Front Tire

After tightening the spokes I decided to put the tire and tube on. A bunch of soap and a bit of muscle the front tire was complete. Although I think I’ll need an expert to look after my work.

 

Front End continued

Putting the front end together. New speedo without all the neutral highbeam crap to wire up. A bit simpler for my bad electrical abilities.

New grips and levers. Decided to keep the original hand controls since my electrical abilities completely blow.

rebuilding the front end

Using some toxic paint stripper I was able to remove most of the paint. I can only work late at night and the kids rooms are right above my workbench so I’ve concluded that this build will be a silent one. No polishing, grinding or banging . . . a silent build.

Cleaned off some 30 old grease having the consistency of cream cheese.

Remounted the forks to get some leverage to remove the top caps. No luck on getting them off so far.

The top cap has completely rusted into place. I picked and scrapped at it like a dentist with no luck. I think I need a new tool to get this SOB off.

Rizoma License Plate Holder for the Monster

I added a pink line showing how I ran the line. Basically you just need to follow lines that are already there. First was the break light coming from under the seat. Follow that until you hit the rear set and then follow the break line under the bike and back to the caliper. Then zip tie the lines together. The rizoma wire is just the right length.

Squeeze the rizoma line in with the break line. It’s a tight fit but works and holds everything together nicely.

Bottom line goes to the back break. I wrapped the rizoma line in electrical tape and ran it under the swing arm and around the back (see next photo)

This kit was surprisingly easy to install. Which it needed to be since the instructions were pretty much non-existant.

New Spokes for the SR250

This is harder than I thought. Still working on the back pattern. Even with pictures it’s a mind F.

Rebuilding the Ducati Monster 796

After spinning out and crashing my ducati I needed to put it back together. Instead of replacing the OEM bars I decided to get some SpeedyMoto tall boys.

Putting them on was a bit of a bear because you need to take off the ignition to get a normal allen wrench to the back bolt on the tripple clamp. That’s not easy since they are security bolts with no way to use a wrench. So out come the vise grips.

These Tallboys will give me a more aggressive stance which will center my weight and give me better control.

I also needed to order a headlight frame since the original snapped when the OEM bars broke off. This also caused the handlebars to puncture the tank plastic. Not the gas tank but only the cosmetic shell. Since you can’t buy a single side tank plastic I needed to buy a whole set. So I decided to get the 1972 Imola artist kit. I’ll troll craigslist for another left sided tank cover for the next few years.

The Ducati Monster 796 Crash

So I spun out and dropped my new Ducati Monster 796. Cold tire, sloped roadway and too much throttle contributed to the crash. I was able to walk away with only a soar shoulder but my bike needs some surgery.

The triple clamp I found is super fragile. It snapped off thus forcing the bars into the gastank plastic. Which sucks because that cost me over 800 bucks to replace. I’ve decided to get clip on bars instead of replacing the triple clamp. Should be a more aggressive stance and won’t cost me so much if it falls over in the garage.

paint removal

Started up the grinder and broke out the steel wool tonight. Cleaned all the paint off the hubs and forks. Yep the previous owner even rattle canned the forks silver. I think I’ll paint them black.

rebuilding the wheels

I decided to black out the wheels and hubs but keep the spokes stock. Since the previous owner had rattle canned the hubs the spokes they got some over spray. Rather than clean them up I thought I’d get new sets. 40 bucks well spent I think.

After cutting off 3 frozen spokes I’ll need to prep the wheels for paint with some steel wool. The hubs have a lot of paint to take off. Time for a good respirator.

The Break Down

Up on the stand and ready to be completely stripped down. Starting with the front end, I took off all the wiring to figure out what to keep and what to cut. Since I installed the kick starter I’m going to remove the electric start. Not sure if that means I can remove the starter cylinder. Never needed one on my dirt bikes and taking that out would save a bunch a weight.

Removed the tire to put on the new vintage Firestone but decided to put new spokes on and clean up the hub and rim. The previous owner spray painted the hub and thus half the spokes silver so they need to go. Should be a fun process to respoke a wheel 🙂 Need to decide to either polish the hub and rim, black them out or a combination of the two.