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.

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.

Moving to Seattle

My daughter looks on as the movers pack up all our belongings including the SR250. The bike has been on a Gentle Giant truck for a few weeks now waiting to be delivered to our new home. Hopefully closing day on the new house will be soon so I can setup my new workshop and get back to work and finish it all up.

It’s Back!!!

The past month my bike has been at the Boston Motor Sports service department getting the exhaust welded on. I wanted a bunch of other work to be done, like wiring, installing the seat, along with fabricating a battery box. But these tasks proved to be too custom for the shop and after holding my bike hostage for a month they finally threw in the towel. Stating, “this would have been great project over the winter but this would take us about 2 full days to do now,” which means they wouldn’t be able to service about 35 bikes. Good business decision, but I wish they could have told me they couldn’t do the work a month ago. Basically I’ll never have my bike worked on at a “regular” shop again, because if it doesn’t bolt on they don’t know what to do.

Pack it Up

I scrambled to mount the taillight and license plate before shipping this project to GBM to do some welding and get it all wired up. But only got as far as red tape.

My good buddy Nate came by and helped push it up the basement stairs for pickup in the morning. My nights are now confusing, I don’t know what to do. I guess I need to find another project bike, I’m thinking 78 SR500.

 

I packed up everything the mechanic needs to get the wiring, exhaust, seat, battery and everything else needed to pass inspection.

 

Where to put the battery?

When I removed the air and battery boxes at the beginning of this project I knew I needed to find an answer for the question, “where the hell will I put the battery”. I love the stripped down look of having the center of the bike completely open, but knew I needed to put the battery back in. So what to do?

After taking off the stock exhaust I realized the muffler actually extended under the swing arm. Got me thinking if I had a small battery I could actually cut off the center stands mounting bracket, fabricate a battery box and then weld them together. Thus completely hiding the battery under the swing arm. Well I couldn’t do this but someone could.

Battery is the same size as the mufflers silencer.

Measured under the swing arm and sketched up a diagram to figure out what pieces needed to be cut out for the battery box.

Stainless steel prepped and reading for bending? Cutting? I wasn’t sure what to do to prep the pieces for the battery box. Since I don’t weld I’m not sure if I’ll be making it easier or harder for the welder. So I ended up abandoning the prep and decided my wallet will have to finish the job.