Bed Liner is the new Flat Black!

So the other woman (Dirty Von Kashmagnet) was looking pretty cool in the original yellow, but flat black is an order of magnitude cooler than any color. there is only one thing that is cooler than flat black and that is truck bedliner. Did i jsut pull all the plastic off my new bike and paint it with bedliner spray?
you bet your ass i did!

here is the process:
Step 1. take everything off the bike.



( i know what you are thinking, it does look super bad ass naked, but i imagine that it wouldnt work too well in the rain/ mud like that.)

Step 2. lay all the stuff out.



Step 3. paint it with this spray on bedliner that i found at pep boys (I'll let you know how it holds up.)



here is a close up of the texture of the paint. it looks pretty tough, i hope it holds up.



Step 4. Put it back on the bike and look like you rode out of a Mad Max movie.



So sweet!

i am still trying to decide whether to paint the tank or not. I kinda like the visibility of the yellow tank and i also think it looks kinda cool having some color to the bike. also plastic is cheaper to replace if i decide i dont like the black than a tank is. i could also sell the tank for a dented up one and make a little money on the deal too. I dont have to decide today so it is fine for now. don't sweat the yellow faring out front, that will be vanishing soon and will be replaced by this!



8" racing light! that is huge and will be so bright. now to save up another $275. i was talking with a guy on Advrider and he said it was a direct plug in operation. i am not sure what that means to someone who sucks as much as i do on the mechanical front but ill let you know.

Stuff is happening....

So everything arrived and it is all on the bike. lets start with the front wheel:




I went with the 19" so that it wouldn't look too obviously Motarded. i like the look and think it looks "correct" on the bike.
I got the wheel form the guys at Procycle ( http://www.procycle-online.com/ ). they were very cool and informative and everything arrived on time and exactly as promised. i dont know if they were the cheapest but i couldnt find a better deal, it seems liek everything costs about the same ($500 for a wheel). stock suzuki hub laced with Buchannon spokes to an Excel hub. looks good and is totally round. ha. check it out!



i also got an Acerbis universal SM front fender:



which i totally butchered trying to fit to the bike. the first two holes were perfect and beautiful, and it all went south from there. making it centered is hard and it isnt helped by the fact that i am a horrible mechanic. look at this!



Horrible. but on the bike it looks good.

Next step was losing that stock tail light and the rear fender.
I ordered a 350 tail light from kientech. tore all the other stuff off and bolted it on. easy as that.



the Roommate came up with a cool way to hang the license plate. check it out:



just two L brackets that bolt right into the holes that held the plate hanger on. easy and i just used the bolts that came on the bike.

the guys at Procycle also sent me a new rear tire. Avon Distanzias. they rock. i had to go to Speed Motorcycles here in NYC to get it on since i dont know how to do that and don;t really feel like experimenting on the new bike. I'll learn how to do it eventually but not today. $50 bucks well spent in my book but i am determined to figure it out.

Took the bike to bear Mountain to try it all out and scrub the tires in. I am pretty sure that i was getting my shoulder down, but maybe i am exaggerating a little...

more in a bit.

Please stop me

yesterday i dropped the Suzi off at Camrod Motorsports on 48th and 11th ave. i have never been there for anything other than an inspection before but i am working on 57th and 10th so i figured that i would drop it close to the office and get a quick tune up. I haven't had the chance to tune it up myself (and i dont know how to do a tune up) since i bought it and wanted to get it back to factory spec's before i start messing it up.

I am doing this partially because i dont know how to do it, and mostly because i dont know how the bike is supposed to feel when it is correct. so this will be a good way to find out how it is supposed to be. i will report back on their service once i get the bike back, but they told me that if i brought it in in the morning it would be done in the afternoon. not bad. it is raining today so ill let them hold on to the bike till tomorrow, but i will say this they seem kind of pricey. $250 for a tune up on a single cylinder bike is a bit expensive. but maybe they will do a really good job.

oh and there are more things coming on the horizon. my buddy got me interested in the Pine Barrens 500. ( http://www.pinebarrens500.org/ ) and now i am doing that next month. what does this mean? it means that i am not selling my old 21" front wheel and it also means that i am on the hunt for a new rear tire. i think the stock front tire is fine for the ride but the rear def needs to be replaced before i do the run so i am back on the hunt for a rear tire. i have some leads and it looks like it will be a Dunlop 606. i keep hearing good things about them so i will give it a try. i found one for 73.99 online and am trying to see if Jeff form Procycle will match that price.

speaking of which, jeff sent me an email telling me that my front wheel and rear tire shipped out yesterday, and that i should have them both by friday. I also ordered a new pair of Puma Desmo boots which should be here on friday too. and my rear brake light shoould be here by then too.
like i said i have a problem.

please stop me.

please

Vanity

so i was reading this thread on adventure rider last night for about 2 hours and got some good ideas for the mistress:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117546&highlight=trickest
some really good stuff here.

in the last post i was trying to decide what was going to come next, stainless steel brake line for the front or a replacement tail light. guess what won out?



it is the tail light from a DRZ250, it is a perfect fit to replace the stock 650 item and it just fits so much better that the original.

yeah, i know it is form over function but i just hate the look of the stock tail all together. just too much shit going on back there. so this is step one. i called Jesse at keintech ( http://www.kientech.com/ ) it was kind of funny talking to him since i have read so much about him on the thumpertalk forums. he is a really nice guy, got back to me really quickly and said i should be seeing the tail light by next week. the light only costs $39.50 so it was easy for me to justify, after all it has been so long since i spent any money on the bike!

now i just have to find a good way to mount the license plate. i kind of like the simple 'bolt it to the fender' look, but i have also seen some neat brackets for hanging it off the back. ill do some more research and post what i come up with. i am really excited to start putting some of this junk on the bike. it'll be fun to show some of the process here.

stay tuned!

step 1: 19" wheel, new tires and some pretty-fication

so i saw a post on the DR forum on thumpertalk.com about a 19" front wheel. it got me thinking aobut the dangers of having a super moto bike here in NYC. the first thumper that i was looking at was a XR650L that had already been motarded and the day that i was going to pick it up it got stolen. this got the gears in my head turning and i have been thinking that maybe having a motard here isnt the best idea. anyone can see that they are rocking a $1000+ set of wheels and tires from a distance thus they are great to steal and easy to take.

the thumpertalk post sealed it. i decided to do the 19" front conversion since it would look close enough to stock that maybe no one would notice that it wasnt stock and i could still run more modern street rubber on the bike.

i posted on the thumper forum asking about places to get my front relaced/ tire choices and got a few good responses, most importantly from a guy named Jeff at Procycle.com. he told me that the prices that i was gettign here in town were very inflated and said that he could do it for much cheaper. the other good thing about procycle is that they also have a bunch of other goodies that i am wanting for the Suzi. he told me it would be $500 for a new front wheel but it would only be $350 if i sent him my old one to get relaced. this seemed like a good idea till i realized that i could get at least $200 for the old wheel (without the brake disc on it) and as much as $250 on ebay. this makes shipping the old one out there kind of a waste of time and money (plus i couldnt play with the new toy for the 3 weeks it would take to get the wheel back). this is for a new OEM hub, excel rim, buchannon SS spokes, lacing, trueing the wheel and a tube and all the other shit that i need to make it right. i will have to throw my old brake disc onto the new wheel but other than that it will be ready to roll when i get it.

i emailed with him all weekend and finally today i pulled the trigger and ordered a full new front wheel and front and rear tires. i also ordered a new SM front fender because the stock one looks like shit. here is the fender :




The tires i got are Avon Distanzias :



i have read both good and kinda bad about them but for the price i think they are a good compromise for the kind of riding i am planning on doing. i expect to be a 90% street and 10% dirt rider. i have a buddy who is a big SM and dirt rider who will take me out for my first dirt riding. i am waiting on the new tires and wheel for that forst dirt outing as i dont trust the trailwings that are on the bike now. the front is fine but the rear is completely flat in the middle and it kinda makes me scared to ride too fast or agressively on it until i can change it out.

this whole operation will take 2 weeks to complete and is costing me $749. less the $200 (at least) that i will get for the stock front wheel on ebay and that makes it $549. not too bad for 2 tires a custom wheel and a new fender.

so the plan is in motion, a little faster than i thought but that isnt exactly a bad thing. i'll report on the procycle experience as it plays out. so far Jeff has been really helpful and very prompt in his responses and hasn't seemed to be frustrated by all my questions. i am sure that he sees me as an unimformed money pit but right now that is kinda true. i am hoping to change that as the project progresses but i also hope that that learning doesnt involve a bunch of mistakes too. i am not sure that it's possible to learn without all the mistakes but we'll see. next stuff for the bike will probably be stainless steel brake line for the front or a DR350 rear brake light conversion. do i go form or function? either way it'll be a few weeks before i can justify any more money for the bike, rather make that 'afford' to spend any more money on the bike. i can always justify blowing more money on the bike.

First Post

I am deeply in love with a 1979 Honda CB750K.


i have had this bike since last summer when i found it on ebay. It was languishing in a garage in Wisconsin begging to be ridden. I went to Wisconsin and rode the bike back to NYC, leaking forks, blown shocks and all. Since then i have doubled what i paid for the bike in parts and labor and junk.

i was never able to find a good site for info on working on the CB so i made a bunch of mistakes.

I love this bike with my whole heart but it is a little old and a lot heavy and it's getting up in miles. I need (want) something better suited for city riding and have been reading all over to find the correct bike. The streets here are terrible so it needs to be a dirt bike but has to be fully street legal since i plan to ride it into work very often. i am a big guy (200+ lbs) and ride with my girl often so i need something with some real power. everything points to either the honda XR650L or the suzuki DR650SE.
i am a Honda fan but for some reason i have become fascinated with the DR and that is what i got.

i just picked up this bike for $3000.



i think i got a little ripped but not very much, and overall it was a fair deal. it has low miles (5400) and is in pretty good shape. i am planning on turning this into the ultimate urban assault vehicle. so i guess first off is to do a list, an already done list and then plan the attack.


DONE:
Acerbis Bark Busters
Supertrapp exhaust
skid plate
Suzuki Gel seat


TO DO:
Tune up
oil change
valve adjust
chain
sprockets (dont kow if i will change from the stock ones...)
Replace tires (need to do more research on rubber)
swap front wheel for a 19 incher (i am starting to believe this is a better move than the full on Motard thing)
swap the springs, front and rear, for ones suited to my size/ weight
do the DR350 tail light conversion
tail rack
side racks
cut off or replace the front fender
paint the bike with bed liner spray paint
stainless brake lines


MAYBE LIST:
Corbin seat
airbox mod
header weld mod
more to come.....


Next the plan.