Getting back on the road, part 2

And it's roadworthy!

Installing the front brake turned out to be a lot more complicated than expected, since the new hose was a little too short, and then the bleed valve turned out to be clogged, but it eventually got done.  The only major issue is that one of the screws in the brake fluid reservoir broke off, which means I now need to remove the reservoir to remove the lower half of the screw.

In preparation for that, I've ordered a new "oil cup" (which is what Honda apparently decided to call the container that holds brake fluid), screws, and so on.  I've also ordered a new air filter, since I have no idea how old the one installed right now is.

Next up is an oil change, and of course dealing with the brake fluid issue.

That said, it passed inspection, and I was able to ride it to work yesterday, so I'm calling it a win!

It's aliiiive!

I'm actually fairly astonished.  I picked up a new battery for the 450 this evening, and couldn't resist checking to see if the bike would start.  So I hooked up the battery, opened the petcock to let three-year-old gas into the dry-for-three-years carbs, pulled the choke all the way out, and hit the starter.

It cranked about three seconds, then caught.  For the first 20 seconds or so it needed second-by-second adjustments to the throttle and choke.  After that, it settled in at around 1500RPM (choke still partway out), and responded normally to the throttle.

Honda made some pretty nice motors back in the 80s!

Getting back on the road, part 1.

I haven't written anything here since 2015, mostly because I haven't ridden since 2015.  Shortly after my last post (about managing to spray acid in my eye), the front brake on the 450 seized up completely, and I ran into problems with my back again.

This spring I started pulling things apart to work on the bike, in hopes of getting some riding in this year.  Here's where I am so far.

Sadly, the brake caliper hadn't magically fixed itself, so I ended up pulling it off and starting to break it down.  As it turned out, the pistons in the caliper were seriously frozen (although Pioneer Valley Motorsports in Northampton, MA was able to get them loose), and the spring assembly in the master cylinder had almost entirely rotted out... spilling brake fluid all over the brake lever.  Also, the banjo bolt is not in the best condition possible.

Fortunately, someone on the Honda Twins forum had a front end he was getting rid of, and he sold me a complete setup at a good price.  Of course, now it turns out that his handlebars were lower than mine, so I still need a new brake hose, but hey... at least it's a start!

I'm planning to pick up a new battery tonight, and I'm waiting on whether I can buy a replacement hose, or whether I'm going to end up cleaning and reusing the old one..

A valuable reminder to always wear goggles.

The CM450 started right up this summer:  turn on the fuel, pull out the choke, hit the starter, and it was running inside a second.  I love that.

The Rebel, on the other hand, is probably going to need some serious work.  The first step was to replace the battery, since it failed completely over the winter.  And that's where my safety reminder came in.

I bought a replacement battery, which of course needed to be filled with acid.  This one used a system that's new to me, and looked pretty foolproof.  There's a sort of funnel that fits into the battery, and the acid bottles are sealed closed.  The funnel has pins inside that puncture the bottles, kind of like stabbing a straw into a juice box.  The whole system is, in theory, designed so there's no way to spill acid as long as you follow the instructions.

Unfortunately, there's frequently a difference between theory and reality.  As near as I can tell, one of the bottles cracked very slightly while I was pushing it into the funnel, and a few drops of acid went flying.  One of them flew straight into my left eye.  As an aside, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever filled a battery without safety glasses, and I'm sure it's the first time it's ever sprayed.  Bad timing coupled with a poor decision, basically.

The good news is, I usually react well under stress, and this was a good example.  I had my contact out within about 15 seconds while I was running for the sink, and had my head under a faucet within about a minute.  After about half an hour of rinsing, I got a ride to the ER, where they confirmed there was nothing permanently damaged, although I did wind up with some mild chemical burns around the lower eyelid.  A week of eyedrops and not wearing contact lenses and I should be fine.

So this was my free warning, and I don't think it's one I'll forget.



Oh... and after I got the battery charged up, the Rebel fired up even more easily than the 450.  The carb still needs cleaning, but everything else seems to be in fine shape.

Rear brakes are DONE

The rear brake has been successfully dismantled, inspected, and reassembled.  It was actually a lot easier than I expected, and didn't actually take very long at all.  Maybe a couple hours, most of which was spent referring to the manual.

The end result was not, though, the installation of a new set of brake shoes.  The whole process was a little strange, and I really wish I'd taken photos before I started, because I no longer remember what the indicator looked like before I started.  In any case, the old shoes turned out to actually be thicker than the new ones (0.183" vs 0.158"), and the service limit is 0.08".  So either set would have been fine, and I just tucked the new set back in their box.  I may very well need them eventually.

After reassembly the indicator gauge correctly shows that the shoes are essentially unused, and I should be able to get the bike inspected in the next week or so, if the weather clears up.  As to reassembly... putting the wheel back on sucked.  Trying, with only two hands, to hold up the wheel, push the axle through from the left, and line up all the pieces on the right, just isn't possible.  I eventually managed to wedge my foot under the wheel to keep it at the right height, but it still wasn't very pleasant.  I also learned that on this particular bike, there's about a centimeter between the tire and the chain guard on the left, and between the tire and the torque arm on the right, maybe less.  I can't help feeling like the original tire may have been a touch narrower, because that seems like a poor design choice...  Anyway, it's assembled and working now.

I also charged up the battery on both bikes (CM450C and Rebel 250).  Both were low enough that I suspect damage has been done, but they should hold for a while.  The CM450 started right up, which pleased me.  A second or two of cranking, and it fired and kept running.  I had to tweak the idle a bit, but I had to do that summer before last when it got cold, so it wasn't much of a surprise.  I have decided I ought to buy a notebook dedicated to tracking repairs and modifications... that way when I go looking for how thick the shoes were when I measured them, I'll be able to find out.  I'll have to remember to go get a notebook in the next few days.

It's been a while.

It's been a while since I wrote anything here.  The short version is that I had a back injury last year that made it unwise to ride.  Basically, riding would have been fine, but if anything went wrong I could have done a lot of additional damage, so I didn't.

Adding to that, the CM450C failed inspection at the beginning of the summer, and I didn't have the time or energy to replace the rear brake myself, or the money to have it done for me.  Well, this year I have a little more time and energy, and the new brake shoes should be delivered today.  I'm actually pretty nervous about this... I've never done work on anything powered that required this much teardown to get to the parts I need to fix.  I have the service manual, though, and a few friends who are good with mechanics to help out if I get in trouble.  Here's hoping it works out OK.  At least it's the rear brake... I wouldn't want to ride without it, but the front does most of the work anyway.

I'll write something about it when I finish!

The Joy of Used Bikes

Or, "Why unqualified people shouldn't do their own repair work."

Let's get this out of the way.  Lots of motorcycle owners do their own repair work.  And many of them do it quite well.  Don't take this as an attack if you're one of those.  If you're anything like whoever did the work on my bike before I got it, you're welcome to take this as an attack.


When I bought my bike, I figured out very fast that the clutch was slipping.  It still ran OK, but it was slipping.  It was already November by the time I got it, so I basically rode it home, registered it, and put it away.  Then I moved in the middle of the winter, and I only really started trying to get it roadworthy a few months ago, just before starting this journal.  For those who can't be bothered to go back and look, the bike is a 1982 CM450C.

I finally started looking at replacing the clutch about a month ago.  After lots of research, parts pricing, and general dithering, I made the decision to hire a professional to do the work.  Why?  Well, because I'm not confident in my skills, and I wanted to know my clutch wasn't going to just fall apart.

I found a nearby shop -- Extreme Motorsport, who moved to Waltham, MA while they were working on my bike -- who have consistently good reviews on Yelp, and decided to give them a try.  Again, let's get this out of the way:  They're not good.  They're friggin' awesome, and if you need work done on an old bike, you should go there.  If you need work done on ANY bike they're willing to work on, you should go there.

So I took the bike over, and told him what I was looking for:  complete clutch rebuild, see if he can figure out what's going on with the front brake, and replace this death-trap of a front wheel (dry rot that got visibly worse between mid-May and late May).  No problem... sourcing parts may be a bit of a challenge, but the work is easy.  Boy does he regret saying that.


I got a call about two weeks later, after the clutch parts finally came in:  one of the former owners, or their mechanic, did some serious damage.  A bolt was installed backwards.  Everything was torqued wrong.  The friction plates had no friction pads on them.  On top of that, the friction disks had been installed out of order, and may in fact have been the wrong disks for the bike.  The steel disks were recoverable but not good.  The springs could be compressed all the way with just finger pressure.  And, worst of all, one of the pins on the pressure plate that supports the springs was cracked all the way around.  Everything else is relatively easy to get -- you just send a small fortune to Honda, and they send you the parts -- but a pressure plate?  Where do you get a pressure plate for an '82 Honda?

Basically, it was sheer luck that the bike was even rideable.  On top of that, one of the two pistons in the brake caliper had basically frozen, which was the source of my braking problems, and the rotor was not in fantastic shape, though it was still usable.

The good news is that I'd picked up a new rotor when I saw it on eBay for $15, on the theory that spare parts are hard to find.  The fantastic news is that my mechanic had a supplier who was able to ship him a barely used clutch assembly -- basket and all -- from a CM450 that had been wrecked with about 2000 miles on it.  So the parts are essentially factory new, and I have my bike back again.

So if you're thinking about doing mechanical work on your bike, and you don't know what you're doing?  Please:  think twice.  Consider that you may be costing somewhere down the line a great deal of time, effort, and money.