Acid Sunrise - a 70's CB chop

Finished up the new chopper just in time for the World Honda Chopper Meet this year.  Tore the bike down in March, replaced just about everything, and ended up with just what I wanted.  Sorry there weren't any in-progress shots, I got busy and didn't take many pictures.  Bike rides great, time for the next project.  A big thanks to TurboGrimace for the wiring, motivation, and general assistance in getting this bike together so fast.

Rock Flute: Tuning Session 2, in the rain.

I spent some time going over a few things on the bike prior to continuing with the carb tune. Tune the drive, tune the clutch etc. etc.  Tunessss mannn.  All positive waves.

 

I installed a 17 tooth front sprocket and a longer chain. Originally 15/48 3.2:1 final drive, now 17/48 2.82:1 final drive. 3.2 is loads of fun but not realistic for anything other than stupid fast bar hopping and light racing. 2.82 is within the range of stock but still toward the upper range to take advantage of the engine mods. The cam kicks hard at 5000 rpm and above. With the new final drive, a shift to 4th at 65 mph puts the bike right under this 5000 rpm threshold and a shift to 3rd ignites the rockets.

I also adjusted the clutch and put on a new cable. John "jleather" spun up a cute brass barrel adapter to replace the one I lost when my cable broke. Unfortunately after a lot of adjusting, I have to settle with a neutral that is very hard to capture. The clutch lever does not have enough throw to allow a clean shift to neutral and full compression of the clutch plates. Ohh well. Later I will find another clutch lever with a longer throw.

So finally to the CARB tuning. Like I said before, I'd resume with the 115 mains, 15 pilots, air screws at 1.5 turns, and the needles now all the way down. Well... its darn near perfect. There's an occasional tiny stumble with a slight rotation of the throttle off of idle. Its right at the bottom of the throttle cruising range for low speeds. The plugs are gorgeous but I can still feel the hesitation. The rest of the throttle range feels spot on and provides a slightly rich color to the plug base ring. Below is a picture of the plug chop cruising just above the stumble. The remainder of the chops at varying throttle all look similar this. Always work from the bottom up. Otherwise your lower throttle ranges can screw up your readings.

I'm going to try and tweak the stumble out with the air screws, but it's certainly something I can live with for now.  The strap looks a tiny bit hot so I may benefit from a spark plug with more heat capacity.  I'm running a .026" gap and might close it up a bit to see if I can get a more complete burn.  The balance between the increased compression and the higher spark voltage should balance out a bit to where a .026" gap is nearly ideal.... Maybe?  

The final steps are to replace the rocker shafts and run a tool over every nut and bolt. HOME STRETCH!!!

Rock Flute: Tuning Session 1

I've done a little work on the VM29 smoothbores since the engine rebuild. I bench synced the carbs to a random .116" because I don't have vacuum ports to sync them on the bike. First few runs its been running rich on 120 mains and 20 pilots. Tuning from the bottom up, I swapped jets to 115 mains and 17.5 pilots, which is the spec for a stock cb with vm29s. The bottom end was still incredibly rich but a lot better with the air screws out over 2.5 turns.

I dropped the pilots to 15s and kept the mains at 115. Idle looked good with 1.5 turns on the air screw but off idle was rich enough to cause a stumble. Plugs showed a lot of soot. Not wanting to mess with the pilots anymore, my suspect now is the needle and main. WOT pulls well without hesitation which indicates the main is close. To alleviate the stumble in the transition from idle to 1/8 throttle I dropped the needle down. The stumble was a lot less noticeable but still their.

I went for a ride to pick up a starter switch for johns bike and was going to drop the needle to its lowest position when I got back. Unfortunately I didn't make it home under my own power due to this little gem:

Jeff Yarrington and the Scooby Van to the rescue!  My million year old, burnt, dry clutch cable finally gave up the ghost. I couldn't find a picture of Jeff's sweet van but I did find a picture of him sleeping in it. Thanks Jeff!  He got me back to John's place where I dropped the tuning for a while and resumed wiring John's black chopper.  So many things to do.

 

My fruitless quest for a starter switch was kindly remedied by Jeff. When he picked up my bike he brought two momentary switches. What a friend. Thanks AGAIN!

Ok sorry.  Back to the tuning.  With a broken cable, I was down for the night.  My next step will be to drop the needles all the way down and then refine the a/f ratio based on some plug chops. Hopefully I'm good with the 115 mains because I feel like 112.5 or 110s on a hopped up engine is a bit absurd.  Just one more week before we leave for the Roost.  TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!

Rock Flute Dyna 2000 Ignition Install

Now that the engine is together and I've run it a bit with the stock points, I'm going to throw on the Dyna 2000 and minicoils.  Most of my electronics are under the gas tanks so any mods will be relatively hidden. 

Here's the coil placement.  I noticed that the suppression core wire kit I bought from Dyna does not come with the proper terminals for the minicoils, so I hacked the plug end of my old wires off and used them.

 

I love wiring.  It's very relaxing.  Unfortunately I dont like modifying an existing wiring harness as much as building a new one.  The area under my gas tank is already cramped and adding the 6 extra wires for the D2K is making things messy.  To alleviate some of the confusion that can arise from a mad cluster of wires I put some sexy labels under clear shrink tube.  Mmmmm,.  The goal is to keep visible wiring to an absolute minimum.

 

Below is my completed hot mess.  The coil wires will leave out the front of the gas tank under the backbone.  I added a stonger starter button as well.... It's in that mess to the right.

Next I had to find somewhere to hide the giant 3" by 5" by 1" ignition module.  It wasnt going to fit under the tank and there isnt really anywhere else to stuff it.  I didnt want some blue anodized piece of modern technology hanging off of a weird throwback bike so I made a little leather bag out of some scrap.  The back side of the ignition module has 4 small screws that I replaced with studs.  I used the studs to mount it to the battery box.  I can access the controls and plug in the curve maker harness through the bag.  After some weather, I think it will blend in nicely. 

50 cents of leather covering a $400 digital ignition module.  Tadaaaa!

Here's a finished Rock Flute.  You cant see any more wires than before.  The chianti box is reinforced with 1/8" plate 5051 aluminum and 304 SS tubing, top end is rebuilt, new ignition is hidden in plain sight.  The new air filters are a snug fit.  Just a few more things to do.  Engine break-in, carb tuning, brake adjustment, new kickstand tab, and more tuning.

Time to go for a spin.  WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!