1986 454 project

[justin]

Picked up another bike, it'd been too long since my last one. Last bike was a chopped 1974 H-D. Picked up an '86 454 for a steal, and just like every other bike I've ever owned, it just needed the carbs stripped and cleaned.

Step one done, bike runs great now.



Shot of what the frame looks like for now. I'm 6'2" so it needs a pretty good stretch before I won't look like an idiot riding it.



The angles are wrong to just do a stretch, so I'll have to do some correcting. First belt bike I've owned, so it's not as easy to stretch. But, I did find this belt; www.mrosupply.com/product/719869. It's 140 teeth which should get me just over 3.5".

[wick]

I cant wait to see some more progress shots of your build

[chopperfreak2k1]

i been waiting to see this done for a long time now. teach me brother, teach me.

[justin]

20 foot of steel is about $20

Hope fully I can do some on it this weekend.

[justin]

I haven't had the time to work on my bike, but I teach Auto Shop at a high school.

They happen to have a donated 1999 Vulvan 500, so we've been slowly chopping away on it.

Here's some pics:

[eaglerider]

And when thru choppin, etc, and ready to junk it, the engine, wheels, and front end (tripple tree, forks, etc) would work perfect on your 454!!

[eman2282]

Probably can't legally use parts off of a donated bike. They usually have to scrap everything.

[eaglerider]

I suspected that....sucks big time!!!!!!!!!

[wanchesenative]

You could probably sell them and use the money towards shop supplies or next years project, etc.

[justin]

there is no title to the bike, it was donated by the local police department, it's an old police bike as far as I know. I'll let the kids set up ebay auctions for what ever is left over, and the funds generated will go back into the program.

[justin]

actually did some work to my bike today and made some good progress.

I'm going to be honest..... I hate angles of this bike as it came from the factory. So, that's why you chop it ;D

I cut out a section so I could heat and bend the front downtubes.....








came out pretty good, except the tank was up too high for my liking



so I chopped a few inches out of the downtubes......

(if you have a weak stomach, look away)



and rewelded them.........







much better.......



so on to the back of the bike.......

a little chop chop.......



check to see how the trailer fender fits......



build some struts and mounting gear for the fender..........







and this is where I left off for today...........

[justin]

tomorrow I'll stretch the rear about 3.5 inches and make it a rigid rear.

on that note anyone want to buy the short struts in the first few pics??

[justin]

put a 3.5" stretch on it. Getting closer......

The valve cover will come off and I can get the motor out of the frame, so when it comes time for powder coating, no worries.

Didn't get too many pics today.

Feedback is appreciated and welcomed.

[Blaine]

Looking good.Can't wait to see the finished product.

[chopperfreak2k1]

i'm just totally blown away! that bike looks fantastic, what an improvement! brother i wish i had your ability. one suggestion if i may, it needs raked a bit. not much, but it looks a little, idk, upright i guess. but still an enormous improvement. i cannot wait to see what you do with the seat. thats what is gonna tie it all together.

could you show the rear stretch and the work a little closer? i'm very interested to see just what you did and where. also you may have mentioned this already but where did you source your new belt?

again, fantastic progress, looks great, and i can't wait to see more!

[justin]

I'm shooting for a look from the 40s or 50s before they really stretched the front out. Part of my thinking is I live in the city so I want a bike that turns quick.

For the stretch, I used the tubing I cut out of the front downtubes and slid some thick wall tubing inside the pieces and welded them onto place. Then those went inbetween the cuts on the frame. I'll get some pics this weekend.

As far as the belts go:

you need a 40mm width, 14mm pitch, and the length is up to you. Stock is 128T. TO figure it out in inches, multiply # of teeth times 14mm, then divide by 25.4 to get inches. You'll get 1/2 of the increase in the length of then belt. So 8 inch increase in length will get you a 4 inch stretch.

www.vbeltsupply.com/ecommerce/synchronous-timing-belt/14m-pitch?limit=100&p=2

[justin]

what is the revlimit on these bikes?

I might try to swap on a ninja 500 ignition box for shins and wiggles.

[eaglerider]

Redline on the stock 454 is 9,500. I am not certain, but the Ninja ignition box likely will not work...the bikes ignite/fire different. The 454 is dual pickup, the 500 is single pickup. When installing the 500 engine, parts of the 454 engine have to be used, to make the 500 run in the 454 chassis. It is not a simple bolt-in & run swap. My 500 equiped LTD, with competition cams, redline is 10,000 to 10,500.

[justin]

since I moved the Donkey end of the bike back, I needed to replace the motor mounts. So I broke out the plasma and notched a piece of rectangle stock to do the job.







not bad, I just eyeballed the fit and free cut the notches



you can see where the Donkey end was pulled out..... yes, there are sleeves/slugs in the tubing and it is a multipass weld. Yes, the cuts and pipes aren't in the same place, it had to be that way to keep everything even/square/level.



gussets

[justin]

I also started on a friends Yamaha xs360

[justin]

ordered the belt

[eman2282]

Update please.

[chopperfreak2k1]

x2