2010 Desomosidouchey Rebuild

[bush]

Hybrid is getting way too much attention lately, so I'm going to step in and make a thread for the rebuild of my recently re-acquired 2000 Kat.

Story: I sold the Kat for $2200 in August 2008 to build up my down payment account for my house. I bought the house, found out how wonderful it can be owning a 90 year-old house as a single mid-20s male (F my life - story for another thread). Eventually I did some decorating and hung the photos I took on my last tour, and that turned into me avoiding my livingroom because the constant phrase was "I should never have sold the bike."

Fast-forward to August, a friend in my old group e-mailed me a link to a CL ad for a 2000 Katana. Jackpot, my old bike was for sale - the guy who bought it had to send a kid to college so he needed the cash. $1600 and 2 days later I had the bike parked in my driveway.

Fast forward a few weeks later. My girlfriend and I were on the Kat following my roommate through the foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, and I noticed the bike handling shitty. The support arm holding the rear brake caliper in place had lost the bolt, my caliper had spun around, stretched the brake line, and lodged between the swingarm and rotor, applying constant pressure. We disconnected the brake lever, I gave the bitch to my roommate, and we got the bike home in one piece. And it sat for a few months because I had neither the time nor desire to work it given the host of other problems that came up. That is changing.

The guy who had the bike for the last year didn't take very good care of it. Same tires, brakes, fluids that I took to FL, so here's the initial list of TODO items:

• New brake pads
• New brake lines
• New tires
• New bulbs all around
• Fix sticking choke cable (COMPLETED)
• New paint on fairings and tank
• Valve adjustment
• Carb clean and sync
• De-rustify tank
• Oil change

I'm going to try to document every single step of the process, and I'm hoping that the simple stuff like oil and brake pads can help out some new guys. I'll post photos of the current state of the bike before I get started.

[acalliste]

You have a girlfriend???



Just think, if you can do it for $600, you'll break even.

Looking forward to reading the reports.

[Hybrid]

You should name this your discussion thread and then start the pic and build thread stickied and locked so you dont get walked all over in that. Makes for a much cleaner thread and easier to follow than a great thread getting eaten up by stupidity.

If I need to set it up, let me know. ID LOVE FOR THIS TO BECOME A HABIT IN THIS SECTION..... WE NEED ACTION

[bush]

Hope everybody had a filling Thanksgiving holiday. I had a 4 day bear hunting trip (no luck) followed by 2 days out of town, followed by 2 days of working on my car, so literally nothing has gotten done on the bike.

However, I did finally pick up a 3/8" extension so I can finally pull the old plugs from the Kat. This was holding me up and I have no idea how I lost so many tools in the last few years. I have a web design job I need to finish up, and with the petty cash I can pull from that I'll start buying parts.

As much as I'd love to refurb the whole bike and make it a grand-tourer, I don't have the resources right now, and the long-term plan is to get it back to where it was when I was touring the eastern US, and save for a V-Strom 650. In due time, I suppose. I do still have all my old gear for the Kat (RAM mount for GPS, luggage, misc supplies) so that is all covered.

[Hybrid]

now I see where the douchey comes into play.

Bush, dont be gay and start doing work............or build me a website.

[bush]

I'm doing what I can, bitch.

I talked to one of the professors in the automotive graphics program at PCT, and he agreed to paint the bike for me as part of a class demonstration. No labor costs. Just materials and a nominal shop fee. Materials should be less than $200. I'm thinking of going from red/black to silver/black.

I can't find a GIS image of the right scheme, so like this, only inverted (silver wheels and fairing, black lower fairing):

[Hybrid]

if you go two tone dont use a sharp body line........thats gay to do that. Im sure you guys can photo shop some good stuff into play.

Underlay color patterns?

[bush]

Nothing complicated. Two-tone just like the picture, only inverted. I'm not going to throw cash at a bike I'll only get another 10k out of.

[Hybrid]

Why do you think youll only get another 10K out of it? With how mean I am to my scooters I get fairly good mileage before they really start turning for the worse.

Admittably, my 636 could probably get itself a go thru.....but its got 30 something K on it and a lot of that has been getting beaten for several minutes a day via wheelie or banging gears on the good roads. She runs like a champ though...........even if Ive eaten 700 dollars in tires up last year (3 full sets)

Im not telling you to throw money at it, Im telling you how to spice it up cheaply.

If you get what they call "gerber mask" you can have decals cut out of it and lay them down. Its a low tack mask that will peel up without leaving glue behind it (I use it a lot in my paintwork)

Spray your base color, say your full silver on all the panels, then lay your gerber mask down for design work and shoot your black. Peel the gerber mask and viola! you have a two tone patterned paint base. Shoot clear and let dry, buff.

Done, easy and cheap. I get gerber mask cut for me at 8 bucks a linear foot for how ever wide the guys cutter is (I think its 2 feet)

You could get all crazy retro, do some nuclear tiger striping on that kat like the old GSXRs of early nineties? Maybe run some "sponsor sticker" patterns for race bike look? Just food for thought, if you are decided you are decided.........just helping a brother out.

Oh and BTW, Im not sure if your kat is a 6 or a 750 but the 750 motor takes a nice 907 kit in it all day, cheaply and will make a mockery out of a lot of bikes while keeping the guise of being a tourer.

[bush]

I appreciate the input. I'm going as inexpensive as humanly possible for paint, and honestly it looks better without a design on it. People love the way it looks without decals until I actually tell them it's a Katana.

The reason I don't think I'll get another 10k out of it has some to do with the engine, but mostly to do with my desire for something more suited to touring. Don't get me wrong, it's done great in every situation I've thrown at it (including some offroad), but I want a Strom.

Valve adjustment intervals are 4k miles. Big problem for me, partially because I don't like that interval because it means more maintenance, mostly because the bike has 23k and as far as I know, it's never had one. It never ran like it needed it, so I didn't worry about it. Now it seems like it needs it bad - who knows how it was treated in the year it was away from me, and who knows what damage is done. I won't be stripping the engine completely, just doing the valves and carbs.

I figure 10k is on the lower end of the remaining engine life. Who knows, it could go another 23k, and I certainly wouldn't object to that, but 10k is my personal mileage before I expect a new bike. So this time next year most likely. If it doesn't happen that way, I'll run it as long as I can until I can get my Strom.

I'm not going to lie, I beat the shit out of this bike before I sold it. But I took care of it, it never let me down, and now it doesn't even seem like it's the same bike.

I like the way you think broseph, but I'm a tightwad as it is, and this bike is pretty utilitarian.

EDIT: BTW, it's a 600 and I've given consideration in the past to a 750 swap - not worth my time now.