We are getting to the point where there are very few things left before this bike is back to riding. However, as we get closer to finishing, there are fewer and fewer items which I can complete on my own. One of the things on that list was rewiring the bike - something that became necessary the minute we changed the handlebars, refurbished the headlight and removed the blinkers. Electrical work is very different from mechanical work, but fortunately we had a guide:
I'm glad someone can made sense of that because it looks illegible to me. The truth is that I will not be in any of the pictures you see in this post because the work was done by people with much better skills than mine.
Before we got to that point, we still had to repaint the headlight bucket, returning it to a nice glassy black after years of fading. I tried to paint it myself no less than 3 times, never once managing to do so without leaving it drippy and uneven. Finally I re-primed it, sanded it, cleaned it and then Teresa from Flying Tiger painted it. I did ok when I was painting metal pieces, but for some reason I was totally unable to paint plastic. Finally they just took the can out of my hands to keep me from hurting myself.
A few days later Eric took time to start fixing wires, a time-consuming and occasionally tedious process. At this point all I could do was watch while the jumble of multicolored wires slowly transformed back into a working motorcycle.
They started by the gas tank, testing and connecting.
Many of the wires connect through the headlight sitting right behind the lamp itself. Eventually we were able to mount the headlight bucket and pull the appropriate wires through.
Soon the wires started coming together and looking more organized.
I decided to do something useful that I knew I could accomplish on my own, so I took the chrome ring which holds the headlight together and polished it with steel wool. Then I took the screws which hold the headlight together and cleaned off the rust using the shop's wire wheel. Below is a picture of the screws before and after ("before" is on the right, I guess I will be in one picture).
Before I knew it the Cafe Racer was showing signs of life. The headlight, tail light, instrument cluster and hand controls all functioned perfectly. I took the picture below with the headlight shining.
There remains very little left to do, but the one obstacle still looming is putting a seat on the tail section. I have tried a few different vendors without success. Progress on that front will have to wait for a later update. Once that seat is done all that really remains is reattaching the front brake and putting the painted pieces back onto the bike. Then it will be time to ride.
