Wilson's bunky & beers (NC30) build thread

[Wilson]

Now here's something I never thought I'd find; a build thread with my name in the title. I have traditionally had the same aptitude with spanners that some of our forum members have with the English language. But little by little, I'm learnding. Pretty much all the work will happen at Rich & Graeme's place, using their tools, stealing their knowhow. They've usually got some manner of bike repairs/upgrades on the run at any given time as well. Reparations are made in the form of beer. Very good beer.

This build thread'll be a little different to most. For starters, the bike's not going to look much better at the end of the thread (if these things truly end) as it does at the start (in fact, it looks its best before I get hold of it ). Secondly, there'll be nary a faux-carbon panel in sight. Thirdly, I'll be doing some beer tasting notes over the course of the build, as the twins & I have a predilection for good imported beer, most of which gets consumed while working on bikes or watching motorsport.

So my beloved NC30. There are three things you have to know about Honda's miniature superbike before you can give it a fair judgement.
1). The attention to detail (for 1989) is stunning. The thing has so many little touches. Dzus fasteners for side fairing mid panels that let you get at the important bits. Pro-link suspension mirroring the RC30. A slipper clutch! Other things! Seriously, it's a really nicely put together motorcycle, and I think it ages well.
2). It's slow. So much so that even coming from a CBR250, you'll wonder why it's such hard work to get moving. 60hp, 170kg+ dry and 110km/h in first do not make a pretty combination for street riding. You'll learn to love the clutch.
3). It's gorgeous around the twisty stuff. It's cumbersome to get started on, and the increased weight over a 250 (or modern 600!) is immediately noticable. But get it moving, get used to the fact that the weight is all right near the road, and you'll find that it's a nimble little beastie. If you can fit on the damn thing... you will absolutely love throwing it into corners.

For me... points 3 and 1 outweigh point 2 enough that I can see one of these sitting in my stable for quite a while. Not really a practical commuter, but it'll handle the duties with a brave face until the roads start getting windy and you start to smile.

When I picked this little baby up, she looked like this. Pretty and shiny.


Now she looks like this. Not so pretty anymore.

I have been finding the most creative excuses to lay this bike on its side. Road conditioner. Attempting to jump square kerbs. Hell, I even had the audacity to try and pull into a servo driveway without hitting the ramp at exactly 90 degrees. This is unfortunate, as I really do love this bike, and I wish I could keep her looking a little nicer.

However... my priorities lie elsewhere. There's only one reason for owning a bike that's more effort to launch than a 250. It's gotta handle. And handle it does. To a point. This things shows its age more than the CBRRRR did. The forks are so bad that heavy braking will see them bottom, bounce, and then bottom again. And the braking isn't really that heavy in the first place. In fact, it's like Brownclown doing pec dec on my discs with a pair of sponges. After having ridden a bike with working suspension, getting back on this thing is now quite scary .

So the first thing is to get it riding properly. Then I'll work on getting it running a little better (NCs have restrictive downpipes, so a full system will not only shed some weight, but free some ponies. Plus I'll actually get to hear the damn V4 properly!). Then I'll probably try and go over the bike and replace all the bearings. And then I'll do what I can about making it less run down looking.

This is an '89 model. The first of the NC30s, and it comes with some outdated stuff that got changed in later revisions. For one, it's got damping rod forks. '90 onward was cartridge, and then they were inverted in '94 for the NC35 (RVF400). Given what I'm starting with, and my propensity for putting this bike on its side, I'm going to be trying to go for best bang for buck upgrades. I have plans down the road, when I have more money behind me and a good shed/workshop to call my own to do a no-holds-barred NC30 resto/upgrade, with a fork swap, SP1 calipers, BST rims, NC35 single seat tail... but for now, I'm trying to spend sensible money, with the focus always on handling and then power.

[Wilson]

It begins!

The first bit of aftermarket bling was borne of necessity. My habit of crashing led to snapped levers and a bent handlebar. ASVs to the rescue on the lever front (they've seen some abuse since going on. Yay) and Driven clip-ons, which have the bonus of bringing the ride position down a little. I do miss the look of the big bar ends on the stock clip-ons though. They suited the look of the bike, imo.

The first new addition that's really going to make a difference came as a chance buy off PSB: A ZX10 master cylinder. It's a 14mm like the NC30. The NC30 braking system is actually still quite well regarded, but 20 years on, mine's not going to be in great shape. The ZX10 unit will give me an as new master for less than the cost of a rebuild kit for mine. A new master means new fluid... what better time to install some new braided lines?

The downside, of course, is trading my lovely black ASV shorty for a gold CRG . The ASV won't fit the 10R MC and activate the switch properly. I might be able to mod it up, but for now I'm more interested in getting it working as is.

Time for a bleed and install...

Except I decided that while I'm at it, I might as well go the whole hog and give the calipers some love as well. I pulled 'em off. And then put 'em back on so I could crack the bolts. And then pulled 'em off again. And began with the cleaning.

Ick. Lots of grime. And lots of goop in the orifices. I'm not really looking forward to seeing the buildup behind the pistons. Time to get busy with the brakeclean. Lots of scrubbing got them looking pretty decent, so it was time to pop the pistons out. I decided to go with the compressed air method.

This ended up being a lot of work. A couple of the pistons were just not going to come out under the pressure of the compressor. I had to bolt them back together, hook them back up to the brake system, and push the pistons out with the MC. So I got to this stage:


So again the calipers come apart and I forced the last bit out with air. Except again there was a piston that simply wouldn't move. So again the caliper went back together and visited the MC. It was a to-and-fro experience I never want to repeat, but I finally got the last piston out. It turned out to be a bit of corrosion of the bore (the pistons were all basically flawless), so I scraped away the crap and gave it a bit of wet & dry love.

Most OEM parts for the NC will be coming from the UK. I've already got some parts waiting from CMSNL, but the seals came from David Silver Spares.


With the new seals in, the pistons went back in, and everything was hooked back up relatively painlessly. However, after a full bleed, I've still got a little air pocket. I've been riding it the last week or so, then left it overnight with the lever tied in. Another bleed freed a little more air... but there's still some hanging around that's sponging the initial bite. I'll be looking at ways to work it loose, but I do think that the brakes are better than they were already. To be honest, I don't think I could really take advantage of them if they were working perfectly, as the savage fork dive makes heavy braking unpleasant enough as it is.

The brake work realistically happened over the course of a few weekends, but I've been lazy with the write up. As it was primarily dark beer weather, here's a representative sample of what we were drinking:


Maisel's Wiesse Dunkel - Yum. I'm a big fan of dark beer, and a big fan of wheat beer. So a dunkel (dark wheat) is always going to hit the palette nicely. Of the dunkels, Maisel's is probably my favourite. A really nice wheaty taste, with a bit of sharpness on the tongue from the carbonation that mellows out nicely. Quite full flavoured for a dunkel, without stepping over any boundaries. Always a safe bet, and yet always rewarding.

St Peter's Honey Porter - We've tried a couple of beers from the St Peter's stable, and with the exception of the Organic (Graeme and I have both given up on Organic as a flavour after a few tries from different breweries. It just tastes like better Heineken. Which is a bad thing), it's had a very strong showing. The Honey Porter was a bit of an experiment. Talk about getting it wrong. Yuck. This beer was terrible. A powerful, cloying smell of... what? Lavender? Possibly. It's a smell that should be subtle or inoffensive at a very light level, but at this potency, it just overpowers everything. It makes everything incredibly bland and yet offensive. Is there even porter going on here? Can I even taste the coffee; the chocolate? No. This is the first beer in a good while that I've tipped out. I just didn't want to have anything more to do with it. The glass got a good few washes to get that stink off it.

St Peter's Old-Style Porter - Redeem thyself, St Pete! This is a regular favourite, and easily wipes the memory of the lavender beer away. It's everything you want in a porter. It's rich, with lovely, subtle coffee flavours, and just a little sweetness. The chocolate notes don't really attract attention to themselves, but just serve to bolster the flavour. I'd always recommend this one to a porter fan (and I'd say it's not so sweet as to put a stout fan off).

[Wilson]

And a preview of the real good stuff that's to come!


These are the real upgrades I'm looking forward to, and they'll be going in as time and budget allows. The forks will probably be done by Russel @ Dynotime, though, as all the adjustments on the racetech valves have to be done before they go into the forks, and I'd rather it was done right the first time.

[Gangus]

was going to say that you must have been busy on that rear....
Then I saw it was a before shot!
Good luck mate!!!!

[Wilson]

Heh, the rear wheel will never again look as good as it does in the first shot . That said, it's a bit cleaner now than the 'now' shot.



After a couple of weeks with an ASV on one side and a CRG on the other... I've gotta say, I'm a real fan of the CRGs. The finish on them is beautiful and smooth, and the bevelling is just so nice. It makes the ASVs blocky and uncomfortable by comparison. The downside? The anodising is fading already. It was already starting to silver at the highest wear point when I got it, and I don't think it's going to take long for it to wear off entirely. The ASV appears to be powdercoated, and has done 12 months of (pretty limited, admittedly) riding without any sign of wear. Apart from where they've rubbed on the pavement

If I was to buy again... I have to say, despite the fading, I'd be tempted to go with CRG again and just deal with the fact that they'll look lived in. They really are that nice. Pazzo stole the same design, of course, but I doubt they'd feel as nice given their unpolished milled finish. Plus I'd have to go through Mat Mladin imports

[Wilson]

So the standard VFR rear shock is adjustable for preload, and... uh... yeah; that's it. I decided that if I'm going to do a rebuild and upspec of the bike, the most important thing to get sorted is the suspension. After considering my options, I decided I'd go the whole hog and get a custom shock, built to my weight. Nitron are a UK outfit, and do high quality suspension for bikes and cars. They do a shock for the NC30, and some forum time left me of the opinion that I'd get a shock that was competitive with a Penske or Maxton custom, and generally better than an equal money Ohlins (blasphemy!). I decided to go with the track option - adjustable for preload, ride height, compression and rebound damping and with a remote reservoir. The sport option loses the remote ressy and compression adjustment. Race gains high & low speed compression.

Along with the kit for the front, the shock was sourced through a bloke in the UK who has a bit of a side business dealing in NC parts (including getting regularly used adaptors fabricated so that people can do things like fork swaps a bit more easily).

The suspension package arrived a couple of months ago, and I've been antsy to put it on, but I've been a bit pressed for time. Plus given I had the brake MC waiting for me earlier, and I figured the brakes would be a quick job (uh huh ), so I went with that first.

Rich assured me it'd be an afternoon's job, as 'the RGV shock only took half an hour'. Sure enough, 3+ hours later, I finally had the shock off, and I was covered in grease.
That's because this is what I had to deal with

The suspension's connection to the triangular linkage is hidden behind the dogbone, and half the bolts foul on the exhaust when you're trying to take them out. The Haynes manual does have a section saying "with exhaust system in place", so I wasn't mad trying it this way... but fuck me. Not next time. Next time the exhaust comes off. Except the bolts are corroded and have swollen.


So here is the new beside the old. Apart from the odd colour choice, it really is a beautiful thing. Very lovely billet gear. All nicely finished. The clickers are clean and distinct.

The bearings on the linkage all seemed nice and smooth, so in it all went in a reverse of the removal (and an extra hour or so of swearing and cut knuckles).

I turned all the clickers to default when I put it in, and I haven't really set them up since. But I took it for a bit of a shakedown, and then hit the hills. TBH, I didn't expect much difference because the front is so damn awful. But you know... it's made quite a difference. The front still bottoms under heavy brakes, and wallows about as you're trying to tip in. But the rear seems to be taming it somewhat, and is helping the bike compensate. It's definitely nicer to ride.

Now I'm waiting to see how it's going to be with the front in! Russel'll be doing that for me, simply because I don't want to get it wrong and have to pull it apart again. Perhaps next time I'll try a fork rebuild myself. But not this one.

Much beer was consumed to maintain my sanity during this procedure. Here's a sample:


Orkney Brewery Dragonhead Stout - Mmmmm... chocolate. It's rich, thick cocoa. It's like putting your head under the cascading chocolate fondue. Nice and thick, beautifully balanced with the coffee bitterness. I really like Orkney and their beer, and this one's pretty special.

Chimay Trippel - The Chimay stuff seems to be quite heavily carbonated in general. It works really well with their other trappist styles (surprisingly, with their Brun). But it detracts from the trippel experience, for me. The taste itself is beautiful. Very caramelly, very much that alcoholic trippel taste. But the mouthfeel is a little too effervescent, where I prefer a nice smooth, thick trippel. La Trappe, for my money (now if only First Choice Bentley would stop being retards and start stocking it again...)

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout - Did I mention I like stout? A mate put me on to oatmeal stout a few months back, and it's quickly become a favourite. It's a lot more balanced than a regular stout, with less bitterness, less sweetness, and generally a very... everything just work very well. It's got a lovely roasted malt smell, and the taste just dances between your tongue and your palette, with just enough effervescence to wake it up, but not enough to break up the lovely mouthfeel. The oatmeal calms everything down and adds to that lovely roasty taste, and just makes it such a pleasant beer. I'm a big, big fan. If you like stouts, try an oatmeal stout. The Sail & Anchor have Nail Stout (WA's own) on tap atm, and it's my favourite thing on tap anywhere atm.

While on oatmeal stouts... please indulge me as I have a bit of a rant on why Little Creatures is a poor, one dimensional brewery. They've got a good pale ale, right? Nice and hoppy, nice and bitter, nice and fruity. Not a bad beer (I rather prefer Fat Yak, though). When I was there of a weekend and noticed they did a Brown Ale, I was intrigued. I like my brown beers. Mmm... nutty. But what's this? Where are the nutty, fruitcakey notes? Why they're hidden behind the same hops that was used in the Pale. That's a bit silly, isn't it? Who buys a Brown to get such overpowering hop tastes? Nobody.
So some time later, a mate rocks up with a carton of LC Oatmeal Stout. Mmmm... oatmeal. We have a minute's silence for what we're about to enjoy, and then the 4 of us crack open a stout each. What? Where's th coffee? Where's the chocolate? It's hidden behind the same fucking hops again? Who the fuck hops a stout (an oatmeal stout!) so heavily? Retards. That's who. Do not fucking want. Learn how to brew something besides a Pale, you fucktards.




TL;DR version: Go buy Nail Stout at the Sail & Anchor while it's still on tap. Do it now!

[Marty MOOSE]

Cool bike Wilson Had a mate with one he used to wheelie it for ever and it did big K's with no problems. Have you seen a NC35 in the flesh ??

MM

[Wilson]

Cheers Marty. I think mine's a bit sick. I can't even imagine trying to get the front up. And that's with a -1 on the front.

I haven't seen a 35 in the flesh, no. Looks much better? I know a lot of people are more taken by the 35, but I like the styling of the 30. and a lot of guys on the 400 forum reckon they prefer the ride of the 30. I still want 35 forks though! And its tailpiece. And its 17" rear (will def need a 17" if I end up trying F2 in 2012 like I'm planning. Finding tyres for the 18 is shite).

[BERT]

Hi Wilson
I have some side panels and a nose cone that I scored from Envyne(?) off pay it forward
I was going to try and use them on my KR1S when I couldnt get panels.

You are welcome to have them if you want them

Bert

[Wilson]

Hey Bert. Thanks for the offer mate! I actually have a full set* of those ebay Rothmans fairings. I just haven't gotten around to putting them on (too busy riding). Finish on them is pretty impressive, even if the fit's a bit meh. I reckon there are others who could use the fairings you have more than me. Lee mentioned Mockery might be chasing some panels (but he might be after a full set. Not sure without asking).


*Actually.... full set -1 now. One of the side fairings didn't fit quite right. The NC30 side panels are 2 piece. The middle part is press/slip fit on top and bolts at the bottom. I took her for a quick run on Sunday to see how I'd manage if I had to do a spirited country run, and the wind got under that mid panel and ripped it off . I still have the stock piece though.

[Drasius]

Great work so far Mr Wilson, keep the updates coming.

[lit]

Subscribed. Awaiting awesomeness.

[Dragunov-21]

Sub'd so I can live vicariously.

[browncow]

Sub'd.
Don't like darkies.

Spoiler: show

Of course I'm talking about beer.

[sven]

Hey Wilson Cool build

If you ever need a spectator with plenty'o'beers I'm your man

[sven]

meh. Stupid double post

carry on

[SPman]

A bike rebuild with beer reviews! Whaat more could a man want. Love those little V4 400's - coming from NZ, there are heaps of NC30's and 35's over there - they're reckoned to be the most versatile of the 400's and the engines are exquisite - built like watches - works of art by themselves. I almost bought one back in '98...until I discovered FZR750's were cheaper.......

[Wilson]

Yello, peoples. Thanks for the encouragement .

On hiatus in Brisbane atm, but before I left, I picked up the bike with the forks redone, took her to the track, and then rolled her up the back of the driveway and hopped on a plane, all in the space of about 4 days. I'll do a bit of a writeup when I get back, but the short version is that I had happy fun times on the track . The suspension made it a much nicer bike to ride, and the rebuilt brakes were good enough to put the tail in the breeze at one point. I haven't really had a chance to set everything set up properly yet, but the initial run shows that it's a much tidier package now.

2011 will bring a bit more suspension tweaking, and then a full system and a re-jet (and a complete clean up of the carbs while I'm there) and a few other little tweaks I've picked up from the 400greybike forum. After that, I'll have to balance my list of wishes with the desire to pick up a thou to replace the R6 for a while (this isn't me saying I've outgrown a 6. It's me wanting to own an older thou for a while to see what works better for me), or possibly even just supplement it for country runs. Plus the need to eat, and all that shit.

A bike rebuild with beer reviews! Whaat more could a man want. Love those little V4 400's - coming from NZ, there are heaps of NC30's and 35's over there - they're reckoned to be the most versatile of the 400's and the engines are exquisite - built like watches - works of art by themselves. I almost bought one back in '98...until I discovered FZR750's were cheaper.......

Yeah, I've noticed NZ has a pretty good following for the 400s as well. It's a great little class, imo. They get dusted in the open country (as I experienced first hand when hanging out with the Bridgetown crew a few weekends ago), but when it's twisty, they're a whole lot of fun.

And yeah, I'd really rather an RC, but until then, the NC will have to fill my V4 desires. It's such a sweet little engine. One day I'd like to have the ability to pull it open and tinker (at my current skill level, I'd just break things). I think the valve shims will need doing soon...

[browncow]

Some inspiration for you when you get back..

[Wilson]

Wigga please. I'm not letting that abortion of a tyga kit anywhere near my baby. Plus, I don't like the repsol scheme on older bikes. I'd really like to get a nice custom Castrol scheme, to match what the RC45 raced in. But for now there's most of a Rothmans ebay kit to go on (minus one panel that blew away when I was testing speed ).

The only fairing mod I'd like to do is a single seat NC35 tail (this is what comes on tyga race glass stock, but I'd like to put some holes in for the tail light). While I reckon the bike looks classic oldschool, I think the NC30 tail is perhaps a little too oldschool.

As for inspiration:





And seriously:
400greybike.com • View topic - 89 NC30 Restoration