Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Hey, what projects are you planning or preparing for? CBX, other motos, workshop, WHATEVAH!
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NobleHops
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Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

Kicking off a project thread, not sure how ambitious I can be with it, but I’ll try to update it as I go. I’m building another ‘80 CBX, with some of my favorite ‘period’ upgrades too. It will be pretty similar to my black ‘80, all done and done.

I had an 80 stolen a few years back but I had the bodywork and carburetors and seat off at the time, and so I still have those parts. Then a friend gave me a 21K mile 80 engine, complete, and so I’ve been hoarding that. Then I saw a frame getting auctioned for cheap so I bought that. I’ve got a Prolink clutch hoarded somewhere too. Randy Meliota made me a gift of a NOS 1100F swingarm, and Ray Fitzpatrick gave me some really nice complete 1100F wheels and other treasure. I had previously hoarded some twin-pot brakes. Mike Strope made me a sweetheart deal on a Prolink front end. Mike Venhaus rebuilt the old carburetors a couple of years back, and Mike McDonough made me a sweetheart deal on a rear chrome rack. Dave Wigston sold me some rare sport-style footrest plates for the 16mm swingarm pivot, along with some slightly lower than US Prolink clip-ones. I have a NOS set of Prolink gauges that should adapt very nicely. This should be a really great-riding bike, with seriously upgraded brakes and suspension, but it will hopefully look period correct too. The bodywork has already repainted Candy Glory Red, plus a front Prolink fender is getting painted in CGR now to match the other bodywork too.

And so with the shop on hiatus, it seemed like the right time to start gathering the other odds and ends I need and get going.
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The engine is on a stand and will get serviced, cleaned and painted, with sidecovers and valve cover refinished, alternator rebuilt. The frame is back from powdercoating, and new VIN tags are on order. I’ll buzz off the reflector nubs and refinish the fork sliders, RaceTech the Prolink fork and refinish Ray’s wheels. Gonna shorten the 1100F swingarm a skosh, then fit that up with some Ikon 7610 shocks, and then we’ll have a bare roller. Really looking forward to this project!

N.
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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by heli_madken »

NobleHops wrote:
Fri Dec 10, 2021 12:03 am
Really looking forward to this project!
So am I!!

Be great to watch and I am sure I will learn a lot as you go along thanks for posting.

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

Your "bitsa" bike sure is starting with a lot of great bits.
I will certainly following along.

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by Jeff Bennetts »

Hey Nils, the most impressive part of the build so far is being able to remember where and who provided all the parts for your build!
I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday.

Looking forward to your progress.

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

OK we are well underway by now, let me catch this thread up.

This is your backstory. I bought this bike from a fellow in Vermont, had it shipped to California, then on to Arizona, and it sat waiting for me to get to it. An early production Japanese '80 CBX, the rarest of the rare subspecies of CBX. I removed the carbs, seat and bodywork, started refinishing and rebuilding those, and then the bike was stolen. Those parts will live on on the Bitsa Bike.

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Eureka, I stumbled on to a frame on eBay, for an '80 CBX, and wonder of wonders, it was actually a Japanese-built one. This is #166, and my engine is #404, and not so far apart in production as they could have been. This was sandblasted and carefully inspected, powdercoated, and now its waiting for me to get going.

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Here's our engine, in fine shape - was a barter/gift from my friend Loren who owned this bike, crashed it, and there it sat for many years. This has about 21K miles on it, a spring chicken relatively.

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Here's our engine # Amazingly, this is not far off from where the original engine would have fallen!

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Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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It's pretty complete, including a starter and alternator!

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These handsome wheels were a gift from my friend Ray, they were used on the CB1100F of 1983. They are an inch smaller than the stock CBX wheels at both ends, and so will lower the bike 1/2". I've seen these on a bike my friend Dave built and they look and work great on a CBX, and are a little bit lighter. We will refinish these and they will look like new.

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Now we're getting into my hoar^^^^COLLECTION of CBX parts, spanning 12 or so years since I have been tinkering with them for fun and profit.

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Pahhhts, pahhhts, pahhts.

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This is the tank from the stolen bike, was refinished years ago by Blake Conway in California in Candy Glory Red. Looks fantastic. You'll have to trust me, for now :-).

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I cannot recall exactly where I obtained these but it was a great deal as I recall. They are from a Prolink bike, but with the simple swap of a black lens where that air pressure lens is plus a swap for a new harness within and some refurbishment, these will be perfect for the bike, including the curious-but-correct 80 MPH speedometer.
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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This is a new set of Ikon 7610s, excellent on these bikes, with a very original appearance.

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...and this is pure unobtanium treasure, a gift from my friend Randy a few years back, a NOS CB1100F swingarm, a giant upgrade over the stock item. We will modify this slightly for our purposes and it will bolt right up.

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More treasure, this is a spring-dampened clutch from a Prolink CBX, a very desirable upgrade for a twin-shock bike, this quiets down the engine considerably.

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This gorgeous two-bumper '80 rear rack is another piece of rare unobtanium, a near-gift from my friend Mike.

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Refurbished footpegs and OEM fork seals. We're going to use a 39mm fork from a Prolink CBX, which also bolts up with a few mix-and-match parts, including the Prolink fender. That's out getting painted to match the other bodywork in CGR. The fork is a lot stouter than the stock 35mm, and we'll upgrade it further with better RaceTech springs and their cartridge emulators.
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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OK, nice wheels, but the finish is a little tired after 40 years. Take off and nuke the site from orbit. Step 1: Skin these puppies, remove everything so we can refinish them. Remove the wheel bearings, seals, etc.

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...same with the rear.

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Ancient tires off, bearings out, time to blast them.

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NOw they are clean, the bearing pockets are taped and we've blasted the finish from them.

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Both wheels dry blasted.

Into the vapor blaster!

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Nils Menten
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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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Impressionist vapor blaster shot WOOOOOO!

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One down...

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Looks great!

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Both done. Hmmm...We're going to leave them like this. Silver wheels with the CGR paint is the classic CBX livery, and this is some nice metal. We can always change our mind :-).

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Here's that awesome piece of unobtanium. a NOS CB1100F swingarm, a super nice gift from my friend Randy. We are going to shorten this a half-inch and elongate the adjustment slot forward to restore something very close to the stock wheelbase. And paint it black!
Nils Menten
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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

Onto the front suspension.

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My (other) friend Mike in California hooked me up with a complete Polink front end, fork, triple clamp, brakes, bars, the works. This is a fork from a 1981 CBX, a stout 39mm item compared to the 80 bike's 35mm fork, it also has two bushings compared to the single bushing on the 80 fork. This will be a great improvement in stability up front, especially after we work it over a bit ;-).

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Parts starting to accumulate on our wire shelves, those 1100F rotors are up next for some attention.

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How to loosen a stubborn fork cap when the fork is removed from the triple clamp? Put it back in the triple clamp!

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Fork is now stripped and spotlessly clean, and the tops of the sliders have been denuded for some special machining :dance:

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These lugs host the side-facing reflectors on the Prolink bike, but they've always looked weird to us way sitting down there on a twin-shock CBX. Off with their heads! We'll machine these off and then the sliders are going to be powdercoated in a lovely texture black finish, along with the chain guard, once that arrives. Then the fork will be reassembled with the excellent RaceTech cartridge emulators and springs.

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Swingarm pivot for the 1100F, we will mix and match most of these pieces to graft this to a CBX frame.
Nils Menten
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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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Little surprise when I got home, the excellent reproduction exhaust from David Silver Spares *ahem* has arrived, only a little worse for wear in transit. :D

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On to the rotors, these get measured, inspected, and then they were media blasted in preparation for sending off to TrueDisk for grinding, to renew the braking surface and make them flat and true.

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As usual, the disk minimum thickness is stamped into the rotor, so we'll measure it in the swept area to make sure we have enough material for Tom to work with.

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No sweat, that's plenty for his purposes.

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Masking those recessed mounting bosses, we used hole punches on this cutting board to cut this high-temp tape to fit in there cleanly.
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

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Yup, these rotors are now powdercoated in handsome "Porsche Silver", lock stock and swept area. There's no benefit in masking that, TrueDisk is going to grind that entire braking surface anyway, and what's not ground is going to be protected from corrosion by the powdercoat. We've done this many times with them, it works perfectly.

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Alright! The fork is back. Those fork tubes got spun on my buddy Rob's lathe with fine Scotchbrite and a drop of oil and they look new.

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The sliders now have the offending lugs removed along with some casting flash and can now be blasted and powdercoated on the way to reassembly. Progress!

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Now we're powdercoating these in a neat wrinkle black finish. I love this for a fork, looks fantastic.

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Woo, our rotors are back! This never gets old, to me. What was old is now totally renewed, form AND function. www.truedisk.net
Nils Menten
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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

OK, lets circle back to the wheels :lol:

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We're going to use these handsome wheels from the CB1100F as bare alloy, but some protection from the elements is wished-for. I pressganged my friend Ken into duty when he was visiting, and he setup on the truing stand to apply a product I have always wanted to try, called "Sharkhide".

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This is the stuff, and plenty of people have sung its praises to me over the years. You want to start out with a spotless degreased part, apply this in two coats with a wet-with-it cloth, and that's it. Could not be much simpler. I'll report back in a year or two.

Alright, my super-gross chain guard arrived, covered in flung chain spooge but straight and solid.

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To this point I probably have 90 minutes into this thing, cleaning off the gnarly goo, then the chrome was stripped and I blasted it with rough abrasive to raise a profile for powdercoat.

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Could never go back to not having powdercoating in house.

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Into the oven!

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Awesome. The CBX used a black chain guard, so this will kind-of keep with the stock-ish appearance. In the background are a lot of the parts we powdercoated in house. The only thing we sent out was the frame.
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

Alright, back to the front end.

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Here's our 39mm lower triple clamp, after we pressed the stem out to remove the lower race without carnage.

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Fork parts are here and everything is refinished, now we can reassemble this with the RaceTech internals, including stouter springs.

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Step 1, destroy the damper rods. Courage!

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And done!

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Wooo, we got our swingarm back from our pal Don that paints for us. This thing had new bearings in it and so we chickened out and sent it out to Don to paint instead of stripping it and degreasing it for powdercoat. No regrets - he added some flex additive to make the paint a bit more durable and resilient and clear-coated the @#$% out of it too. Now we just need to get a set of shock bushings, an odd omission from the NOS part!
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

Post by NobleHops »

Let's get the wheels ready.

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Ken installed the bearings and seals when he was visiting, now we need to mount and balance the tires and get them ready for installation.

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We love this tire machine, so awesome.

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Wheels done, installing the rotors.

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OK, we have wheels, a centerstand, a fork, it's time to prepare a lift and start to assemble this thing.

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Frame...

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A fiddly hateful job, installing the excellent reproduction VIN plate. We get these from https://www.khneisser.ch/
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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