No new pics. Mostly a week of paperwork and phone calls. Fabbed some new motor mounts. Did some embarrassing welding, first time I've welded in 5 years (and I've welded maybe an hour total).
Got the alignment sorted pretty good I think, doesn't clunk at all and I cranked it as fast as it'd go on 12v without issues. It's so quiet, even for an electric motor. It's less noisy than a bicycle. One of you (haven't asked if it's okay to say who) was kind enough to give me a wrecked front fender thing I was missing. In exchange I'm sending back the coils and the aluminum Honda coverplates. It's cracked in half but I can probably do some fiberglass repair or, at the very least, use it as a guide to fab my own from sheet metal. So, thanks a bunch to that member :), 3 questions bike-wise, if anyone has knowledge: I need: - A rectangular headlight lens. And the headlight... bulb I'll just buy, but what about the lens? I'm not even peripherally aware of what the usual shopping places are for bike parts. Do I buy a used original? Is there a replica supply place? Cheap LED ones from China? Make one from plastic? DOT requirements? Plan A is to drop $20+shipping off Ebay. - Brake lines looks like I could go to any auto shop, but, is there a better place to go to get that done? It's looking like it'll be $80 for the pair. Old ones from Ebay for $40-ish and just buy new one-time washers for the banjos. - Tires. I could just go to a store, but is there a cheaper/better place to go buy tires? Particular online stores you'd recommend? I hear people derogatorily refer to how someone put on "cheapest chinese tire they could find" and I'm thinking "Aha! A cheap chinese tire, sounds perfect, where do I get one of those?" ... Insurance is a bit of a struggle. I was warned, but I kind of brushed it off until now. Reasons I can't be insured various places: - Not off the shelf. - Electric? Sorry. - 30+ years old? Doesn't matter the value, no. - Did any work on it yourself? No. Unintuitively, I get better luck with places that don't normally do bike insurance, but have some anyway just so their customers with car/home/etc insurance can be under the same umbrella. They don't have as many questions that rule me out, so I've made it farther into the process that way. The only one I've found who'll insure (so far, and they may still turn me down when they ask more questions) insists on comprehensive, not just liability, for $500/year. Which, for how short the Canadian riding season is, probably wouldn't even save me anything on gas to switch over for the commute. I mean, I'll do it anyways so that I can ride, but, it's not fun. One broker suggested I get a letter from the manufacturer describing the conversion and then call back. Honda wouldn't go near that, if it's not in a book they can look up they will not offer an opinion, even a negative opinion to say "Do not alter the following components" just so the insurance company had something to narrow it to. Some hundreds of guys have done conversions, makes me wonder how they're getting insurance. Maybe existing policies and brokers wanting to keep customers? There's a dangerous chicken and egg thing. Many places say "Tell us what you've done and we'll tell you whether we'll insure and what the rates will be", and I'm like "No, what I do depends on whether you'll insure it and what the rates would be. I don't want to do anything I can't take back." Back and forth, they want me to do something that someone else requires me to have insurance before they can give me that step. Bit of a pain. ... Good news on registration: - it is not (reported as? :P) stolen, nice to have that confirmed. - it is not from out of province (requiring a $150 "out of province inspection" where shops do their best to find everything wrong because you have to pay for another inspection unless you also hire them to do the work). - it does not have any registration flags (salvage from a crash, never repair due to critical damage, etc). So, reg wise, $50 for a plate and I'm good. If I change anything (moped to motorcycle, power, whatever), $9 to modify the title. Cheap cheap. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
