Gas powered bikes?

EJphotos said:
Anyone wanna buy a 1985 Nighthawk CB650SC?
Needs a few things but is turnkey and runs and rides well.
6 speed manual transmisson
Shaft drive
Runs and rides very well.
Brand new rear tire, and front tire only has a few hundred miles on it.
New battery with Battery Tender lead on it.
Spark plugs recently changed, carbs recently cleaned.
New fuel petcock and inline fuel filter.
It will need a valve cover gasket eventually, as well as an alternator shaft seal...leaks a little bit of oil from the gasket currently. Also needs turn signal lens for right rear signal (there's amber tape over it now - I do have a new set of lights I'll include). Needs speedometer cable and/or wheel speed box.
Asking $1400 OBO and motivated to sell

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Bumping this post, but also dropping price to $700 OBO - reason being: Clutch master/slave cylinder needs to be rebuilt. Went to take it for a quick spin last night, but the clutch won't disengage and there is no pressure in clutch lever.
 
Since I can’t ride and am happy with my current stable of bicycles I’ve been entertaining myself by messing with my VanVan at night. Decided to completely ADV it out. So far i threw on a beast of a skid plate and a center stand, and I have a rear rack large enough to hold a medium pizza. Install was ok for the skid plate. Not super slick but not too bad. Center stand complicated the skid plate install a bit. Well built stuff though. Only lost a half inch of clearance.


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Barkbusters are on order and so are luggage racks. Only spot I can find the luggage stuff for my bike is in the UK or Japan.

Debating soft vs hard cases for the side cases. Top case will be a dry bag. All of this is for hitting some sections of the NEBDR this spring/summer. I’ll get some mesh for the headlight and maybe engine guards? Fully loaded I’ll still be under 300 pounds. I think.
 
I think soft bags are better/safer and themselves they weigh less, which is important when 200cc is all you have to work with. Have you done MABDR already?
 
michvin said:
I think soft bags are better/safer and themselves they weigh less, which is important when 200cc is all you have to work with. Have you done MABDR already?
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I was leaning towards soft bags because of weight and they have a lower profile generally.

I haven’t done any of the BDRs yet. I was think of doing the NEBDR purely because of location… starting in Hancock isn’t too far, and I can get there on backroads.
 
I started servicing my Ducati. Oil, coolant, air filter, plugs, and cam belts are in the plan. It took some Tetris maneuvering but I was able to get the lift that came with the bike in a spot in the garage where I have room all around to work. Got it all set up just before the snow hit and it's my 20 minutes per morning project now.

848-work.jpg

No additional pics but i have most of the bodywork off, along with the gas tank. One of the cam belt covers is off. Pleasantly surprised by the lack of hackery found so far. A few dumb things with the bodywork attachments but that's been it so far. They really do a good job of shrink wrapping the bike around the engine, which looks really big (to me, anyway) once it's exposed.
 
mfennell said:
I started servicing my Ducati. Oil, coolant, air filter, plugs, and cam belts are in the plan. It took some Tetris maneuvering but I was able to get the lift that came with the bike in a spot in the garage where I have room all around to work. Got it all set up just before the snow hit and it's my 20 minutes per morning project now.

View attachment 177782

No additional pics but i have most of the bodywork off, along with the gas tank. One of the cam belt covers is off. Pleasantly surprised by the lack of hackery found so far. A few dumb things with the bodywork attachments but that's been it so far. They really do a good job of shrink wrapping the bike around the engine, which looks really big (to me, anyway) once it's exposed.
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If you can update with more pictures. I’ve never worked on a Ducati and would love to see some detail.
 
mfennell said:
I started servicing my Ducati. Oil, coolant, air filter, plugs, and cam belts are in the plan. It took some Tetris maneuvering but I was able to get the lift that came with the bike in a spot in the garage where I have room all around to work. Got it all set up just before the snow hit and it's my 20 minutes per morning project now.

View attachment 177782

No additional pics but i have most of the bodywork off, along with the gas tank. One of the cam belt covers is off. Pleasantly surprised by the lack of hackery found so far. A few dumb things with the bodywork attachments but that's been it so far. They really do a good job of shrink wrapping the bike around the engine, which looks really big (to me, anyway) once it's exposed.
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is that the harbor freight lift? Nice that it has the drop out in the rear.
 
clarkenstein said:
If you can update with more pictures. I’ve never worked on a Ducati and would love to see some detail.
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By popular demand. 🙂
848-work3.jpg

I didn't really need to pull the tail and exhaust off. I just felt like it.

The tool sticking out of the alternator cover is for turning the engine over to line up the cams. I also bought a pair of little plastic cam holders that you wedge between the pulleys so they don't move while you have the belt off. They were 3D printed from a freely available file but my printer is old and crappy.

Things are pretty tightly packaged but not maddeningly so. A ball-end allen was required to remove several bolts holding the belt cover on the vertical cylinder, which always makes me nervous but it came apart fine. It's not obvious in the picture but you can't get the cap off the radiator without removing the right side fairing and at least loosening the upper. Come to think of it, you can't even check the overflow with the fairing in place.

848-work2.jpg

The dangling box is the EVAP canister, which seems to do a nice job of letting the gas tank pressurize and push fuel out of the overflow after you park. It's going into the round file.

By random chance, the vertical cylinder is positioned at TDC on the firing stroke (there are marks on the cam gears), which is the position for measuring tension. The belt feels very loose to me but I haven't tried to actually measure it yet. IIRC, it's supposed to be 'tuned' to 110Hz, which is A2 to the musicians out there.
 
@mfennell wow - that pretty cool stuff. That is pretty tight compared to what I’m used to - which is parallel twins.

How do you tension the belts? Those are what drive the desmo valves, right?

Is that a dual throttle cable set up?

It’s official - I need a lift. Center stands make things a little easier but I’m tired of rolling around on the garage floor.
 
T
clarkenstein said:
@mfennell wow - that pretty cool stuff. That is pretty tight compared to what I’m used to - which is parallel twins.

How do you tension the belts? Those are what drive the desmo valves, right?

Is that a dual throttle cable set up?

It’s official - I need a lift. Center stands make things a little easier but I’m tired of rolling around on the garage floor.
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That's the cables, and servo for the exhaust valve
 
clarkenstein said:
How do you tension the belts? Those are what drive the desmo valves, right?

Is that a dual throttle cable set up?

It’s official - I need a lift. Center stands make things a little easier but I’m tired of rolling around on the garage floor.
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Yep, the belts spin the cams for the desmo system. You pluck the belts like a guitar string and use a phone app and a microphone to measure the tone. That's the 110hz I mentioned above. There are actual devices dedicated to this but the apps seem adequate. Gates, the belt company, even has one.

It has a typical push/pull two cable throttle but I think you might be seeing the controller for the flap in the exhaust.
 
clarkenstein said:
I was leaning towards soft bags because of weight and they have a lower profile generally.

I haven’t done any of the BDRs yet. I was think of doing the NEBDR purely because of location… starting in Hancock isn’t too far, and I can get there on backroads.
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I hear it is pretty tough, especially Maine part. But your bike is so light... I am thinking of doing MA this year sometime: will be my first and I am not very good off road
 
michvin said:
I hear it is pretty tough, especially Maine part. But your bike is so light... I am thinking of doing MA this year sometime: will be my first and I am not very good off road
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I could be talked into a change of plans…

I know this bike is not the best tool for the job, but I I think weight is really important. I am starting to look at the Honda CRF300 Rally - nice balance and much more clearance. That’s where the VV sucks (besides the fact my lawn tractor has 2 more Hp).
 
clarkenstein said:
I could be talked into a change of plans…

I know this bike is not the best tool for the job, but I I think weight is really important. I am starting to look at the Honda CRF300 Rally - nice balance and much more clearance. That’s where the VV sucks (besides the fact my lawn tractor has 2 more Hp).
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We are planning to do that with a small group of ppl. I will keep you posted, if you'd like.
My problem is exactly opposite: I have a Tiger 900, which is too powerful and too heavy. Actually, also looking at the CRF300 or KTM 390 ADV/regular
 
michvin said:
We are planning to do that with a small group of ppl. I will keep you posted, if you'd like.
My problem is exactly opposite: I have a Tiger 900, which is too powerful and too heavy. Actually, also looking at the CRF300 or KTM 390 ADV/regular
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If you don’t mind keep me in the loop. I like the KTM too but my neighbor has had a bad experience with the electronics on it. Seems like a much higher maintenance bike than the Honda.
 
michvin said:
We are planning to do that with a small group of ppl. I will keep you posted, if you'd like.
My problem is exactly opposite: I have a Tiger 900, which is too powerful and too heavy. Actually, also looking at the CRF300 or KTM 390 ADV/regular
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I really like the Husqvarna Vitpilen/Svartpilen 401s. They're KTM 390s underneath. This is a Svartpilen. The Vitpilen is the same basic bike with club racer bars, street tires, and no tank bag mount. MSRP is $5299 but the one dealer I spoke to came back with an offer that tacked on a solid $1500 in fees after tax and registration for a leftover. ("I'm lucky to have it! We sold every one we got our hands on!") Hard no. Sigh...they were begging people to buy these things in '19.

svart.jpg
 
mfennell said:
I really like the Husqvarna Vitpilen/Svartpilen 401s. They're KTM 390s underneath. This is a Svartpilen. The Vitpilen is the same basic bike with club racer bars, street tires, and no tank bag mount. MSRP is $5299 but the one dealer I spoke to came back with an offer that tacked on a solid $1500 in fees after tax and registration for a leftover. ("I'm lucky to have it! We sold every one we got our hands on!") Hard no. Sigh...they were begging people to buy these things in '19.
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This is a gorgeous bike, but I'm a little scared of the European Quality, TBH. Usually these bikes are over engineered to inability to maintain or fix them at home or in the field.
 
mfennell said:
I started servicing my Ducati. Oil, coolant, air filter, plugs, and cam belts are in the plan. It took some Tetris maneuvering but I was able to get the lift that came with the bike in a spot in the garage where I have room all around to work. Got it all set up just before the snow hit and it's my 20 minutes per morning project now.

View attachment 177782

No additional pics but i have most of the bodywork off, along with the gas tank. One of the cam belt covers is off. Pleasantly surprised by the lack of hackery found so far. A few dumb things with the bodywork attachments but that's been it so far. They really do a good job of shrink wrapping the bike around the engine, which looks really big (to me, anyway) once it's exposed.
Click to expand...
That bike has a great profile
 
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