a moderate update...

haven't done much in the way of physical labor on the bike...its been cold and snowing, and i think i mentioned before that the shop doesn't have any heat (and a lot of holes in the walls), so i've mostly been collecting new parts...

Aww, shocks!

So then, i got some new shocks in the mail from either France or Asia (generally).  The dude i bought them from (on the bay of e) was french, but i'm pretty sure

turn your head and cough...

350 q-tips later and i have one clean carb, with new jets.  In anticipation of pod filters and straight pipes, i swapped out the 78/115 factory jets for 87.5/130...i guess we'll see whether that works out or not.  I haven't done much work on the bike proper, other than removing everything but the engine. Next i want to

shape of things [possibly] to come

i worked up a little illustration of what i'm planning....monoshock!  cutting away everything aft of the center frame.  the only issues, i mean, the only major issues i'm seeing with this so far is where the hell i'm gonna put the battery and some of the more important electrics.  still working that out.  any ideas are appreciated.  otherwise, i don't see too much of an issue swapping out for a monoshock rear end.

lungs!

got my emgo pod filters today...ordered from a dude on ebay, super cheap and he shipped them out same day. my carbs are off waiting for a scrub down, and i'm still working on shortening my throttle cables (also got my silver soldering wire today for that), so it'll be a little while before i actually hook those pod filters up, but i'm thooper thtoked about them none-the-less.  (note: image attached is not my bike, i swiped it off the innerwebs, but its an accurate representation of my bike).

gettin' naked

so i removed the carbs today. i plan on giving them a thorough bathing, a re-jetting, and probably everything short of a prostate exam so they're running quick and smooth on the rebuild.  i did have one problem, when i swapped out those vintage lawnmower handy-bars for the wicked awesome clip-ons, the throttle cables turned out to be so cramped that my throttle was really hard to twist, and when i did, it'd stick...for a minute i thought about leaving it that way, for the sake of convenience on the road (cruise control!), but decided against it and pulled the throttle cables off.

another preview...

so i got a new tank...its from a '79 cx500 standard. unfortunately it doesn't bolt right on, but i guess that's the nature of what i'm doing with this whole project.  i'll have to do some fabricating to fit this tank, but for now i'm trying to decide if i like it or not.  at first i was dead set on getting rid of the stock tank and doing a more "café" looking tank, but now that i've got the front end lowered and the clip-ons bolted in, i'm not so sure.  i'll probably end up going with the standard (black) tank, just because i bought the thing and i don't want to re-sell it.

just a little preview...

okay, so no major surgery yet...just removed the gauges and instrument panel, then lowered the triple trees about 1-1/4" (lowered the front end of the bike) and swapped out those big ass handle bars for some clip-ons...the look is way cooler than before, and it gives me an idea of what the stance of the bike will look like when she's done. only problems encountered are throttle cables are too long now and bind up, so the throttle sticks, i'll have to find shorter throttle cables at some point.

Surgery...the story begins

Say goodbye to this 1981 Honda CX500, for she is going under the knife for major reconstructive surgery...will she emerge a beautiful machine? most likely so, but stay tuned to find out for sure...(and to keep tabs on her progress).

alamo

motorbike ride

on top of roanoke mountain

tickets!

oasis