor of a conventional setup with steel braided brake hose and whilst I am at it, the hydraulic clutch also needs a new (braided) line. The exhaust is quite a mess and so far at best half of the electrics is done, but it runs (on three legs) and it charges, so I guess the rest will work out eventually.

The SR500 Sidecar - shortening a sidecar strut

I admit it, I have a (basic) engineering degree. Most of the time in my life this does not adversely affect me too much. But every now and then the little engineer in me wants to come out and play. On those days, when he does come out, he can be the most overcomplicating and obsessive person you can imagine. Here's an example.

For quite a while the front sidecar strut was too long, which in this case meant that there was next to no room for adjustments to alter the lean of the bike. It was pretty spot on, but as the little engineer in me demanded adjustments, I decided to give in. (Also the strut had to be repainted as the paint flaked off in one spot over the Winter months.)

So the strut was put in the lathe (unfortunately it is exactly as thick as the spindle throat so no chance of a quick job) and clocked in on the steady rest.

Parted the clevis off, which is only held on by a bit of weld and a press fit section that goes into the tube.

Touched up the slightly recessed weld in the middle of the tube where I shortened it the first time, not very elegant, I know, but I was young and pressed for time. 

Finally TIG-welded the clevis back on, which looked quite a bit neater than the original MIG weld that used to be on there. Probably quite a bit stronger as well.

And that's it - applied a fair amount of paint and hung it up to dry. Real world effect of all of this? 20mm more thread for adjustment of the lean angle, which quite frankly I'll probably never use and a well painted strut, which makes the rest of the bike look a bit more shabby. I'd call it a win.

The SR500 sidecar - even more post-reggo work (Part 15)

 ... and we haven't even gotten to the frame reinforcements. The TM36 carb below is by no means the only reason, but it played an instrumental part in me making sure that I do not get to said reinforcements just yet. 

When money is no objective, you can just go ahead and order the right one from the Mikuni supplier of choice. This one is NOT the ubiquitous TM36-31, but a TM36-50A, meant as an aftermarket carb for a Husqvarna TE410. With the biggest difference being the adapter on the back, which came off relatively easy with a hotplate and a drift.

In order to make it work with the stock throttle cables, all you need is one extra M5 nut as the carb is operated the other way round. Jetting at the moment: 12.5/130/1.5 turns/accelerator pump still enabled but turned down a lot. 

Next job was to turn down the sidecar mounting balls on the "equator" to make installing and removing the sidecar a bit easier. Thing is, somebody might have chosen the perfect size balls for the job, which meant that I almost had to remove the jaws of the sidecar clamps to get them off.

At the same time, all the sidecar mounting blocks was hung from wires and got a lick of paint. It's not like I don't trust my zinc plating, I just think it could do with a bit of help. 

Another one of those minor jobs, which in the end makes one hell of a difference, is to mount rigidly mount the footpegs to the frame and remove the rubber isolators. A bit of POM roundstock did the trick nicely. A certain, well known supplier also offers an aluminium kit, but the thought of steel, aluminium and salt didn't quite inspire confidence.

They are slightly oversized in the frame and as they compress a bit, when being installed, the footpeg-backplate-bolts that go through are now a press fit in the plastic. Trust me when I say, THIS is a gamechanger.

Dimensionally, I turned them from some 30mm roundbar, center hole 12mm, the recessed part that goes into the frame is 10mm tall and 20.10mm in diameter. The locating hat is 3mm thick. 

Next step was to make the tail-light work. The contacts of this (brandnew) el-cheapo Guzzi V7 taillight are so bad a solution had to be found. I decided to go with cables directly onto the LED-bulb. 

As it is one of the more decent LED bulbs, it actually works decently enough to be used, as in it is nicely visible from all sorts of angles and uses a lot less power than a conventional filament bulb. (Which due to the vibrations lasted the better part of 100km.)

One of the things I forgot, when installing the rear brake shaft in the bike was to put a stop in, which resulted in the rear brake lever sitting up very high and thus causing a rather unpleasant seating position. 

Much better - now I can put my right foot flat on the peg and not have to turn it out to the right in order to avoid the brake lever. 

Ultimately the bike looks almost the same, but the freshly painted black mounting blocks are a nice touch, if I am honest.

So what's up next: More dialing in of the flatslide, quite some thread repairs on the forks (the front mudguard acts as a sort of fork brace), solid handle bar bushings and a one-piece handle bar clamp, repair the shock-mounts on the swingarm and then most likely I'll finally get to those reinforcement plates.

Long range touring mods Mk.2

Just like any good idea, the basic idea behind my long range touring forwards controls was sound, but the implementation left room for some improvements.

 A bit of CAD-work...

... and quite a bit of manual work.

And the first side looks rather promising.

Aside from being too long. (220mm forwards are just too much and there would be no room for the shift lever.) Trimmed off 20mm and now everything clears...

The rear brake lever was not quite so lucky. 

So a quick verdict: The shift lever is a tad too long (I can *just* reach it with my toes, when shifting up) and the rear brake lever needs to be lowered. These are all just minor details that have to be addressed, nothing serious really. The elephant in the room is the fact that the current bars are too low and as a result the seating position is not quite what I had in mind for this bike. I'll do the mods and then probably try it out at a later date to find out, whether it's comfy enough then, but to be honest, for daily use, I'll revert to the stock footpegs.