Its (nearly) aliiiive!!!!!!

Tha Dance of the Rebels

My lovely hubby has been hard at work on the two parts bike Rebels. You may recall, we purchased a non-running 450 a year or more ago. The idea was it would be spare parts for the daily runner. Or, if we felt so inspired, a practice wrenching bike for me, or even better, a bike hubby could get going for us to sell. Of course, it sat for a while before any of those things came to pass. We did scavenge a few parts from it here and there though. Then, we purchased another 450 for parts. This one had been wrecked in the late 1990s but did have a running engine. No title with it but the first parts bike did come with a title. So, the new plan was to swap out all the good parts to make the titled parts bike a runner. That is where we are now. (And by we, I mean hubby.)
Above is the wrecked bike as hubby was preparing to remove the engine. The original owner (who I think bought it new) t-boned a car. The forks are mashed, the front fender was mangled (long since tossed by us), the gas tank has a massive dent in it where the rider landed on it (ouch!), and once the engine was out, we discovered a crack in the frame.

Below is the parts bike with the engine, among other things, already removed. Hubby thinks the engine is fine and that the starter might be bad. So, he is swapping out all of the keyed bits from the wrecked bike.

Both bikes came with trashed gas tanks. The parts bike had a tank from a 250 that was rusty and had many dents in it. I gave that to some one for the cost of shipping. The wrecked bike, in addition to the big dent, was also rusty inside. This bike had been stored outside since the wreck. Hubby said there was water coming from some of the parts as he removed them. All in all, the thing is in pretty good shape though. Mostly cosmetic issues aside from the wrecked issues. Between the two bikes, there is definitely a very nice running 450 in there. They both had very low miles as well. We'll need to replace the front tire but the rear was brand new when we got the parts bike. So, we'll leave that up to the next owner I think.

Below is the parts bike with the new engine in it. We plan to use the Tank brand gas tank that I bought new last year. (It's not attached yet.) They now have the console in stock so I should probably order one before they raise the prices again. I'll be glad not to need to do business with them any more. What a pain.


Oh, in the midst of this project, hubby also replaced the rear shocks on my daily runner with a pair from one of these parts bikes. He's so fabulous!

There's more completed since these photos were taken so I'll try to keep the updates coming. I'm hoping this blog will be a nice resource for anyone interested in buying one of these 450s. Hubby works faster than I can get photos documenting the job. :-)

2009 Riding Goals

I like creating goals for myself. It gives me something to plan for and look forward to and also helps keep those plans fresh in my mind if I think of them often enough or write them down. The memory just ain't what it used to be. Now that it is nearly February, I'm starting to think of what goals I want to set for myself this season. Last year was a mountain pass, which was unsuccessful. So, that is still on the list. I want to do the same ride we attempted last year through Rocky Mountain National Park. This time we should attempt it earlier in the season and earlier in the day. And we can make the loop from Estes Park, over Trail Ridge Road (one pass) to Grand Lake, down to Granby, over Berthoud Pass (#2) on Hwy 40, to Hwy 6 back home. After the attempt into Rocky last time, hubby mentioned this plan might be better so we don't backtrack and can cover more ground. I like it.

Other goals? I'm still working on them. Probably something to do with the parts bike. I should start that process before the season starts up again. Perhaps after football season is officially over on Sunday. :-) We bought a small lift table so I'd at least like to get one of the engines out of one of the frames so I can start working on it. I think we decided to go with the 86 parts bike first because we don't know if that engine runs and it already has the carbs and most other parts already off of it. That bike is titled too so it will be the runner eventually.

I'd also like to do an overnight longish trip this season. Not sure where or when yet. I'll have to work on that idea a bit. Maybe camping, maybe not. I'm open to suggestions.

Wrenching continued...

So, I removed a few parts from the bike on Saturday. In addition to the tank, we removed the exhaust pipes and were able to take a better look at them. Not too bad all things considered. I few smallish dents and some rust but no holes of pinching or anything that would prevent them from being useful. That's good because I needed them. The 86 parts bike didn't have useful pipes. They were cut by the PO. I also removed the battery and the battery box and cover. I took off the broken rear signal stems and threw them away. We tried to remove the tool box but it looks like you have to remove the air filter case before you can do that. I think that was it. Maybe next time I'll see about removing the headlight and some of the front end bits.

I'll still need to get new handlebars but that's ok because I want to put straighter ones on the "new" bike and the grip heaters. The stock bars on this 87 parts bike are bent from the accident. The 86 parts bike had the style of bars I want but those are bent as well. I think I'll need risers with this new Tank gas tank too. It is much wider than the 450 tank.

Wrenching

Today we took the tank off the wrecked 450 parts bike to see how the new Tank gas tank would fit and look on it. It is hard to say since the wrecked bike is quite bent. But, I think hubby wasn't discouraged about it fitting so that's a good thing. He's the one who will be modifying it to make it work. Here are some shots I took of the two tanks. I didn't take any shots of it on the bike. The Rebel gas cap fits. That's convenient.

Commute & new parts bike

Rode to work today. Haven't done that in a while. I got all bundled up because the TV said it was 41 degrees when I left. It sure didn't feel that cold. Not that I'm complaining, but I definitely had on more layers than I needed. Oh well. I should enjoy it while it lasts. :-) It was pretty windy too. The high today is supposed to be close to 70. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 70 a bit. Yay!

Hubby and I took to the new parts bike yesterday. I had been calling the other bike the "parts bike" so we've decided to call this one the "wrecked bike" so we can differentiate between them. They were both black so we couldn't use their color to distinguish them. Although, the newest one is an 87 and the other an 86 so maybe we can call them 87 parts bike and 86 parts bike.

I keep staring at the 87 parts bike and imagining the wreck it was in. Yikes.

I've got a few of the easy parts off that I plan to sell on the Rebel board. Maybe I'll post that tonight if I get more photos ready. I need to double check one of the parts to make sure I have it on the 86 parts bike. I'm not really sure what prices I should ask for but we'll see what happens there.

Happy (early) Birthday to me!

Hehehe. I can't stop...buying Rebel 450s! We could not pass this one up!





Just bought it from Craig's List from a very nice guy who even delivered it. He bought it from the original owner who'd wrecked it pretty good in 1996. So, it had been sitting outside ever since. Amazingly enough, the engine fires more or less right up! Very cool. I think it may even sound better than my perfectly good bike. Weird. I can't believe how excited I am to have this banged up thing.

The bad, aside from the obvious, is that the tank is rusty. But the good is the engine and some of the parts I'm missing from the other parts bike like a headlight, pipes, and a few other things. Yay! I'm looking at it as an investment really. I know lots of folks who will need parts from this bike or the other. So, yay me!

Thank you Super Cool Husband of mine for the early birthday present!!