Saturday Aug. 8th 2011 log from Westondc:
(Lincoln NE --> Okoboji IA) 300 miles

Our Nebraska riders left Lincoln at 8am for a foggy ride 50 miles to Bellevue where we met Zac (Grasscutter) on our way North to Okoboji IA. The other riders along with us were Joel (ImPaler) on his 1976 CB750, Eric (Deceptibong) and his girlfriend Princess riding on the back of Erics 1972 CB750.

As we crossed the Missouri river into Iowa we were impressed to see the massive flooding along its banks. Once in Iowa we skipped the Interstate and headed along HWY 92 toward Treynor IA. I was leading the pack at the time when I noticed Zac disappear in my mirror. The group turned around to see if there was a problem. Zac slowly came into view on the side of the road pointing to the front brake caliper on his 1982 CB650 which was dangling to the side. The mounting bolts had worked their way out and dropped somewhere along the highway.

Now we were stuck in Treynor, less than two hours into our 250 mile trip to Okoboji. Of course all the hardware stores in the small town were closed. After some deliberation we decided to bungee the caliper to the bike and backtrack to Council Bluffs IA in search of some metric blots. Low and behold AutoZone had just what we needed and we were back on our way ina short time with our fingers crossed.

The ride up HWY 71 through Iowa was a straight shot with the same corn covered rolling hills passing us mile by mile. We stuck to 80 mile runs between fillips and met some nice locals at each stop who told us about the old Hondas they used to ride. Our Nebraska crew logged 300 miles when we reached Okoboji without any other issues along the way. The weather was great and the view of Lake Okoboji was a nice change from the scenery of our recent 6 hour ride. Princess snapped a few pictures of us before we went in search of a campsite.

We setup camp at the West side of the lake and unloaded our gear. I remembered seeing a small Mexican restaurant in town and it didn’t take much convincing before we were all on our way there for margaritas!

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After finishing dinner and our delicious drinks we walked to our bikes where we met a nice fellow and his wife standing by them. He introduced himself as “Wild Mad” Steve Milton of Milton Cycle. He walked us to his yellow 70’s van were two SL350 race bikes were sitting inside. We all talked about our passion for vintage bikes and swapped some stories. We told him we were in town for a relay and he asked,” is it the SOHC4 relay I read about in Motorcycle Classics? I had no idea you guys would be coming through here.” So we swapped some our numbers and agreed to meet the next day for the SOHC4 hand off in town with the Minnesota riders.

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Sunday Aug. 9th 2011 log from Westondc:
(Okoboji IA --> Lincoln NE) 250miles


The next morning after breakfast we met "Wild Man" on his 1971 Cb750 along with some of his friends.

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They lead us on a nice ride to the beach were we passed some time as Vance and the fellow riders from Minnesota made their way to Okoboji. After about an hour we walked to our bikes and I noticed a few guys pull up on motorcycles. One was riding a 1970’s CB750 so I told him and his friends about the SOHC4 relay and asked them if they wanted to join us for pictures. Well, they did and our crew of SOHC4 riders grew a little bigger. The group of us pulled up to the Okoboji meeting spot not long before Vance, Accolay, Cbrrudy and NateMinn pulled into town from Minnesota. There ended up being about thirteen of us hanging out and looking over each other’s bikes. Some people from around the area walked up to see what all the commotion was about. They asked, “Is there a bike show today?” No not really, just some Honda lovers passing around a plastic Godzilla, ha-ha.

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It was great meeting everyone there and we all had a great time. Unfortunately we had to make it short and sweet in order to get back to Lincoln NE at a decent time. Accolay, who had rode from Minneapolis, decided to ride along with us to Lincoln Nebraska. So we received the relay handoff, said our goodbyes and strapped in Godzilla for the ride. We had a nice ride back to Lincoln with no problems and even beat the rain by about 15 minutes.

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[b]More updates and pictures to follow…[/b]

It's been a long time since we've updated the blog.... but we're about to get some new ride and project posts up soon! This weekend Eastern and Western are leaving Lincoln with a group of friends for the SOHC4 relay handoff at Okoboji IA. Check back soon.

Update: CB750 resurrection and continued progress on the little red monster.

The CB750 got a badly needed make over. It may be hard to tell from the photos but we did quite a bit of work. Some of this work included, new rear tire, new O ring chain, installed stock intake, new battery/battery box, new handlebars, repaired some wiring issues, synced the carbs, and scrubbed the engine as best as I could to clear out the gunk inside the fins. All this work should make the bike run better, smoother, and (hopefully) faster!

The CA160, on the other hand, is still a work in progress. We still haven't dug too deep into the motor, however it did run pretty well last fall. The current focus is still removing as many polish-able parts as I can. We are getting down to the last few pieces that don't include the engine and I'm getting excited to see what it will look like when it's back together. She looks to be in sad shape at the moment but it will make a world of difference once she's all reassembled.

Winter Projects...

I used the time spent indoors this winter to clean and polish a few different parts for both the CB750 and the CA160. For the 750, I spent some time on a stock air box that would replace the individual air "pods" that are currently installed. Switching back to stock air should require me to "rejet" the carburetors. Upon removing the carbs and pulling off the bowl it appears to have jets marked with "120". DA didn't think we needed to rejet but we would see how the bike ran. The airbox took plenty of cleaning and the rubber boots that connect it to the carbs maybe to too hard to use and ultimately needs replacing. Here is a photo of the airbox. A boring addition to the blog indeed!

I also worked on an old rusty battery box that I had laying around. This box was hardly in "good" shape when I started but the previous owner of my bike did a pretty idiotic thing by cutting the old one in half in order to get a larger battery under the seat.

Here is a photo of the old battery box. pretty lame...

The new battery box was in pretty poor shape when I started but once it was sand blasted, primed and painted, it looked pretty good considering how bad it was and how long it rolled around in the back seat of my car.

I also did quite a bit of work for the CA160 too. I spent some time and removed a couple of parts that were made from solid aluminum. I removed the front wheel and completely took the break drum and the spokes out of the rim. The original rim was too rusted to use but I still had that blue CA90 that had good rims. So with a little musical motorcycle parts I came away with a complete wheel that looked really nice. Unfortunately the break drum wasn't going to shine itself, so I spent many hours wet sanding and finally polishing the parts. Included with the wheel I also wet sanded and polished the handlebar mounting bracket and the speedo mechanism. I think they both came out looking really nice and I plan on removing the rear wheel and some other flair and doing the same thing. Its slow work but I find it relaxing and rewarding.

Very shiny now. Better than chrome because you can always re polish it...

New Project "Little Blue"

Just a quick update to let yall know what Western has been up too...

I picked up a Polaris atv last year for some trail riding. It needed some work as do most 20 year old quads. This 250cc atv is a 2 stroke with a CVT (automatic) transmission. The thing ran great until a friend of mine buried it in the mud and rev'd the engine too high. 2 stroke motors are made to run at high rmps but this engine was made in 1990 and still had the original piston and crank bearings. The stock piston broke apart inside the cylinder and that was bad news. Well I decided to rebuild the entire motor myself since the repair cost would be well over $500. This would be the first time I've ever opened up an engine for repair. I've already come pretty far on the project but I plan to recite some of what I've done.

Here's a look at the shattered piston after removal. I've replaced the original piston with a Wiseco brand forged piston along with new crank bearings and seals. The new piston is much stronger and much better quality. The second pic is of the engine after rebuild.

The quad with some new decals, patiently awaiting its rebuild engine. 1194 is the perfect compound for gluing the cases (engine halfs) back together.

The bearings are located on both sides of the engine case. I had to pry the to halfs of the engine apart very carefully. The crankshaft runs through these bearings as it spins from the movement of the piston. The bearings were badly worn and contained fragments of the shattered piston. I had to push the first hearing out with a hammer and punch. After it was removed I washed the engine case in solvent. The other bearing was still attached to the crankshaft itself which you can see in the pictures below. In order to install the new bearing into the engine case I had to freeze the bearing in a freezer and heat the engine case with a heat gun. As metal warms it expands and as it cools it becomes smaller. The bearing then fell easily into the case and as it warmed it expanded into the engine case causing it to remain in place.

I had to use a bearing separator and puller to get the old bearing off the crankshaft. After it was removed I froze the crankshaft and warmed the bearing in order to place the bearing on. It's the same idea as listed above.

Heres a look at the crankshaft with the bearing installed. Next I put the crankshaft in a freezer again and headed the opposite case. I had to move quickly as i placed the 1194 gasket maker on each side of the engine case, placing the crankshaft in between and pushing the two sides together. Next I would install the new piston, rings, gaskets, and engine head.

Spirits from the Past are calling me....

zen......

Wrenching on the Benly (trying to find its original shine)

The red one needs some work but it's nothing a little elbow grease and a parts bike can't fix.

Work done so far: replaced handlebars/reran wiring
replaced throttle cable
replaced tank rubber
replaced battery
fixed some wiring problems (not all)
replaced headlight

Work yet to be done: WAY to much!

Also, I had to include a picture of the Red Dragon Del Norte. Riding that downtown Lincoln after a Husker game is as exciting as any motorcycle ride.