Bike night Plant City Florida

This weekend I rode out to Plant City Florida from Orlando. I stayed at my sisters house there and went rode out to bike night which was on saturday night. It was held downtown Plant City which is famous for its strawberry festival which is around this time of the year as well. Tons of cool bikes on display and alot of vendors out selling items or doing custom work for bikes. All in all it was a fun night out. I took my son and nephew. Saturday was also a relatives birthday so go to do a good variety of activites on this day.

Took off front forks, painting

Removed front forks and front wheel today. Also I took off the top of the triple tree to paint it. I could not get the bottom half off I think I need a special tool to remove the bearings. I was twisting the head around and I think the bearings need replacing. I tried to clean up the front forks but they where to oxidized to scrub clean. I will have to figure something else out to get them to shine. The front brake caliper was also taken off to take apart and to rebuild and paint the assembly. I will have to take photos and get back here and post them. Today I was on call and all this week so I do not know when I will have to stop and rush out to work. It was a good day and I was happy with the forward progress on the bike.

Today cleaning up painting and putting parts on motorcycle.

I started to put some parts baclk on the bike today after cleaning them up some. I think they will not get back to really great condition. I will have to maybe replace them or rechrome some of the parts. I am not sure yet on how clean I can get the chrome or aluminum or just how to do it the right way. Still learning on this process. I put the inner lower rear fender guard on, rear shocks, rear fender, rear signal lights, and rear brake light back on bike. It took me most of the day to sand and to repaint parts and to clean the others up.

Here is a knit hat for our sons teddybear, orange is wearing it.



Here are my shocks before I cleaned them up. I forgot to take photos after I cleaned them.



I pulled the speedometer and tach open to clean them up and the mounting bracket and check light bulbs key switch out.



After I cleaned up and started to put them back together.



The underside of the rear fender was very rusty so I tried to just paint it black to ehlp prevent further rusting. I am not sure if this will work or not but it made it look much better.



I sanded the rust off the rear fender and it is still pitted maybe I should use a buffer and a rubbing compound if so it is easy to remove and fix it later. I am just trying to get it really clean to hopefully restore better as time goes on.

Today to the Beach

Today I took some photo's of the bike frame that I painted on Saturday. Not to thrilled with the outcome but it is better than it was. I guess not to bad for a rattle can paint job. Also we went out to Daytona Beach then up to Ormond by the Sea we have a house up there. On the way back we stopped at the beach. Here are some photos of the day.

Here is the frame photo not to good. Looked better in real time.

Closer image.

Me and my son at the beach.

Wife and son.

Son at the beach.

From our car looking out at the beach while we drove on sand.

Some people in a jeep on the beach driving.

We had a snack of Florida oranges while relaxing at the beach.

My Sons favorite toys and some toast.

My son's best treasures and his half eaten toast. He is 21 months old and loves everything that rolls.

KZ400 headlight and Harley Davidson biker

My friend on his scooter.



My headlight I found out was broken when I took it off. I had radio on and OZZY was playing, love that song. OZZY with Primus.

Clean up and Re-paint and Bike ride.

Yesterday on saturday I degreased the bike and washed it off about three more times. Lightly sanded the frame down and spray painted it with about 5 light coats of paint. I can see where I need to focus more on the original nicks and chips in the paint. Sand those down again and touch up with paint. I took all the bolts off that I had put back on during the tear down. I taped them with numbers and took photos to remember where they went easier. I also started to clean up the chrome and aluminum parts. This is all new to me so I am not to sure if I am going in the right sequence and performing the work at its best. I just looked at the bike in the garage to see what yesterdays work looked like. I was also invited by my friend the same guy who helped me get the KZ400 home to go ride with him. I went out for about 3 hours with him but he is on call this week and had to split out and I did the same. I had fun on the ride.

Some of the people I rode with on Saturday 1-24-09.



My friend on the left of the photo in the Pirates shirt and skull cap.



My bike handlebars and the other riders in a line.