(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/March255.jpg)
In April of 09 I picked up this crashed 2000 900ie as a rebuild project for my GF............ mostly cosmetic.......should be a relatively quick and cheap fixer upper.
My girl got took the MSF course 4 years ago and the only bike she had ever ridden was my 01 900 as we didn't have a second bike. When it came time to buy her a bike she wasn't interested in anything other than a monster. She didn't care if it was a 620, 750 or 900, but used monsters of almost any year and displacement, up here in Canuckistan, still go for over $5000, so when this crashed one came up for $2000, I figured I'd have a look. On a cold rainy spring day I stopped by the vintage motorcycle shop in which this bike sat, stuffed between a bunch of other wrecks. The guy swore the engine ran strong when it came in and the frame and forks were straight. I looked at it as well as I could, but I should have dragged the damn thing out into the light and taken the time to look it over fully. However, I was eager and wanted to do something manly for my girl and build her a motorcycle. [laugh]
I offered the guy $1500 and without a second's hesitation he jumped at it and we were loading the thing into my truck in the pouring rain, 2 minutes later. On the hour long drive home I was mentally tallying up the cost of refurbishing the bike. Paint and body work, used rims, bits and pieces here and there off this place, fleabay and extras I had in the garage and I could have this thing up and running by mid summer for $3000 total. [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh]
I got home, unloaded the bike and started pulling things off. As soon as I pulled the beer tray off, I realized the frame was tweaked significantly. As I began to really look things over, I realized everything was shot..........everything. There were very few salvageable pieces. The forks were straight, but leaking, the tank was leaking and punched pretty good, but fixable, the frame was tweaked but fixable, the wiring harness was fine, one footpeg bracket was ok, the shock was fine, and most everything else was garbage.
Thank goodness the engine was in great shape
until:
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/bikehole003.jpg)
[bang]
killin me with the suspense man. post faster!!!! [popcorn]
I'm not sure if it's visible in any of my pics, but the rear engine mount was also cracked badly and the bolt bent. This the one that I find most embarrasing as it was easily visible if I had of taken 3 seconds to look.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/April1005.jpg)
Quote from: uglyducky on May 28, 2010, 04:06:08 PM
killin me with the suspense man. post faster!!!! [popcorn]
I'm doing my best, but my mechanical retardation is only slightly better than my modern, technical device retardation
By now the reality had set in....................this was not going to be a 'replace a few thing, paint the tank, spit and polish and put on the road in a month' deal.
I began to feel overwhelmed, I think I may have had a anxiety attack, I'm sure I wet my pants and I know I lay in a ball on the garage floor and sucked my thumb for some time. My GF stepped through the garage door and asked me what I was doing and if I could fix it. As I wiped the tears from my eyes (blaming the leaking gas fumes) and pulled myself out of the fetal position, extracted the thumb from my mouth and threw my pants under the work bench, I heard the words come out of my mouth, but I'm still unsure of where they came from.......... yeah baby.....everythings cool......no worries.
by the next day I had the bike to this point, but still no plan.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/April5th005.jpg)
oh yeah, the swingarm was badly bent, although the rear brake caliper and rotor were good as were one of the front calipers and rotors.
[popcorn]
I did have some spare items including a swingarm I had purchased a few years earlier for cheap with the intention of pc'ing it for my 01 900. I also had a pair of cut and cored stock cans from my 01 that I had replaed with a micron exhaust I had bought off fleabay cheap. The rim in the picture was from a local dealership. I phoned the service dept. on a whim and asked the mechanic if they happened to have any used rims for sale. He replied that they did not, but he had a front rim he would be willing to sell. For $100 it was mine............good deal.
Did you look over the bike before you buying it?
ask questions about how it crashed or any major known defects? or did u just show up, buy a bike and bounce?
Here's one more pic of tearing things down:
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/March251.jpg)
I don't have much more in the way of before pics.
I also didn't have much room to work. We live in a smallish condo in which the previous owner had done a really nice job of turning 2/3 of the garage into a home office. While it's a great space, it only leaves me with 1/3 of a garage with which to work on and store two bikes. This was the main reason it took a full year to rebuild the bike. With both bikes in the garage and the door closed, I can't even get to the second bike without climbing over the 1st. With no heat and no room, I didn't touch the bike between November and mid March. With a fairly early spring, however, I was able to get back at it around the middle of March.
So....... I spent most of the summer of 09 collecting parts off the 'parts for sale' section here and fleabay. I spent many of days perusing the Tech section searching for information. I also posted a number of questions and am eternally grateful to the helpfull advice extended to me by a number of knowledgable members and mods here. I would have been in a tough spot without it.
Quote from: He Man on May 28, 2010, 04:41:06 PM
Did you look over the bike before you buying it?
ask questions about how it crashed or any major known defects? or did u just show up, buy a bike and bounce?
yeah........the latter
actually I did ask a few questions and all the guy knew was that it had low sided on the right side and stopped when it hit a curb. That looked to be consistant with the damage, although, as I mentioned in the first post, I did a horrible job of looking it over
Along with collecting parts I had the engine welded. A good friend of mine builds beautiful cobras......not kit car cobras, but 500 hp, take to the track, race car cobras. He sent me to his welder who fixed up the engine for $100. I was pleased as punch with that.
I was going to take the frame to get straightend when I ran into a local bike restoration guy. He told me not to straighten the frame without the engine in it, or it would never fit right. I'm not sure if that was the right advice, but it worked out perfectly. I had the frame, footpeg hangers, swingarm, and handlebar clamps sandblasted and pc'd for $300, through a friend who builds wire display wracks. He sent my stuff in with one of his orders, which took a month to come back, but I was in no hurry.
Everything else I picked up here or on fleabay.
Carry on, I'm lovin' it. [beer]
[popcorn]
By the time the snow began to fly I had most of the parts. I did do a few things over the winter, like putting together the gauges that I picked up in bits and peices.......a housing here, a speedo there, a tach some place else.
I also took my tank and front fender to a highly recommended body place. I received a quote of $1200 for repair and paint. I said "thank you very much, but that's a little beyond my budget" and put the stuff back in my truck and drove home. A friend of mine braised the the hinge area of the tank for me and I did the body work myself with a little advice from ducpainter. I also attempted to do the paint myself which i thought looked ok. A friend of mine introduced me to a little old Italian guy who has a great reputation locally as a top notch body and paint guy, who's prices noone else can touch. I thought I might just get him to clearcoat the tank, but when he looked at it he spoke 4 simple words, in his heavy Italian accent, "Thatsa notta verddy goood"
He then told me he would "maka lika factorry" for $300 for the tank and fender .....cash. I'm a cheap guy, but that seemed like a more than fair offer.
A week later I showed up at Frank's Autobody with a $30 bottle of Italian wine and recieved a beautiful tank and fender and great big hug from Frank.
When mid March hit, I began to put thing back together. I had bagged and tagged everthing and taken a lot of micro pics of each area, which was very helpful. The information I received here saved my [bacon] several times and I also had my 2001 900ie to look at, which was incredibly helpful. I did the fork seals and oil, which went fairly smooth and then began to simply put the puzzle back together.
I didn't take any pics along the way, so I guess I'll just post the finished product, which was mostly done last week.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/mandiesmonster.jpg)
Last tuesday I finally got the place where it was time to hit the start button. I waited till nobody was around as I didn't want to embarrass myself. I filled and bled the clutch and brake fluids filled the engine with oil, and the tank 1/4 full with gas. With a belly full of butterflies i hit the start button................nothing. I swapped the plugs, checked the ground wires, checked the kickstand switch (may have been the problem), checked every other connection, threw the batter on the charger over night and the next morning tried again.............with the GF sitting in the house unaware that I was about to give it a try. I hit the button and broom, broom, broom. I sat and reved the thing for a good 5 minutes with the biggest, dumbest grin on my face
Congrats, man, that rocks! [thumbsup]
Point that headlight down a bit and ride it!
I've had it out for 3 rides so far......a couple of 20 minute rides and then a 2 hour ride yesterday. It rides just like my 2001 900ie. In fact it seems to have a little more go than my 2001. My 2001 has 60k miles on it compared to 10k, so I'm guessing the engine on the 2000 might just be a little fresher and tighter. It's nice to ride a bike for the first time and it feels new, but at the same time, very familiar.
I still have a couple things left to do. I have to figure some type of rear signals. I may go integrated at some point, but I'm out of funds at this point. The GF did not want a tail chop and I couldn't afford to pick up a new beer tray yet, so I dremmeled, sanded and painted the old beer tray. It looks pretty good, but there's no place to affix turn signals.
I also screwed up the tach wiring. The speedo and all the lightst work, but I have to go back in and fix the tach wiring.
Other than that, she's ready to go. I will get her safetied and plated this week and we should be riding together next weekend. I'm on holiday's this week so I will get it out for a few more shake-down rides before I let my girl on it. I want to make sure it's gone over and over before she throws a leg over. In fact I might even have her ride mine for the first few weeks until I'm sure I haven't f***ed something up.
Quote from: Speeddog on May 28, 2010, 05:33:38 PM
Congrats, man, that rocks! [thumbsup]
Point that headlight down a bit and ride it!
yeah.........did that after I took the pic...........actually after I put it next to mine and realized it was pointed high.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/mandiesmonster2.jpg)
this is the only other pic I have so far.................. the two together.
my girl wants to get out and do some pics with her on the bike. She's a very good amateur photographer, so we should get some nice shots.
Oh yeah.............the finally tally is $4300 for the rebuild. I will probably look for an aftermarket, used exhaust over the next few months, so the finally tally will likely bump up to $5000 ish.
All in all I'm really happy with that. I probably could have bought one across the border, in the US for that price and saved myself the time and hastle, but I really enjoyed most every minute. In fact, My bike needs to be freshened up and I now have the confidence to tear it down in the fall and have the frame and other items PC'd over the winter and put it together in the spring.
Again, thank you very much to everyone who gave me advice throughout. I know it can get a little tedious when people ask seemingly simple questions, but I really appreciate all the help.
What color is it?
Hard to tell from the pics, first pic seems to have some green, second looks gray.
Quote from: pitbull on May 28, 2010, 04:28:34 PM
By now the reality had set in....................this was not going to be a 'replace a few thing, paint the tank, spit and polish and put on the road in a month' deal.
I began to feel overwhelmed, I think I may have had a anxiety attack, I'm sure I wet my pants and I know I lay in a ball on the garage floor and sucked my thumb for some time. My GF stepped through the garage door and asked me what I was doing and if I could fix it. As I wiped the tears from my eyes (blaming the leaking gas fumes) and pulled myself out of the fetal position, extracted the thumb from my mouth and threw my pants under the work bench, I heard the words come out of my mouth, but I'm still unsure of where they came from.......... yeah baby.....everythings cool......no worries.
by the next day I had the bike to this point, but still no plan.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/April5th005.jpg)
oh yeah, the swingarm was badly bent, although the rear brake caliper and rotor were good as were one of the front calipers and rotors.
ahahahahahahhahahhahhhahahahahahaha, killin me man. you should charge for people to read this sh*t!!! ahahhahahahaha [clap]
well done man. this was a blast - thx for postin it!
[clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]
Great post/series.
I completely appreciate that feeling you get when you kick the thing over for the first time and it fires up.
I used to do ground-up resto's on old Brit road bikes and remember that "moment of truth" when you turn the ignition on and the engine comes on-line
and the broad grin that you get with it....you have resurrected the dead...there's a primordial magic in that
there is almost nothing like it ;)
Quote from: Speeddog on May 28, 2010, 06:06:46 PM
What color is it?
Hard to tell from the pics, first pic seems to have some green, second looks gray.
The colour is a Honda product (or maybe Toyota). It's called 'Phantom Grey. My GF saw it on a car in the mall parking lot and said that was the colour she wanted. I have a couple of reproduction aluminum ducati wing tank badges I'm trying to figure out how to mount. I've bent them to fit the curve of the tank, now I have to decide how to affix them.
Quote from: RAT900 on May 28, 2010, 10:14:17 PM
[clap] [clap] [clap] [clap] [clap]
Great post/series.
I completely appreciate that feeling you get when you kick the thing over for the first time and it fires up.
I used to do ground-up resto's on old Brit road bikes and remember that "moment of truth" when you turn the ignition on and the engine comes on-line
and the broad grin that you get with it....you have resurrected the dead...there's a primordial magic in that
there is almost nothing like it ;)
"resurrecting the dead" was exactly the feeling. It was a good feeling to have salvaged something that would have been scrapped and bring it back to being a machine that, at this point, goes and performs really well. It was also satisfying to have done it with limited mechanical skills. I'm good with tools and good with my hands I've just never had any mechanical experience. Now to be honest, if the engine was in any worse shape than it was, I would have likely taken it to a ducati guy about an hour from me, who does really good work for a fraction of the dealership price. A lot of guys go to him with old rebuilds as well as newer ducatis. I would have given it a shot, but if I got in over my head, off the expert I would have gone. So I did have a little luck go my way.
Great write up. I really enjoyed it. Excellent job you should be proud.
Yeah, great writeup and nice job! [thumbsup] Well done getting it back on the road.
8)
thanks for all the kind words
Quote from: pitbull on May 29, 2010, 04:40:07 AM
thanks for all the kind words
ok, now do another one. we'll wait.
Bravo! [clap] Great story and enjoyed the write-up. Read pieces to my wife (non-rider) and she was laughing out loud as well.
well done.
Brutal, but think of the good story you have now. So much better than "remember that time I bought that perfectly good bike for my girlfriend?"
(http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj19/DrunkenMonkey_bucket/clapx.gif)
Well done "lemons to lemonade" story [thumbsup]
Quote from: uglyducky on May 29, 2010, 07:22:00 AM
ok, now do another one. we'll wait.
I don't have the money or the space in my garaget for another project. I'd also like to spend less time working on bikes this summer and more time riding.
Quote from: pitbull on May 28, 2010, 05:50:49 PM
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/magnus157/mandiesmonster2.jpg)
Thankyou for posting this. They do make a beautiful couple, don't they?
I can really relate. Yesterday I had the most incredibly frustrating time. I'm upgrading the suspension on my 695 with superbike parts. Both shock and forks need new springs. I bought a spring compressor from an auto store to remove the spring from the shock, which turned out to be much too big to fit my spring, discovered only after a frustrating hour trying to make it work.
So then I thought I'd pop the springs out from my forks, to see if they've got a rate stamped on them. Another frustrating hour ensued. I undid the cap with no trouble, but just don't have the strength needed to push the spring down far enough to get the little tool I made in to hold it and allow me to undo the nuts holding the cap.
So now I'm resigned to getting a shop to do it, which pushes it all back another month or so while I save the money for labour as well as parts.
Anyway, thanks for showing me the light at the end of the tunnel. I really needed that.
Really enjoyable writeup, well done! [thumbsup]
Well done.
Tell your sweetheart there's love in that bike!
A great story that you will share and look back on over the years.
Cheers
Dude. That's awesome. You give the rest of us mechanical retards hope. Makes me want to go out and find an old dream bike to restore. Congrats on a beautiful pair of bikes.
Great story. Top ending! Well done pitbull
thanks again for all the kind words.
I'm getting the bike safetied today so it can be registered and plated by tomorrow. Both my GF and I are on holidays this week so we want to get out together for a few rides.
I'll get some good pics of my girl on the bike in the next few days and put 'em up.
Great story, thanks for posting!! [thumbsup]
Great job and thanks for sharing.
Nice work on the restoration & write up, and both of you be careful out flogging it!
mitt
awesome right up thanks for a great read that one can relate to
Love it! Great job Pitbull! [thumbsup] [clap]
that's badass dude! those are two sweet looking bikes! [beer
and i think you're being a bit harsh with the "tard" title... you oughta see me screwing up things on my bike ;)