Cm 400 to Bobber

[Hortons Heroes]

I put oil in and ran a funnel to the carbs. Gave it a few turns and it came to life. Wayne is going to teach me the ways of the tuning the carb which I am excited to learn. I have a jet kit all ready to go. It's only idiling off of the left side and the other opens up when I twist the throttle.
I think I figured out why the bike keeps running with the power off as well. When I did my hidden ignition switch I took the kill switch wires and put them on a separate switch. My guess is that when the key is turned off it connects the kill wires and makes it so the bike won't run. Having those on a separate switch means I can turn off the power but until I hit the switch it will still run. Odd feature.


I had a heck of a time finding black dice with white dots intown. I drilled a larger hole in the middle then drilled two small holes 45 degrees to the large hole so hopefully the epoxy will go into those and hold onto the choke cable better.


Here it is mounted.


I didn't hear any problems with the exhaust so I got one side welded up more to the foot pegs and wire wheeled it to prep for painting. I think they would look better chromed but that would cost more than the bike did.


I cut off all the random bits that were still on the frame for mounting side covers and electrical stuff.

I need some community input. I have gone with some dice accents and was considering putting one of these on the rear fender centered behind the seat and the taill light. I have the worst taste for paint schemes etc, I really just want to know if it's super dorky to put it on.

[Rusty Bucket]

I recall coming to an aesthetic impasse on a couple of occasions working on the XS1B (b for bobber), once on handlebars, and once on exhaust heat-shields.  My lack of familiarity with the genre left me with only my native prejudices on which to base decisions, and this made it seem wise to at least add some polling data  in these specific voids in my general plan, where my notions of how I wanted things to look were fuzzy.  If you are collecting opinions on appearances, for whatever reason, you should probably consider presenting the options in picture form, in order that those being polled are clear about the choice.
  Show us the item in place, and then the same area without the item - in taking a pic and arranging it for display, you might find your own preferences crystalize even without any input from the hoi polloi.

[Dennis]

Aesthetic impasse?  Been there.  In fact, last week I had Russell over just to stare at my project for awhile for a second opinion.  With customizing, some things, actually many things just don't look right.  Hard to describe until you look at it for awhile.  Don't be lulled into a false sense of artistic righteousness thinking anything will do just because you did it.  Picasso and Dali died broke.  You want to be cool now.

Having said that, some of the worst trends are back in style; 70's style.  What was once abhorred is suddenly cool again.  I just hope bell bottoms never make main stream again.  I could tolerate girls with big poofy hair, shoulder pads and leg warmers though.

Go with the dice thing.  Its like "Fate" or something.  Good symbolism for riding a machine that you could die on without warning, or get you laid when you least expect it (I know you're married and all but "its a chopper baby").

Peace & artsy fartsy grease, Dennis

[Rusty Bucket]

Mmm, leg warmers - hey, there's a pic around here somewhere of my high-school girlfriend in legwarmers.. not going to be able to post that one up though.  Might be good to look at it again, though, you know, for old time's sake...

[Hortons Heroes]

Looks like I should just order the sticker and go all in (gambling pun intended), It should be subtle enough that even I will like it.

Far to often I feel like the song "Fade to black" was written for me. I love things in one tone...dark.

I see a red bike and I want to paint it black.

[Hortons Heroes]

Finished wire wheeling the exhaust to get the rust off and painted these with BBQ paint.



Put under coat on the bottom of the fender and painted the rest back. Masked and taped it to get the red stripe on. The red stripe came out well (I think at least) but using paper towel was a beginners mistake. The paint didn't seep through but whatever evaporates from the paint to make it dry didi and it took some of the black with it. It was easy to fix once the red was dry but still should have known better.


you can see a little white dot on the lower right where black came off. I clear coated it and am happy with how it came out. MOUNTING IT SOON! WOOT!

[Hortons Heroes]

Wire wheeled and painted all the exposed metal from doing frame work and other little bits. I will be back up there in a day or two and should be able to start putting parts on permanently! Progress hooray!

[Hortons Heroes]

Frame paint turned out really well, it was a primer and paint combo and it's not chipping like I expected it to.

Fender on, tank on, wiring moved around under tank, rectifier installed, tail light and rear wiring done, rear signals installed, front signal housing painted and ready to install, front brake reservoir installed, gas cap swapped to keyless one, rear wheel back on, front wheel disc put back on,  exhaust on, moved headlight up (just for you Fast1...it does look better), mirror on, put battery back in,

To do
-clean front brake (slave end) and install
-put in brake fluid
-put new front rim and tire on
-install front signals
-remove center stand
-figure out front fender (probably just install the old one until I get a better idea of what I want it to look like.)
-figure out why signal relay not working (install resistor)
-try out some different bar styles
-pull off carb and rerun lines, replace float bowl gasket and hide wires away from choke

TEST DRIVE!!!! I work all this weekend but sometime mid to late next week I should have a chance to get some of that list done and go for a ride.

I really like the tank and fender look but I've had a few folks so I should paint the tank the same scheme as the fender....thus making it the "Hans Bobber" I will leave the tank for now.

[Hortons Heroes]

DONE....ish....|

There are a few little things to do but my cafe has more broken things on it so I will just call it DONE for now.

Front view


I missed painting the seat mount, got it done last night


Done side view-I went with the stock front fender. I still need to swing by Dennis's shop and see what spare fenders he has lying around that he wants to part with. I don't mind the look, a bit of chrome helps the bike.


Float bowls were leaking. Hung it and put in gas to test but no leaks....yet...


Just for Wayne I got that frame bolt replaced...I feel that much safer.


I am especially proud of this. Took a fluid sucker thing from princess auto and stepped down the tubing to fit my slave bleed bolt. Poured in fluid at the top, hooked this thing up and in 30 seconds had all the bubbles out of the line. Draws fluid through so fast you have to watch to make sure the resevior doesn't run dry.


I kind of forgot about the horn until I was packing up parts and found the horn at the bottom of a bucket. It used to mount on the front (where the bolt head is on the front of the frame) but I moved it to the right side and kept it out from under the tank so it can be heard. Not real pretty but sure doesn't look stock.


DONE DONE DONE! I am so stoked!


The bummer is I finished it up at 1am last night so I couldn't start it up and ride. My wife is out of town until sunday so I have 5 kids by myself so there won't be any time to get up to the shop until then... I am so tempted to get a baby sitter so I can go finish this thing! (I could get Rusty to look after my kids for an evening! Just open his shop door and push them in, drive off before he gets my plate number)

I bought a pack of resistors to try and get the LED signals to trip the relay but no go. For now I will have to manually blinker the lights.

I am also not as sold on getting rid of the center stand, it is really practical and I don't know if it stands out as much as I think it does. Would it look stupid to keep it on?

[Dennis]

Way to go, and your timing is great.  Its okay to take a breather, even if Russel misses out on babysitting 5 kids.

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing your bike.  I think you should get one of these ...



Peace & Grease, Dennis

[Sr.X]

Looking good, I'm looking for some parts for a CM400. Do you have any spare parts kicking around, so far a front brake light switch. Will likely find more parts needed as I work on this bike, it belongs to a lady with very little cash so I'm hoping to find used parts.

  Later, Bob

[Hortons Heroes]

I promised myself and my wife I would only ride with a full face...I may have made a bobber but I still don't have that bobber fashion sense yet ahaha

Bob I meant to send you a reply but totally forgot. I messaged you my phone number. I have lots of parts lying around. Give me a call.

[Hortons Heroes]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10154001547735567&l=7290313084332177319

Video link above!

I still need to get the turn signal relay working (I found one at Lordco for $22 that should work with LED lights)

Also need to get the valve cover vent run down to the ground then it's done done done. Took it for a little test ride and was thrilled about how it ran. I may need to look at forward controls before the end of the season. my knees are fairly high.

[Dennis]

Way Cool Dave.
I linked your vid to the NezumiBoyz Facebook.  Hope that was okay.

Peace & Grease, Dennis

[Hortons Heroes]

For sure, I meant to send them a message anyway.