Let me first start by saying that prepping your bike both sucks and is very rewarding! The prep process had its Oh Crap! moments and its rewards, thank goodness not equally. I was a Googling queen because I had no clue where to identify some of the parts, such as a brake torque arm. Seriously, I didn’t. Thankfully that didn’t apply to my bike.
. I didn’t have a really good drill so I found one on sale at Home Depot for $79. I also bought quite a few packs of 5/64 bits because I was told I would break a ton of them. However, I only wound up using 4, and broke only one. YAY!
I started out with the pinch bolts and marked them with a Sharpie at full torque. I then removed them and used a spring loaded punch to mark where I was going to drill (although you can do this wile it’s on tehbike) and applied 3-in-1 oil every 30 seconds during the drilling process. My first pinch bolt took 9 minutes because I was so afraid of breaking a bit. By the time I got to the front Caliper bolts I could drill them in 3 minutes (and a front caliper bolt is thick!). BTW Don’t know why my hammer is in this pic lol.
The rear axle and axle bolt? PIA! I marked them both at full torque but and put it in the vise and it just took foreverrrrrrrrr. I did the bolt and axle separately at first, mistake and when I put my rear wheel on they didn’t line up. And not because the torque was off either, I just mis-drilled. Ugh. I tried to drill it on the bike but the angle was weird and wound up breaking my first (and only) bit. So I took the wheel back off and decided to lay the axle/bolt assembly on a shop rag, cradled within the top of the partially open vise. Way better, and faster. That worked out.
Since it went through pretty fast I then decided I would do a through and through wiring technique instead wiring it to the rear of the swingarm. Well, that didn’t work out so well. Then I screwed up–hugely. I was placing the rear back on and the right wheel spacer fell out (ugh, I hate that. And I had no axle grease). So I smacked it back in and didn’t realize that the axle head had rotated and was sitting on top of the axle block (aka chain adjustment block) on the chain side. I started torquing and didn’t understand why the holes weren’t matching up and the threads were off when I fingernail-checked them (how else can I explain it?). I looked on the left side and saw that the axle head had crushed the block. Oh @$#! I am screwed!!! I quickly untightened the bolt and placed it in the block correctly and retorqued. Well, it was now sitting on a layer of aluminum and I couldn’t decide to scrap it or make it work. It didn’t seem like it was dangerous because the layer was pretty thin. BUT! The holes were now misaligned. So I took it back off the bike and redrilled the assembly. I safety wired it and it was doable. Granted, by axle/nut started to resemble Swiss cheese but it worked and was safe. I finished up some other parts, including the radiator cap and the hoseclamps, etc. and called it a night.
The next day I started obsessing over the block. I called a local shop and they didn’t have anything but gave me a number for Stocker’s Salvage out in Chula Vista which was almost an hour and a half away from me. I removed the axle/bolt/nut assembly AGAIN and jumped in the truck and took off for CV. OMG. This place has every available part on the planet, it’s like a cool Hoarders episode but in a good way! I searched around with one of the employees..nothing in the bins. Oh noooo. And there, in a corner, was an entire swingarm/wheel assembly. I came for just the blocks but since they were slightly different I decided to buy the axle, bolt and blocks and got them for $38 bucks!
I brought it home and put the wheel back on and decided that I didn’t feel like drilling yet another assembly so I decided to re-evaluate the OEM assembly, took it off AGAIN and I decided it was fine and would use the one I bought at Stockers for a back-up. By the time I had finished I had unnecessarily removed the wheel EIGHT times in less than 24 hours. Needless to say I can now remove the wheel, wired and all, in under a minute. A little longer to re-wire. All while wearing sandals (I had to do it one last time before leaving for Stockers and I was not dressed appropriately for bike maintenance).
Logic Clothing hooked me up with some great graphics and I was ready to make everything pretty. I decided on one X in the middle of the lip print because it was two “busy” with two, pink Honda Racing logos, and since I had extra room on the sheet of pink I went with Hello Kitty with X’ed out eyes.
The front wheel was another story entirely. I actually had to Google the directions on how to remove the front wheel because I couldn’t remember if I only had to unloosen the left side first (left side of the bike, not looking at the front wheel from in front), or unloosen the axle bolt, Caliper bolts only, or remove them, or unloosen everything, unloosen just the left pinchbolts. WHAT!!?! You can tell I don’t ever have to change my front. Anyway, I finally figured that out without having to remove the wheel thankfully. I realize there is no safety wire applied torque on the Caliper bolts in the pic but I used blue threadlocker because I was OVER IT. I worked until about 2 AM and decided to leave the radiator flush and RVT silicone for the next day (which sounded more confusing than it actually was). Thank God for http://www.CBRWorld.net
The next day, I fnished up the remaining loose ends. Maia was coming over after she got off from work so we had planned to leave at 1:30 AM with me sleeping on the way to the track. The day flew by and I still had so much to do. I added the graphics using a hairdryer instead of a heatgun (works fine) and it was looking good! We didn’t leave until 2:54 AM because by the time she got to my house I was still prepping my bike (the radiator flush took 9 times, plus the 2 I have done in the past). You MUST remove the waterpump bolt to do this right. And don’t forget to use distilled water. I didn’t add Water Wetter or Royal Purple Ice because I knew the temps would be fine. Ugh, I still had to pack. It was dark-thirty once again I was on my way to a racetrack.
I was so thrilled to be able to do this and figure it all out. I honestly never thought I could do it but I had no real choice and now I am thrilled I tackled it. The only hiccups being the block issue and I accidentally kicked my bolts (including bodywork), which were organized, all over the place. It took a bit since I don’t have the OEM bolts for some parts as well as some don’t match lol. I felt like Ralphie from A Christmas Story when he hit the hubcap containing lugnuts. Ohhh Fuuuuddddge! But like Ralphie, I didn’t say ‘Fudge’ either.
Parts in SoCAl:
STOCKERS MOTORCYCLE SALVAGE
803 ANITA STREET
CHULA VISTA CA 91911
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/stockers/
TO BE CONTINUED!
Ms XX FAST - Life in the Not-So-Fast Lane 
You know I was wondering what the hell a brake torque arm is myself…. that’s hilarious. I hope mine’s in the same place. Waiting for my stuff to come in, so I can get busy with this safety hole drilling bit. I am looking forward to twirling wire… =D
Awesome writeup. Can’t wait for Part 2.
I am pretty sure mine is on the caliper and slides into a welded frame slot on the right side of the swingarm. And if it isn’t, I wasn’t required to do anything anyway lol
I ran outside and looked at my rear brake. There is nothing there that comes even close to resembling a brake torque arm. Either I don’t have one or somebody done stole it. 😉 So, I’m going to scratch that off my list of stuff to wire. I got my racing safety pins yesterday from Kurvy Girl and the tab washers are coming in on Thursday, so that’s what I’ll be doing Thursday: breaking drill bits and swiss cheesing all manner of hardware. This is the first time I’m doing this, too. And like you I’ve done so much googling I’m sick of it. But hey, at least we can say: I figured this shite out all by myself! Even if it was a PITA and confusing as heck. But as you said, after we’ve done it, you realize it isn’t really all that big of a deal. I had the axles and the oil drain plug done when I had the bike serviced, because those were the ones that I thought I wouldn’t be able to get through nicely with my minimalistic setup and the oil drain plug is a pain anyway. They only charged me like half a labor hour for it. But I’m doing the rest myself. The silicone bit makes me a little nervous though… those brake caliper retaining springs look like I could really make a huge mess out of things. Too bad they’re not into duct tape. I have a nice shade of hot pink (as do you ;)) and silver and red and black… yeah I love me some duct tape…
BTW, what’s up with Hello Kitty? That’s my thang! LOL Now everybody is gonna think I stole your idea. hahahahahahaa