Friday, January 11, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Introduction to Craig's Nighthawk Page
Back in 1983 I was the lucky owner of a brand new Honda Nighthawk 650. I loved that bike and while selling it was a necessity I was very sad about not having a bike anymore. I had it for about 1 year and put about 8000 miles on it during that time.
Time warp to 2006 and I had a desire to own a motorcycle again. I had always wanted one but had decided I would just drive a car instead. I had recently started a new job that was a short drive to work, so a motorcycle would be a great way to commute in the summer.
Fancying myself as an excellent mechanic, I started looking for a project bike. Something simple would work, but a complete overhaul would be good as well. I had really liked the Nighthawk so I started looking at EBay and Craigslist for those. Most were overpriced for me or weren't what I was looking for. I really wanted a cheaper project bike. I posted a Craigslist add looking for one and had several replies, but most of the offers were for overpriced boxes of parts instead of something I would consider a project.
In November of 2006 I found a Craigslist ad for two 1984 Honda Nighthawks - CB700SC's. This isn't the bike I had owned, but they were a unique piece of history and I was very interested. The owner had one he had engine problems with and had gotten another running parts bike to do a motor swap. The parts bike had been laid down and had an oil leak, but it was mostly complete and did run. He had the motors out to do the swap, but then had gotten busy and they sat for a couple of years. He decided to get them out of his garage and move on with his life, so he listed them for sale on Craigslist.
I went to take a look and they were quite a mess. They were very dirty and somewhat disassembled with the motors out and no tanks on them. These bikes were basically complete but some parts would need replacement. But all things considered it was a heck of a deal for both bikes so I decided to buy them and all I ended up paying was a total of $250. I got the bikes home and stored them until April 2007 when I started working on getting one running.
This blog is dedicated to that process and the myriad of things I went through to get to the point of first having a running bike, then one that didn't leak oil, and then to having two running bikes. I have taken several photo's along the way thus far and will continue to post progress as I go along this journey. My goal is to first detail the work done thus far and bring things up to date, and then I will progress with the work being done on the restoration as it happens. I have had to fashion some tools along the way - I will detail those later on. I have also had to get parts and have found some great suppliers on the web and elsewhere and I will include links to those. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have thus far.
Time warp to 2006 and I had a desire to own a motorcycle again. I had always wanted one but had decided I would just drive a car instead. I had recently started a new job that was a short drive to work, so a motorcycle would be a great way to commute in the summer.
Fancying myself as an excellent mechanic, I started looking for a project bike. Something simple would work, but a complete overhaul would be good as well. I had really liked the Nighthawk so I started looking at EBay and Craigslist for those. Most were overpriced for me or weren't what I was looking for. I really wanted a cheaper project bike. I posted a Craigslist add looking for one and had several replies, but most of the offers were for overpriced boxes of parts instead of something I would consider a project.
In November of 2006 I found a Craigslist ad for two 1984 Honda Nighthawks - CB700SC's. This isn't the bike I had owned, but they were a unique piece of history and I was very interested. The owner had one he had engine problems with and had gotten another running parts bike to do a motor swap. The parts bike had been laid down and had an oil leak, but it was mostly complete and did run. He had the motors out to do the swap, but then had gotten busy and they sat for a couple of years. He decided to get them out of his garage and move on with his life, so he listed them for sale on Craigslist.
I went to take a look and they were quite a mess. They were very dirty and somewhat disassembled with the motors out and no tanks on them. These bikes were basically complete but some parts would need replacement. But all things considered it was a heck of a deal for both bikes so I decided to buy them and all I ended up paying was a total of $250. I got the bikes home and stored them until April 2007 when I started working on getting one running.
This blog is dedicated to that process and the myriad of things I went through to get to the point of first having a running bike, then one that didn't leak oil, and then to having two running bikes. I have taken several photo's along the way thus far and will continue to post progress as I go along this journey. My goal is to first detail the work done thus far and bring things up to date, and then I will progress with the work being done on the restoration as it happens. I have had to fashion some tools along the way - I will detail those later on. I have also had to get parts and have found some great suppliers on the web and elsewhere and I will include links to those. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have thus far.
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