Found the time to strip the front of the bike. Thank god this time there was no major surprises.

Once I stripped off all of the electronics, levers, and grips from the front I started to notice a few more deficiencies with the way things were currently installed. For one the strange handlebars the bike has were not fully clamped down, as can be seen by the gap in the following image.

That being said the triple tree is an pretty descent condition. It will require a cleaning and potentially a repainting. But it does seem to be fully re-usable.

The break lines on the Sabre also seemed in pretty descent condition. When i drained then the fluid seemed pretty intact. Now the master cylinder is pretty much garbage, but then again I am going to replace the entire setup, so nothing to complain about there. New steel braided lines will be put in, new master cylinder, new rotors, and new pads. The break calipers are in really good condition. They need to be disassembled, cleaned and potentially re-powder coated.

In the previous episode I did mention the broken engine mount. I did some more research on potential repair techniques for that. The most solid approach that will cause the least amount of problems and re-assure me about the quality of the engine the most is to source a replacement bottom crankcase for the engine. This means he entire block will need to be disassembled. Its a huge undertaking but I feel its the much safer option then to rely on a weld that may not hold. It also seems to be the cheapest option in terms of cost. After referring to the service manual and looking around the bike, the motor is actually held by 6 mounting points it seems. So it will certainly not move but I rather not take the chances.

Bringing the attention back up to the top of the motorcycle, we see the carburetors and the two holes on the side of the air box. After removing the tank i found the air box with a filter sitting right on top of the carburetors.

Quickly double checking the service manual revealed that the entire air box assembly is not even from this bike. Those parts are from a similar year v45 Magna. Which is the cruiser equivalent of this bike.

This presents an interesting opportunity for me. If I am able to find a way to attach pod filters to those drilled holes I could most definitely cap the top of the air box. This will free a ton of space up for storing electronics under the tank, making for a much cleaner build. More disassembly will show what is possible.

Tune in next time when i will be presenting my design process and potential concepts for the bike. For now we start with these