Starting the Color Change

First job is to remove all the red bits from the new bike and start swapping over parts from my old bike. Removing the fairings has to be done carefully because of the hidden tabs that I don't want to break.  It takes some effort to separate some of the body panels, but its a fine line between enough effort and too much.

The seats are easy to remove and then comes the side panels:

Off

Then the middle cowl.  This picture shows some of the hidden tabs that I have to be careful not to break:

Middle cowl off:

Next the instrument surround and the headlight and windshield cowling:

The lower cowl and the rear cowl:

And finally, the gas tank.  I had to have Carolyn help me with this.  It took more than two hands to hold the gas tank up while at the same time disconnecting the fuel line from the fuel pump, which is inside the gas tank.

At least the front fender on my bike is the same color and doesn't have to be switched.  The chance to get a look at what's under the fairings on this bike makes me realize this is one very compact, complicated piece of machinery.  What a change from the Triumph.

I ended up with this pile of parts:

I also drilled and tapped new holes for the Ram mount for my Garmin Zumo GPS to be moved over to the new bike:

Since I left the heated grips on Jenny's bike, I bought new ones and installed them on my new bike:

With the lower cowl gone, it was easier to install the centerstand from my old bike:

Next week I'll start taking all the color parts off my old bike and then swap them over to my new bike, but for the rest of this week I'm going to do some riding as the weather is looking good.  I may even get the Triumph out for a spin.

Jenny's New Bike

Well, sort of.  It's actually my old bike.  Well, sort of.  It's getting complicated and is going to take some explanation.

Jenny has been riding for two years and the Kawasaki 250 that I fixed up for her has been a great bike to learn on, but now she is ready for a move up.  There is nothing wrong with a 250, especially for a city commuter, but her 2006 Ninja is a design that goes back to the 1980's and a modern fuel injected bike would be a significant improvement.  The Ninja is also getting up in mileage, with about 35,000 miles on it.  So shortly after I bought my 2014 Honda CBR500R I realized it would be a perfect next bike for her.  She has ridden it a few times and likes it.  Since California rules allow a family member to gift a vehicle to another family member and avoid sales taxes, I decided to give Jenny my bike in return for whatever she can get for the Kawasaki.

That was the plan, but I ran into a couple of hurdles.  The first was that Jen didn't like the color of my bike.

Too "patriotic" she claimed.  You have to cut the girl some slack.......she lives in San Francisco where being patriotic is akin to being a conservative and definitely uncool.

OK, so I would find a used 2013 or 2014 that was in the color she liked (red), gift her that one, and keep mine.  I really like my bike and was perfectly happy to keep it, but I had Craigslist searches going all up and down the West Coast and I couldn't find another one that would work.  What turned out to be a serious problem was that in order to import a non-California smog compliant vehicle into California it had to have more than 7500 miles on it.  Most bikes I saw on Craigslist were left-over dealer models or used bikes with very low mileage.  I finally decided to get the best price I could on a used red one with less than 7500 miles and swap the colored parts with my bike, which has almost 14,000 miles on it and would be no problem.  A couple of weeks ago I found a private owner with a pristine red 2014 with less than 3000 miles at a terrific price, so I bought it.  This, then, is what Jen's bike is going to look like, but it will not actually be this bike, but will be mine with the red tank and plastic bits:

Today I started the conversion.  The first thing to do it remove the hard case brackets and the centerstand from my bike, so they could be switched over to the new bike.  I need a centerstand because I often take multi-day trips by myself and need to get the rear wheel off the ground to lube the chain. It was nice to be working with metric fasteners again.  I can look at a metric nut or bolt and know what socket or wrench I need for it, whereas with the Triumph and its wonky Whitworth or British Standard fasteners I could never figure out what I needed, and sometimes nothing seemed to work.   Here are the luggage brackets:

and removed, with the passenger grab handles back on:

The centerstand:

That was a bit harder to get off as it has a VERY strong spring that has to be unhooked.

Removing the fairings is not going to be easy.  Honda motorcycles are known for their excellent fit and finish, and the way they get such close fitting, rattle free body parts is with a lot of fasteners, of all types......some visible, but most hidden.  I have the service manual for the bikes, so I should be able to figure it out, but as an example of what the directions look like, here is a page for removing just one of the side fairings:

You might think it would be easier to just swap the odometer, but to get to the instrument cluster you have to remove almost all of the fairings anyway.  Since I am going to take some kind of hit money-wise I might as well gain a bike with more than 10,000 miles less than my current one.

Triumphant

The Triumph is pretty much done.  And it runs and everything works.......lights, horn, alternator, clutch, instruments, and did I mention, IT RUNS!  I made a short video of it running, but can't seem to upload it to YouTube.  I was a happy man.  It was like the first time the Mustang moved under its own power:

Talk about old school; I haven't kick started a high compression four stroke in many years, and I can barely do it now.  Unlike modern fuel injected bikes, there is a routine you must follow to get one of these things going.  The first thing you have to do is free up the clutch plates.  They tend to stick together making the clutch not release, which makes putting it in gear a potentially damaging event.  To free the plates, you pull in the clutch and kick the engine over until the kickstarter moves freely (no longer turning the engine).  Next, turn both petcocks on (one for each carb).  Then "tickle" the carbs by pushing a button on each carb that pushes the carb float down and floods the engine slightly.  When a little gas flows out of the tickle buttons you have done enough.  Now turn on the ignition and move the kickstarter unil you feel the resistance of a compression stroke.  Now jump on it! (giving it just a little throttle).

Once it's running, there is no sound like a classic Triumph twin, and it's pretty loud too.  Even though the bike has stock mufflers, they are straight through, with just diffusers in the side.  I remember back when I had a 1967 500cc twin I strapped an old portable wire recorder on the back and went for a ride just to record the "music".

At the moment it has no leaks of any kind, which is kind of strange......it is British, you know.  We will see how that turns out.

There are still a few things I plan to do.  The tach and speedo are in need of a rebuild, but I may just buy some replica ones instead.  I may also swap the clutch and brake levers for some newer type that should have a shorter reach; I first need to see how the stock ones feel when actually riding the bike.  I look forward to that first ride, but it may be awhile because I am not going to ride it on wet roads, and where I live the roads stay wet after a rain for a long time because of all the shade from the tall trees.

Enough chat.  Here are some pics of the final product: