Post by rustbuckett on Mar 19, 2015 7:45:30 GMT -6
I haven't been very active on this board, but thought I'd open up a little and talk about my 454 project. Spring is just around the corner and I'm getting the urge to restart the dead-bike-revival.
I've never owned a 454 and never even rode one on the street. I'm a self-taught 'driveway mechanic' with no formal mechanic training but with a lot of curiosity and no real fear of taking everything apart to figure out how it works, how it can be repaired, and trying to fix it. I like to re-use all the original stuff instead of replacing it. I've had several bikes (none of this new crotch-rocket stuff -- all 80's and 90's cruiser types, or dirt bikes for me and my kids) but had never seen or heard of a 454 LTD.
A few years ago I was fishing on Craigslist for a cheap fixer-upper and saw an ad for an 89 454 LTD. I saw the photos and was instantly charmed. When it comes to me and bikes, it's pure emotion, not logic, that draws me to like or not like it. For whatever reason, that 454 grabbed my eye. I went to look at it and found that it didn't run, needed a battery, and had no title. Bought it for $250 figuring I could easily get a new title somehow.
I've learned the hard way to NOT soak any money into a machine that doesn't run right; so I worked the bike over a bit until I got it running well. Mostly it just needed a complete fuel system cleaning (tank-to-carb). Bought a battery and it fired up fine. I drove it around my driveway and took a couple short trips on my residential street to make sure all the important stuff worked well; then I pulled it into the garage, smiling, and decided to get it safe & legal. Gas tank inside was rusted, needed all four turn signals due to rubber/plastic deterioration, electrical harness had a lot of corrosion, gas cap was unrepairable, just a bunch of minor things all adding up to a major project.
I tore it down and while doing that I went to DMV to get a new title. FAIL. New York's DMV rules were stricter than I was aware. The bike had previously been titled, and DMV said I had to get the former owner to sign the bike over. No idea who that former owner was; and DMV refused to tell me (privacy laws). I tried every which way but there was no way.
So I fished on eBay for a titled bare frame. Found one down by NY City for $100. I bought it and drove the 4 hours to pick it, and its signed title. Took the frame to a friend who blasted some minor rust spots and then sprayed it flat black. So then I had a full bike mounted on a frame that couldn't be titled; and a bare frame with a title. I figured I had two choices: the hard way (swap every single part over to the titled frame), or the easy way (modify the old frame's VIN to match the titled frame).
The bike sat for a long time as I got sidetracked with other things (like my marriage falling apart, divorce, family ripped apart, loss of half my paycheck - thank you JUDGE for the fair treatment during divorce...).
Then I ended up in the emergency room and within a couple months learned I have pancreatic cancer. Needed major surgery and chemotherapy, and the prognosis was really poor. I decided there were a couple things I wanted to do before I die - and one of them was to ride motorcycles with my son (I have two boys but one is machine-oriented like me, my other boy is more into hanging with friends). he and I had been riding dirt bikes and ATVs together since he was 7 years old; back when I was in my 20's I bought my dad an old Hondamatic 400 hawk and I really enjoyed the times he and I rode together (I had a GS550L then); and I wanted my son to have a memory of riding motorcycles with HIS dad too.
A friend of mine who finds & sells old bikes found me an 82 Honda CX650 that ran; and I found a 92 Honda Nighthawk 250 for my then-16 year old boy. Got both of them registered (CX650 wouldn't pass inspection, but DMV gave me a 10-day temp sticker). I took my son to DMV and had him take the motorcycle learner's permit written test; and as soon as we got home we took a ride. It was wonderful. We took about 8 or 9 more rides together before I had to go in for surgery.
The 454 sat in the garage, unrepaired.
My surgery went badly and I got pretty sick afterwards; lost my ability to do mechanical things in the garage. Chemotherapy failed to have an effect; I'm on a last-ditch chemo now and it's driving me into the ground. Doc said I have 9 months or less, and some of those months I'll be really sick and probably will need to be in a hospital or nursing home.
After I got sick, my ex-wife moved away, and my bike-riding son moved out of my house and went with her, a couple hours south of where I live. I've only seen him twice since last September. I cry every time I hang up the phone after talking with him.
I decided: get that 545 all spruced up, and after he uses the Nighthawk 250 for his road test and gets his license, I'll give him the 454 as his second bike (and by then I'll be close to passing away - doc already gave me my '9 months or less to live' note). I figure the 454 will be good for him through his late teens and early 20's - and it'll also give him a memory of his dad.
Problem with that plan was, the bike was still sitting in my garage needing to be completely stripped and disassembled, and reassembled onto the titled bare frame. And I was too weak to be able to work on machines anymore. And winter had set in; this has been a brutal one, and my health & chemo side effects won't allow me to take the cold anymore, not even with a salamander kero heater in the garage.
So I found a friend who agreed to swap over the bike parts onto the titled frame, in a barter deal. My older boy helped me get the bike & parts over to the friend's place. That was early December; he said he hoped to have the bike all reassembled by Christmas. That was a great plan because I'd decided the 454 was going to be my younger son's Christmas present.
The bike has sat in the guy's garage, untouched, ever since then. Christmas came and went and I had no present for my son. Now spring is starting to show, and I'm getting the urge to figure out HOW to get that 454 reassembled again so I can get my son on it before I pass away.
Another friend just offered to help me retrieve the 454, and my plan is to put it inside my downstairs living room where I can tinker with it as my health allows. Another friend will help me do the heavy stuff (engine swap, heavy-part lifting) but I can do the tedious tinkering stuff during the ten or so days each month when my chemo side effects ease up to the point where I have enough energy to do some light tinkering. It will be inside, so the cold weather won't prevent me from doing it. And when I get it done, the snow will be melted by then and I can just get some help and wheel the bike out my back patio door and push or idle it around to the front driveway.
So tomorrow, a friend and I will go to a nearby town and try to retrieve my 454. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things can work out.
I've never owned a 454 and never even rode one on the street. I'm a self-taught 'driveway mechanic' with no formal mechanic training but with a lot of curiosity and no real fear of taking everything apart to figure out how it works, how it can be repaired, and trying to fix it. I like to re-use all the original stuff instead of replacing it. I've had several bikes (none of this new crotch-rocket stuff -- all 80's and 90's cruiser types, or dirt bikes for me and my kids) but had never seen or heard of a 454 LTD.
A few years ago I was fishing on Craigslist for a cheap fixer-upper and saw an ad for an 89 454 LTD. I saw the photos and was instantly charmed. When it comes to me and bikes, it's pure emotion, not logic, that draws me to like or not like it. For whatever reason, that 454 grabbed my eye. I went to look at it and found that it didn't run, needed a battery, and had no title. Bought it for $250 figuring I could easily get a new title somehow.
I've learned the hard way to NOT soak any money into a machine that doesn't run right; so I worked the bike over a bit until I got it running well. Mostly it just needed a complete fuel system cleaning (tank-to-carb). Bought a battery and it fired up fine. I drove it around my driveway and took a couple short trips on my residential street to make sure all the important stuff worked well; then I pulled it into the garage, smiling, and decided to get it safe & legal. Gas tank inside was rusted, needed all four turn signals due to rubber/plastic deterioration, electrical harness had a lot of corrosion, gas cap was unrepairable, just a bunch of minor things all adding up to a major project.
I tore it down and while doing that I went to DMV to get a new title. FAIL. New York's DMV rules were stricter than I was aware. The bike had previously been titled, and DMV said I had to get the former owner to sign the bike over. No idea who that former owner was; and DMV refused to tell me (privacy laws). I tried every which way but there was no way.
So I fished on eBay for a titled bare frame. Found one down by NY City for $100. I bought it and drove the 4 hours to pick it, and its signed title. Took the frame to a friend who blasted some minor rust spots and then sprayed it flat black. So then I had a full bike mounted on a frame that couldn't be titled; and a bare frame with a title. I figured I had two choices: the hard way (swap every single part over to the titled frame), or the easy way (modify the old frame's VIN to match the titled frame).
The bike sat for a long time as I got sidetracked with other things (like my marriage falling apart, divorce, family ripped apart, loss of half my paycheck - thank you JUDGE for the fair treatment during divorce...).
Then I ended up in the emergency room and within a couple months learned I have pancreatic cancer. Needed major surgery and chemotherapy, and the prognosis was really poor. I decided there were a couple things I wanted to do before I die - and one of them was to ride motorcycles with my son (I have two boys but one is machine-oriented like me, my other boy is more into hanging with friends). he and I had been riding dirt bikes and ATVs together since he was 7 years old; back when I was in my 20's I bought my dad an old Hondamatic 400 hawk and I really enjoyed the times he and I rode together (I had a GS550L then); and I wanted my son to have a memory of riding motorcycles with HIS dad too.
A friend of mine who finds & sells old bikes found me an 82 Honda CX650 that ran; and I found a 92 Honda Nighthawk 250 for my then-16 year old boy. Got both of them registered (CX650 wouldn't pass inspection, but DMV gave me a 10-day temp sticker). I took my son to DMV and had him take the motorcycle learner's permit written test; and as soon as we got home we took a ride. It was wonderful. We took about 8 or 9 more rides together before I had to go in for surgery.
The 454 sat in the garage, unrepaired.
My surgery went badly and I got pretty sick afterwards; lost my ability to do mechanical things in the garage. Chemotherapy failed to have an effect; I'm on a last-ditch chemo now and it's driving me into the ground. Doc said I have 9 months or less, and some of those months I'll be really sick and probably will need to be in a hospital or nursing home.
After I got sick, my ex-wife moved away, and my bike-riding son moved out of my house and went with her, a couple hours south of where I live. I've only seen him twice since last September. I cry every time I hang up the phone after talking with him.
I decided: get that 545 all spruced up, and after he uses the Nighthawk 250 for his road test and gets his license, I'll give him the 454 as his second bike (and by then I'll be close to passing away - doc already gave me my '9 months or less to live' note). I figure the 454 will be good for him through his late teens and early 20's - and it'll also give him a memory of his dad.
Problem with that plan was, the bike was still sitting in my garage needing to be completely stripped and disassembled, and reassembled onto the titled bare frame. And I was too weak to be able to work on machines anymore. And winter had set in; this has been a brutal one, and my health & chemo side effects won't allow me to take the cold anymore, not even with a salamander kero heater in the garage.
So I found a friend who agreed to swap over the bike parts onto the titled frame, in a barter deal. My older boy helped me get the bike & parts over to the friend's place. That was early December; he said he hoped to have the bike all reassembled by Christmas. That was a great plan because I'd decided the 454 was going to be my younger son's Christmas present.
The bike has sat in the guy's garage, untouched, ever since then. Christmas came and went and I had no present for my son. Now spring is starting to show, and I'm getting the urge to figure out HOW to get that 454 reassembled again so I can get my son on it before I pass away.
Another friend just offered to help me retrieve the 454, and my plan is to put it inside my downstairs living room where I can tinker with it as my health allows. Another friend will help me do the heavy stuff (engine swap, heavy-part lifting) but I can do the tedious tinkering stuff during the ten or so days each month when my chemo side effects ease up to the point where I have enough energy to do some light tinkering. It will be inside, so the cold weather won't prevent me from doing it. And when I get it done, the snow will be melted by then and I can just get some help and wheel the bike out my back patio door and push or idle it around to the front driveway.
So tomorrow, a friend and I will go to a nearby town and try to retrieve my 454. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things can work out.
?