ICC Custom - Yamaha low-rider

As you may know, ICC is an urban custom motorcycle design shop that specializes in custom/performance types, like street fighters and cafe racers.  This design, recently commissioned by owner Joel Regular, is our first ‘low-rider’.  It started life as a 1984 Yamaha XS800 F Midnight Special, an early Japanese attempt at capturing the cruiser aesthetic.  This meant a stiff, good handling ‘standard’ chassis and rolling gear, a three cylinder, 800 cc engine and shaft drive.  Note the mid-mounted pegs.

Low rider front view

However, the ‘standard’ ’80′s chassis was a little tall at the inseam to capture the low chopper look.  Since Joel was looking for more of a ‘feet on the ground’ riding position, we dropped the chassis roughly 1.5 inches at the triple tree and an equivalent amount at the rear, using a pair of 11 in. shocks meant for a Harley Hugger 883.  The stock Yamaha ‘king and queen’ seat with sissy was a mammoth affair and almost 3″ thick.  The custom solo seat with hairpin springs shown here dropped Joel another inch or two and is much narrower, effectively lowering him further.

Wide whitewalls, custom tail light, LED bullet flashers, oversize headlight, 15″ ‘ape hanger’ bars, shorty duals and glass-wrapped header pipes complete the ‘bobber/chopper’ look; almost a mid’60′s ‘rocker’ style.  Note that, unlike many west-coast, Harley-based designs, this Yamaha retains the excellent sporting dual ventilated disk brakes and suspension.

It’s not a Harley, but Joel isn’t riding a clone either – his bike is completely unique, fully street able and not out of place at any custom event.

For example, whenever you lower a bike, the side stand ‘grows’ – it’s now too long to let the bike lean over.  You have to shorten it.  That means cutting and rewelding – I’ll post the procedure for you in the near future.

Another problem that often stumps riders who want to change handlebars – control cable length. You can often order shorter or longer cables from suppliers like ‘MotionPro’.  As a last resort, is it possible to shorten a cable with ‘normal’ shop tools?  It is, but it isn’t easy – I’ll show you how.

The Rev.

Removing the chrome side panels

First step in refinishing the S90 tank was to remove the chrome side covers! (Oh, I could have removed the tank first, this is slightly easier).   Clever Honda design details – two small screws secure the plastic medallions. Once removed, a 10mm capscrew is revealed. Remove this screw and slide the chrome covers forward to release them.  These are in good shape, so we’re just going to polish the existing chrome.

Removing the petcock and crossover hose

Here you have a good look at the state of the tank underneath. A lot of guys would just ignore this area – “out of site, out of mind”. Not the Rev.

You have to do a really thorough inspection. When removing the petcock, we find a common issue – a cut o-ring. This will cause fuel to leak for sure and potentially damage the paint. Note line of corrosion along the tank seam – this is where water clings to the tank. These areas will need stripping with a wire wheel. Also note the underside, typical for a part this old. I found a place where a previous owner had soldered a patch with a plug and then sealed the tank.

Refinishing the underside

After cleaning thoroughly and some sanding, we apply a couple of coats of red anti-corrosion paint. This stuff is super tough when cured and will help protect against future corrosion.  You want to do this in advance of all your topside work – top colour on underside is OK, underside paint on top – not good.

Sanding the topside

OK, now for the pretty stuff.  Due to the sheer age of this machine, the paint is quite weathered.  I’m using fairly coarse  wet-or-dry to cut down through the surface rust to clear steel, followed with 400 grit.  The top seam got the wire wheel treatment too, so hopefully the filler primer will soften the natural factory welds!

Filler primer - ready for topcoat

I always feel funny when I cover up original finish…  then I remember that a fresh coat of Honda Red will replace it.  This is filler primer, which evens out any irregularities and fills any tiny scratches where rust was removed.  It’s also a super foundation for the final colour.  Note how rich is the red on the sides – this was covered with metal and never exposed to UV – we could measure this patch if we needed to know the original paint formula.

Prepainting the edges

It may seem like deja vu, but the key to a perfect shape is layers of perfection! Since last post, I corrected several remaining irregularities, which needed additional primer as you can see here.  Also, the edges needed attention.  Here, the tank is ready for it’s final coats of acrylic enamel colour. In this shot we’re applying a pre-coat of paint to the vulnerable areas, especially edges.

Prepainting around filler necks

The area around the filler necks needs additional paint coverage to seal the grooves and protect against wear.

Tank, final coat

This is the final, FINAL top coat of enamel. The next step is to let it cure for several days, apply the pin striping and then a final top coat of clear epoxy finish to give it a glorious shine and protect it from gasoline.  All peripheral bodywork gets this treatment.  The spine or frame is also body colour, but we will use a semigloss topcoat there.

The Honda S90

Inner City Cycle is proud to welcome another remarkable survivor into our shop, a marvellously complete 2004 Honda S90.  More or less a contemporary of the Puch Twingle featured on this site, the S90 is, in my opinion the ancestor of every modern Honda sporting bike to this day.  (Yes, I know about the Superhawk, but this guy came first.)   Most recently, the Honda CB125 ‘starter’ bike can trace it’s philosophical (if not mechanical) lineage to this design.

Speaking of the Puch, note one common design element between the two bikes – the pressed steel frame!  Effectively, a monocoque, this stamped sheet metal assembly has no tubing and is both light and inexpensive to manufacture.

The proud owner of this S90 wants to restore this example to better-than-original condition.  We’ll be doing a complete refinish as well as modifying the engine for more modern performance.

Honda 90cc engine

The engine is a 90cc single cylinder, 4-stroke OHC air-cooled design with a four speed , one down, three up transmission. Top speed was claimed to be 64 mph and the engine was rated at 8 horsepower.  Mileage was a typical 90 miles per US gallon (38 km/l), which would be respectable even today.  Honda stuck with 4-strokes for their street bikes when everyone else was getting superior output from (dirty and wasteful but powerful) 2-stroke designs.

However, the cut and thrust of Toronto traffic demands rapid response and that means torque!  Fortunately, there is a very healthy aftermarket for these bikes even today, so we are going to source a bore and stroke solution that will raise displacement from 90cc to 125cc.  The additional stroke and the increased compression ratio will certainly give the little S90 a lot more impetus!  One word of caution, however.  This engine predates unleaded fuel, so we need to be sure that the valve seats are up to the job, otherwise they must be replaced with hardened units.

Honda S90 Tank (stock red)

Here are a few photos of the S90 showing areas we will be addressing during the restoration.

Look at the superb condition of this almost 50 year-old tank.  The controls are also in fine shape and should gleam like jewellery when we polish the alloy.

Honda S90 rear wheel and shocks

Just look at the condition of this rear wheel and swinging arm assembly.  Outstanding!  This bike has been loved and cared for throughout its life.

S90 Front fender closeup

Naturally, there is some ‘patina’ to be found.  ICC will repair this fender to like new condition.

Puch tank, rippled metal repaired

Now we’re getting somewhere.  Here is a view of the repair area from a different angle.  I have applied a shot coat of glossy black base colour both tot fill and to highlight any irregularities.  Black shows everything and we want perfection for this bike.  This area is just about done, one more sanded coat, followed by a hand-rubbed final colour coat should do it.  Remember, we are going to polish the colour coat with green liquid rubbing compound before pin striping, followed by the epoxy clear coat.

Puch Tank, filling imperfections

Here we are at the front again.  This area had a lot of small imperfections, so it’s taking time.    The area immediately around the fuel and oil filler necks has many little depressions and creases.

You can see how I am applying the same process here – rubbing between each coat to ensure that all imperfections are filled and properly contoured. Again, there is no magic to this stuff, just patient, methodical tweaking.  The flexible sanding block is your friend, but there is no substitute for the human touch.  If you can feel it, you will see it.

Puch side cover, colour coat

I know this shot of the side cover belongs under “Sheet Metal”, but I wanted to show you a part that is more or less finished to this stage – colour coat prior to pin striping and clear coat.  This is acrylic enamel, in case you wondered and capable of a pretty good gloss in its own right.  I could have used a less durable paint as a colour coat, but I wanted two things – bulletproof durability and a ‘period’ appearance (despite a modern epoxy clear coat.)

BTW, the knob on the left is still wrapped in masking tape.

Rust 'bubbles' show problem

You will recall that when the sheet metal was media blasted, several areas of rust-through were revealed. Here you can see one of four areas on the sides of the front fender that show rust through from underneath.

view from underside - spot-welded braces

Here is the cause. Puch used two metal braces – ‘U’ shaped channel-sections spot welded to the underside of the fender to stiffen it. Since these are channel-sections, there are spaces between them and the metal of the fender skin which can trap moisture. You can see that Puch have provided some level of drainage by leaving openings at the ends. Unfortunately, this proved completely ineffective, since the underside of a fender is naturally bombarded with moisture and dirt throughout its life. It is the function of a fender, after all! In this case, moisture has been trapped in these spaces and has gradually eaten away at both fender and brace from the inside out. We have little choice but do major (and extremely ugly) surgery.

using an angle grinder to cut out the rust.

This is what I’m talking about. Tempting as it might be to just gloss over this area with some filler, it wouldn’t be a true restoration and the problem would quickly reassert itself. So nothing for it but to get ugly with a grinder and cut out the compromised sheet metal over the braces. I made four slots, two per side over the two braces.

removing dirt packed into the space

…And here is the reason for the rust. Puch’s drainage might have worked, but being a fender, these spaces filed up with dirt, forming a kind of sponge that soaked up and held water, which in turn rusted through the steel. To repair this properly, I am going to have to clean out the dirt, wire brush these gaps to remove as much rust as possible, treat the area with rust converter, weld in patches and then saturate these spaces with the same anti-corrosion paint I’m using on the rest of the bike. Ugh. Stay tuned!

Primer reveals 4-5 depressions

Sometimes the only way to see all  imperfections is to apply a coat of primer. Last post we followed the Puch tank from rough to prime.  Today, we can see that the job is not quite done.  Look at the top, tail section of this tank.  Can you se the 3-4 elongated depressions?  One wonders about the history of old bikes like this.  How did this odd damage occur? Or is this how it came from the factory, like the many obvious spot welds I have found around the bike?  The Allstate versions were price-concious and ‘fit & finish’ in 1962 was not to the meticulous standards of the present day.  In the interests of authenticity I want to preserve the manufacturing ‘flaws’ as much as possible; however since the tank is the focal point of any bike, this particular  flaw (original or not) must be corrected!

After block sanding

Here’s where a block sander comes in handy. The shiny ‘fingers’ are the high spots where the sanding block has removed the primer and old paint. Te lines of black in between are the low spots we need to fix.

hammer work reduces the bumps

Of course, you could just slather body filler over this area, but the final contour would probably not be correct for the tank, because the high spots are probably higher than they should be.  Instead, we are going to use a hard rubber mallet to gently and carefully, knock them down.  If you do this correctly, you can ‘massage’ the metal to a less pronounced deformation, greatly minimizing the amount of filler to just a thin ‘skim’ coat.

Note the seam in the centre of the tank – the is the joint between the two tanks – gasoline and oil.  This is a high spot that will form the reference point, since it can’t be deformed .  The contour must slope from the centre outward.

first application of filler

Now we can start to apply that skim coat of filler. This is actually the first of two applications. This one was not quite enough, the areas on the right and left are still ‘proud’ (high) and a second thin application was required to get just the right curvature.  I like to use a body metal file to remove the excess and roughly shape the filler as it hardens. Then when it is really hard, I use the block sander with 400 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper to shape the final contour. Remember, if you can feel it, you will be able to see it. Block sanding, patience and a good eye are the only way to get it right.

When I am satisfied that the filler is as good as it can be, I will cover it with a coat of ‘filler primer’; thicker than the sandable black.

The focal point of any motorcycle is the fuel tank.  Our Puch is equipped with a nice, teardrop saddle type tank.  It’s actually two tanks; one on the right for gasoline, one on the left for 2-stroke oil.  You see, although the Puch was made in 1961/62, it incorporates a positive injection system that eliminates the need to premix oil and gasoline.  The Japanese would incorporate this feature in all their 2-stroke designs in the following years of the decade, but we see it here early in the Puch; another example of its advanced engineering and one of many reasons that this is a significant motorcycle.

Filing excess epoxy filler

The interior of the tank is fine – the oil side (on the image right, note the dip stick!) is naturally corrosion free and the fuel side looks like it was recoated in recent years.

In the last post we had wire-brushed the tank to remove corrosion and expose flaws.  We filled a seam  in the nose of the tank and a dent behind the oil filler neck with JB Weld metalized epoxy.

In this photo, we’re using a very coarse ‘body metal file’ to rip off the excess epoxy and shape the repairs.

Patches and tank rough sanded

In the series at left, we make the tank ready for it’s prime coat by working down from coarse sandpaper to fine 400 grit.  This course sand sets the contours and makes sure there is no rust anywhere in cracks and grooves.  The surfaces must be relatively smooth.

After wet sanding - front view

Here is the tank after wet-sanding with 400 grit wet-or-dry paper and a sanding block. It’s shiny because it is still wet.

After wet sanding, rear view

It’s very important to ensure that the transitions between layers of paint exposed by sanding are ‘feathered’. That is, the transition should be very gradual, showing swaths of colour from each layer around the outline of the area. This is so that when we apply new paint, there are no visible lines showing through from the surface underneath.

Underside, anti-rust and primer coats

Dried and degreased, the tank is now ready for its prime coats. This shot underneath shows two applications. The centre, saddle area has been painted with anti-corrosion paint, as we have done with all interior painted surfaces. The outer, underside surfaces show the first coat of sandable black primer. Remember, this area was a mass of grease, dirt, rust and chipped paint before we began this process. Now look at it!

First coat of black sandable primer

Finally, here is the topside in a fresh, very liberal coating of sandable black primer. As mentioned in previous posts, this stuff allows the colour coat to adhere properly to the surface but it also covers lots of irregularities, including the feather-sanded areas.

Next step is to block-sand the primer layer and respray it prior to the colour coat of black enamel.

The Rev

Today I really wanted to post a raving diatribe against the moronic design of motorcycle battery terminals, but that’s going to have to wait.  I think I’ll create a new category for Spirt of the Ride called ‘Stupid Motorcycle Tricks’.

On that subject, I wanted to show you a picture of something I have never done before.

There are several Motorcycle Encyclopediae in my library and in them you can see historical examples of unconventional motorcycle applications.   In war as machine gun carriers, as bakery vans with sidecars full of bread, as roadside assistance vehicles (think CAA on a bike), paramedic response and so forth, not to mention the venerable Harley Servicar trike or ‘pie wagon’  popular with parking enforcement and commercial delivery alike.

And why not?  Bikes have an inherent advantage where congestion interferes with commercial delivery .  Since Toronto has become one of the most congested cities in North America, the Rev has taking to leaving the Sprinter van at home and bundling everything onto the Bandit for a quick dash across town.

Motorcycles can be Commercial Vehicles

Aside from the limitations of weather, I have found that the motorcycle saves me a lot of time and money, not to mention giving access to underground parking and other tight urban places.  I can carry all my tools and detailing supplies without too much trouble.

But this week was the first time I tried to carry a ladder.

I’ve been working on the Menezes provincial election campaign in Oshawa and one of my tasks was to design, get printed and install the campaign office banner.   The banner had to install on a 146″ x 22″ light box over the door, about 12 feet up.  Fortunately, I have a very nice folding aluminum ladder that stores in a package about 5 ft. long.

Ladder on a motorcycle? Why not?

As you can see from the photo, I was able to lash the ladder to the back of the Bandit without compromising either my seating position, or the stability of the bike.  Installed flat, it offered no discernible aerodynamic drag and the light weight did not adversely affect handling.  I made it out to Oshawa in under an hour and had the banner up soon after.

Here is a photo of the Rev on the ladder, just to give you an idea of the height at which I was working.

Climbing the political ladder?

Of course, the Suzuki Bandit is a ‘standard’ – the traditional motorcycle pattern with handlebars and sit-up, feet-under-you riding position and a centre stand.  My Bandit has the factory rack with Givi plate on it.   You could pull this off with a similar ‘naked’ bike from another manufacturer, but likely not with a cruiser or sport bike.

the Rev

The path to a better-than-original finish includes several distinct steps.  As always, the more effort you put into the parts early in the process, the less messing around you will have to do during the final steps.  Since errors tend to accumulate a the process goes forward, one has to have high standards at the start.

1962 Puch Twin Single restoration - chainguard cap, primer coat

Here is an example of Puch sheet metal after it has been media blasted to remove corrosion, then covered with a couple coats of sandable black primer.  As well as providing a surface that will stick to bare metal, this stuff is almost like body filler.  You can use a sanding block and 400 grit wet-or-dry to even out and cover a lot of imperfections.

1962 Puch restoration, chain guard cap, colour coat

Here is the same piece after the first coat of black acrylic enamel.  Although enamel is harder to work with than laquer, it is more durable and more accurate for this bike, which was originally  painted with enamel.  After I am satisfied with the colour coat, I will cover it with an acrylic enamel clear coat.

1962 Puch restoration, headlight shell, prior to paint

You will remember that the headlight shell could not be media blasted because the red and green lenses are riveted to the shell.  I had to remove the corrosion using a power drill and a rotary wire brush, file down the pitting and hand sand the whole thing  Bare metal shows where the shell was once very rusty.  The flange, around the headlight opening, was particularly bad, as it would trap water.  Note that you must ‘feather’ the areas where paint has been removed or the line will show and spoil the result.

1962 Puch restoration, headlight shell, primer

… and here it is after primer.  I masked the lenses with some thin masking tape.  This is a critical piece because it is one of the first visual highlights viewed, right after the tank. I’ll show you the very stunning result tomorrow after I apply the colour coat.

1962 Puch restoration, tank, before starting

Ah, the tank.  Actually it was in pretty good condition.  Here it is prior to any work.  Note the dent in the left side, behind the oil tank cap.  The tank is going to need the same treatment as the headlight shell – wire brushing, hand sanding, as well as a bit of filler for that dent and a weld seam on the front.

1962 Puch restoration, tank, wire brushed, filled

Here is the tank after wire brushing.  The area around the tank cap necks got a lot of attention to remove the rust from the seams.  There is a fair amount of factory filler in this tank and it looks pretty ratty at this stage. However, once filled, sanded and primed, it will look terrific.  The area I’m pointing to is the dent from the previous photo.  I have filled it with JB Weld, which is a metallized epoxy, MUCH stronger than body filler.  Once it sits overnight, I can file it down to the original contour.