Thread: Pictures of my Motorcycle

Well, its been about 2 years since I posted on here regularly. I figured I would start it off again with some pictures of the project bike I have been building for the last 2 years. It started out life as a 1973 Yamaha TX500A. It is the first DOHC parallel twin that Yamaha had brought to the US. When I found it it was sitting in a barn on its side covered in chicken crap and mud (gotta love farmers). Here is a picture of it when I got it back to the apartment.

So I started tearing it down and taking inventory of the parts and where they came off of. Most of the first years actions were taking it apart, cleaning, repairing, and restoring the electrical components on it. At the end of the first year, i decided I was going to tear into the motor in my apartment. So I take the motor out of the frame and drag that 100 pound monster up a flight of stairs and down about a 50 yard hallway to my apartment. There I start to disassemble it, this is what that looked like.

So about this time, I decide I am going to go back to school and finish off my degree. For this to happen, I will have to move out of the apartment. Luckily for me, my parents allow me to move back home for real cheap. So I have to pack all the parts up and move them on out to the parent's house. I am pretty sure that I have lost some parts on the move, but luckily, most of them were just standard metric bolts that I can grab at a hardware store.

So I finally get settled in at the parent's house. I started on the next part of the bike, getting the parts that I want powder coated and the frame together to send off to be coated. I sand blasted most of the parts myself (not the frame, just too big) so that saved me a lot of money in the end. Here are a few before and afters.

Sandblasted before powder coating.


After powder coating.


Now that I have the parts that I wanted powder coated back, I could start assembling the bike. I went pretty much front to back, rebuilding the frame and components. I started on the wheels first though, I converted the original single disc brake to dual disc brakes, rebuilt the front forks and converted the front controls and handle bar to a cafe styling. New SS brake lines for stopping those dual discs quickly. I then did the rear tires, pretty straight forward, new spokes, tires, mount, true, and balance. New chain and sprockets with a little higher gear ratio for a little better top end speed. It took about 4 eBay auctions to get a set of tins and side covers that weren't messed up. I had a buddy of mine acid dip the tank to clean it inside and outside. I chose my color, Tripoli Turquoise (though it is a little lighter then the actual color, paint mix up, but it looks decent enough) to match my fathers old 1968 Chevy Nova II Super Sport 350.


As of this posting, this is what it looks like. I mounted the motor in the frame, though I will most likely have to pull it out again at some point in the next couple of weeks. I Mocked up the exhaust to see what it looked like. Here is what she looks like so far.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3312/4612898949_a259175d14_b.jpg[/img]

I will post some more pics when I get farther along, hoping to have it running in under a month. Maybe I will make a video and post it to the tube. I am hoping it sounds good.

Thanks you two, still got a lot of little things, but i don't think they will be too bad.

Damn! Nice turn around!

Now sell that biotch.

Nice work Blaster ! It looks sweet but too small for You !

Originally Posted by BruceBloodMaster

Nice work Blaster ! It looks sweet but too small for You !

I know, when I sit on it, I feel like I should hire a jockey to ride it for me. Just to get the proportion right. Although that is not the smallest motorcycle I have ever ridden. That honor would go to the 1961 Honda CB160 I rode around at a buddies house.