Hodaka Ace 100 clean up

This was trade work, clean up and get running one bike for exchange for another (gs550 future post). This little bugger had been tarped over for at least the last 25 years. All in all it was in pretty good shape, just a lot of sitting and corrosion. The owner expressed that he didn't want anything changed or painted, just a good clean up and repair.

The only truly bad parts of the bike:

gas tank -the old fuel was still in there, pin hole leaks everywhere. I chose to put clear epoxy on it to show the owner, and not try to hide it. if you got an old tank and need to get the sludge out; use oxy-clean and boiling water. that gets most of it out, pressure wash from there.
Points and timing - lucky the manual was still with the bike. The points were finicky, had to replace the condenser
Exhaust baffle, was caked so thick with old grease on the inside only a small pin hole was open. had to pull the baffle out and burn off the old crap
Carburetor had something like hard jello internally. It took nearly a day to carefully pull apart, clean, make new gaskets, and reassemble.

once the bike was together it started every time on a half kick, and was actually quite fun to put around on. it's get's something crazy like 115mpg. The owner was happy, but plans to let me do some actual repair work to the tank as the clear epoxy will not last long. This project took about a week to be drivable again.

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Mad Max inspired 83 Goldwing

When I first saw this bike on craigslist, it wasn't much to look at, all the exterior had been stripped, but the motor was all there and it had a title for $130 so it was a perfect candidate for some moderate changes. I did some sketches and started hanging bits of metal off of it to see what was possible. I've recently fell in love with the mad max, rat rod/bike look and wanted to try my hand. But first I had to make sure it would run as it had been sitting for some time.

1978 Suzuki GS550

So in an earlier post I mentioned that I got a GS550 for some trade work on a little Ace 100. This bike got parked sometime in the early 90's (I was still in high school) under a pine tree. if you can imagine what 25 years of pine needles and sap can make a motorcycle look like, and then add on that someone had been steeling parts off of it; imagine no further. This project isn't quite finished yet; it will be within the next few weeks to get it on the road. I'm just down to electrical parts I need to buy, but cash has ran out so I'm waiting on that. Finally finished and it's a fun little bike.

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First off, yes it's missing bunches of parts, hence the mock up title. this is a Yamaha Frame (I have a title for) 77 Honda XL350 motor, Kawasaki gas tank, some old headlight bucket, and Kawasaki wheels probably. It's cool that low, but maybe a few inches up would be nice too.

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