The Neverending Tale of a '65 Superhawk Restoration

[Gunner_CAF]

I didn't need any special tools to put my tires and tubes on.

Gunner

[Spargett]

this guy, pulls the beads together tight, then slips, tire, on. No tool

Putting my Avon's on the wheels was one of the most physically draining tasks I encountered during the rebuild. After using enough force to snap the largest of my tire irons, I spent the rest of the afternoon literally cleaning the blood and sweat (brand new rear sprocket, very sharp) off the polished hubs. I think next time I'll just let a machine do it effortlessly.

Cfloren, I'm really enjoying this thread. Thanks for documenting and sharing your work.

[Goodysnap]

Try using a wee bit of veggie oil on the beads. Helps the tires not stick to the rims and makes them slip on a tad easier.

[cfloren]

Thanks again for the compliments and advice. I used some soap to lubricate the rims & beads, which did help a lot. I ended up seating the beads with a rubber-tipped air nozzle, blowing into the valve stem w/ valve removed. This inflated the tube quickly and popped the beads on after a few tries. The trick is to cover the valve stem with your thumb, while simultaneously screwing the valve back in, all without letting enough air escape to un-seat the beads. I'm always learning something.

For tires I chose what seems to be the unofficial street tire of honda305.com...the Avon AM26 RoadRider. They are aesthetically perfect in my opinion, relatively affordable and seem to get good reviews from the guys who run them. I didn't realize they were bias-ply tires, but apparently it's not kosher to run radials with a tube, or so I read somewhere (on the internet, so it must have been true).
I went with 100/90-18 in the rear and 90/90-18 for the front. I knew they would fit thanks to many postings by other members here.

Below are some pictures of my 2nd truing setup, which is the frame + forks and swingarm. My trusty Starrett dial indicator and stand worked well. Finally, a few teaser shots of the Avons mounted on the Excel/Buchanan/Honda wheels.

Setup for measuring radial runout:


Setup for axial runout:


In situ, lit by garage flourescents:


Indoors, with better lighting:

[Goodysnap]

Nice work. From what I know you can use tubes in radial tires that are approved and not rated as tubeless. However, putting a Bias tube in a radial tire is a big nono. The other way is Okay(radial in a bias) Generally speaking w/ no specific connection to just motorcycle tires.

[A Nicest People]

One of the best restoration threads on the forum, and it ends abruptly? What a crushing disappointment! cfloren's writing is topnotch, which makes for a compelling saga that leaves you wanting more -- like, for example, the rest of the restoration.

D.C.

[cfloren]

Well it looks like I've been called out...damn! Thanks for the compliments though. I got an email alert that someone responded last night and was very surprised; I didn't think anyone was still looking at this.

Regarding the bike & restoration, it was put on a long hiatus. I did say it was a "Neverending Tale," right? It's currently packed up and organized on shelves in my garage. I'm rebuilding my Toyota pickup as a reliable daily driver at the moment but it's almost done. Once that's over it is back to the Superhawk as my main project.

But there will be another chapter soon, and a running bike before the end of the year. The restoration will stray quite a bit farther from stock than originally planned, but I promise I'll document it and post it all up here. And I don't want the bike to lose its personality in the process.

Suffice it to say I don't think there have been many (if any) Honda 305s built in the way I'm planning for this bike ;-)