Created custom 2-into-2 exhaust

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I built gaskets out of muffler repair tape and used clamps from JC Whitney, but I really must come up with a better hanger bracket. The pipes vibrate and bounce all over the place when the bike is running and riding down the road. Plus the cheap baffles I got from JC Whitney are completely worthless. They do nothing at all to reduce the sound. Also need to get some heat shields to cover the welded areas. (No way I'm getting the pipes re-chromed) After building the exhaust I welded together a seat pan out of sheetmetal. This took a while, because my welder was way too powerful and kept burning through. So I had to make a bunch of small tack welds. Eventually it went all together. Then I took an old CX500 seat that was falling apart, and an electric carving knife, and carved myself a seat out of the foam. I bought some leather on eBay a long time back for another project, and I had enough left to make a cover, which I riveted and glued on. The seat is extremely uncomfortable... but it works for now. Parts Breakdown •  Triumph Pipes: $40 (approx, it's been a long time) •  EMGO fishtails: $70 •  Muffler repair tape: $15 •  Baffles: $15 •  Reducers: $18 •  Steel for seat pan: $10 •  Leather for seat cover:   $Free (leftover from a previous project) •  Rivets: $5 Total: $173 Running total for Chopper: $1858

Painted bodywork and frame

It's been nearly a year since the last updates. I've been really happy with the 650 engine in the chopper, and I've been riding the bike constantly over the summer. I love having a ratbike that I don't really care how it looks at all. However, a friend of mine recently got a job managing a VW restoration company, and offered to paint my ratbike bodywork for not very much money. So I diassembled the bike and handed her all my bodywork. Due to the parts being low-priority, and then a falling out at her workplace ending with her fired, and it took me forever to get my painted bodywork back. For a while there I was thinking I'd have to go on eBay and buy all new bodywork. But finally I retrieved my parts. They weren't perfect... but they were a damn sight better than flat black and brush paint. There was still some orange peel and a run or two, but mostly in hidden areas.... and I paid so little for the parts, and was so happy just to get them back that I didn't care. I test-fit the parts on the bike and was awed... except for that crappy looking frame. It was time for some more modding. I dropped the engine, and then stripped all the ancilarry parts off the frame, and then attacked it with a vibrating sander and a green srcubby wheel mounted in my drill. I got all the loose flaky paint and all the rust off, and scuffed up all the paint. I used my grinder to grind off the original gas tank mounting bungs, then welded up the welds I broke through with my wire feed (gasless) welder. Then ground that down again, and finally put bondo over the grinding marks and smoothed it all out. Since I had a ton of bondo left, I also went and added nice bondo fillets wherever the tubular frame met a stamped area. There were big gaps between these areas by design, but I figured the frame would look much better if all of that was smoothed out. I hoped it would make the frame flow together better. (In fact it did, and it looks largely factory). I ground down a couple of welds on the top where the seat will sit, because those were some really ugly areas that needed a lot of work. There's no longer a stock seat to hide that section of the frame, and any aftermarket seat I use will expose at least part of the frame rails. The area isn't structural, so I just ground it down, bondo-ed, and sanded. I also ground off the stock tank mounting bungs and smoothed out the neck area. Then I welded on extensions to the steering stop so my handlebars wouldn't hit my freshly painted tank. Finally I painted the frame and rear wheel with Rustoleam black paint. I just brushed it on, and in a few hours it self-leveled so that no brush strokes were visable. After the paint dried for a few days, I put the airbox and wiring harness back into place, re-wrapped the loose wires, installed a new coolant overflow bottle, installed the final drive, and put nice chrome acorn nuts everywhere I could. Then I mounted my engine hanger to my spare engine, and broke out the angle grinder. I used a cutting wheel to completely remove the top two mounting lugs. Then I installed the studs in the heads and slid the lugs over them. The lugs *just* touched the bracket, and I used my wire-feed flux welder to tack them into place. Unfortunately this welder is very light-duty, and I'm not too terribly skilled. So I took the bracket to a guy I know and paid him $60 to fill in the missing metal and make the bracket nice and strong. The bracket was now solid and fit, but it needed some grinding, bondo, and paint to be pretty. After all this it was reassembly time.

Parts Breakdown
•	Bodywork painted:	$350
•	Bondo:	$8
•	Rustoleam:	$Free (already had it in my garage)
•	Brushes, sandpaper, tack cloths, and misc painting supplies:	$30
•	Front engine hanger modified:	$60
Total: $448

Running total for Chopper: $1685

Installed a CX650 engine

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Not many pictures this time, but I've made some rather major modifications. I installed a CX650 engine in the chopper. After an initial test period of a couple months to make sure the engine was solid, I took it back out and painted it with VHT Brake Caliper paint. Looks spectacular. I'm currently in the process of polishing every piece of aluminum on the bike. You can see the valve covers, clutch cover, intake manifold, exhaust flange, cx650 emblems, and several other parts already polished. The new CX650 engine (actually 673cc) is more powerful than the 500... but vibration isn't reduced much and the overall gearing (ie: vibration felt at speed) did not change much. However, I believe this is because I do not yet have the cylinder head motor mount bolts installed yet. I need to take the front engine hanger to a welder and have him modify it to fit the wider spacing of the 650 engine mounts.

In addition to the engine and polishing work, I've re-mounted the rear fender at a more suitable angle, re-mounted the seat with a bracket in the front (rear bracket isn't finished yet), mounted saddle bags, mounted the sissy bar at a closer approximation to the front fork angle, and painted "Suicide Machine" logos on the tank. The green thing on the top of the tank is a pickle, in case you're wondering. Hope you're old enough to get the reference :)

I'll do a detailed parts assessment later... but basically, the 650 engine was free, I already had the polishing compound to polish the covers, I made the seat bracket out of scrap steel I had in my garage, the saddlebags are off my V65 Magna, and everything else was already on the bike. So, this month's mods were basically free!

Parts Breakdown:

• VHT Brake Caliper paint (2 cans): $15 
• Gunk Engine degreaser (3 cans): $10 
• Paint stripper (1 can): $7
• Total: $32

Running total for Chopper: $1237

Got The Frame Raked

Yes, I've done it. Up until now every modification I've done to my CX500 has been possible to un-do. I could have rebuilt it to stock at any time. That was always comforting to know... I don't know why, but it was ;) No longer, though. Earlier this month, I had the frame raked by a local metric-only motorcycle shop called Scootworks in Zebulon, NC. They did an absolutely exceptional job. They cut the neck in slices, bent it to the proper angle, tig-welded it up, and then tig-welded plates on either side. I haven't done measurements yet, but I'm thinking it's around 40 degrees. The best part is, they left the VIN tag completely unmolested. They even moulded the plate around the original gas tank mounts, which I can unfortunately no longer use. After some initial getting used to, the bike handles more than acceptable. There's about a foot of trail, so at slow speeds the bike is a bear to handle. The forks want to flop to either side, and if you don't have a firm grip they will. Tight turns at parking lot speeds take lots of balance and are not even close to smooth. But at higher speeds the bike is actually still relatively flickable. The heaviness disappears from the forks, and the bike turns very well. It's not a peg dragger by any means, but it will lean adequately. It's a blast to ride too. The bad news is I can no longer use my fatbob tank. What's more, the stock gas tank doesn't even fit in the correct location. If you look at the picture of the steering neck, you can see that the tank is attached to the front motor mount hanger bolt. Even so, look how close the top of the triple tree is to the tank. Ideally, I should have had them remove the neck, streatch the frame 4 or 5 inches, and then weld the neck back on. But hindsight is 20/20. I should be able to sell my fatbob tank setup on eBay, or maybe I'll keep it around and use it on an otherwise stock CX500. The relocated gas tank doesn't look bad, but I'm going to have to cut off the rear mount and just use gravity to keep the rear of the tank in place. Maybe I'll have a bracket welded to the bottom of the tank eventually, but it's no biggie. The good news is that although I've had to adjust for the now missing fatbob tank, the chopper is closer than ever to the picture I have in my mind's eye. It's really quite stunning, even with the ratty paint, the rust in places, the corroded aluminum, and the dirt and spots from not having been washed in 3 years. It has always drawn a crowd at the local watering hole before... I can't wait to see the reaction now. However, I'm concerned about the angle of the rear fender. I think it's sitting up too high. I need to re-mount it, but that means adding new holes extremely close to the old holes. Since it's a fiberglass fender, this will severely weaken the fender, even if I repair the old holes with fiberglass resin and reinforcement tape. I may be able to rotate the fender to get the desired look, but I won't know until I start pulling things apart to see. There may be issues with the seat. The next step is to fit the CX650 engine I have sitting on my garage floor, and then build custom exhaust and forward controls around the larger engine. I'm going to have to beg, borrow, or steal a wire-feed welder and an oxy-acetelyne torch to make the parts, though. Stay tuned for the next update! Part or modification: Price: Got From: •  Frame raked $300 Scootworks Cost of April modifications: $300 Parts Removed from bike to accomodate new changes: •  Fatbob Gas Tank $100 •  Brackets $5 •  Flashing $8 •  Leather $25 •  Spike Studs $15 •  Voltmeter $10 •  Oil pressure gauge $20 •  Harley gas caps $30 •  1 FIAMM horn $15 Cost of parts removed: $228 Total cost of Modifications so far: $1205

One year since I started chopping

Well, the bike is really looking better and better now. I've installed a new rear fender that I got off of ebay. There was no model information or anything, it was just listed as a generic 7" wide Harley rear fender. All the other fenders I've found on eBay have been 7 1/4" wide, and that extra 1/4" made all those fenders to wide to fit between the rear frame rails. Even with the proper width fender, mounting it was no piece of cake. First off, the stock airbox was in the way to mount the fender forward enough to look good.

Since the airbox has the mounting points for the sidecovers moulded into it, I really didn't want to remove it. I'd also have to rejet the carbs after installing pod filters, and I have no desire to do that at this time. So, I whipped out the hacksaw and cut about 8 inches off the front of the fender. I cut the seat and fender mount from between the frame rails, and then bolted the fender between the frame, where the sissy bar mounts at the rear. For the front mount under the seat, I cut a piece of flat stock, mounted it to the bolt under the transistor ignition boxes (remember this is an '82 non-cdi bike), and then bolted it to the fender. It's relatively strong, but it does squeek and move a bit under my butt. I'm going to have to come up with a stronger front mounting method. Or lose some weight!! I can sit on the passanger section without problems too, but as this is a fiberglass fender I wouldn't want to have a passanger that weighed much more than 150lbs or so.

Other than the new fender (and all the rewiring that was involved), I've installed some 8" Z bars, and ran the wires for the control switches inside them. You have no idea how much of a bitch that was. I also added skull grips, new chrome mirrors, an extended chrome kickstand for a CB750, I've wrinkle-black painted the radiator covers and fork legs, added chrome wire covers to the wires around the headlight, and installed custom chrome mini gauges. Basically, I've spent a lot of time and money on her these last few months!

Fortunately, the bike is getting to be a lot closer to the picture I have in my mind's eye. A few more parts and modifications and the bike will be finished. So, here's the current parts breakdown:

	Part or modification:	Price:	Got From:
•	7/8" Z bars with 8" rise	$15	eBay
•	7" wide Harley rear fender	$100	eBay
•	Chrome skull grips	$20	eBay
•	Chrome mirrors	$35	JC Whitney
•	Chrome mini gauges	$75/pr	JC Whitney
•	CB750 extended chrome kickstand	$25	eBay
•	Chrome wire coverings	$10	Auto Zone
•	Harley gas caps	$30	Harley dealership
•	Pair of FIAMM horns and relay	$35	Auto Zone
Cost of November modifications:		$345

Parts Removed from bike to accomodate new changes:
•	Drag bars with 6" risers	$40
•	Stock chrome and inner rear fenders	$0
Cost of parts removed:		$40

Total cost of Modifications so far: $1133

First Action Shot

No big changes here. I just wanted to post pics of the bike in action. The rider is my good bud Benj Vanhorn. He looks better suited to the bike than I do, and he'll probably end up buying it off me for a good price come next year. Once I'm finished with the chop, of course.

I installed the gas caps, a new set of Z-bars, and I painted the radiator cowling wrinkle-black. I had fittings silver-soldered into place and I connected the tanks with fuel line. Bending one of the top brackets over resulted in a pinhole fuel leak when the tank was completely full, so I used some JB Weld to plug the hole. I also installed the other guage into the center cowl.

Bad-assery. With dorky shoes.

Built a Fatbob tank!

Finally I got the funds, the time, and the motivation to mount the fatbob tank! It's truly a thing of beauty sitting there on the CX500 frame, and it really wasn't that difficult. Building the mounts was quick and easy. A vice and a big hammer to bend the THICK steel stock, and a drill to make the holes. The bottom front tank mounts were sawed off, and the top mounts were bent down so they were horizontal.

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The covering for the center part, on the other hand, was very time consuming, and quite painful. I cut the flashing with a pair of metal shears, but the flashing was very thick, and the shears left sharp edges. So my hands are all cut up. Once that was done, I cut two holes for gauges with my dremel. Then I used contact cement to attach leather to the panel. Finally, I measured and drilled holes for the studs, and then screwed them in place. Since the flashing isn't all that thick, it was easy to bend and form to fit the contours of the gas tank. The bottom part of the tank panel attaches with the stock tank mounting bolt, and it covers that ugly area of the frame. The top mounts haven't been installed yet in these pictures. There's a cross member that goes across the top of the two front brackets, and the panel bolts to that. Next up were the headlights. I've been sitting on a dual headlight mount for almost a year now, and just recently I purchased the headlights to go with it. The whole thing mounted up in 5 minutes... but wiring was another matter entirely. Since the stock headlight was gone, all the wiring was sitting exposed behind the new dual lights. It looked like hell. So I unwrapped the wiring harness and started cutting and splicing longer wires in. I was able to move the bulk of the wiring harness to the area between the new Fatbob gas tanks. I need to re-wrap the harness with electrical tape, as it looks like a rat's nest at the moment. But everything works! Check below for a parts/cost list! Part or modification: Price: Got From: •  Dual headlight mount $25 eBay •  Two 5 1/4" dual-filament headlights $50/pr eBay •  Fatbob gas tank $100 eBay •  Steel flat stock to make brackets $5 Home Despot •  Steel flashing $8 True Value (hardware store) •  Leather $25 eBay •  Spike studs $15 eBay •  Voltmeter gauge $10 Advance Auto Cost of August modifications: $238 Parts Removed from bike to accomodate new changes: •  Stock headlight $25 •  Aftermarket headlight ears $8 •  Stock gas tank $0 Cost of parts removed: $33 Total cost of modifications: $828

Spoked Front Rim and Floorboards

I haven't done a whole lot of modifications since November 2002, but I've been busy fixing my V65 Sabre to get it ready to sell in the spring, tearing apart a V65 Magna parts bike in my garage, and working on a number of other things. Plus, much of my money has gone to Christmas, a ski trip, and paying off my credit card bill. I still worked some chopper parts into the budget, though. I picked up the Markland floorboards on eBay for a Buy It Now of $100. I was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, I don't really like them as much as I had hoped. Because that banana seat is so low, and the bike is canted back quite a ways due to the 7" over front end, the floorboards are cramped and uncomfortable. Also, since the floorboards were made for a GL500 brake system, I had to fabricate a connection to the rear brake. I couldn't just cut the end of the brake pedal off, drill a hole in it, and connect it to the brake pedal with an extended arm like I wanted to. The angle was wrong and the bracket was in the way. So I used a brake cable from a VT700, some shifter linkages from the Harley dealership, a piece of threaded rod, and two brackets bent out of flat steel stock. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a way to attach the brake light switch or the return spring. So, the brakes tend to stick after you press the pedal, and because of the cramped seating position (due to the seat and the rake), it's rather difficult to use the rear brakes anyhow. So, expect to see the floorboards taken off and replaced with a set of home-made forward controls at the next update. I'll save these suckers for a GL650 Interstate, if/when I ever get one. One nice thing about these floorboards, the boards themselves can be replaced with any Harley board out there. Which is good, since mine are scratched and a little rusty. The wire wheel was an easy fit to the '78 front end. I don't know how it would fit with the '82 forks and axle, though. Basically, it bolts right on, but the spacing is different. The speedo drive is on the right side instead of the left, so the stock axle (with its built-in spacer) cannot be used. Likewise, the CL360/CB400 axle cannot be used, since it is way too short. Fortunately, I had a V65 Magna axle sitting around from a parts bike. It was a perfect fit. It goes right into the left fork leg with enough threads showing to easily fit on a nut, and it clamped down securely in the right leg. The nut size is different, so I raided my hardware bins for the right size. I then went to the hardware store and got a bunch of washers to make a short spacer (about 1/2") between the wheel and the left fork leg. I used a CL360/CB400 front wheel because it is an 18-incher, as opposed to the CX's stock 19" front wheel. I wanted to lower the bike a bit, since the extended forks make it sit a little too high for my taste. If you want a wire wheel, but wish to retain the stock wheel size, the CB450 uses a 19" wheel, as does the CB550 and CB750. I've taken a good look at the CB450 wheel, and I'm pretty sure it will fit in the same matter (it looks like the same hub), but I don't know about the 550 or 750 wheel. Do note that you will need the disc brake, speedo drive, and speedo cable for whatever front wheel you decide to use. The disc on the wheel I'm using is exactly the same diameter as the CX500 disc, but it is offset differently than the CX500 wheel because the speedo drive is on the other side. One great thing about Honda speedos is that they're all identical internally. It's the drive gear on the wheel that is different from model to model and wheel to wheel. Which means that my speedo reads correctly even with the 18" wheel and a CL360's speedo drive. Finally, I also removed the front fender. I like the looks of the bike much better without it... unfortunately, this chopper is often ridden in the rain, and I get a facefull of water without that fender on there. I have drilled it out so that it sits lower over the new 18" wheel, so I can put it back on if I want to. However, I found a pretty slick fender on eBay that I'll probably put on once payday rolls around again. Part or modification: Price: Got From: •  Chrome license plate frame with integrated turn signals $35 eBay •  Heavy duty load-balancing flasher relay. Stock relay couldn't handle the weird bulbs in the frame. $3 WalMart •  6" dogbone risers. 4" was too short, and I didn't like hunching over $20 eBay •  Markland floorboards for a GL500. $100 eBay •  Modified brake system with harley parts, threaded rod, and a brake cable from an 80-something VT700 parts bike. < $20 Dealership, parts bike •  Wire front wheel from a CL360 / CB400 (18") $40 eBay •  Axle from V65 Magna (parts bike), and some washers from the hardware store $0 Parts bike •  Extended speedometer cable for a CB400 $20 eBay •  Tire, tube, and rim strip for new front wheel (18 x 3.00 or 90/90/18) $50 JC Whitney •  Accel wires (Leftovers pieces from when I put Accel coils and wires on my Magna) $0 Advance Auto •  Flashing red spark plug caps. (Yea, I know. But they were cheaper than NGK caps!) $5 JC Whitney Cost February modifications: $285 Parts Removed from bike to accomodate new changes: •  Rear turn signals $20 •  4" Dogbone risers $15 •  Home-made highway bar stuff $40 •  Bullet license plate bolts $0 •  Stock Spark plug caps and wires $0 •  Front Fender $0 Cost of parts removed: -$75 Total cost of modifications so far: $623