Suzuki VX800 Restoration Project

Motorcycle lift - final

2012-01-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

Finally the lift is done! I powder coated it myself using Satin Black. (oh, and it's not like I LOVE yellow and black, it's a good color combination and all, but things just seem to keep ending up that way in my shop)

With removable rear section out:

With removable rear section in:

Removable ramp, fabricated from scratch using salvaged plate for the top and hooks. I cut the spare rectangular steel down the middle, making two c channel style metal pieces for the underneath support.

With ramp installed:

With bike on the lift!

Another huge thanks goes out to Ron Betossib, owner of Omega Electric, for sending this lift my way. I never would have bought one, but I would spend 40+ hours fabricating a modification if someone gave one to me. Ron is a hardworking and honest professional that I've found to be a man of his word, as well as very generous and forthright. I've had a great time working with you over of the last 8 months, through thick and thin. Much thanks for going above and beyond on all counts.

After working on the KTM last night, using the lift, it's simply amazing how much easier it is to get repairs done when I can move the bike up and down. I can't believe I've done without for so long. What a world of difference. If you have a lot of bikes and like to work on them, I strongly suggest investing in a lift.

2008 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 for sale

2012-01-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

FOR SALE - craigslist ad

Fully equipped 2008 V-Strom 650 w/ 25,883 miles. Used daily as a commuter. Maintenance performed religiously, and the bike has never had any mechanical or electrical problems. Selling because I'm no longer commuting and I have 3 other motorcycles. Chain replaced at 20k miles, rear tire with 80% left, registered through April 2012.

In preparation for sale I've done the following:

oil and filter change

new front tire

intake and exhaust valve adjustments

air filter cleaning

new spark plugs

Comes with many aftermarket accessories and extras:

* Custom "road hazard" paintjob. Satin black with yellow stripes on rear quarter panel.

* Givi Maxia E52 - 52l topcase with integrated rear brake light link here to product page

* SW Motech engine guards

* Adventure MotoStuff V-Strom Adjustable Topcase Mounting System V3.0 For Givi Monokey Cases link here to product page

* 3 spare windshields including stock, custom cut down Givi, full size Givi, and full size Cee Baileys

* Madstad adjustable windshield mount brackets

* large LED rear brake light

* Factory service manual

* hand guards from DL1000

* Stebel Nautilus horn

* side case mounting brackets (but no side case)

Please put a name and phone number in your email response and I'll call you back.

Thanks much,

-Stephen

More pictures of the bike:

top view

low side crash damage (minor scratches on handguard and engine guard. Lowside happened at 10 mph when turning left. Got up and rode the bike away with no problems.
Spare windshields - stock (bottom), cut down Givi (top left), and Cee Baileys (top right)
Bike was originally yellow. I painted it black using Hot Rod Flatz satin black, 2K polyurethane. The yellow stripes are the original color that I masked over to create the striped look. Paint is hard as nails and hasn't chipped or delaminated in over 12,000 miles of riding.
In the above picture you can see the rear exhaust shield missing. I tried to have this powdercoated and it caught fire since it was filled with foam! I've never had an issue with touching the exhaust pipe with my girlfriend on the back.

Side bag brackets not shown (they're off the bike, sitting in the garage.)

Sorry Ron

2012-01-12T23:52:00.001-08:00

I left my card reader at work and can't download the working lift photos off my camera card. I rebuilt the hydraulic cylinders today with the help of Bay Hydraulics in San Jose. There is still a problem with weight distribution preventing the lift from getting started. Not sure what to do about this other than shift the weight to the back until the lift gets past that first inch.

-S

Motorcycle lift progress

2012-01-01T01:41:00.001-08:00

Mostly done. Just need to source some scrap plate for the top and sort out the little ramp to get the bike on it. I bought the $89 front wheel clamp and am waiting for it's arrival.

Removable rear section so I can easily remove the rear tire. (requires jack under bike which I haven't sorted yet.)
Rear corner detail showing how the removable section stays in place. You can see the angle iron support for the plate top welded up on this side. Need more angle iron.

Other end is finished but I forgot to take pictures of it. It was removed for convenience of working around the lift when it's raised.

This was long overdue to happen. The cut-off wheel on my angle grinder exploded in my face while cutting the tubing. I got really lucky and only took a small scratch to the nose. I was wearing safety goggles, gloves and earplugs, but not a face shield. And of course, I've removed all the guards from my grinder so that it works better.

Material handling lift conversion

2011-12-29T04:05:00.001-08:00

I was given this great lift by a friend of mine. It's an ECOA MYTI-LIFT, electro-hydraulic unit, running off of 120V, that will lift 1000lbs. The current lifting surface is 24" x 36". Next week I'll be converting this to a proper motorcycle lift.
(image shown is the 500lb version)

Here's a photo with overlay showing the structural design of my modification:

The back section (closest, in photo), will be removable, in order to remove and service the rear wheel. I'm also going to make a removable ramp that hooks on to the back section. The extensions will be covered in 14 or 16 gauge sheet metal and made of rectangular section mild tubing.

I need to address the front wheel clamping mechanism as well. I'm thinking of going with one of these two designs:
Or the Derek Weaver W-Vice (http://www.derekweaver.com/update/W-Vise_Motorcycle_Lift_Accessories_Product.aspx?id=41), for only $89:$89 is cheap considering the amount of time it would take to fabricate this by hand, plus the materials I'd have to buy.

I'm debating whether to weld the length extensions to the existing plate, or bolt these. The rest will be welded most definitely. Bolting the whole assembly to the existing plate leaves ability to fabricate in place, then remove to powder coat. Breaking strength of any bolt over a 1/4" is so ridiculously high that throwing 4 5/16-18 per side will give me way more than needed. I'll probably go with some Grade 8 1/2" just for overkill.

trouble with the duke

2011-11-08T00:28:00.000-08:00

Rode 15 miles yesterday without a hitch, full tank of gas topped up, on my way to ride with Shon, who's in South San Francisco. Suddenly, while doin' 80 in the #1 lane, the duke coughs and dies like it ran out of gas. I pull over, not switching to reserve since I just topped up the tank. Couldn't get it started until switching to reserve which was really strange. Idled just fine, but wouldn't rev over 3000rpm on the dot, without instantly dying. I screwed around and killed it and started it so many times that the battery died. Didn't have any tools to do carb surgery on the side of 280N just outside of Cupertino so I gave up and got a tow home.

Pulled the carb, checked everything out, no obvious problems. carb looks like brand new inside since i recently rebuilt it. I went back to a 165 main jet from 162.5, and went to needle clip 3rd from top, changing from 4th from top. Put in a new spark plug and renewed a few fuel lines. started right up easier than ever tonight. revs above 3000rpm no prob. I have no idea what that was. Maybe heat soak and not enough oil? I just replaced the oil, but noticed I didn't quite add enough. I'll have to do 15 miles of circles around my house this time instead of getting so far out.

I'm thinking I'm going to pull the tank back off, pull the petcock and examine for any weirdness, before I get back on the road with it...

Brunswick Chair

2011-11-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Found this here chair in a dumpster. Took it home, waxed the fiberglass, polished the aluminum, painted the underneath matte black, and installed new casters from coolcasters.com.

It's very comfortable and is my new computer chair.

Oak table refinishing

2011-11-01T23:09:00.001-07:00

I finally finished refinishing the family kitchen table that I grew up eating at. Much thanks and appreciation to Gary Riddell for custom making the new solid oak top and leaves, and to Jerry Larson for coordinating and covering the costs. Thanks for the good turn, you guys. I hope I've been able do good by you on the job. I really like the 3 different shades of the planks on top. This works great with the different types of oak on the rest of the table.
And thanks, Dad, for giving me this great table and for the refinishing tips. I've ended following in your footsteps with the furniture refinishing knack.

Final product:

There were two previous finishes on this table, the first was dark walnut stain, the second was a painted whitewash. Both were deep in the grain and required extensive sanding to remove. Paint stripper didn't touch it, unfortunately. I ended up sand blasting it out on some of the tougher pieces. I used 220 red garnet sand at the TechShop, and baking soda blasting at home.
Process:
I sanded 60, 80, 100 grit with a random orbital.
Hand sanded 120, 220, 320 and even 600 on the top. I only went to 320 on the other pieces.
Apply danish oil - natural and also fruitwood. I used a mix of the two depending on how it pulled out the color and grain.
Wait at least 72 hours for the danish oil to fully cure.
Then I applied General Finishes water based poly urethane, satin finish. Minimum three coats, sanding with 220/320 between coats.

Here's the before photos:

Ride report and observations on my design

2011-10-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I just got home from a ~150 mile ride on the VX. 1/3 of that was on twisty roads, mostly empty. I had a good chance to really gas it, take some fast corners, slow corners, do some major down shifting and braking. I put the bike through its paces for the first time. I had my ignition set to limit revs at 6200 rpm. The bike definitely has a lot of raw power. It pulls very hard and it was hard to even get the throttle to wide open without hitting that rev limiter. I'm limiting revs for the purpose of break-in. I'm following my own hybrid break-in procedure based partly on MotomanUSA's style, but a little toned down. I definitely put massive load on the engine, varied the load, did a lot of heavy engine breaking, but also did some freeway miles. I wanted to avoid the freeway, but ended up using the motorcycle ride to see family, which was long overdue, and one thing led to another and I ended up riding home in the dark and on the freeway.
Main observations on my own design:
1. Footpeg position is wrong and is too far back.
a. My crotch was jammed up on the tank the whole time
b. Too much weight on my hands
c. since my bike is so skinny, there's nothing to clamp my knees on to relieve the pressure on my hands.

2. Seat needs more and stiffer foam.
a. Front of seat needs to be higher and I barely use the back 1/2 of the seat.

3. Clutch is not fully disengaging. (couldn't get neutral the whole ride and it was almost impossible to get from 1st to 2nd unless I was power shifting.

4. Front cylinder is running a little too rich. (I was only monitoring the front cylinder with my Innovate MTX-L air/fuel ratio gauge. Front cylinder was at 12.2 - 12.8 at 1/4 to 3/4 throttle. WOT I'm in the 13.2 - 13.8 range. WOT looks good. I probably need to raise a clip on the needle.)

5. Rear shocks were very bouncy. I couldn't get the rear end planted in corners. I exercised about 3" if not 4" of travel on the rear shocks. I've got massive preload on the springs right now and have my rebound damping at 3 out of 4. I probably need stiffer springs.

6. Front shocks were spot on and I didn't notice a thing wrong.

Thoughts on Item #1 and #2:
I went for a racier look and ergo and installed rearsets. The combination of this and the seat change ends up with me humping the tank all the time. I can't take any weight off my arms because the pegs aren't under my center of gravity; they're significantly behind my center of gravity. I'm sure pegs being under my center of gravity is a key design element, here. Pegs are also a bit low. I felt like I could easily lean the bike way over, but was already scraping my boot. I wasn't even trying to corner hard and was dragging peg. The seat is also slanting forward. I thought this was somewhat important in order to provide something behind me to keep me sliding back. This is a concept I came up with based on false information. At no time during my ride was there so much power that I was sliding off the back. Ha! If only. That much power and you're wheelying, not sliding off. I think a flat seat is the right thing. If I put very stiff foam at the front of the seat, raise the front to go up the tank, and flatten it out front to rear, and move the pegs under my center of gravity, the riding position would be majorly improved.

I love the crouched feel, so I need to bring the pegs up a hair. Sounds like a redesign of my rearset mounting bracket since I've moved them as far forward as my current setup allows.

Thoughts on Item #3.
Man did the clutch kill me. I just put in new friction plates and springs. I've rebuilt the exterior clutch mechanism on the engine, and have a new cable and lever. My left hand stopped working since it was so hard to pull in the clutch. I'm also not getting full disengage. I spent 2 hours working on everything trying to get it to disengage and finally went on my ride, hoping to "break-in" the new plates and see some improvement. Nothing improved. Time to pull the clutch cover and mess with the springs. What a pain.

Item #4: To do: Go for a ride and monitor rear cylinder. Adjust clip needle position.

Wow, the VX has some awesome torque!

gutted

2011-09-18T22:50:00.001-07:00

Gutted the VX today. slightly pulled a muscle in my back getting the engine out and onto the workbench:
Poor beast is stripped.

Had to pull the jug since I ripped the block/jug gasket while pulling the head.

Piston crown with maybe 10 miles on it:

Photos from the past 2 weeks

2011-09-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

Surgery on the KTM. Carb rebuild, jetting and modifications, replacing the rear sprocket.
Doing the valves, oil change, air filter change, coolant change, and cleaning the V-Strom, getting ready to sell it:
Lots of bikes in the garage:

Nathan and Shai come over to get the VX running. It was a gathering of the Suzuki v-twins. We've got a SV650, two VX800's and one V-Strom:

Tuning the carbs:

more RT3 stuff for sale

2011-09-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Seat:

Chain guard:

Yamaha RT3 parts for sale

2011-09-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

battery box:

speedo:

carb boot:
gauge mount bracket:

stash box:

fork ears:

side to side - Right side

2011-09-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

Original design vs. my design:

2011-09-07T21:24:00.001-07:00

video - 2nd ride

2011-09-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the footage from my second ride. no major problems other than the coolant leak at the rear cylinder head gasket. I know that's major, but all other systems are functioning well.

http://www.vimeo.com/28638984

2nd ride on Project Suzuki VX800 from Stephen Freskos on Vimeo.

Problems at the finish line

2011-09-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of glamour shots I took prior to starting the head rebuild...

I'm distraught. I've got coolant leaking externally from the head gasket on the rear cylinder, just above the starter motor... Can't see any other possibility than pulling the engine and installing a new gasket and determining what went wrong. Everything was put together by the book, including torquing to spec. Ugh.

final hour

2011-09-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

Put the tank, seat and rear on for this shot. I'll be fabbing the license plate and rear turn signal mount tomorrow and taking it on my first ride. She runs and runs good! Got the bike started last week with the help of Shai and Nathan.

Final paint turned out a bit different, but I feel this look suits the lines and style the best. No yellow on the top half after all!

I'd say I'm pleased at the end of the day. I never had a final image in my mind. I constantly changed details along the way, following the flow of the bike where it led me. I'd say I accomplished my original goal of drastically changing the look of the bike. Video from tomorrows ride will be posted tomorrow.

-Stephen

Final paint scheme

2011-06-22T23:04:00.001-07:00

Finally decided on my paint scheme:

size and placement of that there yellow half circle is still being determined. but I like it, so I'm going with it, screw everybody else, this is for me. no, nathan, this isn't directed at you! :)

Cracking off glass bottles

2011-04-24T01:39:00.001-07:00

I dug some old Jackson Napa Soda Springs, AETNA Mineral Water, and Borello Brothers bottles out of a creek up in Napa County a while back and just had the bottles displayed in my window. I happened across this creek whilst trespassing a bit (common theme here) at the abandoned Napa Soda Springs resort/spring water property. It seems that they threw the reject bottles down the hill and into the creek because there was a couple of hundred feet of creek bed where there was massive amounts of broken glass and pieces of bottles. I went wild. Forget the photography, I spent about 90 minutes digging through the creek and dirt pulling out the most whole bottles I could find. None of them had the necks and tops though. I had about 10 bottles collected and my GF at the time said "What are you going to do with all those?" I had no good answer at the time, but I sure couldn't leave them there. I picked 5 of the best ones, each with a different name or slightly different name variation and brought them home.
Well, years ago I heard about this kit in the 70's that allowed you to cut up glass bottles to make cups out of. Seeing that I have tree-hugger/picker/cheapo/salvage tendencies, I thought this was a right cool idea.
From time to time I'll research the techniques required for one of the hundreds of projects that are on my list and last night I happened to think of the old bottle cutting idea that I never followed up on. My research found many misguided folk with crazy kits, special tools and complicated techniques that didn't work very well. Finally I landed on this brilliant video by the Corning Museum of Glass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4yovEi7j7E

This was more up my alley and is clearly the real deal way to do this. Well, I tried it out and man is it easy. Since there was so much dis-information on the 'net, I decided to add my own video of this technique. Check it:
http://www.vimeo.com/22794636

I finished the sharp edges using my standard metal working tools and techniques.
Step 1: Course stone on a dremel at high speed, to round the inside and outside edge of the cup.
Step 2: Scotch-Brite Combi-Wheel on my Makita. (link)
Step 3: Fine grit worn out flap disc on my angle grinder to polish.
Step 4: Deburring non-woven abrasive wheel on my buffing machine.

The cups turned out real nice. The bottles are teal/aqua green, blob top, iron pontil, and "blowing in mold" (BIM) style manufacture. My bottle dating research indicates that these bottles are from 1845-1870 but my site research shows they are most likely between 1870 - 1900. I'm figuring mid 1890's which was the height of production at this site.

I decided to gift these to my sister instead of using them myself. Well, I'm actually going to go back and score more bottles from this creek since they turned out so well, and make another set for my own use. Giving 'em away just gives me the excuse to trek back up there and dig in that creek again!
-S

more paint schemes

2011-04-21T00:28:00.000-07:00

This first one I'm calling chocolate covered. Not a fan, but ran through the scenario anyway.

Black bottom on the other hand, I'm quite fond of:
and a slight improvement and refinement of above:

Still trying to decide, so I can finish this dang thing.

my new KTM

2011-04-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

I broke down and finally bought a thumper. 2001 KTM Duke 2 LC4 640. It's a 625cc single.
Rode 75 miles today through the Santa Cruz mountains on twisty little back roads. Wow is this bike scary fun. I almost laid it down when I was leaned over and got on the gas. The back tire hit some water, but I just throttled out. It felt like I was out of control, but on this bike it's hard to tell since it handles so good.

Mothball Fleet Revealed

2011-04-13T14:49:00.001-07:00

100 posts and still working

2011-04-03T23:34:00.001-07:00

Started fab'ing my brake light setup

New tail shape:
Got a little crazy painting things. Head light bezel and front fender:

Brake control arm got converted to black with Hot Rod Flatz black:Repainted my top triple clamp with the Hot Rod Flatz too:

RYERSON - Forming Aluminum Sheet and Plate

2011-03-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

I found this nice booklet at an abandoned building I visited on Saturday in Stockton. Very good information for metal workers.

RYERSON-forming-aluminum

Alternate link:
http://www.scribd.com/full/51403070?access_key=key-1tzwniwqextfg9tplhx

right-side-exhaust

2011-03-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

got all the little pieces figured out. It's a weird transition to make and I worked backwards from the merge collector, then had to work backwards the other way. I must have mounted and unmounted the right side exhaust about 15 times just to get this piece right.

This little bit took 2 nights plus some on Saturday and Sunday. Although I mostly slept this weekend and cruised out to Stockton to visit the old Colberg Boat Works.

2-1 pipe work

2011-03-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

I worked this out this afternoon and evening.
I decided to shoot for the moon and at least give a nod towards equal length pipes and mount the muffler on the left side.

From underneath, on left side:With the merge collector on it:
The whole thing from the left side:
Had to pop out a little to make that turn back under the bike without rubbing on the frame.
Here's the view from the right side of the bike. Just need to make up that last couple of bends. Slightly down then about 70 degrees over.

This is pretty much the only way I could figure out how to get the merge collector in there without mounting on the side of the bike. That would put my muffler much farther back than I want it, probably going past the end of the rear tire.

I'm concerned about the hanging weight of the merge collector and am thinking about supporting it under the bike. The muffler hanger will probably address this though. Holding the muffler properly ought to take the pressure off the rest of the piping if I get it just right. I don't want this thing to shake apart and crack up near the engine.

I also took time to make the final curve cut on the right side of my tail.

Oh, and here's a shot of my muffler.

Right header - done

2011-03-16T19:46:00.001-07:00

exhaust 3-14-11

2011-03-14T23:45:00.001-07:00

Left side:

Right side:

I cut up 3 different 304 stainless .120 wall pipes to make my flange connection at the engine.
Did this with an angle grinder and file. Fits perfectly inside my engine.
Tools for making exhaust

status 3-9-11

2011-03-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

I'm buggin' out over some details and got ADD tonight.

Lever height in relation to foot peg height has been a problem for a while. I've had to pick my toe WAY up to use the rear brake lever and shifter. I picked up a nice pair of Yoshimura rearsets at the swap meet Nathan and I went to. Almost intact, for $20. So I test fit those on the left side. I like the way they look better and the footpeg is bigger which feels better. I'll have to weld up the adjustable holes I drilled for the Harris set since the two don't match up of course. No prob there and a fairly low time / cost modification. I want to get the rearset brackets powdercoated since I just did a quickie paint job on them anyway.
So footpeg issues seem on the horizon of being solved and finalized. Maybe another 4 hours or so of tweaks then to the coaters.

Next was muffler hanger. I screwed around for way too long tweaking on modding the stock passenger peg brackets to see if I could make them work. The bottom line is, no I can't really, not the way I want to. The brackets are slightly too short and much to heavy for the new purpose. Another custom piece to fab, but at least I have a template to start from. I don't like the strappy muffler hanger things so I'll be welding the hanging tab onto the muffler. I need to fab that as well. Somehow rubber bushings need to find there way into the hanger somewhere but I think I have that solved.

Then I was diddling with the tail section which is currently annoying me. It looks too chubby and too stubby. I think I'll solve that by slightly elongating but this will require untold amount of sheet metal cutting bending and welding to make the curves match. I'll try and enjoy it. Certain things about this project I don't find very fun.

I've got the first bend on the right side exhaust just about dialed. I need to shave another wee bit to lessen the angle but the straight piece is cut and both are polished and ready for welding.

Of course then there's the painting which I'm actually looking forward to at this point, but just can't make up my mind on graphics. I've too much invested to slapdash design the graphics and not be happy with the look.

Ah, which way do shocks get mounted? I flipped my left rear shock so the reservoir is on top. Seems better for unsprung weight but looks wrong somehow...

Oh also, the whole back end of the bike looks low to me. Like I should have gotten longer shocks. My new shocks are actually the same size as stock or maybe a 1/2" longer but the way the bodywork is makes it look like it's leaning back somehow to me. This can be easily changed later.

Pics from tonight:

paint ideas

2011-03-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

exhaust fab part 2

2011-02-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a part of my step-by-step process I photo documented last night.

Put the piece up on the bike and figured out how much angle I needed, and marked with pen.
Since I already cut this piece I need to make sure I cut it on the 2.5" center line radius since that's what this bend radius is. If I don't cut on the CLR, then it won't be a circle. Even when I cut on the radius, it's a little tiny off, but fixable in the weld.
Here I'm measuring 2.5" to the center and checking the center with a machinist square.
Now that I've got it aligned, I'm checking to make sure that it's not rotated by checking the height at the clamp and at the end to make sure they're the same. Crude but effective.Now I setup the laser and make sure I shoot it through my little mark showing where the center of the bend is, and mark the line enough to cut by.
Well, I didn't shoot my self cutting it. I usually use a hacksaw. Now I'm just cleaning up the cut with the sander.
I realized I need to extend the straight part to make sure that my alignment is right when I go to tack it up. This straight piece will be about 18" long so a small deviation will really show at the other end. So I'm marking my cut on the straight pipe using a pipe cutter. The kind you spin around. My blade is not made for stainless, so I only mark it this way then cut with a angle grinder.
Cutting by eye with angle grinder.

Deburring:Deburring again with a deburring wheel:

Now I'm taking it from polished to "brushed" by creating my own brushed look. I'm using 120 grit. I then take it to the deburring wheel to smooth the 120 marks, then I take it to another cut and polish wheel to further finish it.You can see the change from polished to "brushed".
The bends have a fairly course surface finish from the bending process. The pipe I got was polished. So all the parts first get finished before welded. On the right is the finished product. Horizontal is the polished. on the left is the finish from the bender which takes lots of work to get rid of.Tack it up. I sharpened this image to show the final finish.Final product, ready to weld to the existing setup:
Kinda boring, but there it is. I've got two words: labor intensive

kick ass two stoke

2011-02-27T23:28:00.000-08:00

can't figure out what this one is but found on special79's blog here.

exhaust fab

2011-02-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

Diagram of right side and 2-1 connection:

Diagram of left side:

Got the first two bends and flange at engine tacked up:
Top view:
Front:
Zoom detail:

New Redwing boot video

2011-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

I wear Redwings. They're my favorite work shoes. Just got 'em resoled after almost daily wear for 2 1/2 years.

http://www.redwingshoes.com/Red-Wing-Video---The-Factory

Stock VX800 exhaust - CHOP

2011-02-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, for anybody who's curious about the stock VX800 exhaust, you shall be curious no longer. Except now you'll end up being curious about why the heck Suzuki engineers designed it this way.

Check the stock left side / rear cylinder exhaust:
You can see I've already cut it just before the little beauty cap, in the above pic.
Now a close up of that section:
That's looking down the pipe in the direction of the muffler.
A quick measurement of ID on the smallest pipe:
That's reading 1.25" ID. Slightly screwed up for the photo since I was trying to hold the calipers so you could read 'em. It's really 1.25" ID on the money.
Just to follow through on that thought, here's the other end of the same pipe, just before the muffler mounts:
That's reading just shy of 1.6". The inner pipe has an OD of 1.75 and is a 16 ga pipe.

Now let's go the start of the exhaust pipe, just where it leaves the engine. Still on the left side:
That's a solid 1.25" ID.
Now on to the right side of the bike / front cylinder, just after the engine flange:
That's a 1.25" ID also. It's about a 1.4" OD.
Now the right side, just before the beauty cover and where it goes 3 in 1:
Pretty much the same all the way through on the right side.
Here's a view down in looking from muffler towards the engine, where the 1.25" pipe dumps into the 1.75" OD pipe just before the muffler:
Last but not least, here's the right side pipe just after the engine:
Talk about screwed up. During the bending process maybe, the internal pipe ruptured so exhaust was flowing in the little pipe and in the outer pipe. Bad for efficient exhaust removal.

Based on comparisons I've made to other readily available bikes, the VX has significantly smaller exhaust pipes. A stock SV650 with 325cc per cylinder has a ~1.5" OD 409 stainless pipe that is significantly thinner walled than the VX.
My DL650 V-Strom has 1.5" OD 409 stainless pipes that seem to be about 18 - 20 ga.
So, is the VX stock exhaust too small for the engine size? Not sure.
Is my 1.75" OD 18 gauge custom system too big for the engine size? Seems like maybe a little.
1.5" seems too small though for the VX and the next step is 1 5/8" which is what I started with, but decided I didn't want 16 gauge (which is what I bought). Plus 1 5/8" is a pain to find bends and fittings for since it's non-standard.

And now for a tail teaser shot:
Ciao,
-Stepen

Abandoned paperboard plant

2011-02-21T01:49:00.000-08:00

This is a cross post of some of my photography, from my flickr account. Thought I'd share some of my other adventures with my motorcycle friends. I get out sometimes to take images of abandoned industry. Not as much lately as before, as my main focus is on the bikes these days, but it helps my creative side and is just super fun and weird to walk around these places:

-Stephen

tank progress

2011-02-07T00:59:00.000-08:00

Finally got things straightened out and laid up the primer and base coat. Working on the detail work now:

Quick mock-up:IMHO the yellow stripe on black is too thick. I should have gone thinner. It was a major pain that stripe, so I'm not sure if I want to back track and change it...

Painted up Nathan's Puch moped parts as well after many, many hours sanding and prepping. He built a nice little tank from scratch outta steel. This is his first fully custom handmade gas tank. It's my first custom tank as well. Tanks suck.

Puch stickers on and ready for the clear coat.

christmas moto

2010-12-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

after 3 days of working on motorcycles in the same clothes, I'd had enough. Nathan and I put in some serious time on the exhaust shield, his tank, my tank, my RT3 forks, and various other bits and pieces. Had just a little creativity left to do a self-portrait.

As if this were a fashion ad, I'll list my outfit and source.

Jeans - Levi's - bought new, destroyed from actual work
Jacket - vintage, used, abandoned, welding jacket scavenged from McLouth steel mill in Detroit
beanie - can't remember if I found this one, or bought it. I ground score most of my headwear.
shoes - timberland something or others. timbs last a long time.

That's my impression of the evil stare of Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters II.

It's Vigo! You are like the buzzing of flies to him!

RT3 new exhaust shield

2010-12-23T01:44:00.000-08:00

Just about finished fabbing this new exhaust shield. Made from 5mm 304 stainless round stock and stainless sheet. The outer edge of the shield is a single piece of round stock I bent on my vice.

cartoon style with danmoto gp exhaust

2010-12-17T01:15:00.001-08:00

more mockups. cartoon style!

RT3 First Start checkup

2010-11-27T13:33:00.001-08:00

Compressions at 135psi. Seems too high.

Spark plug is light light brown / tan.

RT3 - details

2010-11-21T00:04:00.000-08:00

Here's some shots I'm putting up for the yamahaenduro forum

Rear lights:
I'm not a huge fan of the side mount license plate but there was nowhere else to mount it if I was to keep my rear clean. Reminds me of choppers too much.

Under the seat:
The Trailtech Vapor mounted up: I shaped the plastic mount piece to slide in and conform perfectly to the top triple clamp. Looks like it was made for this bike.
From the front. Low profile:

damn tank

2010-11-20T23:46:00.000-08:00

More problems with my tank. After much problems getting my new gun to spray very thick paint, I got the epoxy primer on. That allowed me to see this:

Left side: Better overall shape at the top, curve looks good until the bottom third. The concave part goes a little flat and mushy. The curve is not clearly defined. Not sure how to fix this side. More filler will correct the other side, but unless I added too much skim coat in this location, it's not going away.

Right side: All looks good except for that spot on the bottom third of the reverse. It flattens out there and kinda makes a point rather than keeping the sweep of the curve. That's my novice metal shaping at work there.
I think this was a bit ambitious for me, seeing that I've never done any metal shaping before. I cut the tank, then cut more to match the existing curves and flow of the tank. Once I started shaping the side piece, it just evolved into this as I followed the lines that were already there from the stock shape. The concave section wasn't meant to be a knee cutout, its just that the top of the tank skinnied up in that section and I followed along. Keeping it straight at the bottom and waving in and out on the top was super hard for me to execute. The bottom of the sides actually curves in, front and back, and stays dead straight through the middle section. The top goes from skinnier to fatter to skinnier to fatter.

As cool as custom tanks are, I'm not sure I want to do this again. Everything about it has been painfully slow.

Next steps:
Work on the trouble spots with body filler to get general shape
feather out smooth and finish sand
respray epoxy primer in these areas
sand again
spray seal coat
sand again
lay my silver base coat
lay the yellow sections
lay the black sections
and finally clear coat it
I'm guessing it's going to take another month.

Virtual Bodyshop

2010-11-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

The latest paint scheme from my virtual bodyshop:

RT3 progress shots

2010-11-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

November 1st and progress is slow. Completely re-wiring the bike has taken its toll on me. I'm just about done though. Then it's onto the control cables. After that, I'll start it up.

and in b/w:

Here's the as purchased condition for general reference:

-S

back to original idea

2010-10-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

stripes?

Paint level 2

2010-10-06T21:50:00.001-07:00

Steppin' it up, make this thing look new-school.

VX paint check

2010-09-29T21:27:00.001-07:00

I need feedback on paint scheme. Here's some color testing I did. This evolved from checking my sanding and fill on the tank by painting black so I could get a better read on how smooth things looked. I took it a step further and did some quick mockups.

Photoshop of silver and black:

RT-3 full bike shots

2010-08-12T22:45:00.001-07:00

It's a work in process. Springs are on the way, wiring is half done, and I'm waiting for a few parts. Seat cover to be done in a couple weeks.

2010-08-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

My custom RT3 wiring diagram

2010-07-29T23:22:00.001-07:00

Yamaha '73 RT3 ignition for sale

photoshop mockup - tail

2010-07-14T00:05:00.001-07:00

Trying to figure out some lines. I'm leaning more towards silver than black paint at this point.

2010-07-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Spent the day hanging with Mujo, working on the tank:

He's used to welding large diameter high pressure gas and steam pipe and other commercial and industrial piping. I think I tested his skills a little putting him on a 20ga sheet metal project!

We got the left side done only.

Looks pretty good from the side. From the top, it's kinda ugly! Oh well. I knew the tank would have a polarizing effect on people. I think they'll either love it or hate it. It's not really about what others think, though. It's about my creative process, my vision for the bike, experimentation and the labor of love. It's definitely unique.

I still think the headlight is a little too high...

VX - choke reloc

2010-06-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

I did away with the nice stock controls that had the integrated choke pull assembly. Man was that slick. I had already bought a new left hand controls when I realized I should have bought a replacement from an SV or something with stock choke control at the handlebar. Well, I wanted this bike to be different... :)

Spent a few hours on Sunday making this cable up from a choke pull off a Honda model I can't remember.

And it's new location? Close to the radiator cap, tucked in and barely sticking out.
Front view:

I realized why I was having such difficult with my wiring, electronics, coils etc:

Jeez, maybe because I'm trying to slam a bikes worth of crap into a space 2.5 inches tall! From the bottom of the top frame tube to about an inch above the top of the top frame tube is where lives all the crap you don't want to see. I tried damn hard to make this clean and tidy but there are just too many things in too small a place for that. Good thing it's all hidden.

Here's an action shot of my new computer and indicator lights. I turned on as many as I could for the shot.

Finished up my clutch linkage and footpegs:
Now all that's left is welding the tank and rear tail section. I've got to deal with brake lights, signals and plate mount, but I'm not too concerned with this. Should take a day or so. It's the tank that's holding me back right now. It's 85% done and I'm working of fitment of the new side panels.
-S

RT-3 Stuff

2010-06-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

Spent the entire day working on bikes and my Jeep. Not a bad sunday. Here's some progress pics and for sale pics. I want some of this old Yammy stuff out of my garage.

I'm liking this bike more and more every day.

Rear brake installed.

5'x3' K&N filter
Engine Guard FOR SALE:
IRC Trials GP-1 4.10x18 and 3.00x21 FOR SALE:

2 Preston Petty front fenders FOR SALE. One is new in original wrapping.

Stock '73 RT-3 airbox FOR SALE:

RT-3 headlight brackets

2010-06-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

Made some new headlight brackets to change the mount and look of the stock ears. 20ga 316 stainless using only basic hand tools. I started looking online for mounts, then decided they were well within my reach. Simple pinch type fork clamp. Made the ID about 1.5mm smaller than the 34mm tubes so they get serious clamping action. To make them less visible on the fork tube, I buffed them out to a decent shine. Minimal impact here.

You can see my finished tank here as well. Rough yet finished. Old yet new.

Yamaha RT-3 pics

2010-06-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

I've decided to step it up a bit in the blog department and inject my love of photography into my love of motorcycles.

Progress on the 1973 RT 360. Lot's and lots of work has been taking place.

Final coat on black and white custom 360 lettering for the tank -

Stripped, sanded, polished, clear-coated for protection (Permalac) -
Painted and handmade seal for gas cap -

Rebuilt and painted front rim and hub sporting stainless spokes and an Avon Roadrider 90/90/18 -

Rebuilt and painted rear rim, brake, hub sporting stainless spokes and Avon Roadrider 110/90/18 -
Stripped, blasted, rebuilt carb and new Boyesen dual stage reeds and 5' x 3' K&N filter -

RT-3 tank painting

2010-06-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Been working on the RT.

Snaps:

New dash / electrical stuff

2010-05-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

I made this dash / gauge holder out of 5052 aluminum, polished it and then anodized it black. I reproduced the same indicator lights as the original but out of 3mm LEDs mounted in stainless steel bezels. I used the stock mount points and rubber cushions and bolts. Oil temp and water temp are on the left, yellow and red lights, neutral is green, hi - blue and signal is white. All distinctive colors. No labels though.

I got all my LEDs resistors and bezels from Oznium.com. Good place, quick delivery.
http://www.oznium.com/led
http://www.oznium.com/led-holder

Here's the bezels:

Mine didn't mount down in there like that because I put them in through the top so they couldn't pull through. This required heat-shrinking each wire tediously, as well as soldering resistors and making a custom wiring harness for the whole gauge assembly. I also filed down the LED so that the light was more dispersed and less focused.

I borrowed a 3-wire diode from elsewhere on the bike, brought left and right turn-signal positives to it and then jumped on the ground wire that was used for the high beam. This combined with a LED turnsignal flasher gizmo from CusomLED. See link below:
http://www.customled.com/products/flasher_relay/flasher_relay.htm
This is a slick flasher that is a direct replacement for the stock old style relay. Pretty much plug and play for 2 or 3 wire systems. Mounts real easy and is fully sealed.

As for headlights, I had Eastern Beaver build me a custom hi/low H4 relay and lighting harness that fit my bike just right. Well mostly just right. James built it just like I asked, I just didn't think of one thing. No big deal, it's all hidden under the seat. I got the sealed ceramic connector. No more power through the switch.

The new dash is holding the Veypor VR2, which I'm pretty excited about using once I get it running.
http://www.veypor.com/vr2.html

The Veypor has data logging functionality but doesn't input temperatures etc. I really wanted the MyChron3 karting gauge but it was just too expensive for me. I got the Veypor for around $220 and it does a lot of really neat calculations that the MyChron doesn't. Plus the Veypor is way minimal and that's what this bike is all about, minimalization.

I got over my gas tank intimidation issues today, after reading an encouraging email from Alan in Canada. I have just a few final touches to make on the shaping and I'll start forming the new sides. I took a cheap hammer and dolly set from Harbor Freight and filed them down into custom shapes to get in all the hard to reach places and get my curves just right. I started feeling really comfortable and confident shaping metal today, for the first time. I was able to perfectly hammer out the seat indentations at the rear of the tank! Woo hoo!

I'll get a metal shaping and tank progress post up soon.
Cheers for now.
-Stephen

Wheel Works - Hayward, CA

2010-04-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

I've made a couple of trips to Wheel Works in Hayward to see Mr. Chris Quinn about new spokes on my Yamaha RT3. What a place! I brought my camera and took a few snaps. I could hang out at this shop all day rooting around.

Here's Chris going lookin' for something.

I spent about 30 minutes up in the loft going through these tanks:more tanks...
I'm really salivating over some of these tanks. Waiting until I bring the bike down, then I'll test fit a bunch for looks and fitment before making an impulse buy.

Battery Box

2010-03-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

I finished my new battery box and modified tank rest bracket. Took a massive amount of work for looking so clean. Getting everything to fit was a challenge.

Oh. And I successfully made my first custom control cable. I re-used the stock conduit, cutting it down, installing a new ferrule, new wire and new ends. Shortening it up for my new handlebar location:
New spark plug wires have been ordered and are on their way from Magnecor. I went with the 7mm wires. Can't really see a reason for 8.5mm wires. New coils, wires and plugs should provide plenty of spark.
-Stephen

battery box and tail stuff - and ball&pivot fittings

2010-03-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Quick photo update here.

My new battery box - drawing:
Battery box layout:
New battery location:
New tail bodywork and seat mount:
obviously in development. this is round 2 of 3. I'll be bending up the final version tomorrow. Won't need such a large access cutout on the new version.
The new lines/style - showcase that frame:

last but not least, the ball and pivot u-joint things:
the one on the right is what I want a beefier version of. see the one on my brake setup below:
short version of my new shift linkage. the rod is not threaded and is tapped instead.

-S

VX with adjustable rearsets?

2010-03-09T20:18:00.001-08:00

The rearsets are finally coming together. I've put so much work into these things it's crazy.

Here's the pair of Harris rearsets I picked up at a salvage yard. I think they were off a late '90s Kawasaki?? can't remember

I decided to ditch the Brembo caliper and rebuild my stock caliper. The Brembo is nice but I already bought a rebuild kit for the stock, plus the Brembo was a different size piston.

Here's my new left-side setup:

I'm obviously missing a few pieces. These rearsets were crashed when I bought them. The toe-pegs were missing. I've got to turn new ones on the lathe as well as a new shift linkage.
The new shift linkage is going to be pretty long so I'm going with stainless steel.

Left side view. You get a good sense of the change in position. Much higher and at least 6 inches farther back.

Right side views:

Here's a little description of what it took me to make these damn things:
For starters, the color of the rearsets upon purchase was real ugly. I started by stripping the anodization using a lye/water solution. I then sanded out all the scuffs and dings from the previous owners crash, and straightened things a little. I then bought all new hardware: stainless screws and new teflon lined bushings.
I then etched them with lye again to make a semi-matte finish on the anodization. Then I anodized them at home on my home-brew anodize lab on my front porch.
Here's some pics:
Pre anodizing aluminum cleaning:

In the acid bath:Part of the setup. You can see the DC power supply on the left, anodize bath in the white bucket, dye bath to the right of that, and sealer bath to the far right. Each has to be kept at a specific temperature.

Results:Looks pretty damn good. Don't know the coating thickness but it's pretty good. Haven't scratched it yet.

The other parts you see are my shock adjusters and tail light bracket.

Don't even ask what I was thinking when I got into anodizing at home. I've got a few items I want anodized right now and I'm getting it professionally done. It just takes me too much time to setup and breakdown...

Back to the build. When deconstructing the rearsets, I screwed up when pinching the pivot in a vice while taking out the bushing. I actually squeezed the cirle into a slight oval. The shifter pedal would no longer fit and I destroyed a new bushing. I had to put it on a mill and use a boring bar to restore the pivot to a circle.

The mounting brackets: I was originally going machine these out of aluminum and just couldn't come up with a design that seemed practical since I had to move them so far off the frame and out around the swingarm. I just couldn't visualize the part, the measurements were too much and I couldn't see personally doing that much machining. Finally, a new friend Nathan, and fellow bike builder suggested steel. Well, how the hell could I bend thick steel plate? I went with the steel idea and used 3/32s mild plate, shaped it with my angle grinder and went to town. I bent it up using a press brake at the TechShop.

I took the stock footpeg mounts, chopped off the footpeg part and left the double donut. I used the original mounting hardware and frame mounts. It took me three attempts and failures on the right side alone, to get the bends right, the dimensions right and the shape right. When I finally got the right side mostly done, I fit it up and was getting flexion toward the swingarm. Too much flex! I torched the bracket, then quenched in oil. A little better, but not good enough. Then I decided to weld on bracing/webbing. My coworker and career engineer, Jim Waltz, instructed me on moment arms and where to most effectively place the webbing.
Another friend and professional welder/pipefitter, Mujo Botic, did the welding using TIG. Absolutely perfect beautiful welds.

I was down at OC McDonald's shop where Mujo works, hanging out with Mujo and John McPherson. I was standing in the fab shop and smelled barbeque. I figured there was a restaurant nearby, but lo and behold, Mujo and John setup a full kitchen in their piping fab shop and John was busy roasting pork, fish and vegetables. They proceeded to serve me lunch that blew my mind and was total gourmet. Amazing. Much thanks guys, you made my day.

Getting the alignment correct, between left and right sides of the bike was not easy. The stock frame mounts on the VX800 are not even front to back. It took a couple tries on the left-side bracket to get it right. I used the original Harris mount as a template/jig to drill the mounting holes in my new brackets.

Then sandblasting and painting. I used SEM acid-etch primer and SEM Trim Black paint. 2 coats of etch primer, with 36 hours cure time and 3 wet coats of the Trim Black and another 36 hours cure time before touching.

Ugh. That's the saga of the rearset. Now I've got a perfect leg position to match the clip-ons and can adjust as I see necessary!

Couple parting shots of current progress. Skinny bike!

tank

2010-02-21T00:59:00.000-08:00

quick teaser pics. bad pics sorry. just the first cuts and shaping shown. I just got steel for the new side panels.

Final machining to fork brace:
Now just need to anodize.

And the Dyna Coils DC3-1. Ugh.

Fork brace quickie

2010-02-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

just machined this guy yesterday. finishing touches will be made today.

New machine

2010-02-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Here's photos of my latest purchase, a 1973 Yamaha RT 360 2-stroke enduro.

Front end was removed for transport and I put it back together for the photos. Fender being held up by the GF as it's unbolted right now. Brand new Mudder front MX fender, still in packaging.Sweet back from local dealer, 20+ years out of date.
Came with service manual. Sweet.

Front wheel spacer - in lieu of speedo

2010-02-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

I've removed my speedo drive and cable from the front wheel since I'm using a new digital gauge with it's own speed sensor.

I had to make my own wheel spacer / hub cover to deal with the new gap in the front. I took a lathe class and put my skills to work.
I started with 1 1/4" round stainless 304 stock. I measured up the old speedo steel spacer (embedded in the speedo gear assembly) to use as a starting point and took a 16 gauge sheet of stainless and made the hub cover out of it. I matched the OD of the spacer to that of the wheel bearing's inner race but then enlarged the OD in addition to creating a lip to hold down my hub cover plate. The OD of the spacer on the fork is end is 4mm larger than where it rests on the bearing. I drilled out the center then had to use a boring bar to turn the ID down to just larger than the front axle. For such a simple part, it took quite a bit of thinking and helped me regain my confidence on the lathe.
The shop I'm using the lathe at doesn't have the best selection of tool bits so my next step is to buy a selection of my own tools before I turn any more parts.

Here's the photo show, probably more than you ever wanted to see for a wheel spacer:

Turning the OD at wheel bearing and creating lip for cover plate:

Final part before getting correct ID:
Final part on bench:

Cover plate fitment:

You can see a slight gap between the lip and the cover plate. The poor selection of tool bits and my novice lathe skills are to blame. I couldn't get a perfect 90 degree angle at this critical point:
Fitment on wheel:
on the VX:
Super clean front end!

This weekend will find me milling my new front fork brace and hopefully finishing bashing out my aluminum front fender.

Shai's VX800 turns 100,000 miles

2010-01-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

My buddy Shai just sent me these pics on 1/10/2009 of his VX800 rolling over to 100,000 miles:

The VX is a damn stalwart machine. Shai rides to work daily, rain or shine, from Alameda / Oakland, CA. I'm impressed.

Working on the wiring harness

2010-01-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

I just finished Season 3 of Prison Break on DVD. Wasn't getting much done while heavily involved in this. I don't own a TV so I wait a few years then frantically watch a hundred episodes of something like LOST, or Prison Break until I can't take it anymore. This happens when I run out of books to read or can't stand to re-read a book I already own. I've read most of my books at least twice and many more than 7 times.

So, Prison Break out the way for the time being, onto full blown evenings poring over my harness! Got myself into a little more than I bargained for on this one. The only way I've been able to even start this work is to dive in head-first and do NOTHING else. I usually have multiple projects going at the same time, e.g. right now I'm working on my gas tank, gauge bracket, control cables, and undertail. Whoa, no wonder one thing never gets finished. It was time for electrical so it's all electrical now until the harness goes onto the bike.

Removing the side-stand switch and neutral switch took some thinking. I'm not just cutting them out and splicing the old wires together; I'm making it as if they were never there. I'm also adapting new left and right handlebar controls, adding a SPDT relay for headlight power, adding a new ignition module, new gauges, new LED turnsignals, new dash indicator lights etc.

Here's my headlight relay setup (standard SPDT relay wiring diagram):

Here's the sequence and explanation:
Pin 30 gets power directly from the headlight fuse. When the ignition is turned on, Pin 30 is hot and voltage goes to my low beam via Pin 87a, all the time. I've got voltage going to my left-hand controls via the "signal" fused circuit, when I flip the high-beam switch or pass switch, this voltage passes to Pin 85, energizing the coil and switching the headlight voltage from normally closed position (NC) to pin 87, which is the high beam, cutting power to the low beam. Pin 86 goes to common ground.

There's two things I'm a bit uncertain about:
(1) having the relay control voltage sitting at the handlebar switch with nowhere to go until I flip the high beam switch. Is this a problem?
(2) I've read that I should put a diode across the coil so that when the coil field collapses, I don't send a pulse back through to the handlebar controls, or back down the ground wire...

Here's my latest revision of the wiring diagram:

-S

Latest pic

2009-12-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

Trying to mockup my exhaust in Photoshop. Here's my latest progress pic:
Think I'm going to take the routing as seen on Shai Kahana's motorcycle:

His drops down much sharper than my stock routing. This will allow me to mount the muffler on the right side which is more pleasing aesthetically to me.

-S

Progress Post

2009-12-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

I pretty much stopped photographing the step by painstaking step process as it is very time consuming and who even looks at it besides me? Well, the whole blog thing started off as a way for me to photo document my project for myself anyway...

I don't think I ever posted my first engine paint job, well now I'm almost done with my second engine paint job. Wow, that set me back a couple of months. From researching and testing clearcoats over raw metal, to sanding down the entire engine block and cases, taking everything back apart, taking the engine back out of the bike and restripping it. Yuck. I have to keep my perfectionist streak in check or the project will never get finished.

The only thing left over from the first paint job that I DON'T like is the damn valve covers, but they are just way too complicated to perform my latest process on.

Here's a little view inside my new three car garage/shop:
Bike progress:
New engine paint job:
I ran out of ideas and went all black block and jugs. I stripped all the cases and augmented the stock brushed aluminum look by painstaking hours using scotchbrite on the end of a drill, then clearcoated the raw aluminum. Still having problems with the clearcoat cracking. Weird.
I did the stuff in the photo above using a product called Everbrite, which I'm kinda less than happy with. Maybe I did too many layers? Or my heat curing then the cold weather caused shrinkage that made a bunch of little cracks all over the paint... The clutch cover and beauty cover on this side are getting the Permalac treatment instead of the Everbrite.

My tank has reached satisfactory levels and got the acid etch coats in the last 2 days:
It sat for a couple of months after my electrolysis rust removal treatment. I washed using a metal wash product that was supposed to prevent rusting. I even left the residue on the metal to dry, but a couple of months in semi-damp and cold conditions made a slight rust haze and little rust spots all over the exterior. So of course, being a perfectionist, I spent 3 hours sanding out the stainless steel tank, every dang mm of it, before I super cleaned it with PPG DX320 and did my etch coats. I need to re-up on high build primer tomorrow morning, then I'll do 4 coats of the high build tomorrow afternoon.

I decided to go semi-pro and created my own positive pressure downdraft paint booth with all the space in my new garage! I framed in a old box fan, taped up a .69 cent air filter, and wow it works so amazing. Looks like crap, but I used a lot of recycled materials to make the booth:

-S

FOR SALE - VX800 front brake master cylinder

2009-10-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Fully rebuilt front brake master cylinder from a '93 VX800. New adjustable lever, new piston cup set and springs, new res-cap screws, repainted gloss black, lettering on reservoir cap sanded out.
It's seen 30k miles. Complete with front brake light switch.

$100.00 + shipping

VX ignition system - photos

2009-10-01T20:10:00.001-07:00

For the Ignitech guys and all interested in a programmable ignition for the VX800.

crank position sensor

Stock VX800 ignition unit:

Stock VX coil:

Signal generator?
These bumps on the outside of the rotor appear to be the signal generator. They pass very close to the crank position sensor.

This is no device like the one seen in the manual, BUT, there are 3 short protrusions, and 1 long protrusion as seen above, and this corresponds perfectly with what is seen in the manual below:
I was expecting something more like this:

Electrical System re-do

2009-09-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here's my modified wiring diagram:

I'm removing the side-stand safety switch, relay and diode and deleting the entire interlock wiring associated with this. I'm using the neutral switch only to light the neutral indicator light. So that wiring got slightly changed. The other change required to pull this off was to tie the Orange/Blue wiring from the Kill Switch connector straight to the fused common, instead of getting it from he side stand relay. Now the only start-up safety mechanism is the clutch switch, which I happen to like. Can't start it without at least thinking about it.

500k .jpg, watch out -
And the stock wiring diagram (many wires removed for the stupid side stand interlock system!)
The next step is to integrate the new gauge and re-wire for the Ignitech Sparker TCI-P4 programmable ignition system. I'm considering fixing a Throttle Position Sensor to my carb, as the Ignitech has an input for this. Would be kinda nice to see it on the graphing software. It might be too much trouble though. I know the 1st gen SV650's are carburated and have a TPS mounted on the rear carb. I might be able to adapt this to the VX...

I'm considering two different gauges right now, the simple Trailtech VAPOR, or the data logging Mychron3 Gold (or plus). I've got my eyes on a used karting Mychron3 Gold right now... It would be pretty trick to get graphs of my RPM/speed/temps/TPS etc to tune the bike.
-S

Carb rebuild

2009-09-29T16:44:00.001-07:00

Rebuilding my carbs:
Lot's of parts... After dissecting them and then buying necessary replacement parts, I think I understand where each piece goes.
I'm just waiting for my new o-rings, gaskets, screws etc.

Got my Factory Pro standard rebuild kit:
Of course, no job on this bike would be complete without a broken screw:

It holds on this bracket:I didn't even really need to take this off. I just wanted to clean it really well. I couldn't resist undoing every single part. It just wouldn't be complete otherwise. This is what I get:

I also drilled out the mixing screw, which is blocked off on the US (or at least Cali) models of the VX.

I should have these back together within a week. Hooray. Next step, programmable ignition system. I'm also redesigning the wiring on the bike right now. My latest project to get OCD on.
-S

New Headlight

2009-09-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

So here's the new headlight and mounting brackets associated.

The process started with cutting off the stock tabs from the headlight hanger. The fabbing new tabs, then welding them on. Very, very painstaking process to get the alignment right.
All made of mild steel (probably too heavy a gauge but oh well), so I could weld to the stock hanger.

This headlight comes from a 2006 Yamaha MT-03. Only sold in Europe until recently, I imported the damn thing from England. I would have liked to use the bracket from the MT-03 but the fork rake is different and fork width is different, plus I didn't want to spend another $200 on the bracket. LSL has a kit for mounting this on a Triumph Speed Triple (my old bike), but the same problems apply. Plus the mounting kit cost ~$300.00. Way too much.

Posed for fitment, before molding and painting.

The stock horn bracket and horn were in the way of the new light. So the horn bracket got modified. I chopped it down, folded over the support for the hanger and drilled new holes:

More pre-painting fitment:
I started out with the light lower down on the forks, which I thought looked slightly better. I ran into troubles with the horn bracket even after modd'ing it. I ended up raising the whole thing up. It gives the bike more of a hunched up look. Maybe like a cat arching it's back with it's hair standing up.
The result of moving the light up is that it interferes with the stock gauges. I've now decided to use an aftermarket gauge. I was never fond of the stock gauges sticking up the way they do since I've removed the standard handlebars. I don't want the stock gauges being the highest thing on the bike, sticking up all crazy. Another corner to engineer my way out of.

Here's some shots with the bracket and headlight on final install. I've also installed new front brake master cylinder and controls.
And the new modd'ed horn bracket, painted and installed:

Front view looks nice and tidy!
Here's the top view. You can see the new brake master cylinder, and custom mounting of the reservoir:

In the above photo you can see the way I mounted the brake reservoir. I took the stock clutch lever assembly, sawed off the mount that connected it to the handlebars. I then filed this down nice and round, and painted it up. I made a custom bracket to hold the reservoir, out of aluminum, and painted that also. I'm using the threads that used to hold the mirror on the stock clutch lever bracket, to screw the new reservoir bracket into.

You can also see that I've upgraded my throttle controls. This comes off a 2006? GSXR.

The new front brake setup is off a 2008 Yamaha YZF-R6, purchased from a salvage shop. It's a 5/8's radial cylinder with separate reservoir. I couldn't make the VX stock master cylinder fit. It kept bumping into the clipon where it mounts to the forks. I went from a 1/2 master cylinder to a 5/8s. That's going to soften up my front braking a little. Hopefully not too much...

I've now got a completely refurbished stock VX front brake master cylinder and lever for sale!

Ok. That's all for now. This took SO much time to accomplish. I was running this work in parallel with my engine rebuild and many other current projects for the VX though, and lately I've only been able to work on this on weekends...

All said and done, I'm happy with the look. It's extreme, but I feel it will fit in with the new look of the bike as a whole once it's complete. One thing I hate is aftermarket headlight jobs that look pasted to the front of the bike, with no harmony with the lines and feel of the bike. I searched long and hard for a light that would be eye catching, but not cheesy. Something as far from stock as I could get, which limited me to non-round lights.
Cheers,

Tank work

2009-09-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's finally time to start on my tank. I started with a dent-free spare I bought for $125 at a wrecking yard in Vacaville.

I decided to use a paint stripper this time instead of blasting it. Paint makes the coolest sound when it breaks free!

The final stripped tank with filler applied:
My new custom seat will not be going as high on the tank as the stock seat. I never see the purpose of putting the seat up the tank because then you can never ride forward.
I'm using EVERCOAT METAL2METAL for this work. This is the first layer sanded out. I'll fill with another layer and sand to shape.

Before I start applying primer, I'm going to use electrolysis to remove the rust on the inside. It's not significantly rusted, but it NEEDS to be removed. It's light surface rust only. I don't like the tank sealers, so I'm going to just treat the metal immediately after doing the electrolysis. As soon as I can find some "washing soda" I'll be using the DC power supply that I used during the my aluminum anodization work.

Engine problems

2009-09-07T21:19:00.001-07:00

Well, I've had a few minor setbacks that have been really stalling me on progress. First I tore my cylinder to block gasket. This weekend I tried mounting the #2 cylinder again and this time I had a bent dowl pin and in an attempt to force the cylinder down, I broke my cam chain tensioner right where it mounts into the head/cylinder assembly. Ugh. Now I'm waiting for a new tensioner and dowel.

At least I made some progress, I got the cam sprocket and cam installed on the #1 cylinder, and successfully removed the slotted cap in the generator cover, without damaging it. I made a custom tool for this out of aluminum. I also made a custom piston ring compressor. That makes 4 custom tools I fabricated for this motorcycle.

No pics for this post. Working on the engine by yourself is not conducive to photography. I have few enough hands as it is.

I've also finished my headlight bracket and painted it. I'm pretty happy with how this worked out. I'll do a whole post on the new headlight as it took me so much designing and sweat to get it finished.

Shaping my custom tail - part 2

2009-08-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

More shaping is done, and the right side front piece has been bondo'd on.

As you can see in the last one, I've got my new headlight on. It's actually a mockup for making new mounting brackets. I've been looking at the frame and front end for so long, in a stripped down condition, that I've gotten used to the tank being the highest point on the bike. Once I mounted up the gauges, yuck, I don't like how much they stick up. I don't want to spend money for a custom gauge... For now, I'm just putting off what to do about the gauges.

I'm really loving the light, and have overcome some design hurdles in making the brackets for cheap. I'm relocating the horn, modifying the horn bracket/light hanger thingy, and totally modifying the light hanger to hang my new light and horn. I can't wait to finish the light so that I can install my handlebars, controls etc.

Shaping my custom tail

2009-07-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

While cylinders were off at the shop getting bored, I started working on my tail end covers.

The end goal is a custom fiberglass rear end, frame coverish, seat mounting thingy. Whatever you want to call it, the rear bodywork. I'm starting by making a wood pattern, which I will layup fiberglass over to create my mold. I will then lay up a 2nd fiberglass piece using the mold so I get an exact replica of the wood. This is a very time consuming and tedious process. Kinda like everything custom I've been doing to this bike. I'm learning it all from scratch, and it's taking forever.
I glued a bunch of wood together, notched it out, cut it to length and fit it up on the bike. Here's the raw shape I started with:

Starting out it is obviously very square. I started figuring all the different angles and marking them out. The next step is to rough sand down to those angles using my angle grinder with an 60 grit disc. I'm making this all up as I go along and every time I go to cut, I'm deathly afraid of messing up because I would have to start from scratch all over again. Maybe that's an exaggeration. I can always fill in with bondo, but the less I do that the better.

As you can see, I've covered my workshop in a layer of wood dust. That's quite a change from the oil, metal filings and paint that's been in there to date. Wood is so much easier to work with than metal!! Wow.

V-Strom paint job

2009-07-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

I bought my yellow 2008 DL650 because it was the right price, right seller and right timing. What wasn't right was the color. Yellow. I'm not a solid yellow bike kind of guy. I'm not a stock bike or stock paintjob kind of guy either for that matter.

So, with my new found painting skills, I busted a custom paint job on my daily commuter.
Check it:
Putting the side covers back on after they cured out.

Backing her out after reassembly (this is my front porch):

I couldn't remove ALL the yellow. Solid black is only so cool. I figured, I spend all my time on the freeway, so I worked with that theme and came up with the hazard stripes for that custom touch. Nobody likes the paint job but me. Oh well, f**k 'em. I don't ride this bike to pull girls, impress people, or go super fast, so who cares.

Paint used:
Hot Rod Flatz HRF 296 Black Chassis (Satin)
This is a 2-part urethane paint. Cures as hard as nails.

I had a bitch of a time getting it to spray right with my crappy gun. Not my best work, but from 5 feet away, you can't tell it's not professionally done.

New pistons, boring cylinders

2009-06-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

I finally got my new 0.5mm oversized pistons and rings, and all new valves. I brought the cylinders and heads down to Rick at RM Enterprises in Concord to get them bored and the valve seats grinded.

Couple weeks and I'll have the motor rebuilt!

#1 Cylinder corrosion

2009-06-14T23:10:00.001-07:00

Got a problem here. Need a new cylinder!
Can anyone part with a #1 cylinder in decent internal shape?

Engine issues

2009-06-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

I just finished painting my engine on Wednesday. I baked out the last pieces in the oven last night. I'll be putting it back together this weekend.
Big problem: I've got a corroded cylinder where one piston was sitting so long the rings rusted into the liner. I also need my valve seats grinded. Those are getting handled tomorrow morning, but the cylinder is still not resolved.

How I see it, I've got three choices:
1 - leave it as is and put it back together
2 - get a new cylinder or a new(used) one
3 - do a small bore and upsize rings... not sure this will work with just rings though

I'll have to post pictures and ask advice.
-S

Paint Concepts

2009-05-04T22:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of mock-ups I've done in photoshop while brainstorming on the paint job.

Yeah, both ideas were stolen. But that's OK with me. They both look hot on their respective bikes. I think the red bike is from Denmark? Best looking paint job I've seen on a VX yet. Wish I could see more photos of the front.
I can't figure out where I got this photo from. Somewhere on vx800.dk. It's hard navigating a site in another language.

The other is from Filippo Barbacane's S3. Photos taken from his blog, found at:
http://filippobarbacane.blogspot.com/

Rolling Chassis

2009-03-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

I've done a huge amount of work lately and have taken many photos, but tonight, things came together and I'll only show the final result. I've paid attention to every last detail while putting it together. Every washer has been polished or replaced with stainless steel, everything has been restored to a brand new condition, or better.

I think I can finally claim a 'rolling chassis':
and with the right shock on, this time (I'm waiting for a new bolt for the bottom of the shock. Stock was too stripped to use I realized at the last moment)

Love it or hate it, it's been bobbed for real. Just enough room for my butt and a tiny rear cowling. Cowling will overhang the end of frame a bit.
And for comparison sake, I plopped the original seat on the top. My seat will sit much lower and there will be very little gap between bottom of seat and frame.

On the way is a complete photo documentation of my front-porch home-brew anodizing setup. I just finished anodizing my brakelight mount, rearsets, and rear shock pieces with excellent results. More to come soon...

Progress Post 3/9/09

2009-03-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

See my beautiful triple clamp! All painted and mounted up on the bike:
Detail views:

Final Drive painting project

2009-03-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

My final drive was in bad shape as you can see from the as bought photos below:

I debated on powdercoating it and then decided not to as it might compromise the tolerances.
What else can I do but paint it?

The step by step process I took was:
1) strip and degrease
2) beadblast
3) treat and clean the aluminum
4) sand
5) fill any dents (or some of them)
6) sand out
7) etch primer - 2 coats
8) high build primer - 4 coats
9) sand out
10) spray high build where I sanded through to metal
11) sand out
12) color coat - 2 coats
13) clear coat - 4 coats

I didn't photograph every step of this incredibly tedious process but here's some of the shots:
Freshly blasted:
Submerged in 140 degree alumiprep for 5 minutes:
Drying out:
Application of METAL2METAL filler:
Sanded out:

Here's the paint line up:
And the final product, shot inside my makeshift paint booth:
And outside in the sun:
I had my camera on auto white balance so the color temps are different and the color therefore looks a little different.
As you can see, I decided to go with yellow to match the frame. It was either black, silver or yellow. Silver would never match the swingarm properly, black looks bad, so I had my paint shop custom mix me up a color and put it in a spray can. Took the guy 4 days to get it right and it's pretty dead on.

I'm letting the clear cure out for another couple of days before I rebuild it. I used a real deal 2-part urethane clear coat in a special one time use spraycan.

Brakelight bracket - redux

2009-03-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

I got distracted with the process when making my brakelight bracket and shaped it to the frame cross pieces instead of rounding it. So, I did it over.
Here's the shots.

Basic shape:

Drilled out and shaped:

Sanded out:

Fit up on the bike:

Again, it will be etched and then anodized black.

Tail Redesign Part 4

2009-02-24T00:17:00.000-08:00

I fabbed up the tail light bracket today and am very pleased with the results.

I first started with a cardboard template to get a feel for layout and look:

I then worked a piece of 1/16 aluminum and came up with this:

This is using my new flare LED brake lights I ordered from England.
And on the bike from a couple of angles:

Alas, everything is not quite right yet. The bracket/endpiece is a perfect fit, I mean so perfect. But the only problem is:
Those stupid welds are in the way of the end-piece fitting flush up against the lower cross piece! I didn't plan the weld location all that great. OOPS. So now I either remove the welds (bad idea), space out the end-piece using rubber or another metal piece, or modify the end-piece so it doesn't fit all the way to the round frame (ugly). I think I'm going to space the bracket out slightly.

I've still got to drill the mounting holes and of course, anodize the aluminum piece. I've set up a homebrew anodizing rig and have been getting excellent results on test pieces so far. More about my anodizing setup on another post.

-Stephen

For those asking about color

2009-02-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

I decided to put the parts together so you can all see the major pieces. I've also got the front and rear brake calipers complete and gauges completely rebuilt. I'm working on the damn final drive right now. I spent 45 minutes getting the dang thing mounted up in the mill on Saturday night just to drill out a broken bolt in the internals. Need to tap it now, and paint the thing. I've got all new o-rings and seals for the final drive just waiting for the paint job.

The following images are pretty large...

Together. Or at least near each other:

View 2:

Triple Clamp Mania

2009-02-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

Lots of photos, little narration. As always, click on the pictures for the super zoom view.

Lower bearing pressed in and ready to be mounted: (sans grease)

And mounted (but not torqued. I need a stem nut socket!):

Upper triple clamp with freshly milled HTS-2000 alumi-weld float layer:

Upper triple clamp sanded out:
You can see that my float layer wasn't perfect. I'm going to have use a little bondo to fill in the small low spots...

Upper triple clamp sanded out even further:
And the under side, plugged:

Posed up on the bike:

I'm getting close to having the front end assembled! Wheeeee!

Enter the frame

2009-02-02T00:00:00.001-08:00

Back and the rebuild starts! I've been doing more work than picture taking these days. Pushing to get a rolling chassis and using all my time assembling.

With nothing on it:

With some engine mounts, fuel pump and seat latch:

With highly polished and super clean rear master cylinder:

I've got the forks assembled, the lower triple clamp ready to mount, and the front wheel finished. I'm going to need some kind of stand for this thing now... Have to make it.

VX800 Front Shock Parts - Photo Guide

2009-01-01T15:54:00.001-08:00

I decided to whip up this photo guide to the front shocks, complete with OEM part numbers. You'll notice a duplication of the layout of the micro-fiche in my layout.

And here's my micro-fiche version with part-number annotations (please feel free to download the larger version by clicking on the image below):

Hope it's useful.
Cheers,
-Stephen

New Rear Shocks

2008-12-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I'm super excited. The frame's in for the powder coat and I just picked up my new rear shocks. I didn't think it was worth $800 - $1300 for Ohlins on this bike and Progressives seemed a little low end, so I split the difference and went with:

I got a specific spring rate for my weight. I think they'll look great.

Redesign of the tail section - post 3

2008-12-26T20:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and ordered the brake lights I really wanted. Even though these are relatively straight-forward universal brake lights, I simply could not find them in the USA. For all her glory, the US just doesn't have a lot of selection when it comes to universal motorcycle taillights.

Here's what I got:
I bought two of the above and one of the double sharknose (clear with chrome surround - not pictured):

Figured I would get both and see which ones I like the best. I paid more in shipping than I did for the product!

Here's some concept sketches for the rear end:
Crude drawings, but they help me visualize things. If you don't know me, you might not get the humor in my personalized license plate show above. I hate personalized plates!

Here's a shot of a tail end that I really like thanks to the firestarter garage in Italy:
And another of 'Nemesis':
Firestarter Garage at http://www.firestartergarage.it/ make some of the sickest customized bikes I have ever seen. They're strictly a Guzzi shop and make me want to customize a Guzzi for my next project. I've gotten a lot of ideas from these guys.

I found out about them from Visual Gratification which is a great blog on motorcycles.
Visual Gratification can be found at: http://big-diesel.blogspot.com/
One of the best blogs I've seen that highlights the pure beauty of a well made motorcycle.

The cowling on the Nemesis is a little too big for my VX. I don't think mine will be so large...
My ideas won't be pinned down until they're hashed out in steel, so I never know how the bike will turn out. I have a pretty good mental image in my head, but getting that out on paper, and getting it out in steel is the problem!
Cheers,
-S

Redesign of the tail section - post 2

2008-12-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo log of the recent work I did on the tail end. I've got to get this frame powder-coated so I can move to the next step, putting it together. Oh, and this is the first time you get to see pictures of me.

I made a mistake and cut off too much of my tail. I also made the mistake of throwing away the tail section I cut off! Oops. I finally came up with an equal sized steel tubing to extend my tail.

I'm adding back 3 inches to the rear end. It will look better and hold all the gear that attaches to the back a lot easier.

I started with 3" sections of steel tubing, and cut out round pieces to cap the back end:
I welded them to the ends, then ground out my welds for a smooth finish:
The new tail piece with round end welded on:
Zoom of piece (OK it's boring I know):

Now I'm fitting up the piece, making sure it's aligned straight:
Now weld up the the piece:
On to the second one:
Weld it up, grind it out, and dang I'm tired:
Now, let's weld on my new brackets:
And, finally, the finished product:
And from straight on (you can see my fab techniques have massively improved):

My original brackets were all cut and bent by hand using crude tools. I'm now a member of a great place called TechShop in Menlo Park, CA. It's a DIY machine shop with much much more and has allowed me to use equipment I would otherwise never have been able to. I'm doing all my welding at home thanks to my good friend Jim Waltz. Jim has let me borrow all the welding equipment and gear that you see in the photos. Thanks Jim! Thanks also to Jessica for taking all the photos, and putting up with my testy behavior!

I've since gone over and sanded out the frame, again, removing all the marks from the over-abrasive sanding discs I was previously using. I need to just double check everything before I send it to get coated. Next week it will go in.

Front brake caliper rebuild

2008-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

And the front caliper! Jeez, I wanted to show before and after pictures, but failed to take a close-up of the front brake caliper before I reworked it.

Just coated (you can see they messed up and coated the round where the brake line attaches:

And the other side:

You can see above that the machined surfaces are pretty dirty. I even sanded those out before I got them coated. So, I spent another hour making this one nice.
Started by scraping off the coating around the brake line connection:
This took for-bloody-ever and was very annoying. Again, I chased all the threads, sanded out the machined surfaces, polished where the pistons sit, and scraped off any over spray and built up coating.
Laying out my parts:
New parts:
cylinder seals
mounting bolts
bleeder bolt cap
rubber covers
brake pads

Re-used parts:
pistons
bleeder bolt
mounting piece
piston inserts
shims

Cylinders and seals in, with everything cleaned up:
And, oh crap, I don't have new brake pads yet, nor have I dressed up the mounting piece! Well, I'll do what I can for today then stash it up on the shelf 'til I get the other items resolved:

Rear brake rebuild

2008-12-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

I picked up my brakes and many other parts today from the powder-coating shop. These were the first batch of parts coated in the yellow that will be going on the frame.

I took this opportunity to quit work early, pick up the parts, and go home and get to the real work.

Here's how they look:
(I tried to adjust the color of the photo so it mostly resembles the actual color)

I spent about an hour, cleaning up the calipers again, after the powder coating. I removed small built up ridges of coating at the edges of the machined surfaces, I chased all the threads, I re-sanded the machined surfaces, scrubbed out the internals and cleaned very thoroughly.
Getting my parts laid out for the rebuild:
New parts:
black plastic cover
piston seals
o-ring gasket for between the 2 halves
spring keepers
brake pads
bleeder bolt cap

Re-used parts:
pistons
brake pad pins
cotter pins
bleeder bolt
metal shims
caliper itself

And the finished product!

I'm super happy with my yellow color choice! It was tough to make the decision as it really sets the tone for the whole bike. I'm waiting for my new brake pads to come in the mail right now, so the above photo is less the pads. Additionally, I'm getting a custom made braided stainless brake line. The next step is to refinish and rebuild the master brake cylinder.

Tomorrow I'll be sand blasting the rear master cylinder, sanding out and clear coating. I'm doing rid of the black plastic cover that goes over the master cylinder. Unnecessary part!