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Showing posts from September, 2019

Nighthawk CB750 rear wheel swap part 2 - parts and painting

With my last paycheck, I ordered a few more items from ebay.  The brake panel (with decent pad material), the Nighthawk axle which also came with the swing arm parts for securing the axle, chain adjuster and a nighthawk chain guard. I also ordered the drive mechanism along with the cush drive parts. I'm trying to be careful to order the parts that come with more bits because if I'm missing something and need to order another part, it's another shipping charge. I'm quickly discovering that though these parts don't cost a lot of money, the shipping charges can be easily 2-5x the cost of the part.  Free shipping is your friend if they don't pad the cost of the shipping into the part (surprise, they do). One of the first options I have to consider is swapping the wheel without swapping the swing arm.  Since the Nighthawk (NH) wheel has a 17mm axle and the CB750c (CB) has a 20mm axle I would need to look into widening the NH wheel to accept the larger 20mm

DIY Cross drilled rotors

A few years ago, I purchased a drill press from harbor freight with the idea that I was going to build an AR15 lower by drilling out a piece of plastic. That project failed due various reasons, and I haven't really used the drill until I decided that I was going to drill my solid rotor. Internet wisdom seems to indicate that drilling rotors are not necessary in this day and age due to the advances in brake pad technology. I've wondered why everyone sports drilled rotors on new vehicles, especially the high end sports cars.  I put a set of ebay drilled and slotted rotors on 2 of my cars and the braking improvement was so drastically better that I felt like I needed to do this for my old cb750c. My original intention was to send the rotor out during the winter and pay someone $50 to do it. But I found a couple of drill patterns and thought I would give it a try.  Worst case scenario, I could just buy another rotor on ebay.  I may eventually upgrade the old 35mm front susp

Nighthawk CB750 rear wheel swap part 1 - decision

I've always had a very slight side to side swaying sensation in certain conditions that I was not able to pinpoint.  It was especially bad back when I had a trunk/top case on the back of my bike.  An old timer on a forum noted that the tall rear tire mounted on a 16" wheel can get a little wobbly (concerning a top case causing 'sidewall flex, by increasing the leverage on the vertical axial moment of the bike') and that pretty much got the thought in my head to swap the rear wheel to a 17" or 18" at some point. the 1979 cb650 would have been an easy and cheap path forward since it's pretty much a direct swap to a 17" wheel with the advantage of the wheel design matching my front tire.  Unfortunately, those wheels were not cheap and getting more expensive by the day. I found 2 or 3 listings on ebay and was looking at a minimum of about $90 to get one shipped to my house and then I would still need to clean it and swap out the bearings.  Since I