Project CB250: getting started

Over the weekend, I made a little start to my project bike. I pulled some of the bits and pieces off the back of the bike. The picture below is shows proof that I’m keen to get started on this build.

Ideas:

I began, like everyone does these days,  looking at bikes online. Initially,  I found a couple of CB250 about,  but nothing super special. Actually they were fairly ordinary I thought. They still looked like chopped up CB250s, and were not what I was thinking at all. But when I started thinking more seriously, I actually found a few more modded bikes for inspiration. The net is full of other bikes for inspiration these days. I want to do a post at some point that has other CB250 builds in it which I’ve found, that has helped inspire me.

Everything up front:

The handlebars are going to be one of the first things to get swapped. Its just got to happen. Once I get some clip ons on there, I’ll need to fit all the controls of course. For now, I’ll keep using the current leavers etc… but they are all a bit rough, and at some point I’d like to think about trying to re-finish them, or replace everything (Switches included) with after market gear. For now, They can stay original though.
After handle bars, there are the gauges, and the headlight. Both are a bit scraped up from some kind of drop at some point (not me). I’m thinking of either going a compact digital LCD system, or maybe a single all in one gauge for the instruments.
Regarding the headlight, I’m interested in trying out some LED headlights I’ve seen online. They seem neat. I just like the idea of the LEDs, and think it would be fun to play with.
Original mirrors are already gone, and will be replaced by ones that go in the ends of the handle bars. That’s what I’m thinking at this point anyway.

Replacement tank:

This is going to be key in making the bike look different. I’m trying to get away from it screaming CB250!!! I don’t have a tank yet, and I don’t really have an idea for a tank. I’m hoping I’ll be able to source something fairly easily  and relatively quickly, as I don’t want to get too far into anything else before I have the tank worked out. Getting a tank is going to be pivotal to developing things like the seat.

Seat:

The seat is where I foresee the most work being involved for this part of the build. I’m thinking a relatively flat seat, with a fairly simple “loaf of bread” style upholstery. Its fitting the seat, and deciding if its better to leave some of the existing under-seat brackets and bits, or to remove or modify them for the task. This will be the no turning back moment. Everything else I’ve planned is reversible (well, depends on what will be needed to do the tank I guess). This is commitment time.  Actually, I’m not that scared of committing. I just want to make sure I have an action plan and have it ready to go, so I know exactly what I’ve got to do to make it ridable. I don’t want to end up with a bike stuck, than no longer can take the original seat, but also doesn’t have a new seat that can go on it!

Engine

Now, this is where things can get tricky, I’m fairly limited in my ability to to full on work to the engine. The bike has done about 93,000km, its probably getting close to needing some work done internally. Some stuff which I can do myself I’ll give it a go.
Sometime, I want to pull  the engine out of the frame, so I can clean it up, and clean the frame up, and paint it all up. I like the look of the engine with black engine enamel, and polished edges on the cooling fins, so that will be my goal for that. Painting the engine while its out is probably the best thing to do.
At this time, I’m not sure if I should paint most of the engine, or try polishing some of the covers as well. The problem with polishing, is there are a few dings which are pretty deep, and may not polish out so well. Then again, they may not paint over so easily either.
I don’t know if engine work will make it into Iteration One of the project.

Frame

No plan to do too much to the actual frame of the bike. As stated above, a few under seat brackets will get the chop, and I need to work out how to close in the ends of the chassis, probably a semicircular pipe the same diameter of the frame, bolted, or welded to the frame. Below is a picture from CafeRacerAustralia of what may need to be done to the bike.

Something like this may need to be done to my bike

Exhaust :

The current exhaust is a bit rough. It is scratched up, and has a few pinholes in it (as you can see from that black splatter patch under the bike in the photo). I am thinking very serious about making a custom exhaust for the bike at some point. There are a couple of ways I’m thinking of going right now. Option one is probably the easiest, and will basically follow the current exhaust, but with a new muffler, maybe a non cone shapes one, which is parallel to the ground. A lot of the other modded cb250′s seem to keep the exhaust fairly similar, to the point where I think they are just painting the current exhaust, or swapping the muffler for a different one. Option Two is to re-route the exhaust, so it kicks up high. Not sure if this involves kicking the exhaust up just where the muffler begins, or completely re routeing the exhaust. But no stress right now, that will be some time away I think. For Iteration One of the project, it will be donning a wrapped exhaust, with a High Temp painted muffler to hide some of the scratches in the current pipes.

That is already a fair stack of work to do. On top of this, there will always things that pop up along the way to do. I’m going to keep planning, and hopefully soon, I’ll have a neat little bike to ride around on.

CB250 Custom: The Beginning

The starting point. A 1998 Honda CB250, with 92,000km on the clock. Nothing special about this little guy

A Spare Bike

With the addition of the Honda Firestorm to the ranks of vehicles at our abode, I found myself wondering what to do with the O’l Honda CB250 I’ve been riding for the last 5 or so years. The logical thing, of course, is to sell the bike. That was the original plan when I got the new bike.

The bike is OK, it runs pretty well, and has been a reliable bike over the time I’ve had it. However, a year or so ago, I noticed it has a relatively small oil leak around the cylinder head. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a sign of future failure or not, But I’d feel bad selling the bike to someone, and having it die on them shortly afterwards, even if it was just $1000 for a bike with almost 100,00km on the clock. One possible solution for this is to re-torque the bolts holding the head on. That MAY fix it. I’ll probably give it a go in the event I get the engine out of the frame. Otherwise, its going to require a lot more effort, the removal of the head, and probably a bunch of proper mechanic-ing, which would be fun, but I think is probably beyond my skills right now. It would be interesting to know the state of the internals of the engine though…

The Project Begins

With that in mind, and my interest in getting my hands dirty, I thought this might be an opportunity for a project to have some fun with, and learn some things I wouldn’t do to my main every day runner.

First things first, this bike will be as close to 100% done by myself. Its going to be a learning experience.  I’m confident I’ll be able to handle most of the non engine related work that I can forsee, and hopefully will be able to have a go at doing some deeper mechanicals on the engine itself. Also, by doing things myself, and not throwing things at a shop to do, I’ll be able to save money. This is going to be a budget build, and I’d much rather do something myself, investing my own time into it, then buying something off the shelf, or paying someone to do stuff.

Speaking of time, this is going to be a slow project. The plan is to make this bike a summer rider. 3 months rego over summer gives me 9 months of of f time to do serious stuff between seasons. That is, after this year. I am giving myself  until November / December this year to try and get Iteration One one the road.

A Plan in the Sand

Now, I have an idea for a  project. What am I actually going to do? CHANGE EVERYTHING! that’s what. As I write this, The ideas keep expanding, as I think of things to do / change. This list is by no means exhaustive, and I’m not locking myself into doing all of them straight up. Some of the more involved things may have to appear in future revisions of the project (or never at all). Cost is also a consideration. some stuff will be more expensive than other stuff, so that will also influence what gets done, and when. (as I said before, this is a cheapskate project, so the cheaper stuff will get done first)

• Clip on handle bars - Probably my starting point. shouldn’t be too difficult. I hope.
• Fuel Tank swap - This will need to be done before much else happens. It probably should be done before the handlebars even.
• Custom seat – Wood, metal, fibreglass, with leather or  vinyl upholstery. Hopefully I’ll endup with a basic, but classy looking seat.
• Chain and sprockets - These needs doing anyway
• Fork Gaiters - A relatively simple addition that adds a lot of attitude to a bike
• LED blinkers - something lower profile, and a little more custom I’m thinking.
• Custom style brake/clutch leavers - The leavers on the bike now are a bit beat up, so something nice and shiny would be cool
• Replacement gauges – either a digital unit, or an all in one analogue gauge unit. will probably be decided what I can find nice and cheap, that still fits the bill.
• Removal of Air box / Fitting Pod filter – Looks. If I can find a way to make the air box look better, it would mean I could leave it, and reduce the need to have the bike tuned.
• Exhaust Wrap – It looks pretty cool, having heat shield wrap around the pipes on the bike. I think I’ll be going with this on the bike!
• Painted Muffler – The current exhaust is a bit beat up. If I tidy it up with the above wrap, and some high temp paint on the cans, it might look pretty cool until I can do:
• Custom Exhaust - This might be tricky, but the rewards would be satisfying. Looking at some neat exhaust that I’ve fabricated myself.
• Led headlights - I didn’t realise that LEDs had progressed so far as to be usable in headlights, but they apparently have, which is pretty cool
• Make custom chain guard – You’ve got to keep things out of the chain, and the old plastic just won’t do.
• Metal rear fender – Again, the original plastic just won’t cut it for this. Something neat, and worthy will have to go on the rear!
• Clutch to hydraulics - This would be a bit of a “because I can” thing.  doesn’t look too hard, but the kits I can find are either really cheap,or really expensive.
• Re-painting of everything painted - Its going to need to get some fresh paint (or powder coating for suitable things like the frame)
• Painting of the Engine – I like the look of the black painted engines, with the edges of the fins polished up. High temp paint will have to cover this guy
• Polishing of engine parts – To contrast the black of the engine, some engine parts and covers may be polished. It will depend on the state of most covers how much gets painted vs polished.

Documentation Starts Here

I plan, through out the project, to to keep the world updated on how this progresses. This will happen primarily on this blog, and likely through a forum post at the CanberraRiders forum. Direct link will come just as soon as I get it sorted. I plan on taking lots of photos through out. The photos will have dual purposes, to held document the project, and to help me remember where everything goes when its time to put it back together.

I thought it might be nice to have some video documentation of the project. This may a series of progress report videos, or a single video at the end of it all, or both. I haven’t decided how exactly I’ll do this, but I’ve been meaning for a while to get into producing some videos. I mean, I probably should do something to use the media degree that I’m half way through completing. If the videos happen, I don’t want them to be the usual webcam quality stuff you see all over YouTube. I’ll be aiming for a reasonable level of quality from it.

Well, that’s probably enough for one epic post of Ideas, and some very rough plans on what I’m thinking of doing. Now just to start doing! Expect some more thought posts as I continue actually doing some proper planning, and get some spanners out to get my hands dirty.

Cheers,
Matt

Extra Arduino Boards

Since posting my original post, I’ve added a few extra boards to my collection, including:

LCD Display board:

This one was almost redundant by the time I got it, as I had already made my own board with an LCD screen.

This one, however includes an array of buttons which would make creating, and navigating menus in the Arduino easy. From recollection, the buttons are interfaced via a couple of analogue pins, in order to save the digital ones for the LCD, and/or other uses.

Serial MAX323 adapter:

Initially, I was disappointed with the fact that Arduinos don’t seem to like talking to serial devices directly. A bit of research revealed that using one of these MAX323 chips, which you can get on a circuit board, ready to power and wire, from eBay nice and cheap. I am hoping this will make it possible to communicate with devices which are controlled by RS232. I’m somewhat interested in trying to use use the arduino as an audio visual controller.

Motor shield:

Arduinos make awesome robot brains according to the internet, and what better way to provide motive power to a robot than a motor shield from eBay as well. These appear to be knock offs of other motor controllers, but hopefully the one I bought will provide useful. I just need to work out its specs, and how to use it.

from recollection, it has 2 servo controller connections, and the possibility for 2 stepper motors, or two forward / reverse motors (or I think 4x forward motors? not sure on that one…)

Accelerometer:

Measuring motion means you can make all kinds of motion controlled devices, or measure your devices movement. That sounds like fun. Might be handy to team up with the motor control shield or something, to help control a robot of some form. This one is I2C, so it will be a test in working out how to use I2C networks.

So, hopefully they should yield some entertainment. One thing I’m finding is the amount of different Arduino boards there are out there. If you think of something, there probably is already a board out there to do what you want to do. If you want to make something, almost all you need to do is piece the system together, and then program it. That is pretty cool if you ask me!

 

On board with Arduino

Finally, I’ve bought myself an Arduino.
I went with the relatively new Arduino Leonardo. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not now, but it seems good so far. The Leonardo is slightly different in its underlying design. It has one processor that works as both the usb/serial converter, and as the main processor. I think for the most part, it shouldn’t be a problem, but when you reset the board, you loose your serial port on the laptop, and have to wait until it reconnects before you can do anything. This can cause problems if you are monitoring its serial output on your computer (for debugging etc…)

Pin wise, the Arduino Leonardo seems to be pin compatible with other Arduinos, however it does have some extra pins (such as the i2c pins on the digital side). That can be kind of a pain, as it means prefab prototype shields might not have all the pins you need to use this Arduino board to its full advantage.

When I first got the Arduino delivered, I didn’t have any shields to fit it, so I got to work hacking together a bit of a toy shield. Pictured below, the shield has an LCD screen, 2 buttons, an IR LED, and an IR receiver  the mono 3.5mm jack on the bottom isn’t actually connected to anything at the current moment, but was for the possibility of connecting IR transmitters, as used in Audio Visual installations for controlling DVDs, TVs etc…

Using Ken Sherriffs IR transmitter library allows this board to be able to send, and/or receive IR remote commands.

Eventually, my order of protoshields arrived. These things are all over ebay, and usually come with headers and a little breadboard that piggy backs onto it. I didn’t really want the breadboard, just the straight PCB. I eventually found them at DealExtreme for $2.30 without anything other than the PCB. I bought 3 for starters.

I wouldn’t mind getting some of the piggy back headers for them at some point, as that would allow me to use several different PCB’s at once, in a little stack.

I also put together a quick 9v battery with plug for the Arduino, so I can power it away from the computer. Pictured below is my little collection of  Arduino boards. You can see another veroboard I have put together with IC headers for legs, and the rest of my prototype shields

I have since had a few more bits and pieces delivered, but those will have to wait until the next installment.

Experimenting in scenery modelling

The following is a post that I had mostly done in August, but never got around to posting for some reason. So here is is now!

As a warm up to making some larger scale train layouts, I thought I would try my hand at some very small test scenery. first step, “laying out” deciding how it will lay. Wasn’t too hard, and wasn’t too creative. I found a length of track that was exactly the length of the scrap plywood square i was going to use. SCORE

the raw design. nothing spectacular, some plywood and a perfect length of track

step 2, laying down the grass. It was pretty straight forward, cover the plywood with white glue wherever I wanted grass to stick, then cover in the grass material.

Ground cover applied. It looks pretty good actually. I was expecting something crap to happen the first time

Step 3, Laying the track. Much like laying the grass. cover where you want to stick the track in white glue, and press on the track. I’m not sure if this is how others attach track in full layouts, but it will work for this one I think.

the track in position

After the track is glued down, I clamped it down so the track is firmly on the baseboard. I guess this isn’t really possible on a large scale layout, but it worked for this mini layout. On a larger layout I guess I’d try to find heavy objects like books etc… to put on top.

Holding the track in place while it drys. Overkill? maybe. I don’t think i’ll be able to get these clamps on many areas on a proper layout

Then we have step 4, the ballast. I’m using some balast I bought at the model railway expo I went to over the weekend. The idea was simple, put the gravel on the layout where I wanted it, and cover the gravel with a watered down white glue mix. It worked, but I ended up with what I think is way too much glue on the track. You see, water surface tension meant the glue would sit on top of the ballast a bit, before it would soak in. That sucked, as it made it really hard to keep the glue where I wanted it. I ended up with glue up the inside of the track, and a little on top of the track too. Painful. I think I’ve heard of people watering down the whiteglue with methylated spirits instead of water. I guess that would make it dry quicker, and maybe reduce the surface tension issue. I might try that on another test layout.

Gluing the ballast down. Lots of glue!

After that point, i’m afraid my documentation jumps a little bit. With the glue dry, I drilled a hole into the board, and added a tree of my own construction. I made the tree from twisted copper wire, covered in a layer of solder to hold it all together, then painted brown. The foliage is made from purpose brought model greenery, kinda like green cotton wool (except synthetic). The tips of the tree got spots of white glue, and then the foliage placed into position. And then, once everything has dried, you have this:

I think it turned out rather well, and has given me some confidence that so will my future efforts

It looks nice. Maybe a little trim, or paint around the edge, and I’ve got a nice little display piece for my train.

Recycled Wood Coffee Table

After replacing some of the fence palings with new ones at our house, I had some old ones left over, some of which were OK enough to warrant possible re-use.

At the same time, we were in need of a bigger and better coffee table for the lounge room, so an idea for a project was born. I will build a coffee table!

I began by sorting the boards, picking usable ones. There was lots of rough ones, split ones and rotten ones. Eventually, I found enough lengths that were good enough. At that point I got to work cutting them all to length.

At this point, I used a belt sander to try to remove as many of the splinters and rough surface as possible. If pieces weren’t fitting beside each other very well, I would plane them down with a hand plane, until they fitted better.

The boards, cut to size were then screwed to a couple of thicker pieces of timber, sourced from an old shipping pallet that was kicking around at home. Skirting boards were also screwed to the pallet timber.

There was a bit more planing and de-splintering done at this point, getting ready to apply a finish to the timber. Once everything was satisfactory, It was time to apply several coats of varnish. I think I applied 3 fairly thick coats over the course of a couple of days. I figure that should help hold the timber together a bit, and stop it from splintering.

With the table top sorted at this point, it was time to work on the legs. I used a length of 25mm square RHS steel. The joints were mitered by hand with an angle grinder, then tidied up the old-fashioned way, with a hand file. It would be nice to have a better method to cut things like this, but I can’t justify a bigger cutting method. A horizontal band saw, or a drop saw of some description would be really handy here.

Of course, the old-fashioned way requires lots of checking. Getting close, but still needs a little more work.

Here we can see the rough little welders square I made to hold the legs square. It wasn’t perfect, but was close enough for this task. I think I’ll have to try again for future projects. By allowing me to clamp the pieces together, it made it so much easier than it would have been if I had to take the pieces while they were loose.

It’s a little of a jump step again, but once I had the legs welded up as square as possible, and ground flush, I joined them together with a couple of pieces of 30mm angle iron. Tacking, and measuring  and adjusting , re-tacking, measuring .. etc…. I eventually got it pretty good. The legs weren’t exactly square, but it’s visually un-noticeable in the assembled product.

And then the legs were screwed to the pieces of timber at each end, holding it all together. Now, all I need to do is pull the legs off it, and paint them black. The paint has been purchased, so it shouldn’t be too long before I can call this one 100% complete.

And that’s it for this post. Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately, things get busy, and this year has really flown.  I hope you’ve enjoyed.

Bye for now.

New Digital Camera

Awwww Yea. I think I’ve wanted a DSLR for years. I especially love how current generation ones are getting really quite good at shooting full HD video. This year, I was lucky enough to get a Canon 650d for my birthday from my awesome wife. It was a real surprise. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

Now technically, Its not my birthday just yet, that’s on Sunday. However, I was lucky enough to get my present early, as I have the week off work!

YOU RULE SWEETIE. I LOVE YOU! XOXOXOXOX

And here are some photos I’ve taken this week: