Saturday we went to Canadian Tire and I got all the stuff I thought I needed to rebuild my air filter. Then to Home Depot to pick up the stuff to finish off the downstairs bathroom chair rail and wainscoting.

When we got home I set to ripping apart my old filters and K started measuring and cutting the chair rail for the bathroom. I got the old filters off their frames really easily then set at the old epoxy with my Dremel with a pointed grinding bit. It went pretty quickly once I got a rhythm and I had both filters all cleaned up by dinner time. It was super dusty work.

Then we headed out to dinner at a new local restaurant called June Harlow Foods. We both had burgers and they were great! They have Burger Wednesday where you get a burger and a beer for $10. We will be going back.

Today we went to Home Hardware down the road to pick up some bbq paint so I could throw a layer on my filters so they look a little nicer than the brass color they are stock and so that the newly exposed areas of metal will have some protection and won’t rust. While we were out we stopped by some friends place to see their son and give some advice on a wall repair they need to do after having to rip up a section on their stairs trying to get a couch in to their townhouse.

When we got home I cleaned, masked, and taped my filters and took them outside to paint. While waiting for them to dry we installed the chair rails that K cut yesterday in the bathroom and I ripped apart one of the new filters I bought to replace the old batting from the old ones. I only cut myself twice.

That’s pretty crazy actually. I never cut myself. I guess I wasn’t being careful enough with the sharp filter screens. I usually wear Mechanix gloves to do anything.

I’m going to write up before and afters of all the projects from this weekend. Hopefully I have some before and after photos of the bathroom.

I found her on craigslist and she was exactly what I wanted, a red 1973 CB360T. She was in decent shape considering she was 35 years-old at the time and she had just a few scratches and just two minor dents on her tank. She came with only the right side original red side-cover but included an extra tank and a matching extra (right side again) side-cover. She has minimal rusting of the headers and very little rust at all on her frame. Most of the chrome is pitted though and will need to be replaced eventually. I call her… Penelope. (Click the pics to enlarge)

She came with an inspection from a shop in Toronto in the area of the beaches (I’ll leave their name out of this post) and said that all that was required was a new battery and a front tire. Not living in the beaches and not wanting to ride the bike across town illegally or get it towed that far I decided to take the bike to a shop closer to my work and home for an inspection. I’m so glad I did this as within minutes Tom at Cyclewerx had pointed out a major safety concern in the fact that the throttle cables were incredibly sticky and needed replacing. Tom ordered in the new tire I needed and I acquired the push and pull cables online. Tom installed them and I was ready to go!

One thing that’s great about old bikes is you never really know what’s going to happen next with them.

A week later I was riding home from work and took a small detour in order to get some more riding time in when the poor girl just stopped firing. Luckily I happened to be right next to a friends house and was able to push it in to his driveway before nightfall. After a bunch of hair pulling and waiting for morning light it turned out to be a lose wire from the stator and I was able to ride her home the next day.

One thing I love about my bike is there’s always something that I can do. I’m slowly trying to give it the cafe racer treatment. I’m always looking for the next part. I’ve put quite some time in to it and I’ve learned a lot from working with it either trying to update, upgrade, or just plain FIX it.

This work includes but is not limited to:

• Clubman handlebars add a more aggressive riding stance
• New solid state signal blinker to enable the use of LED and low draw blinkers
• Stubby turn signals for the front (and soon the back I think)
• New aftermarket stator which improved power generation by over 33%. This was a necessity as the old one was grounded out and wasn’t producing enough power to keep my battery charged unless I was at high RPM’s (a very difficult thing to do in the city)
• New combination regulator/rectifier also helping in electrical power production
• New clutch cable because my old one snapped at Yonge and Bloor one night a few weeks ago

I have high hopes for this bike and I don’t expect to sell it. If I get another bike (which I would like to someday) it will simply become my project bike. One thing that is definitely standing in the way of my progress is the lack of a garage for me to work in. This winter I plan to find a couple of left hand side covers and acquire some new mufflers for it as right now I’m currently running a stock CB360t muffler on the left side and a muffler from a CB350 on the right side because the original had a hole the size of my fist in it and was causing all sorts of issues with the way the bike was running. I’d also like to get a seat with a cowl made up to finish off the streamlined look. But that might have to wait till I get another bike as my girlfriend really likes to ride on the back.