Blackbird Project Incoming

[AceOfHearts]

Pictures to follow but I should be picking up a Honda Blackbird this afternoon! (agreed a deal unseen on Facebook)

Have been looking for one for a little while as a new commuter bike. I am currently using a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and even though it is a great bike, its not really ideal for the job (30 miles of fast A roads) and I am missing the wind protection of a faired bike. Also having recently sold my turbocharged TVR it will be nice to have some performance back in the garage.

The Blackbird in question looks great in pictures except for a dodgy iridium screen, and hasn't run in a couple of years so needs recommissioning. Fingers crossed its a good buy

[AceOfHearts]

jjones said:

Sight unseen! best of luck!

To be honest at the agreed price I could flip it on ebay for a bit of profit even if it is a total dog. HPI check has come back all clear, and its a fuel injected model so at least there will be no carbs to clean out. I'm feeling pretty confident except for fitting it in the back of the ute for the journey home

[AceOfHearts]

trickywoo said:

Carb or fi?

One of the early FI ones

[AceOfHearts]

Well it fitted and is now home! I will update later with better pics and a preliminary 'to do' list.

[AceOfHearts]

rodericb said:

poo at Paul's said:

3) why squeeze it in the pick up when there’s a van there!?

"tis a bit hard to do some celebratory circle-work on the way home in a van!

This was taken at the sellers house, its his van

Edited by AceOfHearts on Sunday 11th April 09:36

[AceOfHearts]

I'm surprised by the amount of interest! So anyways, here is what you get for £1000...

A big folder of service history (also HPi clear)

|https://thumbsnap.com/Le5o6XRZ[/url]

An iridium screen



Blue anodized tat



More blue anodized tat

[url]

50,000 miles



A crusty fuel tank



Good as new Pirellis front and rear, crusty wheels and chain and sprocket.



Looking at the history it has been barely used in the last 5 or 6 years, and totally unused for the last 3. It's in fairly good condition considering and I think I will be able to make it a nice usable bike without too much effort.

-New tank already ordered (£140)
-Genuine Honda screen on order (£30)
-Genuine fairing bolts I will order tonight
-Tail unit is the only minor bodywork damage, I will keep an eye out for a good used one as they don't seem expensive.
-Battery
-Wheel refurb
-Chain and sprocket set
-General taking things apart, cleaning and zinc plating
-Service

I am hoping to have it up and running as a nice looking commuter for sub £1500, let's see how that goes

Edited by AceOfHearts on Sunday 11th April 11:36

[AceOfHearts]

Stainless OEM style bolts arrived and OEM screen

[AceOfHearts]

Krikkit said:

Looks like a great project, not too bad at all! Does it run alright?

Its been sat unused for a few years, and due to the state of the tank I am going to wait until the new one is fitted and a full service is completed before trying to start it

[AceOfHearts]

Krikkit said:

Have you considered a tank liner instead? Quite cheap and relatively straight-forward.

I had considered it, but thought I would try and get a good tank as it would probably be a better long term solution. I might try and derust the old one and sell it on to claw some money back.

[AceOfHearts]

I had a little play with the bike after work today, replaced the screen and blue bolts. Much better

I've still not even given it a clean yet so I'm sure it will polish up really well







The new tank also arrived, although that will have to wait until the weekend

[AceOfHearts]

Not much of an update but got 15 minutes on the bike this evening. Removed the tank and airbox cover. The old fuel is really disgusting but thankfully apart from a lot of dirt and cobwebs under the tank there are no other horrors that I can see yet. The old air filter is like new so the bike seems to have been cared for in its past.

Airbox out next for spark plug change and a good cleanup under there, then the pump will be swapped out into the new tank

[AceOfHearts]

Clinton Baptiste said:

Where did you get the fuel tank from? Nice work by the way. Got a Blackbird myself, lovely bikes.

Just from a breakers on eBay, I should get the bulk of the work done this weekend ready for a fire up hopefully

[AceOfHearts]

Got a lot done today. Spark plugs replaced, oil and coolant replaced, air filter replaced. Everything that came out was remarkably good so I guess it was serviced shortly before its lay up.

Fuel tank stripped down, although after cleaning up the pump assembly it was totally seized, so that will have to wait until I get a replacement. The brown stuff in the pictures is more fuel varnish than actual rust, hopefully the injectors have faired better. Once that is done it will be ready for a test fire. I also did a lot of cleaning!

Tomorrow I will be replacing the brake and clutch fluid and probably just more cleaning.



Old tank



New tank







Old plugs not bad at all


Undertank area cleaning up pretty well



One final thing was that I connected the battery (to test the fuel pump) and went through all the switchgear and electrics. Everything still works perfectly

[AceOfHearts]

New fuel pump arrived and fitted



Plumbed everything back up and filled the new tank with fresh fuel and a load of redex. Cranked it over in bursts and could hear each cylinder slowly coming back to life until it would finally idle on its own. Revs nicely although idle is still a bit lumpy. I'm sure it will need a couple of tanks of fresh fuel and injector cleaner before it cleans up fully.

With the bike running I checked a few other systems. The battery isn't charging and the tacho also doesn't work. Stator seems OK so will get a new reg/rec on order.

Going in the right direction though

[AceOfHearts]

Jules Sunley said:

Loving this thread, but it's got me looking at Blackbirds for sale a couple of times now. I blame you OP if I end up finally scratching that itch. I've already got 2 bikes, a KTM990SMT and an old ZX6R, not sure I can justify a third to myself (or the Mrs) but working on the 'man maths'....

I'm not as mechanically minded as you so mine would end up costing me a lot more as I would need it pre-sorted!

Please keep the posts coming, really interesting to hear your progress.

This is my 5th bike at the moment

[AceOfHearts]

I decided to be a bit more proactive this evening with the injectors, rather than just waiting for the redex to start working.

So I pulled them out and rigged up a homebrew injector cleaner system

This consisted of a piece of fuel pipe, carb cleaner and a 12v battery

The pipe fitted over the ends of 2 injectors snuggly, and then in the centre of the pipe I drilled a small hole to fit the nozzle of the carb cleaner. I then jetted the carb cleaner whilst activating each injector in turn with the spare battery.

Is it sketchy? - Yes

Did I get carb cleaner in my eye trying to get a picture? - Yes

Did it work? - Yes

All back together and running lovely and smooth on all 4 cylinders again. Next up will be checking over and sorting out the brakes / chain

[AceOfHearts]

Apologies for the lack of updates, I have been pretty bad at taking pictures and keeping tabs of my progress.

I fitted a new stator which resolved the charging issue, along with a new regulator for good measure (good used one kept as a spare)

The tacho issue turned out to be a corroded ground on the circuit board on the back of the clocks. A new ground lead sorted that issue.

Brakes and clutch have been bled through with fresh fluid and are working well. Chain I have cleaned up and re-lubed as it was pretty crusty but not actually worn at all. I'm sure it must have been replaced shortly before being laid up. Hopefully it should do for the MOT which is booked for Tuesday

Only other issue I have found is the speedo not working. The clocks will have to come out again but I guess it will just be another bad connection somewhere. I should get a chance to look at this on Monday

Quick picture from last night when I gave it a quick run up the (private) road to check the brakes / no leaks etc. Lucky I did as thats how I spotted the speedo issue.




Insurance is all sorted on a new multibike policy which was surprisingly cheap. Nobody would even quote me on it with my no claims being tied up on the Royal Enfield!

[AceOfHearts]

Passed with no advisories

Sorting the tax now and then I'm taking the other half out for a spin.

Really impressed with how it rode today over the 60 mile round trip to work. Super stable and great wind protection. Hides its speed a bit too well though and very easy (and quick) to get into license losing territory! Will definitely have to keep my sensible cap on.

I'm looking forward to enjoying it over the summer and carrying on tidying it up. Next on the list is replating a load of the nuts and bolts

[AceOfHearts]

A quick update that the bike is still running well. One fork seal let go so I replaced the pair with new bushes and fresh 10w oil. Tidied up the front end and polished the fork bottoms lightly whilst they were off. I also added a 4mm spacer to the rear shock to quicken the steering a touch. Bike is now handling better than ever and is ready to take to Silverstone for the MotoGP in a couple of weeks.

Coming up to 1000 miles covered now and it is a very capable bike. Only real niggle is I wish it would do a bit more than 40mpg but that is probably due to my right hand as well

Edited by AceOfHearts on Tuesday 17th August 14:03