ThumperDH's build thread

[thumperdh]

The time has come, I've always had dreams of building my little FT commuter bike into something more but I've never really had the opportunity to. There have always been other projects that came first and the FT was as solid as a rock in terms of reliability and overall fun. I just didn't want to decomission my little workhorse for longer than an oil change. But now that I have a good car, some extra income and one day off per week, i've decided that it is time to turn my FT into what I've always wanted it to be, a little monster.

A little about the bike... I bought my FT in December of 2008 as my first street legal motorcycle (I was 16 at the time, 21 now). I traded a friend for an 88 key Casio Keyboard with a stand (around $450) and got the key to this 1982 Honda FT500. At the time it had just under 8K miles on the clock and had been used as a Sunday rider by my friend. I was with him when he originally bought the bike from a guy who's daughter I was in school with. The previous owner had used it to learn to ride on but had moved onto something bigger.



The plans: To turn this ordinary FT into a true gentlemans express. A bike that you can ride back and forth to work, take your girl out to dinner on, eat up some miles and have a blast through the twisties without ever having to change a thing. So what do I have in store? Upgraded jets (eventually going to switch to a single pull VM34 or 36), upgraded exhaust, air filter mod, superbike bend bars, anti vibrational bar ends, change the pegs, clean up the tail section just to name a few mods.

[thumperdh]

Day 1:
I've always loved the rectangle headlight of the FT, except I hate how high up it sits. So I went on the internet and found some new headlight brackets at Dime City Cycles. I picked up a set of these. First impressions? Not bad, kinda cheap feeling but you get what you pay for. As I was installing them I began to have second thoughts. They began to feel really cheap. I had to bend them into shape in order to properly fit the fork tubes. To move the headlight down I had to remove all the wiring from it and then re plug all the connections once I got the headlight into place. After getting everything re connected and tested I took the bike around the neighborhood for a quick test ride. The hardware that came with the headlight brackets began to sketch me out so I ran down to Ace and picked up some nylock nuts and lockwashers to hold it all together. While I was at it I decided to drop the forks down 1" and re-mount the instrument cluster.

Before:

After dropping the forks

Upclose of the headlight and also my wolo bad boy horn

Hardware the came with the brackets

I love the look now

Bonus pic during my shakedown ride today



Next up will be replacing those CB350 mirrors with some more period appropriate units and moving the location of the horn to underneath the gas tank.

[thumperdh]

Welp, I experienced a change of heart a few weeks ago. I got rid of those janky headlight brackets and put the headlight back where it belonged, so i'm basically starting over now.

I got a (one) mirror off of another project bike i'm working on and put everything back to the way it was.



Then i got some new toys, a nice new air filter and a 16t countershaft sprocket



Headed back from the gas station



We got all shined up to go to the Iron and Clematis vintage motorcycle festival



Spent some time with some bikes of our age



We even got a shout out from a discussion board talking about ways to go vintage racing!



I decided to try the foam filter mod



Then we got a nice(ish) Supertrapp pipe



The paint on these is very, very thin. I managed to remove a bunch of it just during assembly and packing, also not counting the two times it's fallen off now. 





Tomorrow we're going to test fit a new round headlight I found at a swap meet. Also ordered the Thumperstuff header and a set of Progressive fork springs today.

[hondapartsman]

You've been busy then, Actually I'm not a lover of those rectangular headlights, the clocks and light on the FT are very like those on my CB250RS's, the clocks I can put up with although I often thought of putting on a set of round clocks i had from an old CB175, never did, I have put 7 inch round headlights on my two though, from a CB750F2 (sohc) originally, one also wears slightly shortened F" handlebars and I keep thinking maybe I'd do the same with other set I have saved up from the days when I could just have a few pairs anytime I liked, but I'm loath to. That 250 also wears round old fashioned C50/70/90 style indicators too and later bodywork, Triumph mirrors.  mostly because it's stuff I could get free or cheap.
I always assumed that Supertrapp stuff would be high quality. Seems not going by the state of that paint.
My VT500 Ascot I would not change. it's the only one of my bikes I want to keep as stock and original as possible, as it's for sunny days only, I let the 250's take the strain the rest of the year.

[J6G1Z]

Your Ascot is looking nice! I was thinking about your previous post on F/B about your muffler inlet being a bit larger than the pipe outlet. Check out this EMGO parts catalog PDF: http://www.emgo.com/images/pdf/2013_Muffler.pdf
You want to look at page #9 of the catalog down in the lower right corner are spacer kits. Check out part #80-84009.
One of these 3-piece spacer kits came with that reverse megaphone muffler that I ordered & worked out real well. You might try just doing an eBay search with the part number to see if you can find a kit. Here's some that I found by using "EMGO Muffler Reducers" as the search term. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XEMGO+Muffler+Reducers&_nkw=EMGO+Muffler+Reducers&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Good luck & keep up the good work.
J.

PS. EMGO also offers direct replacement levers & other controls, plus they have a nice 7" round headlight & mount kit for anyone that wants to swap their headlight.

[thumperdh]

Well, after the muffler fell off for the third time this afternoon I decided enough is enough. I went down to Advanced Auto and picked up one of these bad boys

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/rol-exhaust-1-3-4-heavy-duty-muffler-clamp-517134/5600367-P?searchTerm=exhaust+clamp+1+3%2F4%22

For less than five bucks now that muffler isn't going anywhere.

So... pro tip, if you are buying a supertrapp exhaust to put on your stock FT header, buy a 1 3/4" U-bolt style muffler clamp and save yourself the hassle.

I haven't gotten around to putting the round headlight on yet and i'm still working on trying to get a decent video of the exhaust sound too.


For those of you interested in the Supertrapp Muffler the part numbers are 317-1750 and core kit 310-0400

[thumperdh]

Ahhh.. Wednesdays, my only real day off.


Exhaust clamp is doing well, no more moving mufflers.

And

[thumperdh]

Exhaust is done

I manged to sneak out of work a little early tonight and make it home with enough sunlight left to get the header put on.







I'm going to be taking a break from working on the FT for a while, I have a big move coming up so she's on the back burner for now.

[J6G1Z]

Looking good! Did you have a chance to ride the bike yet? Any performance or sound changes?

You're making me look bad by beating me to the installation.   Thanks for the report & pics.

Good luck on your move
J.

PS. Please check your PM's.

[thumperdh]

I know I said I was going to take a break from working on the FT for a while and I did.

Then I had a few too many beers one night and said to myself "I wonder if those K&S Anti-Vibrational bar ends are worth a s***, might as well get a new set of mirrors while i'm at it."

I also found a set of Progrip 780 superbike grips I had bought for another project so I decided to put those on too.

So here we are.

[J6G1Z]

How did you get those bar ends to fit with the OEM anti-vibration pieces that are inside the bars?

They look cool & give the bar ends a "finished" look. How does it feel to ride now? I'm real interested in a ride report with the new header pipe. I've been working on a project for the little woman & have been too busy with it, to get caught up with my bikes.

Looking good.
J.

PS. Some braided stainless steel brake lines would look real nice on that bike. Plus once you try the brakes with the braided lines, you'll never be pleased with rubber lines again.

[thumperdh]

The anti vibrational devices that were in the bars were just plastic caps as far as I can tell. The new bar ends actually work pretty well, the bars are noticeably less shaky at speed and I'm also getting less mirror vibration.

As for the head pipe I think its great, sound is excellent, I've noticed a slight gain in power from about 2500rpm to 5500rpm, throttle response seems crisper as well.

Stainless brake lines are one of the next things I have to do on my list, I've had them on a few bikes before and I love them. I got my progressive springs in a few weeks ago but have yet to install them. I'm looking into a pair of Hagon rear shocks and some Racetech cartridge emulators for the front as well.

J, I'm really interested I'm what you think of that Rick's performance coil, let me know what you think when you get it put on.

And I'm still working on a new exhaust clamp, but that will be in a few weeks. I have a big ride coming up next week, Boca Raton to Orlando on back roads so I'll post up some pictures from that.

[J6G1Z]

The bent OEM bars that I removed from the FT500 that I swapped the CBR parts onto, had some iron or steel slugs in the ends of the bars. They were almost as long as the straight part of the bars. I assumed that all the FT's had something shoved into the bar ends.

You're embarrasing me.   I have so much bike work to do & report on. I'm in the process of building a greenhouse for the little woman of the house & it has been taking all of my time & spare $$$'s. That was the deal when I had my shed built. Shed first & then the greenhouse.

I'll get to it as soon as I can.
J.

[thumperdh]

Well, nothing new to report here. The little ascot has just been hanging around lately. I put the stock 15t front sprocket back on it. Other than that I'm just waiting on parts right now. I put the progressive springs and 15w Bel Ray fork oil in and I'm about to order the Ricks Hotshot CDI.

Here's how its sitting now

[J6G1Z]

Bike looks good! How do you like the way the forks handle now?

Did I ever get back to you on the CDI unit? I have one in both of my FT's. I left the RPM limiter set at the default setting. Each time that I installed one of the CDI units, I also did some other work, like change the pipe, etc. I don't have a stock vs Rick's CDI unit comparison. Both bikes run great & seem to have plenty of spark.

J.