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Derbi—The Red Power

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

Derbi—The Red Power

Post by toratora » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:39 am

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I've been working on this one on and off for many years. There have been several incarnations of this bike while I've owned it. Shortly after I bought the bike it was stolen by an SF Gang Banger. The SFPD found the guy riding it with no plate, and without a helmet. He had broken all of the locks, crashed it a bunch of times, at messed it up pretty bad. I had just gotten it running when other issues form the theft appeared. Out of resources the bike collected rust for nearly a year, upon which time a friend from my bio class came over and helped me get it running again. From there the incarnations began. I'll do a quick run through some of the incarnations, but really this current resurrection is the one I'll be focusing on. For now it's an unfinished project as I'll have to wait on the plastics.

Here's the bike as it was when I first bought it.

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After the theft, some repairs, and sitting for a year.

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The tail section had been busted up pretty bad from the thief crashing the bike, and had to be replaced.

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The front faring had been damaged too, and I was lucky enough to find a front faring from a 2003 Malossi version.

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Then a friend hooked me up with side panels from a 2004, and 17" wheels.

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He also had a 2004 tail section, but it was cracked and beat up. I was able to fix the cracks.

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And then I sprayed it black.

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I took it to the kart track a few times, where the plastics got all scratched up in the truck by my friend's Honda! Damn it! This is how it was before the scratches—you'll see plenty of photos of the plastics all scratched up later. I quite liked this version of the bike, and had a good time with it on the track too. :D

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Okay time for the fun. ;)

A friend bought a membership to one of the local craft clubs where they could do powder coating. We were going to do a bunch of bits, but found that their sand blaster was lame, and the powder coating didn't work out so well. But we learned a bunch from this experience!

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So this meant that I had to go to the pros, and that worked out amazing!

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The frame was red so I went for black for the other bits. The swing arm was black, and I was lucky enough to have Cagiva end caps. Here's how it was looking, but to me it needed something more...

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Here they are in red.

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And as you can see the wheels are red as well.

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Because powder coating is so thick it's important to not do the threads, or bearing surfaces. The Coater thought that the swing arm bolt access holes were bearing surfaces so they were taped off.

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Of course this needed paint or it would rust, and because I didn't want ANY over spray to mess up the sweet powder job I had to mask off the entire frame.

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: Part II

Post by toratora » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:40 am

I picked up lots of neat bits for this project--including a bunch of stainless steal bolts, and hardware. These are for the rear sets.

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A bit of a foreshadowing of what is to come.

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Some rubber bits.

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Suspension.

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A quick mock up.

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I had a lot of trouble removing the bolts for the discs and the rear sprocket. I actually had to heat them up to remove them. I was going to run a tap through all the threads when my friend Paz suggested that I not do that, because it weakens the threads. Instead there is a special thread chaser tool for this purpose. So I went to see Catherine at the Daly City Toolmart and picked up an M6 thread chaser. I ended up using this all over the bike.

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The wheels took a lot of work. First I had to strip them from all of the stock coating. The Coater could have sand blasted that off, but he said it was better if I employ a stripper first--so I did. It took nearly two weeks of on and off effort.

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The discs were cleaned up with swimming pool acid. Kind of nasty stuff, but it works great.

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: Part III

Post by toratora » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:41 am

From Treats I went with the proper sized tires—the Sava MC18, it's pretty much made for the GPR and the older RS50.

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To put the tires on I picked up from Treats and Scuderia some Motion Pro Rim protectors. These worked great, and I was able to instal the tires by hand.

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A nice little rubber bit for the rear brake.

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A few months ago Scottydog came out to visit from Bermuda and he gave me a new wiring harness. Really sweet, and made hooking up the electrical much nicer.

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Because I installed the engine with the 13 hp Airsal kit the PWK24 was installed. I wanted to keep the stock air box so I used some automotive radiator hose to fashion an adaptor.

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From my 2005 GPR I employed the radial master, and the clutch lever (these were both replaced on the newer bike).

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For the throttle I upgraded to the quick pull Domino, also from Treats. I have this installed on the 05 GPR and it works great. Also from Domino Benji at Treats got me new handle bars. Now these are for the Cagiva version of this bike which doesn't have the built in bar end mounts, so I picked up some black FLY bar ends from Treats. The cable I found at Scuderia for some old Kawi or something, and then went at it with a dremel, until it was ready to do my bidding. :D

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Fitting the fuel tank.

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: Part IV

Post by toratora » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:42 am

Then it was time to roll it down the steps and take it outside.

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There are still a bunch of things to attend, and eventually I get to the plastics too.
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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: プちウプダトです

Post by toratora » Wed Jul 31, 2013 3:39 am

I had a little time to work on the GPR—it was interrupted by preping the Monza for the Sacto rally. :P

I was able to get the bike running after I installed the pipe with some temporary mounting action. Later I'll fashion some proper attachments. =8<>

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It was great to hear it start up after being dormant for so long. :P

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But there are still many little things to which I must attend before riding the bike again. First I had to fashion a blocking plate for the oil pump that was removed.

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As I get to the other bits I'll post up photos of that work too. One step at a time. ;)
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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: First Ride

Post by toratora » Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:39 am

The bike still has a long way to go, however I was able to take it out for a ride in February (5150). Here are some photos from that ride.

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: What Happened?

Post by toratora » Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:39 am

I've not updated this thread in a while. It's due to the unfortunate events that have taken place. We had this horrible neighbor move into our building that threatened to tow my bikes if I didn't move them. Now even though my rental agreement clearly states that I can park a bike on the property I didn't want to risk coming home to find the bike towed. So I started parking it on the street. Since then the bike has been run down a total of ten times. The last one it was parked on the sidewalk. I swear people in San Francisco just don't know how to drive their cages.

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The bike is now totally taken apart. I've move a bunch of the parts to the Track Bike--it doesn't matter if the parts are scratched up on that bike. And I've begone the long road of parts collection again for the Red Bike. The previous collection took six years. Not sure how long this one is going to take. I've already sourced some nice new plastics for it though. ;)

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I'm going to have to re-powder coat the frame, and probably wheels. And who knows what else. It's very sad.

I thought I'd post up some photos of fun adventures with the Red bike to celebrate it--some of these may have been posted previously in this thread. :lol:

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: What happens in eleven years of neglect

Post by toratora » Thu Oct 22, 2015 3:39 am

It's so weird how you can get wrapped up in a project only to find older projects pop up back in your purview. I didn't expect the Red Bike to show up on my plate for a really long time. And well in way it's not, but in a way well it's back!

While in LA to get the MTTB we found a bike with 31 miles, never registered, and sadly 11 years of neglect, plus so pretty unfortunate knock over damage. These photos don't really show it, but yeah lots and lots of things to fix.

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Today I had a chance to take a bit of a look at the bike. There is corrosion just about everywhere. I haven't tried to start the bike up because, well it's probably a good idea to clean things out, and make sure there's proper fluids where they need to be, and well fresh enough to be safe too.

The tires are not even the least bit used, but they would be super dangerous to ride on, because they are old. The rear brake seems to be stuck, and the reservoir dried out and cracked from exposer. Since much of the Red Bike's parts made it to the Track Bike it's going to be interesting to see what gets fitted to the Silver Bike. One thing I've noticed is the the right side of these bikes is way more likely to be damaged than the left. It's probable because the side stand is on the left. Nearly every failed upper faring half I've seen has been on the right hand side. Here's a few photos--there are a bunch more on the way. ;)

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: Some more photos

Post by toratora » Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:39 am

There's a lot of things that are going to need work, but all the potential is there.

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I'm making some progress. The red wheels are going to look nice on this bike.

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User avatar
toratora
Posts: 3161
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:05 am
Location: San Francisco
Replica: Derbi GPR
Cagiva Mito
Cobra CX65
Aprilia RS50
x 1768
x 1977
Contact:

The Red Power: A sad affair

Post by toratora » Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:39 am

It's really sad how neglected this bike was before I got it, but then that's why I was able to get it so I shouldn't complain too much, eh? :lol:

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So I noticed that the foam in the faux tank was partially missing. I thought this was really strange. Why would it be torn out? Well I found out today. There was a rodent camping out in the tail section, at some point. The remnants of a nest were left behind.

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