I did a thing... a CB900F thing

[Ews]

Well I took delivery of my new-to-me 1982 CB900F yesterday. I dont think I have been this excited about a bike since I bought my first bike, a 1984 V45 Magna. It is a beautiful machine, well maintained and a lot of the little things I would have planned to do to it are already done. The seller gave me receipts from all the work done at Vicious Cycle in Portland in the last few years.

-Vance&Hines exhaust
-Rims from an 03(?) Kawasaki ZX9
-Michelin Pilot sport tires
-Fork Seals redone
-Carbs synced, tuned and jetted with DynoJet
-New Blinkers
-New Clutch
-Timing chain adjusted or replaced (cant read the carbon copy that well in some spots)
-New Brake pads and fluid changed.












First ting I plan to do is make the speedo work, or at least try too.

[jcw]

She's a beaut.

Fork brace it. Unless that fender is really beefy.
New chain and sprockets.

Wow, decent tires, too. 180/55 sounds wide.
edit- just read the zx9 rims. Score!

[Ews]

She's a beaut.

Yes, I agree lol. And that V&H exhaust makes a hell of a noise going down the road.

My goal with this bike is to keep it Looking as original as possible, while making some aspects as modern as I can. I have gone back and forth on going back to original rims, but I think having the ZX9 rims powder coated will be a good idea (the shop took a rattle can to them and the Kawi green is showing through in a few small places) and seek out the best brakes I can fit on it. The biggest thing will be figuring out how to make the Speedo work again. Geeto suggested looking into getting a Kawi speedo if it will match up to the rims, I will look into that in order to try and keep a analog speedo. I would like to find a good LED headlight, I liked the lighting difference the one on my KZ440 made. I will update the rear shocks to something a little better. According to the Vicious Cycle receipts they put different handle bars on it, so I may look into some that give me better control (the original bars would have had a slightly higher rise judging by pictures I've seen online). However if going back to stock bars does not offer better control then I will stick with what it has now. I need to do an oil change and probably some new plugs and possibly an air filter. The tank has some of that anti rust coating in it so I am wondering if running some seafoam through it will cause an issue there? Also I am looking for suggestions on what oil I should use. My previous bikes were a little less "performance" than this, so I just used off the shelf bike oil. I know RP makes cycle oil, does anyone have experience with it? I use RP in my F-150 w/5.4 Triton and in my Mustang 5.0 before I sold it and love it for those big nasty Ford V-8's. But if there is a better cycle oil out there, I'm open to suggestions.

[Geeto67]

That's a great bike. I loved every 900F I owned. Did you get the corbin seat with it?

So here are the little project things I would do if it were mine:

- CB1100F Lattice Sport Kit


- 150 MPH Speedometer swap
Meters Gauges Honda CB750F CB 750F CB750 CB 750 CB-750 Supersport


- new rear shocks (preferrably Ohlins - look around for a group buy, the CB1100F forum was getting them for like $500-600 a set).



And here are the things I would watch out for on it:

- Starter clutch failure
- Stator failure
- coil failure
- Reg/Rect failure
- reset your timing chain tension every other oil change.


I use golden spectro semi-synthetic in all my old jap bikes. Has worked great so far - no complaints.

[Ews]

He had a Corbin seat and the original. The Corbin looked amazing, but went for ergonomic comfort and opted for the stock seat, at 6'2" the Corbin was just a little uncomfortable on the hips. I will look into the Spectro oil.

How/where do I adjust the timing chain tension on this bike?

[jcw]

Car oils especially the energy conserving ones may cause clutch slippage. Or may not.

Honest question. What is harder on the oil, a 40yo motorcycle with shared oil trans and clutch or a push rod V-8?

I will buy redline by the case when they go on sale for my more modern performance track bikes. I don't think it matters too much as long as you stay in the manufacturers recommended oil range.

[Geeto67]

he didn't give you both seats? I would have held out for that. Used corbins for those bikes are like $150 min, $360+ for new ones.

Here is the service manual:
Service Manual

Timing chain adjustment is Section 3, page 40.

[Geeto67]

Honest question. What is harder on the oil, a 40yo motorcycle with shared oil trans and clutch or a push rod V-8?

Honest Answer: An Aircooled engine is harder on the oil than a water cooled one. With oil, heat is the primary concern. In a water cooled v-8 for the most part you won't see an oil temp beyond 230 degrees at most unless your cooling system has failed. On an aircooled bike it's not uncommon to see 250-260 degrees temp. Even with an oil cooler my Ducati isn't considered warmed up until it's 230 degrees. At 275 oil starts to break down, and I've seen that on my duc and my cb750 in traffic.

[Ews]

he didn't give you both seats? I would have held out for that. Used corbins for those bikes are like $150 min, $360+ for new ones.

Here is the service manual:
Service Manual

Timing chain adjustment is Section 3, page 40.

Thank you good sir

[woodsman]

Looks like it's well kept, congratulations on the new wheels. I think you should have beat him up for the Corbin, rearsets will change your posture and it may have worked then. What the hell, we can always spend your money on one after you get through Getto's parts list, LOL.