SOHC Project

Its been a week or so, so thought I’d post an update. Not a whole lot to tell. I have secured a set of 6/7 over forks which should be on there way to me as I write this. I bought them from a bro on the Honda chopper site. No luck with finding a rear wheel this weekend. I left for the salvage yard at Rad Cycles ( www.radcycles.com ) Saturday morning with the goal of returning with a rear wheel. I had all the measurements from the frame, however I never found anything that looked like it would fit. I was gonna give an FZR rear wheel a try, but after hearing how much they wanted for it ($300) I thought better of it. Either way, my goal is to have the motor in this weekend. I hope to have the forks mounted this weekend, and I can mount the 750K rear wheel I have just for mock up. If I get the motor in, I can start wiring the motor.

Also, I'm starting my welding class tonight. I'll let u know how that goes next time I post.

Wanted to get a quick update in before the weekend sneaks up on me. Got my parents in town and I'm going down to Florida for a little R/R this weekend. So here is where we are. Spent all day last Saturday getting the frame and oil tank primed up:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/marklocklear/detail?.dir=8c67&.dnm=c289.jpg&.src=ph

...this is with the etching primer on it...I put a coat of El Cheapo flat black on it just so it looks a little better. I also did a quick mock up:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/marklocklear/detail?.dir=8c67&.dnm=5679.jpg&.src=ph

...I know...looks pretty crappy, but you get the idea. The lines are what I wanted. With the forks slid down in the triple trees I figure I need about 6 over forks. I have a lead on a set from a guy off Hondachop, so we'll see if that pans out.

As far as the neck goes I think I solved my problem. If you recall the diameter of the neck was to large for the dust cover. So I used my angle grinder to take about 1/8 of an inch off the top of the neck...heres a pic:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/marklocklear/detail?.dir=8c67&.dnm=b149.jpg&.src=ph

I was pretty proud of myself with this. The dust cover fits nice and slug over the neck now. I ordered a set of aftermarket sealed bearings for the neck. Hopfully they will be here today or tomorrow. I'm hoping they come today, I'd like to bolt it up tonight and see how it fits. Just checked ups.com and they left Illinois yesterday at 2pm...so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So the rear wheel situation is pretty dyer. If you recall problem #1 was my axle did not fit the holes in the frame. Well the problem there was the axle holes are 3/4 inch, and the stock Honda axle is 22mm (or was it 20?). At any rate the axle is slightly larger than 3/4". The was a pretty easy fix. About 20min of grinding with my Dremel fixed the frame right up and I was able to get the axle through. So now I can bolt up my stock CB750K wheel. Well, with it all bolted up the wheel is off center by about an inch! In the immortal words of Goose to Maverick in Top Gun, "This is not good Mav!" Turns out the stock Honda hub is just to wide for frame. A fellow chopperhead on Hondachop has a cycleone frame, and he went throught the same thing. He says he has rear wheel from a CM400 that he is using that fits like a glove. So I'm working on two fronts now. One if I can find a CM400 wheel, the other is to use a sport bike wheel. I originally wanted to go with a sport bike rear wheel, but was concerned about how much work it would be to make it fit. Since it looks like I'm gonna to have to do some fabrication any, I might as well go with what I want. I won't be able to do it this weekend, but I plan on going out to Rad Cycles ( www.radcycles.com ) , they have a pretty robust bone yard with a ton of wrecked sport bikes. I have all the measurements in hand and if I can find something that will work, I'll give it a try. So all in all, I'm pleased, still running into problems, but nothing I havn't been able to solve.

Cheers!!!

Sup all! Two thing to report. First I started making some motifications to my stock frame for a future bobber project. I'm using this web site, www.homemadehonda.com as a reference. I'm taking a welding class as the local techincal college, and hope to work on the project there.

From here I want continue with the downward angle of the backbone. This will allow the rider to side about 6 inches lower than normal. I'll keep you updated.

Second, my frame came in yesterday, and I got a chance to check things out. Two problems. One is the rear axle is to big for the axle holes in the frame. Its not off by much. I've emailed cycleone to get there take on it. The frame should have been machined for this axle, so not sure whats up. Either way, I think its close enough that I can grind it down and make it fit. Next is the neck. The triple trees don't seem to fit right in the neck. I'm using the stock ball bearings, and I'm hoping the neck is machined for aftermarket races...that will be an easy fix...$40 for the new races. I've emailed cycle one on both issues and hope to hear somthing today. I don't think either of these is a show stopper. Tommorrow I plan on priming the frame. Gonna go with a good etching primer as a base, then Walley World flat black sanded to a smooth finish. Cheers!