Valk Build/Mod Thread: Closer And Closer

Area for discussion of the Honda Valkyrie

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ericheath
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#136

Post by ericheath »

Ahhhh, I’m Jone’sing really bad.
Whatever I suggest here should be given ample time for a moderator to delicately correct. I apologize in advance.
77 WING, 1200 engine with 77 heads, cams, gl1100 foot pegs, Magna V65 front end, 764A carbs, [-gone Suzuki M109 monoshock--, replaced with gl1100 shocks] gl 1200 swing arm, gl1500 final drive, wheel and rear brakes Valkyrie seat, Meanstreak tank, Sportster pipes, Power Arc ignition off crank.
77 Wing. black
83 Wing, in pieces
"Continuing education is important even if the subject matter is fairly useless (as in this case)."---Greg Foresi
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Dirty Dave
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#137

Post by Dirty Dave »

My 97 with over 100K is still going strong with minimal repairs.

(fork seals & alternator)
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1979 GL1000
1997 Honda Valkyrie
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1975 CB750F (sold & dead)
1978 Gl1000 (sold & sleeping)
1984 Aspencade (sold)
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#138

Post by Lucien Harpress »

I'm currently creeping up on what I can do without tearing major parts of the bike apart, seeing what I can do and what I can't. The passing of the Gilmore show means there's no real place the Valk has to be, so I'm digging a bit deeper.

The rear rack, for instance, involves drilling the fender. This will be easier if I remove the lower rear section. Once it's off, I may as well replace it (I have a replacement). But rather than moving over the stock brake light and blinkers, why not replace them with my preferred new ones? Oh, and I really REALLY need a new back tire- again, I have it, I just need it mounted. See what I mean?

In any case, I think I can replace the blinkers next without too much trouble. The fronts are set. The rears need some work, but I'm getting there. I've modified the license plate mount from a similar year Honda Shadow Areo, which is essentially identical to the Valkyrie mount, but without the melted-wax looking blinkers. I'm keeping the blinkers on the license plate mount, but they're getting replaced with sharper-edged KZ ones.

I've had to cut holes in the sides of the plastic cover, and add some more substantial mounts for the blinkers underneath, but I'm very close to being able to take apart the back end and put it (mostly) back how I want it. I'm still fiddling with the brake light, but I know what I want to do. I just have to fab it up.

Image

I'll happen either this week or the next- depending if I focus on this, or on my GL1000 carbs. We shall see.

Image
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#139

Post by Lucien Harpress »

I managed to get enough together to get a fairly good idea of what the final rear fender is going to look like. I still may shift the placement of things (I'm fairly certain I'm going to move the rear blinkers up a few inches), but as far as an overall shape, I'm pretty happy.

Image

Image
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#140

Post by Lucien Harpress »

After WAY more futzing around than I anticipated, I managed to swap on my new front blinkers.

Image

Image

The amount of work it took to adapt Kawasaki turn signals and stems to the stock Honda mounts was way more than I thought going into it. The main sticking point was preventing the stems from spinning after being bolted in- Kawaski used a diamond-shaped protrusion on the stems that fit into similarly-shaped holes on the frame mounts, while the Valkyrie used a small internal tang that fit into divots inside the mount. I could get the two bolted up relatively easily, but preventing them from spinning took until right up to today. It eventually involved a Rube-Goldberg-esque arrangement of rubber spacers and a washer literally hand-filed to the correct shape to get something that worked. This wasn't helped by the almost ZERO clearance inside the Honda mounting brackets. Still, it DID work, and my front turn signals are wired up and good to go.

Of course, for a moment now my front and back turn signals don't match, but that should be fixed once I do up the rear fender/rear rack/new back tire. Which I'm closer to than it would seem.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#141

Post by Lucien Harpress »

I've reached a point of... well, not exactly "no" return, but returning would be a giant pain in the butt. Namely, I got my rear blinkers and license plate mount bolted up to my spare (clean) fender, but to do so I had to cannibalize parts from my stock blinkers.

Image

I also inadvertently made changing the license plate bulb the absolute hardest thing to do on any bike I own. Because of the way the Valkyrie and Shadow parts mate up, you need to install these tiny nuts deep up inside an assembly with barely any room as it is, at an angle. I may look into ways of making it easier, but I'm not going to take it apart again until I need to.

Image

I also pulled the whole assembly a bit higher than the stock Valk unit, because I think a bit more fender showing under the plate looks nicer. Of course, this brings it mighty close to the bottom of the stock brake light- it won't be a problem for my replacement, but I was planning on swapping over the stock light initially, so I could keep riding as I figured out how to mount the new light.

Image

Still, when I replace the rear fender I plan on replacing the back tire as well, then mounting the luggage rack at the same time. So I suppose I have a bit of time to maybe get the brake light figured out too. We'll see.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#142

Post by Lucien Harpress »

Rear wheel is away to get new shoes, so I figured it's time to get the rack bolted up and take a look at the rear fender.

Image

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Overall? I like it. Blinkers work and line up well, and the rack (while currently missing front mounts for now) looks SHARP. I've still got to finalize stuff for the brake light, but that's very close.

I also may be diving in to the front end sooner than I'd like. I was going to wait on fork seals and blacking out the upper tubes until winter, but my fork oil leak is enough to leave puddles on my garage floor. So that's happening sooner than later.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#143

Post by Rat »

Don’t want stains on your floor … or your brake pads …

Gord :shock:
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#144

Post by Lucien Harpress »

New rear tire, new rear rack, new rear blinkers.

Image

Image

Image

Still waiting on a brake light (in the mail- THAT'S going to be a conversation once I lock it down), and I think I need to shim the front of the rack up with some washers, but it's cool to see this bike inching closer to the vision I had in my head.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#145

Post by Whiskerfish »

I may have to buy a bigger shed someday!
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Psst. oh and by the way CHANGE YOUR BELTS!!!!
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#146

Post by Lucien Harpress »

No pics today, but a bit of general ranting- this brake light is going to kill me.

Initially, the plan was to build some kind of cylindrical, BMW R-series (plus whichever other models) style brake light, but slightly larger. That's why I snagged a Corvette brake light to play with. However, it turns out that making a simple cylinder... isn't. And $250 for a replica BMW light is insane. So I scrapped that.

Next up, I grabbed a smaller headlight bucket to fit my existing brake light in. Problem with that? Once on the bike, it looked way too big. Scrapped that.

My latest attempt was using a beehive style brake light from a Harley Knucklehead (or at least a reproduction of one), which looked REALLY cool in an art-deco sorta way. Only problem? The angle on the backside is way wrong, and the overall brake light is WAY too small.

Could I re-use the stock brake light? Probably. But the back end angles enough that I hate how it sits. If the back face were only vertical, I could love it. But no. Pass.

Thankfully (I suppose...) I've got some time. I need to tear the front end apart to do fork seals, and get the forks powdercoated black, so I've got a bit more time to think things through. I might be able to make a round XS680 brake light work, but I'd have to kill the license plate mount.... Eh. I hate I'm hung up on such a simple thing, but I also want to do things right, in a way I'm ultimately happy with.

On a positive note, I've got some fun things planned with the shocks in the future, and unlike the brake light, are pretty straightforward to execute. Keep an eye out for THAT relatively soon.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#147

Post by sgwilly »

Time for you to lose those rear pegs and get down to race weight.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#148

Post by Lucien Harpress »

Image

I started driving into the front end today, and apart from a couple quirks, it went pretty smoothly. I'm holding off diving INTO the forks until tomorrow, because for some reason each fork is different internally, and I want to be sure I keep things straight.

However, because life loves a curveball, taking everything off the front made it very clear that my steering head bearings are quite notchy. So guess who gets to do those? Again? For the third time?

(sigh) ...at least I'm good at it.

EDIT: Add fork bushings to the list. They look beat up enough to not risk re-using them.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#149

Post by Lucien Harpress »

Forks are off and both disassembled. Uppers are at the powdercoaters. I've got seals, I've got bushings, I'm just waiting on something a little extra, which is either brilliant or stupid. Steering head bearings are in the mail, so that may take a minute. But I MAY have figured my brake light out, so I'll have something to play with.

Making progress, but every package in the mail seems to bring work with it...
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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Lucien Harpress
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Re: Valk Build/Mod Thread: Blinkers & Baby Steps

#150

Post by Lucien Harpress »

This brake light has been giving me headaches for weeks, and for such a simple thing it was maddeningly difficult to lock down what I wanted. "Custom", "chopper" or "cafe racer" lights were always too small, my current options looked too big, and trying to fill the space in the back fender never fit just quite right.

Then I got to thinking- why do I need to use that space on the fender anyway? I've got a license plate light that isn't doing much. Why not transplant a suitable brake light on to THAT?

So I did.

Image

Image

Image

The final victim was the light off a Honda Trail 70. It's not quite as large as I'd prefer, but bigger than a LOT of my options. I definitely dig it.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with the reflectors yet. I can either leave them, remove them, replace them with round ones (that may be too many circles on the back end, though), or possibly wire some lights into them that come on when I hit the brakes. We'll see.
1997 Valkyrie- Light Cutomization, but Too Busy Riding
1980 KZ1300- Bike's Haunted
1976 GL1000 (Yellow)- Behaving Itself Rather Nicely
1974 Velosolex 3800- Better Than Walking
1972 CB750- Learning The Joys of 4 Cable Carbs
1969 CT90- The Most Fun You Can Have on 90ccs.
1965 CA77 Dream- Needs a Full Teardown, but Complete

All advice I give is only valid until an expert corrects me.
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