Hello, it's been awhile since I sent anything so this is some of what happened. With the bike running okay I decided to get after the cracked and tattered body parts. The only thing that was not in need was the seat. The seatpan/rear fender was lengthened to fit the bike better, the tank stripped and straightened, trash heap front fender stripped and repaired, and some structure made for the seat. The seat was just kind of stuck on there in such a way that there was an unintentional spring ride effect that was destroying the fiberglass in a hurry. There was also no taillight or tag mount of any kind. The frame had been hastily hacked and the previous owner who did it definitely didn't have my plans in mind. Probably the same guy who cut off the kickstand so the cool muffler would fit. The paint spray is the only part I didn't personally handle and it was done by Rick Thurstenson- the dude in the pic. His work is fantastic! Anyhow, reassembly revealed all
sorts of little issues and things that took tons of time. I have been riding the bike on the street for a couple of weeks now and with a 39 tooth sprocket it can do 80-85 wide open. Hopefully that keeps it on pace with the rest of yas. Is there a reward for smallest engine? So if I can get my headlight issues handled in the next two weeks then I should be good to go. See ya soon!
On May 29th we will meet at2511 N 2nd Street Rogers, AR 72756 at 9 am SHARP to get acquainted and go over the day's ride. Plans are to hit the road by 9:45 and start our journey into the Ozarks. There is a gas station right next to the meet spot, so please fill up before we head out.
Speaking of filling up, there are quite a few gas station options from day to day, however there are a handful that only accept cash without any ATMs near. Be prepared.
If you have any questions or concerns shoot an email to hatchethairy@yahoo.com.
These are the official hotels of the run. In order to get the group discount you need to mention you are booking with the Ozark Mountain Scramble. If you don't want to save a few bucks, ignore that bit of information. Wanna camp? Go for it. I'm sure there are places to do so, however it's up to you to get all of that sorted.
Day One:
May 29th
La Quinta Inn
111 East Harrell Drive
Russellville, AR 72802 479-967-2299
Your choice of the following:
$85 standard king bed
$90 queen double bed
Day Two:
May 30th
Quality Inn
1210 US 62/65 N
Harrison, AR 72601 870-741-7676
Your choice of the following:
$76.49 standard king bed
$76.49 queen double bed
I've also put together a new map for this years ride. These maps will be available for free when we meet on day one as well as some daily maps when I get them finished.
The right side of the frame is almost done, needing only one gusset added to the lower part of the triangle. Luckily I cut two brackets at the same time, so the left side should go a tad quicker other than careful measuring to make things symmetrical.
I have wanted to relocate the upper shock mount, and replace all the ugliness in the stock frame junction at the seat sub-frame since I first acquired the bike. After staring at it for a year, I decided it would be best to cut it all out and start from scratch.
Does this make it a chopper now?
Zip tie suspension in full effect.
Much better already.
I still need to get the shock mount in place and drill some more rosette welds at the joint. Hopefully I can have this side wrapped up before next week.
Just to make my build that much more complicated and tight on budget, I decided to switch up the front end once more. This time I am using tx750 forks and axle with an xs650 front wheel and rotor. Unfortunately the xs650 caliper I got won't fit the fork legs I have, so I will have to adapt something to work or find one that fits the same fork lug pattern. Luckily the forks for the tx750 and tt500 are 36mm sharing the same axle width. In other words it's all bolt in.
It's not quite there yet, but all the parts so far for this swap total less than $100 due to some amazing deals. Thanks for the wheel, tire, caliper, and rotor Daniel, you really bent over backwards on this one!
I am way behind on updates lately, so I guess it's time to start catching up.
After getting the bike running crappy at best, I decided to pull the carb apart and clean everything. I don't see how a spring and an o-ring could occupy the same space on this needle, but they are "supposed" to.
Cleaned and somewhat functional, I threw the carb back on. I could get it to idle decent, but there was smoke coming from the header flange. Unfortunately it appears what should have been the only good thread on the exhaust stripped out. Instead of trying to get this head welded up and new studs put on, I snatched a used one off ebay.
While waiting for the new head to come in, I decided to play dress up with the rear fender and seat sub-frame. The fender I'm using is a stock rear from an xs650 project years ago. I cut a chunk out, and hammered a slight curve into a duckbill. The seam still needs welded, but it's close to what I had envisioned. As for the sub-frame hoop, it is pieced together from an old xr80 frame from another project I got for free.
I've got some more stuff in the works that I will post up in the next day or two.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have decided to move the Ozark Mountain Scramble to the 29th through the 31st of May. Unfortunately someone decided to throw a HUGE country music festival in Ozark Arkansas the same days of the originally scheduled OMS. With a festival this large in such a remote location, there is a guarantee that traffic will suck and be extremely inflated. There aren't many ways in or out of the town of Ozark, so we would be riding a slight circle around and eventually though the festival on the third day. Not good at all. I've tossed around the dates to some OMS alumni, and the decision for the last week of May was made. I hate to do it, but I would rather move everything a week forward than have 3 days of shitty riding with drunkards swerving at us. Safety first, fun comes second, and I'm sure there is a third to plug in there somewhere that's fitting.
Also, for some reason it has completely slipped my mind to post up some press for last years run published on Chop Cult. Mike of 47 Industries joined us for the run last year all the way from New Jersey with a couple buddies in tow. Afterwards he was kind enough to put together an article after a quick Q & A session and submit it. If you haven't seen it already, check it out HERE. Another chunk of light reading can be seen over at Chopper Creeps site that Tim from New York put together. It's a good chronicle of the journey to Arkansas, the ride itself, and a bit of the trek back up North. See the write up and some additional ride pics in three parts: ONETWOTHREE
As of this weekend my bike will pretty much be ready for the 2013 Scramble. Since last year's last minute oil seal snafu on my CB360, I assessed the situation thoroughly and decided to give the bike another chance at glory. I have replaced a few seals, added a presentable seat pad, changed out the pods for foam filters, swapped out the worn out shocks for some new ones, and simplified the electrical a bit more. Sounds like a bit much, but since I have been rewarded for my efforts in fiberglass seat design because of this bike I had a little more room in my budget. I don't expect to be breaking any land speed records with this little 360, but it should be plenty potent enough to break the speed limit a few times a long the way. I'm looking forward to ripping through the Ozarks once again.
I found a good deal on some new forks with a matching set of trees for a 77 model to replace the leading link ones. Unfortunately I have to figure out what to do with my brake plate now. Apparently the earlier model brake plates were spaced differently, so I need to remove some meat to get it all to fit right.
Speaking of brake plates, I found that a yz something or other shares the same size brake plate with the exception that the yz is a twin leading shoe and the tt is a single. What's cool about that is I've had this wheel leftover from my old xs650 project, so it's a freebie and extra braking power. The tt plate cable boss is broken anyways, so it works out rather well.
Broken stock plate.
Tls yz plate.
Started hacking into the frame a bit.
I needed a clutch tool, so I took a grinder disc tool, drilled a couple holes in a roached clutch plate, and tack welded it in place. Worked great.
Before putting everything back together I realized I never cleaned the screen of the downtube filter. Glad I did, because it was nasty.
Fresh oil. Key on. Fuel on. I got a ball of flame twice, but that's it. I kicked and kicked and kicked and kicked. Nothing. Spark is nice and fat. Static timing is spot on, so I decide to dig into the carb and see if there is anything that looks wrong. The float looked like it was in a car accident, cause it was bent in every direction possible, and neither side were remotely where they should have been. With everything apart I decided to clean all the jets, body, etc. When putting it all back together, I noticed the pilot screw was missing a spring and o-ring. I think I can find something in my parts stash that should work, but not sure yet. The parts are now considered obsolete, so that's pretty awesome. If anyone has those parts laying around, let me know. Good news of the night was the oil made it to the bleeder!
After a few more hours scratching my head last night re-checking everything over and over and over with the same result, it was obvious something in my timing wasn't right. So far I had only got a couple balls of flames, and that was a rare occurrence at that. You know what they say, 99% of all carb problems are electrical. A quick google search of "tt500 backfire" and 5 minutes of reading later I found out the issue. When I put the points cam gear in place, I didn't line up the dots on the proper stroke. The manual doesn't mention the importance of this, or even make mention other than just that the dots need to be lined up. I don't recall which stroke it should be on at the moment, but you obviously have a 50/50 chance and I drew the crap straw. Since the advancer can't be installed 180 or the points plate be rotated 180 and still be able to put the cover back on I pulled the clutch cover and did the rotation to the points gear.
It took less than 10 minutes, then the moment of truth. On the second kick it roared to life! Went to fire it back up this morning, and once again on the second kick it fired right up. I've got some carb tuning to do, but glad this thing is finally running. I'm ready to rip down the streets and see how everything I fixed holds up. Here's a quick video I shot this afternoon.
It's definitely not running great right now, but I can get it to start first kick now, so that seems like a huge win already. Looks like it's getting way too much fuel, I didn't get much time to tinker.
