$900 CRF450 - It'll be a cheap rebuild really, no, really!

Ok, I've gotten the new radiators & hoses installed along with a few other bits bolted on.

Got more done to the bike over the last few days. My buddy Pat who is a Honda Mechanic stopped over again to strip and clean the carb. There was bits of metal in it from when the motor blew up. I upgraded the accelerator pump with the parts from a '08 450r with parts from CRF's Only. Also got their stainless steel screw kit, remote fuel mixture adjustment screw, and aluminum hot start nut.

Got the bike turned around on the lift to repack the triple tree bearings. Found out the front wheel isn't exactly round. Hopefully it'll be fine for trail riding for now. THe carb and subframe have been installed.

When trying to connect the throttle cables, the throttle kept binding up so I've ordered up a new set of cables. I cleaned up the throttle tube and the cables but they are still binding up.

I bought a set of 450X foot peg mounts off Ebay so I can run a kickstand since there aren't always trees around on the trails. Tried to get the actual kickstand off Ebay but folks are asking more for them than buying the parts new from the dealer.

$2472 - Total as of back in Dec.

$66 CRF450X camshaft Ebay

$340 Lexx Muffler, Oversize radiators & hoses, Hot Cams shim kit Ebay

$99 Chain & Sprockets

$60 4 qts Oil & 2 Oil filters

$106 carb parts

$50 450X foot pegs & mounts

$140 Throttle cables and 450x kick stand, spring and mounting bolt

$3333 current total

It's getting real close to be running. Hopefully by the end of this week.

Cool! Looks good; can't wait for the ride report.

Thursday night went pretty well, it's a runner. Only took about 15 kicks or so. The Wife did "mention" we better crack open the garage door next time. Oops. We only let it run for about 30 seconds or so.

This is from today when I cruised it down the street to check the trans and it was all good.

http://vid287.photobucket.com/albums/ll147/gpz11/CRF450/Video_zpslagywzso.mp4

A 450X coolant overflow bottle arrived today too and got installed. I need to find a X skid plate now.

Congrats!

I got yelled at by a buddy that I haven't updated this lately. We got the shock removed to figure out what spring is on it. After fighting the collar a bit, we finally got the spring removed and it's a 6.0 so not nearly stiff enough for a big galoot like me. I need more like a 6.9 kg/mm.

I saw that QA1 offers high travel springs for a quarter of the price of normal dirt bike springs. The only issue is that you have less selection so I ended up with a 400 lb/in which works out to 7.1 kg/mm. Yeah, I know it's a bit stiffer but for $35, I figure it's a cheap experiment.

The spring came in while I was out of town so I found it sitting on my desk when I got back. I'm also going to check the nitrogen charge since my mechanic buddy seems to think it's low on it's charge.

So heres the bike in it's current state, halfway torn down till the shock gets back in the bike.

Here's a shot of the oversize gas tank.

I've also picked up some bar risers for the pro taper triple tree. I'd be nice to be able to adjust the forks without having to remove the handlebars and move the bars a bit taller for me. There's also a tall seat on order.

The forks will be dropped of at a local shop to get revalved and have new seals / oil. The suspension guy there used to work with the factory Yamaha motocross team.

We played with the forks a bit last night and figured out the axle was causing the forks to bind up. You can see the end of the axle had been hammered on. We removed the wheel and each fork leg moved freely but once we put the wheel back on, it all locked up.

We knocked all the burrs off the axle and polished it up so I won't need to buy a new one.

Took the forks off completely and dropped them off to be rebuilt and revalved.

I'm sure you know this but other might not. Modern forks are really picky on how you install the wheel. you need to slide the lubed up bolt through both legs torque the nut while holding the axle from the other side. if there's a pinch bolt on the nut side tighten it then with the pinch bolt on the non-nut side still loose push the front end down as far as you can help it rebound as quick as possible do this 4-5 times then with out disturbing the front end tighten the non-nut legs pinch bolt. this should minimize the sticktion and spread the tubes to same width.

Yup, there is a process to keep everything lined up properly.

Well, I'm waiting on the suspension to get back from being rebuilt/revalved. Unfortunately their suspension guy had a stroke and is in the process of recovering. Should be any day now though.

I do have a new skid plate and Trail Tech computer waiting for the bike the bike to be back in one piece. Oh, also picked up a 18" rear rim kit for it too.

I did however get my XR4Ti back in one piece and a driver again.