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Project bike 919

R3DS!X

R3DS!X

Whatever that means
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Location
Daly Shity
Moto(s)
Energica EVA
Honda 919
KTM 790 ADV
Royal Enfield INT 650
BARF perks
CRC MotoGP Contributor
Howdy,

Got myself a old 919 on the cheap. I plan on turning it into a franken bike and hopefully retaining most of the classic styling without making it look too ugly. Gonna be doing this on the cheapish. Sourcing a front end and shock, going through the bike to see what else needs replacing a fixing. Made this thread to post progress and see if y'all have any sweet ideas along the way.

Here is the bike as I brought it home:
w3CjzvZ.jpg

glF1P3u.jpg


List of needs so far:
Clutch cable
Wheel bearings (probably)
Tires
Seat cover
Paint tank and tail
Tail tidy
Exhaust
A couple minor mods
Front end swap
Bars
Maybe rear sets
Rear shock
 
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Lovely. I'd have a great time with one of those as a Dirtbag candidate.
 
Rock solid bikes with a lovely engine in my opinion.

First bit of advice, ditch those frame sliders and get some that mount through the frame, those sliders that mount to the engine have been known to cause catastrophic damage in the event of a bike nap.

I think I've sold all my bling for that bike, but I'll check and see if I have any bits left over. Edit: All I have left are shitty engine mounted sliders and 1 of 2 Remus slip ons.

R3DS!X said:
Gonna be doing this on the cheapish....
Rear shock
Click to expand...

Getting a decent shock for cheapish is going to be tough for that bike, or at least, I never had any luck finding anything under a grand, but that was quite awhile ago.

Looking forward to seeing it's progress.
 
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matty said:
Rock solid bikes with a lovely engine in my opinion.

First bit of advice, ditch those frame sliders and get some that mount through the frame, those sliders that mount to the engine have been known to cause catastrophic damage in the event of a bike nap.

I think I've sold all my bling for that bike, but I'll check and see if I have any bits left over.



Getting a decent shock for cheapish is going to be tough for that bike, or at least, I never had any luck finding anything under a grand, but that was quite awhile ago.

Looking forward to seeing it's progress.
Click to expand...
Yup, I'm only going to keep them on for Jack stand mounts.
 
lUNpOvW.jpg


Been taking shit apart and cleaning and looking through everything. Drained the oil which was blacker than my soul. air filter wasn't great but not the worst. Disabled the flapper and capped the vacuum. removed the canister and plugged the vacuum hose. headlight wasn't working, not the fuse, hoping its just the bulb but i didn't see a blow filament. got a source on a tl1000s front end so i'm planning to swap that on. degreased the wheel and chain and loads of other bits that had years of neglect in their souls. ordering some parts.

The finish on the paint is done. probably gonna have it painted.
 
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Subscribed! Will be interested to see it evolve. Always thought 919s were cool bikes, and underrated at the time.
 
Blacker than your soul... no way :twofinger


Have fun with the build :Port
 
As much fun as dirtbag bikes are I think this is too nice for a DB bike. I wanna rail on this thing and make it look goodish.

The paint is too far gone to be saved. I am thinking about doing bed liner. herculiner is resistant to gas which rattle can is not. unless i can find someone who is cheap and good at spraying some actual paint i think this is gonna be a bed liner bike.

I used to have a 919 back in the day and have a lot of good memories. I did forget how inadequate the brakes were. So i want a new front end, get me some USD forks as well as radial mount big boy calipers, for performance and cool guy points.

I also forgot how neat this bike was. This bike was made in the early days of Fuel injection. So there is a manual fuel enricher that looks like a choke, a dedicated "FI" light in case something goes wrong with this crazy technology. The underside of the banana seat has these neat hooks that flip out from the underside to use with a bungee net or some shit. The emissions regulatory crap was lazily tacked on, even more lazy than you might imagine, the evap canister was bolted onto to a steel frame that bolts onto where the center stand normally mounts, so if you have a cali model, you don't get a center stand if you wanna remain complaint.
In my opinion the bike is cool classic styling with the best part of modern engineering. No ABS, no Traction control, No throttle by wire. You actually have to know how to ride, only you can save you from you. You get the benefits from fuel injection (which honda actually did a good job of in this era, unlike yamaha) and just a sweet ass bike that could have benefited from a better front end and maybe a linkage based rear shock, but is otherwise solid(okay the frame is a little flexi but that's not terrible for a road bike). The bike isn't perfection but its really a great highlight in the midpoint of when bikes were carbed and a pita to work on and the spaceships that almost ride themselves of today. This bike will fill the void for you if you're simply looking for a city commuter with some balls or feel like ripping the canyons for and extended period and it will look classy as fuck while it's doing it. All the new transformers insect design of the modern stuff is going to look dated as fuck in a few years. This will forever look like a motorcycle.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk
 
Agreed, way too nice fora DB bike... all this bike needs is a little TLC, which it seems to be receiving. :thumbup

It would be way cool with a retro paint scheme, or maybe an urban camo to make it pop!

Edit: I’ve been fascinated by these lately....

Johndicezx9 said:
1.jpg


9.jpg


3.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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Ya know a Nickey Hayden paint theme would be cool. I do like the retro Red white and blue one a lot. Urban camo aint bad, but not on this bike.
 
R3DS!X said:
As much fun as dirtbag bikes are I think this is too nice for a DB bike. I wanna rail on this thing and make it look goodish.
Click to expand...

Johndicezx9 said:
Agreed, way too nice fora DB bike...
Click to expand...

No one ever said to make it badish or shitty looking. Despite the common misconceptions, there have been many very nicely built and detailed Dirtbag builds over the years. The idea (and current suggestion) is to simply build something really cool. Do it on a lowish budget. Then come out and ride for 3 days with a some other like-minded folks and have a little party at the end. :ride
 
VFR swing arm with an 8 spoke off of the early 90's VFR (plus you get your linkage and choice of quality budget shocks) 900rr headers with a low slung stubby exhaust. Or go old buell style and under engine. Hack a few inches off of that subframe and put a shorter seat on it, like on the 1000r's above or ... Get a headlight off the Husky vitipilan or something else with a shallow bucket... street fighter that bad boy.
 
Johndicezx9 said:
I guess I've only the ones that look like they just came off the set of "Mad Max".... :dunno

:laughing Just kidding...
Click to expand...

Sure, many do have a Mad_Max style... but I also think of people like Brian Wright who has built a number of traditional style choppers that were beautifully painted and very well detailed, or Kyle Maibes' gorgeous and extremely well detailed brat-bobber style XS650 from a few years ago. Or Justin Martin's super cool XS650 super motard from two years ago. There are more, but these are a few bikes that come to mind that are well built, well detailed, very ride-able, yet still live up to the spirit of DBC for being creative and built on a low budget.

Okay, back to project 919... whats going to happen first? How's the TL1000 front end swap coming along?
 
John, is it me or are all the bikes you just posted using the Harley Daylighter headlamp?
Is that a 'thing'?
 
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