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SpaceCowboy

An (un)holy union

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A few of you know my 2009 400 xcw that I’ve been ragging on for a while. Keeping alive with rotella and clean air filters. Drinks oil like a two stroke:

A188D9E6-7B43-4A41-B428-A8FC4F8DB618.thumb.jpeg.ac56daf5b477a962c62b1b4efcabd862.jpeg
 

A few weeks ago I picked up a salvaged 2017 450 exc that had been t boned, then stripped of the wheels, brakes, triples, some other stuff 

6887BDC5-676B-4584-9D28-51161478E36F.thumb.jpeg.fd59e5b2b6949cebaac7b2c61f47b715.jpegEF82C0BA-D310-4B96-93E8-4F2102F0B98D.thumb.jpeg.3025b9b61092b4f498f6e685f9eef080.jpeg
 

any guesses what the plan is? 

Edited by SpaceCowboy
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Install pedals, get giant calves?

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Make 1 good one from 2 bad ones. 2 wrongs can make a right. I love projects... this is another good one. Best of show!!

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Give up riding and take up hiking, delivering food in your spare time when not working as an uber driver?

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17 hours ago, tntmo said:

Install pedals, get giant calves?

17 hours ago, Mr.JAJA said:

Build a 3 wheeler?

3 hours ago, robertaccio said:

Make 1 good one from 2 bad ones. 2 wrongs can make a right. I love projects... this is another good one. Best of show!!

3 hours ago, DSM8 said:

Give up riding and take up hiking, delivering food in your spare time when not working as an uber driver?

 

My brain don't work good enough to balance on two wheels and pedal at the same time. My brain do work good enough to never ride a 3 wheeler. The uber thing dont sound too bad, at least I'd be making money instead of always spending on dirt bikes. 

 

3 hours ago, robertaccio said:

Make 1 good one from 2 bad ones. 2 wrongs can make a right. I love projects... this is another good one. Best of show!!

2 hours ago, dirt dame said:

Make two expensive boat anchors?👀

WINNER WINNER

hoping to end up with at least one running motorcycle. May end up with a couple of boat anchors... Only one way to find out

 

Edited by SpaceCowboy
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Progress

2556CD2B-C6AF-4B5C-A99E-F3C145025AD7.thumb.jpeg.8e36ce4a79c222cde1d47e3e4ca543da.jpeg07F85C84-433F-4733-A3AD-E38E065E2BC4.thumb.jpeg.9271880fceef9d7e4b5db2335f854847.jpegE2E0DFED-4B79-4784-9FBA-6640E5583A80.thumb.jpeg.4b0ad53b1e8feae4aaee11765c338032.jpeg


Close up of the damage from the t bone. Subframe and exhaust bent in, touching the spring. Shock body broke leaking all the goo out. New(used) subframe and exhaust on the way. Hoping to rebuild shock, replacements are tough to find (expensive) for the pdf katoom:

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Back wheel, spacers, axle and brake caliper swap over. Brake pedal is different 

0E9FB304-255A-42C1-BB61-480250774AD5.thumb.jpeg.29e2cd805fc906342dfb8395e6b97631.jpeg1D55E688-C25B-4F24-9D23-5E1F373B8266.thumb.jpeg.f63d0b6cb5a0fb009aab1ef5289a9ee2.jpeg

bike is complete and ready for test ride (minus rear brake)  clutch master swapped over and works great. Shifter fits but isn’t perfectE6E71410-7DEF-4AD0-AAFA-264C5DC4900A.thumb.jpeg.cce78d7395b75914357f5726139799d5.jpeg

A7AD9ED2-76B8-4CCC-9EBA-62B1FE17CBD0.jpeg

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1FC3F31D-6ECE-49D5-8E56-57156D5BB883.thumb.jpeg.9553ed345ce381967083e2dc696afef5.jpegDE50E0B9-0811-494F-8837-551E5F0E1B97.thumb.jpeg.7633666dd4c7300e4274b13d9f8cbc9b.jpeg

Damn this bike sucks, there’s no power. Got back to the shed underwhelmed. I realized I didn’t tighten the throttle tube on the handle bars, so when I twisted the go tube, it was spinning on the bars and not actuating the go cables. Tightened those two 8mm and tried again. GODDAMN we have power. This bike runs great. Starts right up and did I mention the power? Kinda sketchy riding all that power around with no rear brake. 

also, apparently if the shock has no goo inside, then shock has no damping. at all.

really sketchy riding a rocket ship around with no rear brake and a pogo rear end. 

Edited by SpaceCowboy
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Now that I know it rides great, time to replace the subframe and exhaust and shock. All got bent in the crash. All are expensive. 

Edited by SpaceCowboy
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I like it when people “up-cycle”  moto parts like this.  Good job making your Frankenbike work. 

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So how does one go about finding salvaged bikes like this in general? Copart? Local connections?

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8 hours ago, tntmo said:

I like it when people “up-cycle”  moto parts like this.  Good job making your Frankenbike work. 

Thanks! I love working on these things, reading about these things, riding these things. Can’t beat a bike revival 
 

6 hours ago, nostep said:

So how does one go about finding salvaged bikes like this in general? Copart? Local connections?

craigslist, OfferUp, and fb market place for me. This one came from OfferUp. I love these projects so much I’m always perusing. Mostly window shopping. I don’t need or want any more projects, but when something irresistible pops up I can’t myself. 
 

I’ve got two options when this 450 is complete:

1. sell the 450, use the proceeds to rebuild my old 400 into a respectable machine

2. Keep the new 450, sell the remnants of the 400 to recoup some of my money 

3. rebuild the 400 into a respectable machine, keep both…

But wait, there’s more. I also have my brothers 2005 crf450x sitting at a family friends house across town with a blown engine. it’s been there for years, so no rush, but I’d really like to get that rebuilt too  

See what I mean when I say I don’t need more projects? For now I’ll focus on getting this new 450 up to snuff, then figure things out from there

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I think it would be nice to have some spares, build the best bike you can and keep whatever is worth holding on to.  Wheels and such?  Sell parts, they always get more than an entire bike does.

I would love to put a XR250 style engine in a modern chassis, that 450 would be a good candidate.

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5 hours ago, tntmo said:

I think it would be nice to have some spares, build the best bike you can and keep whatever is worth holding on to.  Wheels and such?  Sell parts, they always get more than an entire bike does.

I would love to put a XR250 style engine in a modern chassis, that 450 would be a good candidate.

By that you mean a Glorious NX250 rocket engine

 

or a TTR250 with 350 Big Bore thuuumpa

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6 hours ago, SpaceCowboy said:

Thanks! I love working on these things, reading about these things, riding these things. Can’t beat a bike revival 
 

craigslist, OfferUp, and fb market place for me. This one came from OfferUp. I love these projects so much I’m always perusing. Mostly window shopping. I don’t need or want any more projects, but when something irresistible pops up I can’t myself. 
 

I’ve got two options when this 450 is complete:

1. sell the 450, use the proceeds to rebuild my old 400 into a respectable machine

2. Keep the new 450, sell the remnants of the 400 to recoup some of my money 

3. rebuild the 400 into a respectable machine, keep both…

But wait, there’s more. I also have my brothers 2005 crf450x sitting at a family friends house across town with a blown engine. it’s been there for years, so no rush, but I’d really like to get that rebuilt too  

See what I mean when I say I don’t need more projects? For now I’ll focus on getting this new 450 up to snuff, then figure things out from there

Is the stroke on the 450 different than the 450?

IIRC the 400 had a nicer trail friendly power curve while the 450 had a racier faster revving motor.

I think @Spaugh built a 453 or something back in the day - a big bore 400 trail killer “best motor ktm never built” kind of a bike. It sounds cool

 

Good on you for building up the bike! Spoon some streety tires on the extra wheels for hooligan fun!

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got real busy. Continue - Shock looked not good:

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seal head knocked free, reservoir not straight, inside of shock body gauged. More to come 

Edited by SpaceCowboy
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Good Story - Beware, Man with tools, Breaking the rules.  👀

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Suspension 101 was able to salvage the shock! And while we were in there… no point in rebuilding it to stock specs. Might as well do the personalized revalve… and might as well get the special anodizing coating… existing spring was swapped by the PO and is one rate stiff for my weight, but I ride with a heavy pack, so we’ll save $ and try it out. I’ve since lost a few lbs so that might have been a mistake. Anyway, here is the pretty new shock installed

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also notice the new header. Looks like I’ll also need an exhaust/engine mount 

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and here’s my list of what’s still needed:

Ktm 450 need: 

Rear and front wheel seals, bearings, spacers 

Sprocket bolts 

Disks bolts 

Triple clamp top bolt 

Grips 

Engine/exhaust mount 

Gas tank rubbers 

Fork guards 

Sub frame bolt 

Shifter


 

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Got everything together and noticed my forks seals are leaking. I guess another trip to George at Suspension 101 is in order. And while we’re there, might as well try out the gobblers. Dropped off the forks this morning. I’ll keep y’all posted. Never had a bike with both the front and rear freshly setup for me. Super stoked. 

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SC,,  You are going to like that suspension, incl. Gobblers. Fun project.

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new clutch blood for the second time after swapping master cylinders again. Also new brake blood front and rear. I’m getting good at this bleeding thing. New oil, air filter, used plastics from OfferUp 

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new rear tire, license plate holder, hand guards. Bike worked great on its first outing. 2 days in big bear. My brother was in town, so he rode this one for the weekend while I rode my 400. I can’t wait to try this 450 out on an extended ride for myself. At first the fan wasn’t hooked up. I thought it wouldn’t matter, as I’ve had tons of dirt bikes without fans. But we boiled over 3 times within 20 mins before plugging in the fan. Then it stayed right at 200 degrees the entire weekend. I guess the fan is really important on these 

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