New headlight and regulator are here.

Earlier in the week I got my new regulator. If you follow @550project on Instagram, then this is old news. I figured I would post the information here as well. 

That regulator is made by ElectroSport and the model needed or the cb550 is the ESR240. This will help the charging system run smoothly. The regulator is about 100 bucks but is must for a new build. Now for the cool stuff.  

Before I even bought my bike I knew what lights I wanted to put on it. Lighting seems to be something that everyone overlooks. I have friends who have that ride motorcycles, and almost all of them wish their headlights were brighter or feel like the amount of light their stock units put out is dangerous. That was something that stuck with me. Why would you ride without adequate lighting? It seems that riding a motorcycle is already risky enough with all these idiots texting and putting on makeup when they should be driving, so why make it worse? Having good lighting is also better for riding. I ride/race mountain bikes, as in bicycles. Maybe that's what turned me on to lighting. In racing, the more light you have, the faster you can go. I can only assume it will be the same situation while riding a motorcycle. One of the main reasons I went with this headlight was because of it's freakishly wide beam pattern. One headlight will easily cover two lanes. This was something that scared me about motorcycle headlights. If you are riding mountain roads (or forest service roads like I plan to) you should be worried about wildlife. The more you can see on the sides of the road, the more safe you will be. I don't know about you, but I don't want to hit a deer on a motorcycle. Ok enough preaching, here's the light. 

It's made by Truck Lite. Truck Lite got their start by making replacement lights for the humvee assault vehicle. This is the generation two, or phase 7 light. It has a lexan lens (shatter proof) and a nice aluminum heat sink back with a breather so you don't get any condensation. Condensation isn't really an issue with LED because they usually give off less heat than conventional bulbs. LEDs also last 50 times longer than standard bulbs. This is the "7 inch round headlight" used for humvees and jeeps. It costs anywhere from $180 to $220 (depending on who you get it from). I would have paid more, it's that good. Not to sound lame, but you can't put a price on safety. Needless to say I'm impressed with the quality and output. It's more than I expected. 

Here are some more pictures that are a bit more important. Here is the power draw of the stock sealed beam (high):

5.10 amps at 9.2 volts, the  lower voltage was because it was draining the power supply. On the battery, the draw in volts will be larger, between 12-14 volts. At a stop light this matters a good bit. Here are the numbers for the Truck Lite LED (high and low):

3.84 Amps at 13.6 volts, because our power source wasn't being over loaded. This is a lot better than the stock sealed beam. Ok light comparisons. I hope you all appreciate this because it was a pain in the butt. Here is the lack luster stock beam on high. Straight over head (assisted by my lovely girlfriend, Sofia): 

From the side but still looks forward. These are taken with the iPhone so the differences aren't as noticeable in these pictures...the photos don't do it justice. 

And the Truck lite LED. Straight forward. Notice we couldn't get the whole beam pattern in the shot. It was lighting up the yards on both sides of the street. 

 From the side looking forward. 

Crazy bright. And here are some shots of the light from about 25-30 feet away. (Any farther and the iPhone wouldn't have really captured the light well) 

Stock: looks like your nieghbors walking their dog. 

Truck lite LED: looks like a small alien, ship traveling at warp speed. 

Notice how much of the road is illuminated.

This light should be a direct replacement for the stock sealed beam (as far as I can tell from a quick test fit) more info will be posted as I start getting everything wired up.

 

Wheels and gauges

In my last post I mentioned my plans for the wheels. This weekend I worked on the wheels and refinished my gauges. I'll cut to the chase. Here is the front wheel:

 

I masked off all the nipples and spokes then painted the rim with duplicolor wheel paint. In prep for the paint, I sand blasted the rim with play ground sand. Although I sanded the rim, the paint seems to still have issues sticking the the surface that was once chrome. I will most likely be redoing the paint with something a bit more durable, but this was enough for me to figure out the look I was going for. This paint scheme looks great with the rest of my bike. As for "something more durable," I am looking into a home powdercoating kit from Eastwood. All I need is an electric oven big enough to cook parts, and I'm set. Here are a couple of pictures from the prep work on the wheels. I used baking soda on the hubs, so I wouldn't damage the softer aluminum. The baking soda does wonders for the finish. 

Here is the rear hub before I started prepping the wheel. Note the rim, it looks pretty rough. 

Here is a picture after degreasing the surface of the hub with Gunk brand engine gel degreaser. 

Here is a picture of the rear hub while soda blasting. The difference is pretty noticeable. That brown colored stuff was not coming off with any kind of solvent I had in my arsenal. The soda blaster made quick work of removing it.

Here is another picture of the rear hub but the other side. This is the "drum" for the rear brake. There was a lot of baked on brake dust. 

 

It all came loose after a couple passes with the blaster. Clean enough for an area you cant even see on the bike. 

This is how the rear wheel sits now. There is still some work to be done, but it's a huge improvement from what I started with. The rim has also been cleaned with the soda blaster, which won't really damage chrome. The rear wheel will eventually get the same treatment as the front. 

I also refinished the gauges here's what I was working with.

Rusty mounting bracket.

Chrome on the backs was in bad shape.

So I pulled them apart. For anyone who is thinking of doing this on their own bike, I say go for it.

 

There are three main parts for each of the gauges. The top (with the glass), the bottom (it's usually chrome plated from factory), and the foam that insulates and protects the gauges. The foam is sandwiched between the top and bottom and is removable. I removed the foam insulator rings and masked off the glass. Then I sand blasted everything.

 

After sand blasting, I repainted them. I used dupli-color bed armor for the bottoms and the dupli-color matte black wheel paint for the tops (the wheel paint is a no primer, high temp, chip restistant paint). 

I will be replacing the hardware on the bottom of the gauge and replacing the bulbs with LEDs. Here is the finished product: 

That's all for now. I'm working on a wiring harness and headlight option to replace the old sealed beam. If you don't already, follow me on Instagram, check out @550project for more updates. 

Long time no see.

I usually only get to work on my bike during the weekend. The weather has been so nice lately I have been spending weekends outside. Today I spent a little time on the forks. They were pretty rough before I sand blasted them.

They are still pretty rough but they will work for the time being.

Next I'm going to work on the wheels. I was going to buy new spokes and get my wheels relaced. With paint this method was going to cost about $380. I've decided to just sand blast the wheels and paint them myself. It doesn't make sense to spend $380 when I could buy a set of oem wheels (it good condition) on eBay for $250.

As it gets colder out you will see the posts become more frequent.

Triple tree and wheels

Today I started on the wheels. I sand basted the front wheel after I removed the front rotor.

The rotor will be cross-drilled before it is reinstalled, il get to that soon.

The wheels are cleaning up nicely. I also decided to work on the triple tree clamps. I got tired of looking at them, dirty on the work bench. This, unfortunately is the only "before" picture I have of the top clamp.

Here are some shots of the work I did. 

Sand blasted the leading light cluster.

Sand blasted and repainted the upper clamp. 

Looks good as new! 

I also did more work on the forks. I was going to paint them but after all the work I did with sanding them, I want to show it off. 

Before I started on the lowers.

After about 5 minutes with a sand blaster.

This is after sanding with 180,400,and 600 grit paper. I'm going to go higher and hit the spots I missed, but you get the idea. 

The new tail light came in last night along with the new battery. Here are pictures of mounting the light.

 I am very happy with the new tail light. And this is what will be powering the electronics.

 

Well, that's all for now.

Tank update

I worked on the tank some more today. I think I have the exterior right about where I want it. I have yet to treat the inside. I will most likely leave the liner for last.

 

I used paint stripper to get the decals off. After a couple coats of paint stripper, the paint and decals wiped off. I cleaned the rest of the tank up with the sand blaster. Then I sanded the tank using 180 grit paper on a soft block. This is what I came up with.

Looks much better than this...

 

You can also see that I de-tabbed the frame (removed side cover mounts).

The tank looks even better in person. I might go a bit higher with the sand paper maybe 400 then 600. I did however come up with a way to protect the raw metal. After reading tons of stuff online, I came across a product called "Gibbs Brand" lubricant. It is extremely popular with hot rodders and die hard mechanics. It goes on clear and protects the raw metal for up to four months at a time (according to a guy who has a whole car that is raw finished, protected with only Gibbs). You can paint over it at any time because it's isopropyl based and doesn't contaminate the metal. Isopropyl is a key ingredient in Rain-X so it's no surprise that it also makes water bead off like wax. I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I could have done clear coat for about $100, but why? It takes all of 5 minutes to wipe the tank down with Gibbs, and that also helps keep the bike clean. Clear coat seems to be very hit or miss as a permanent solution as well. Gibbs is said to work 100% of the time, as long as you aren't too lazy to re-apply every now and then. I'm the kind of guy that keeps 6 coats of wax on his car, a little gas tank is easy!