[MotoZed]

Hi guys and gals my name is Zack. I'm 33 and I live in Buffalo NY. I grew up just an hour south of the city at the southern tip of Letchworth State Park. I'm the son of a Carpenter (at least 5 generations deep) and an artist. I am a perfect blend of the two. I went to college for a long time and vocationally do Chiropractic and avocationally do Vintage Honda Motorcycles. With this pandemic lockdown I live in my garage and it brings me ☮. I've been a member for a while now just reading everyone's threads that might pertain to what I'm working on at the moment. I knew absolutely nothing about motorcycles 1 year ago. I slowly got into it last June when I bought a cheap welder off marketplace the guy had a 82 ATC200E that ran so I offered him $100 and he delivered it to my apartment in the city lol.
fast forward a year that ATC turned into a triple my money and a 81 CM400C parts bike and a 98 GS500E parts bike. This conglomeration I finished a couple months ago but it ran like crap so it's being overhauled... As soon as I finish my Cafe/Tracker 73 CB175. I bought this without a tank or a seat (or a title :/) last October. I fiddled with it here and there over the winter as I was working on my CM/GS built but I could never get it to fire.
About a month ago I moved garages after having finished the CM/GS build. I got a vintage Honda book and read it cover to cover. And then re read it and keep reading it. At first most of it I skimmed over because timing? Valve adjustments? Carb synchronization? Until I had the parts in my hands and began to understand how the engine actually works did it begin to make any sense. So I'm fresh and still have a lot to learn.
2 weeks ago I got the 175 running! I had cleaned the carbs, bought a 2x rebuild kit and it ran! But boy did it ever. I shorted a push button start and once it fired it was idling at probably 6k rpm. It was 9pm and the headers had no mufflers and it was leaking gas out the petcock badly so having no kill switch wired up I was panicking and unbolted the negative battery terminal and it finally shut off. When I bought the bike the guy said it hadn't ran in at least 20 years. I had just changed the oil (thank God) but after that I tore it all down and now am building it back up. Lighter, stronger, with my own touch of creativity. I've bought lots of new parts Including a petcock.
ive read what I could on here about this high idle situation but that's something I still need to address. I'll likely be at that point of firing it up again in it's freshly painted new skins in about 3 or 4 days.
If I can't figure out the high idle I'll be asking you guys.

Next up I bought a 73 CB350G, essenothe big brother to the bike I'm working on now. That will be built back to its original glory. I have all the parts, it just need some elbow grease and some love.

othee bikes.
93 XJ600 Seca ii (can't get the carbs clean enough)
cm/GS 400 custom
73 cb175 K7 (middle of rebuild now)
73 cb350G

sorry if that was a long winded intro. If you have any advice (or questions) for me based on what I wrote please let me know!

 

[ancientdad]

Welcome to the forum, thanks for the detailed introduction. You should post a Project Log for the bike you're currently working on and post plenty of pictures so the community can follow along and offer advice and help as needed. Got any pictures of the bikes mentioned above?

 

[Alan F.]

Very good intro, sounds like you've got a full shop.

 

[longdistancerider]

Welcome aboard. Pictures please of the CM/GS combo, sounds really interesting.

 

[MotoZed]

Hey guys here is the CB175 K7 project I'm calling "The Abarth 175" for the combination colors, sleek and small design. I owned a 2015 Fiat 500 Abarth black with red tand silver trim, dual exhaust, turbo 5 speed. I recently sold it. I miss it dearly.

I bought it about 8 months ago not running with no tank or seat (or title), no side covers or air boxes.

My mission initially was to make sure it ran. Reading my intro you'll read that I got it realllly fired up lol. This was 2 weeks ago. The next day I stripped it down to it's barebones. Wanting a hybrid cafe/tracker while giving it a bit of masculinity.

After stripping it down I made a couple cuts to the frame. 1.5" behind the shock post, took off the center stand and the supporting hardware. I found a 7AH AMG battery that is TINY so I was able to make my sub seat electrical box flush with the bottom of the rails. I've had the seat for this build for a while and all I had to do was cut out a chunk of the plastic where the battery would lay in the tray. I used fiber glass and Bondo to smooth the space between the sheet metal and rail. I also filled in the holes where the side covered would normally insert.

The following parts I've been picking up over the past few months.

-2nd set of carbs (off a 71 CL175) (for parts) and 2 rebuild kits
-Points, alternator, crank cover gaskets
-Crank engine cover
-New (used) wiring harness
-Modern Regulator rectifier (cutting out the yellow/white wires to the right switch and jointing the white to the yellow just after the coil plug in.
-Rear air shocks (13.5") 1 inch taller for riding position for rear sets
-Several different rearsets of used 2010+ aftermarket and various OEM. Some were bent, some just parts but I got an amazing deal on eBay for the box full.
-Led wiring harness (2 circuits) with switch and relay.
-Clip on handlebar brackets
-2 UNI Pods (red)
-Black and red aftermarket seat
-71 CL175 gastank (pretty beat up)
-new aftermarket petcock
-new fuel lines and clamps
-inline fuel filters (not sure if I'm going to use these yet.
-3 part gastank restoration kit
-header stud (had to pull one out that was broken off)
-new fork seals.

• 2 3" LED headlights (will be mounted in a custom fabbed front plate fairing
• used clutch cable
• NOS front brake cable
• New rear brake cable (more on that in a future post.)

-Rattle paint and 2 part matt clear already reduced
-Digital dash (pulled it off my cm/gs build as I'm getting a different one for that ride.
-stainless steel hex engine hardware

This post will include photos from the start to where I'm at today. I'll try to post daily as I should be done in a week or so depending on how much my ol lady lets me work 😂

What I started with..

Next is the tare down and paint..

Cleaning and painting the engine block/covers..

Engine needs some touch up but after a couple of days my buddy helps me get it in the frame and assembly begins..