Hmm...graphite, eh? Definitely a thought, though don't know if I want to go through the whole painting ordeal again. Maybe after all this is done, I might actually be happy enough with the bike to leave it be for a while. With my luck, the engine will probably blow up now!
That cap definitely takes a bit of getting used to, looks-wise. It seems to have a more 'purposeful' appearance now, if that makes sense (for really serious gas tank filling!). While all the gas tank parts are still Honda, the cap (to me) seems to give it a bit of a Manx Norton look -- I'm sure that those of you who know real Manx Nortons will think that's a crazy comparison, but it's just the first thing that pops into my head when I look at it. When I first looked at the tank without it being on the bike, the cap looked a bit big, but once I sat the tank on the bike, everything seemed to look proportional.
The newly-chromed latch arrived late yesterday, and now John has everything. He said that the bike will be ready either late Monday or Tuesday. We leave for Mid-Ohio on Thursday morning, so I'll at least have a bit of time to give the bike a shakedown ride to make sure everything is fine. The bike should probably run faster now that I'm having three decals removed ;)
Hopefully we won't have the torrential downpours this year at M-O like we did last year, but they are calling for hotter weather next week, so you never know....
Japan Meets Britain
The Capper.......Vince,
That's one 'swank tank' and I love that the little latch is the final piece of your pride and joy! DTS
Last edited by downtoscratch on Sat Jul 03, 2010 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nice. My leaky cap is giving me nothing but grief as well. My old cork cap actually held gas in better than the new one I bought with the rubber gasket. No matter what I do, it seems to come out when the tank sloshes.
Is the flip cap vented at all? I might be shipping your welder a tank this winter :-) It definitely looks top notch and is sure to get a lot of attention.
You know, I didn't check to see where it vents, but I think it vents from the underside edge of the cap. Lee was mindful of this when he did the paintwork, so he stopped the black paint halfway up the filler neck, and then clear coated up to the top of the filler neck.
The welder added a collar that goes down into the tank, and there's a 1/4" diameter hole on one side of the collar that acts as an overflow. We thought this process through very carefully, and there were no less than 4 people involved in its creation -- John the mechanic, Mike the welder, Lee the painter, and me the 'conceptualist'. And I can't forget Jerry (downtoscratch) for the kind contribution of the gas cap latch! As far as sending tank/tanks up here, I can certainly put you in touch with John (my mechanic), and he can sure make it happen. You would of course need to source a CB350 tank, but they are fairly common and shouldn't be a problem to find. Caps are also available fairly easily, and the only thing would be to get the latch. I've opted for the push-button type as I think they look better, although they were recalled in 1978 and replaced with the keyed type. I have a keyed type just in case the push-button one fails...hopefully that won't happen!
Thanks Hotshoe! It's been a very long road, and every year I've been tweaking it here and there, but I think we now have it.
There was a bit of a scare yesterday morning after I picked up the bike from John -- I left his place and when I revved it up to about 6000rpm to shift, the bike started to go 'baa-baa-baa-baa-baa'....like it was bogging down for some reason, and it did it in every gear at the same spot. I turned around and went back to John. He took the bowls off both carbs to see if there was some piece of junk that got in there, but everything was clean. Checked the petcock, fuel lines etc and it was all fine. He checked both cylinders by pulling one plug off at a time, starting it up and revving the heck out of it. Turns out it was breaking up at 6000rpm on the right cylinder. Checked the plug and it looked fine, but replaced the plug with a new one. Same thing happened....hmmm. I asked him if the coil could possibly be the culprit. He said it was possible, but coils didn't normally pack it in like that. But, he checked and compared with another coil, and sure enough that was it. We ended up replacing both coils with new ones, and now it runs like it's on fire -- crisp throttle response all the way past 8000rpm, idles great at a stoplight, good power on the highway. Another thing John did was to add this stuff called Slime to the tires. It's supposed to help with the tire balance, and is also good in the event you have a puncture. I've spoken to others about it, and they swear by it too. You add about 8oz per tire. Anyone else try this stuff? I think after having completed these latest projects, I've taken the bike as far as I want to take it. Hopefully these modifications and improvements have helped make a better bike, as well as having resulted in something that's visually appealing. The new cap will hopefully eliminate the gas leakage that seems to plague the original caps, and I think it still retains its period appearance and looks like it belongs. As well, the redesigned chain guard will hopefully last this time around, and it's been adjusted so that it doesn't touch the back of the shock absorber (thanks to Jensen for the advice). It's also partially rubber mounted at the rear point, so it should help to absorb the road bumps. Glad I took a few people's advice and removed some of the decals (specifically the IOM TT decal on the front fender, the Ace Cafe decal on the tank, and the Castrol decal on the chain guard). I think it looks a lot cleaner without these decals, and I appreciate the recommendation! So the only decals that are left are the crossed flags on the side covers (embellished with the hand-painted ribbon and the '1966'), the Japanese/Union Jack flags on the tip of the front fender, and the Honda Collection Hall decal on the bottom of the front fender. The checkers on the tank and fenders are all hand-painted, and the only other adornments are the period UK dealer badge on the rear fender, and the reproduction UK tax disc on the left side of the bike. I'm taking out for a shakedown ride today in the 100 degree heat before our road trip to Mid-Ohio for Vintage Motorcycle Days on Thursday. The forecast calls for generally sunny skies in Ohio, with a chance of thunderstorms on Friday. Saturday is the Cafe Racer Magazine Show, and I'll throw my hat in the ring to see how the bike does. They have categories for British, Japanese, and European/American, but nothing for British/Japanese! I'll try to post a few shots from the road trip when we're back.....
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