Monday, August 3, 2015

R75 update

So, a year and a half later, I am posting updates on the R75. I reworked a lot of the electrical. I put a new ignition in, like I mentioned. The washer that I welded into the bucket worked well with the Rocky Point parts. I installed new handlebar switches and grips. I put bar-end rear-view mirrors because the threads for the original mirrors were pretty jacked up. These bar-end mirrors were super cheap on Amazon. I don't have much faith in them lasting long. Some reviews said the mirrors pop out while riding. So, the first thing after mounting that I did was to put a silicone bead around the edges. If you don't know, denatured alcohol will clean up the extra silicone. I wipe an alcohol-wetted paper towel around the bead to smooth out the bead. I did the same thing on the speedo.


I did some minor body work after sanding. I didn't take photos, unfortunately. I am clearly not good at body work. I painted the bike black and pinstriped it myself. I am also not good at painting and pinstriping. For a moment, I thought about sanding the bike down and starting over. Instead I did a lot of fine sanding to get rid of orange peel. I figured the pinstripes wouldn't be great. So, why worry so much about the paint. Everything turned out ok. It's a 20 foot paint job, as my uncle says.

Finally, the key fix. I pried the nail key out of the plastic piece that holds it. I marked a spare key using the nail portion and a Sharpie marker. Then, I ground the spare key on a grinding wheel until it fit in the plastic piece. I had to grind the faces to narrow the width of the key too. I used marine, two-part epoxy to fill the plastic where the key sticks into it. Everything seems to work well so far. I've put about 100 miles on it this summer after getting it all complete. I'm hoping to go for a ride this week. I still need to change the oil and gear oil in it after it sat for so long, and why waste a fresh oil change?