Project Bike (any thoughts)

[mindburden88]

One thing I have been wanting to do for a while was start a project bike build or repair to get my hands dirty and to have a bike that I worked on.  I have been wanting a Harley project (road king, sportster, some softails), but maybe there's a different bike that would be more interesting that you guys might recommend (like a small cruiser, older

Comments

[motomuffin]

First, everything elizilla said.

But do keep in mind, parts availability is king. Haunt Craigslist for bikes and then immediately go to BikeBandit, cheapcycleparts, z1enterprises, oldbikebarn, etc and hunt down what the (if you're lucky) ad says it needs or some likely candidates like levers, hoses, battery, carb rebuild kit, caliper rebuild kit, etc. and see if they're NLA, stupid expensive or just regular expensive. ;-)

Also. Harley. I know everyone likes to dump on Harley but their parts availability is freaking stellar. Also freaking expensive. And when I say freaking expensive, I mean used parts sell for new part prices, sometimes more. But everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is restoring old bikes these days so parts availability is getting better. Hell even Honda has reissued some parts for 70s and 80s bikes that were until very recently NLA.

Find a make and model that was/is very popular -- steer clear of anything Italian or otherwise unusual. Also stay away from Japanese mid-80s (Regan-era) 700s; they were all made for exactly 2 years and then changed. What a PITA.

Shoot for a small Harley or a UJM; that'll give you bang-for-buck and workability.

[motomuffin]

(I recently restored a 1981 Kawasaki KZ550LTD and while parts availability was, in fact, a problem, the KZ forum was super duper helpful as far as parts matching -- Kawasaki and Suzuki both love their parts-bin bikes and LOADS of things (like the turn signal flasher that went bad on me) that are listed NLA for your particular make/model can be cannibalized with very little effort from other makes/models and the forums always have someone who's mapped all that out.

[mindburden88]

I wouldn't want to do anything older than 90'. If a came across a decent Honda I would do it (depending on the shape it's in) I would love to get my hands on a 97 Harley road king or softail, I love the EVO motor they have. Thank you for the list of places to check. The KZ550 sounds fun