My Honda Valkyrie re-build

Whilst in the UK last week and early this week I managed to be a set of slightly used exhausts from a 2002 Valkyrie with the piggies cut. They are in perfect condition and only cost £175. I also got a mountain of other small items like anti-seize compound stainless nuts and bolts, fuse box and the npt connectors for the electronic fuel shut-off. I also had the cam end covers engraved with Valkyrie to add a bit of bling.

Thursday: I picked up some cable for the lighting and fuel shut off and some conduit to run it all in when I was in Gandia getting the car its annual safety check. This afternoon the courier arrived with the exhausts from the UK, I used Jack Neale Transport again as I was pleased with everything he did when he brought the bike over and later the lift. I then made a tool to strip the forks down, finally collected the re-painted front mudguard (I am really pleased with the quality of the paint job that he did).  I removed the disc’s from the wheels so they are ready for polishing and had a general tidy up in the storeroom so that I can get to all the parts.

Friday: I had a few other non Valk jobs to do today. But I did manage to clean up a few bits and pieces and do some more painting on some others.

Saturday: Spent the day doing more cleaning and re-painting. The front brake callipers were very heavily encrusted with dirt and brake dust. Brake cleaner didn’t do much good but barbecue cleaner worked wonders on them and they are now gleaming.  That’s it for this week as I will be riding out with my friends tomorrow.

Monday: No work done today but Fedex finally turned up with the new rocker cover that I bought before Christmas on eBay in the UK. It is perfect and looks brand new and with it was a second hand chrome oil filter cover and that again is in perfect condition.

Tuesday: Spent the morning in the workshop and finished polishing the mounting brackets for the master cylinders and the top triple tree. In the afternoon I swapped over the left rocker cover for the new one received yesterday and refitted the front foot pegs and the gear selector after cleaning. I removed the air cleaner box and then started doing the de-smog conversion. I have ripped everything out now all I need to do is cap the vacuum lines and put the core plugs in the block. I need to buy another one as I seem to have misplaced it!! 🙁 Unfortunately the chrome oil filter cover that I bought doesn’t fit the Valkyrie only the Goldwing still it was only £5, I’ll put it back on eBay.

Wednesday: When I was out shopping I picked up another core plug to complete the de-smogging and some moly grease for when I re-assemble the back wheel.

Saturday: I installed the core plugs and capped the two vacuum ports with the Red-eye caps. I am glad that I bought a new petcock vacuum tube for the petcock from Red-eye when I bought the caps, as the old one was perished and just snapped when I went to remove it. I re-installed the rear brake pedal and master cylinder after cleaning and replacing the pedal. I replaced the right rocker cover with a second hand one I bought of eBay some while ago. The postman delivered the electric fuel shut off valve so I have had a look at where to mount that and it looks like where some of the smog pieces were mounted under the air cleaner will be suitable.

Monday:  I didn’t do anything to the bike still recovering from flu and the Christmas Fair on Sunday. The postman delivered the sand blasting gun from the UK so that I can de-rust some of the non-chromed brackets prior to re-painting. He also delivered the chromed frame hanger covers and the triple tree cover from F6Ecke in Germany from the German VRCC.  These are great pieces of bling from another Valk owner who puts you on trust to get the parts and then pay him. I am looking forward to starting to put things on the Valk rather than taking them off. My storage room is getting full of pieces.

Tuesday: It is a Bank Holiday here in Spain today and so there will be no post delivery. I got some work done today. For the first time I have started re-fitting things to the Valk. I fitted the new left rear indicator but in doing so I found that the right side captive nut in the cover wasn’t so I will have to do an epoxy repair on this rather than buy a new cover.

I drained the fluid from the front brakes and the clutch so that I can remove the master cylinders for polishing. I removed the front wheel and again found that the spindle came out easily as it was properly lubricated. I removed the forks so that I can polish them, the speedo and rev counter were next. The speedo and rev counter mounting brackets are corroded on the inside so I will have to sort those out. I don’t have a socket large enough to get the triple trees off for polishing so I will have to borrow one from Ken. I couldn’t undo the black plastic clips that hold the cables to the handle bars and so have asked how to do that on the VRCC technical forum.

Wednesday: After reading the advice from the friendly guys on the main VRCC board I got the cable clips undone easily on the handlebars without breaking any of them. I now have the front end completely stripped including the triple trees so now I can look at starting to do some polishing on the master cylinders, forks and triple trees. I took the top off the air cleaner just to check the state of the filter and this is what I found

I suspect it is the original from 1996 / 17,000 miles ago. This was surprising given the mechanical state of everything else that I have found on the bike. The cosmetic condition is what has been the problem to date. I suspect that it might even run a little better with a new filter.

Thursday: Nothing removed from the bike today. Spent the day in the workshop sand blasting and cleaning bits ready for painting. I started on the lower triple tree with wet & dry paper and am pleased with the results so far, a bit more work is needed before I can put it on the buffing wheels. The postman delivered the replacement switch housings, I was / am going to polish these but they are really good without.

Friday: Put rust curing paint on the inside of some of the rusty chrome parts and then painted them with black smooth hamerite. The outsides have polished up fine. DHL finally arrived with the progressive air shocks. Unfortunately the pipes have been crimped either in postage from the seller to my son of from him to me so I am going to have to get some new ones, hopefully they won’t be too expensive. Waiting for progressive to tell me how much. If you live in Spain don’t ever get anything delivered by DHL, allegedly for two days my street (built 30+ years ago) didn’t exist, then today when I had given up hope he drove straight to the door!!

Saturday: Did some more cleaning and painting of pieces and also polished the lower triple tree. Started with 240 grit wet and dry paper as it was that bad and ended at 1500 grit before putting it on the buffing wheel. It was a dirty job but the result is worthwhile.

On Monday the postman didn’t deliver anything and I didn’t manage to get anything done to the bike.

Overnight Monday to Tuesday I lost a bid on eBay UK for a set of rebuilt polished forks, I set my price but someone was prepared to pay more. I did, however, win some bling from eBay US in the form of a pair of Chrome LED running lights. The postman was overloaded with parcels today. I got the studs to replace the rusty ones on the drivers back rest, the remaining parts to re-fit the rear indicator from Midlands Superbikes and a parcel of assorted Honda parts from David Silver Spares in the UK. I now have the pinstripes to take round to the painters for the front mudguard. Again, today, nothing further done to the bike due to having to do some woodturning for a Craft Fair next weekend.

Wednesday I got all the old studs off the drivers back rest and the cloth underneath is in poor condition so I will take it to a local repairer tomorrow to get the panel replaced. I missed a couple of items on eBay US overnight, nothing important it just would have been easier than stripping and re-chroming.

Thursday I won a set of Progressive air shocks on UK eBay for £51 ($84) which I think was a bargain, saves me having to do anything with the originals which are slightly pitted. I took the stripes to the painters so that they can finish the front mudguard for me and the back rest to the trimmers.

Didn’t get anything done for the rest of the week as I am still busy making wooden turned items for next weekends Craft Fair. To finish the week on a low I was the underbidder on Saturday on a Valk headlight on US eBay. Still it went for more than I was prepared to pay. I don’t think I’ll manage to do much next week either BUT the following week I hope to go to the chromers.

The week started with a high, I have heard from the transport company with the bike lift and they have finally landed and it will be here tomorrow (Tuesday). I went to the bike shop in my village and the last part has arrived that I ordered. I missed out on a headlight on eBay in the UK last night as it went for too much money so mine will have to be re-chromed unless another comes up in the next few days.

The bike lift arrived on Tuesday as did the replacement fork seals. Battery on charge again as it was flat, I need to check out the alarm as the battery checks out OK.

Wednesday did some shopping and learnt some more Spanish. I wanted to buy the core plugs (freeze plugs) to do the de-smog conversion. A friend told me where to get them but not what they are called in Spanish. After a description from me the guy in the shop realized what I wanted and got them for me they are tapons de bloque in Spanish for anyone who is interested and they cost me 1.45€ for 3 so now I can do that change. I also got a ratchet tie down for the bike on the lift and some matt black spray paint to touch up the radiator. Arranged to move the Valk tomorrow to my neighbours car port and a friend is coming round to help me to put the bike on the lift.

Valk moved to my friends car port and with help from another friend (Ken) I got it mounted on the wooden lift adapter and on the lift. Fits well and if anything it is front heavy rather than rear heavy. Now the stripping in anger can start.

The stripes for the front mudguard turned up at my sons house in the UK so he has sent them on to me. Midlands Superbikes finally have the other pieces for the rear indicator and they have posted them over to me.

That’s all I got done this week due to other things to do, hopefully next week will be more successful.

A bad start to the week. The parts that I ordered from my local bike shop have failed to arrive from Alicante and the pinstripes for the front mudguard are not available in Spain for some reason. It looks like I will have to order those from the US. I have ordered the de-smogging vacuum seals from the US and found out where to get the core (freeze) plugs from in Spain. The battery has gone flat on the Valkyrie again, looks like I will have to remove the alarm as I have checked the battery and it is fine. I have ordered some 850 degree C exhaust paint from the UK to repaint the headers and given one of the threads on the VRCC USA board this would sound that it is suitable as the temperatures don’t seem to get that high.

Removed the radiator covers and grill and the engine crash bars.  Had a long chat with Marty in the US from the VRCC board about the rebuild and had some interesting information from him on replacing the wheel bearings. Bid on three things from Pinwall overnight and I won them all, now got to persuade them to ship USPS. Found a bike lift s/h on eBay just round the corner from where my son lives in the UK now got to win it and then get it here. Got my first Spanish member for the VRCC Espana chapter from Madrid.

I have bought a bike lift in the UK and it is being brought over next week by the firm who brought the bike over. I have been to see the village welder and he will make the lift adapter for me from the drawings on the VRCC board. The 99 cent bike cover that I ordered from Hong Kong arrived and it is very good quality. Once the lift arrives I am moving the bike to a neighbours car port so that I can remove the wheels and front forks and take them and the chrome pieces for polishing and chroming.

No new photos this week but I will put that right next week. I have polished the front indicator mountings on my buffing wheel and they have come up remarkably well, so they will not have to go to the polishers.

The saddlebags have been finished being refurbished by the saddlers so I will collect them next week. I missed out on a few items on eBay this week as I wasn’t prepared to bid any higher and so I will have to keep looking. Back to the bike shop next week to see if the parts have arrived.

Unfortunately I don’t have a garage to work on the Valkyrie and so it will just have to be stored on my drive and covered with a bike cover whilst the rebuilding evolves.

First job was to remove the saddle bags and the mounting brackets. I then found that the fender support brackets were rather pitted (more chroming to get done).  On removal of the windscreen I found that the rear half of the headlamp shell is also badly pitted.

Still waiting for the rear indicator and the speedo cable to arrive from Midlands Superbikes.