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Cooke's C̶R̶F̶4̶5̶0̶R̶ ̶2̶0̶0̶3̶ CRF450X 2007 (actually it might be 2008) Dirty Bike

As some of you may know I picked up a little Honda recently so I could go riding with friends on weekends....... I know what you were thinking:



But no, think dirtier than that:



So last night I finally got a chance to have a small look over it. I got it for pretty cheap so wasn't expecting show-room quality or anything, I saw some of this when I was buying but was still happy to pay what I won the ebay auction for. Here's some of the finer points:

Starting at the front, I noticed there was hardly any pad material left on the pads:



The rear pads are ok actually. There are bolts missing from the fork guards:



I found out why.... no threads... So i'll be heli-coiling them.

There's quite a few missing bolts around actually:



Quite a few jerry-rigged and elec-taped parts:







Some PO was ham-fisted as fook it seems:





It could do with a new chain set:



The muffler cap is held on my an assortment of screws:



And I have no idea what is going on with this link-pipe connector:



Speaking of assortment of screws, this is what is holding on the rear plastics:



12mm, 10mm, cross-head, allen key. :nuts:

Pick-and-mix bolts seems to be the MO of the PO, it's everywhere:



So there will be some standardising going on with stainless allen head bolts in the coming weeks.

It does have solid gold foot pegs though:



Might have to strip them. And undo this chav-tasticness:



Air filter has seen better days:



The fork seals were leaking like a MF when I picked it up, I suspect that's because someone hadn't been air-bleeding them. And this might be why:



So I managed to get them out and added some easy bleeders:



There are some nice parts on the bike, I suspect at one time it was actually quite well loved:







I'll try to make her feel pretty again. Welcome home little moto, you'll be safe here.

So, yeah, a fair bit of work to do. Everything works as it is.... I just want it to look a bit better.

 

[MikeGyver]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

 

[shinyribs]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

C2KAD OCD meets CRF

 

[XxGRYMMxX]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Staying set up for dirt or going SuMo?

 

[MikeGyver]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Staying set up for dirt or going SuMo?

Neither, water mode:

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Staying set up for dirt or going SuMo?

Dirt. I've got enough road bikes. For now.

Also R= not road legal.

 

[Racing Geek]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Dirt. I've got enough road bikes. For now.

Also R= not road legal.

Cut the extra R off the stickers and you're all good :thumbsup:

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Got a bit done today. Wanted to do some yesterday but was waaaaaayyyyy too hungover.

Tidied up some of the controls and added ss bolts:





Put a rubber cover on the kick to stop it clacking on the engine mount, used some spare hose from the VTR build:



Replaced the rad overflow:





And tied it to the frame since i didn't like how close it runs to the header:



Cleaned up the bolts and rivets in the can:





Put in the new air filter:



Cleaned up the pipe joint:



Stripped the gold off the peg mounts, and installed the pivot pegz, put in stainless clivis pins:





Changed out the front pads:



And whipped off all the main fairings to get a better look at everything and get started on the decals next time around:

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Mostly there on the "make her pretty" front, removing most of the chavy decals and adding slightly more classy ones. Eg, i have no idea what "Muscle Milk" is and i don't think i want to, Dunlops, however, more my thing, out with the old, in with the new:



Bunch of other stuff, some SS fasteners and we're here:









Don't know how long some of those are going to last under alternating dirt / pressure washer blastings, but i like it for now.

So there are some mechanical things to do, chain and sprox, oil and filter and i've got to fix a stalling when whacking the throttle open from idle, and hanging coming back down. A carb clean is coming, but i also had a poke around and found there is a mix screw adjuster fitted:



Nice! So when i get the carb back in again it should be relatively straight forward to dial in.

 

[shinyribs]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

The muscle milk sticker made me laugh. I woulda kept that one.

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Getting a bit low on a lot of the common sizes of stainless bolts:



So last night I dropped into my favourite hardware shop on the way home to grab some grown-up pick-and-mix (actual photo from the shop, this place makes me so happy ):





There is way more in that bag than there looks to be.

So carried on with the stainless-ing:





And then of course, no one will see it:



:doh:

Other bits will improve looks and keep grotty areas looking slightly better (old vs new):



And on the swinger:



After getting her looking all pretty the other day, she's all in bits again so I could get the carb out:





Also had a look at the spark plug while I was there, I think i'll get a fresh, non-iridium one tonight on the way home from work:



So the carb was actually fairly clean, but there were some interesting things:

1. I thought maybe this "R" version didn't have a hot-start like I knew some other CRF450 have, turns out it's just removed, blanked off with a screw and the lever changed. So I'm going to order a cable and lever (once pay-day rolls around).

2. The accelerator pump diaphragm was upside down:



I wonder if that had anything to do with the rev hanging on throttle off and stalling on brisk idle-to-WOT? Anyway, fixed it now.

 

[shinyribs]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Curious why you want to go away from the iridium? I've had poor luck with them on old CB ignitions, but the one in my KLR ( can I call that modern?) seems to do well. They're supposed to last forever.

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

I tried them on the ducati a while back and had poor starting issues.

Turns out there isn't a non iridium version of this. The guy I bought it from laughed and said that's the most expensive one I've ever sold!



£17.99 but i got it same day rather than finding it cheaper online.

 

[shinyribs]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Poor starting is what I found on the CB, too. And a rough idle. 17 pounds...I think that's almost 30 bucks here. Ouch!

 

[HickLife]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

Its 23.34 ;-), but that is still a good chunk of change for a spark plug! Why would ther not be a non iridium version of it? Isnt that a pretty popular bike? And normally popularity = greater variety of parts available for it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

I'm as surprised as you are, I did a quick Google in the shop and didn't see anything either. I'll check it out for the future but just wanted to get it done today so I could start it.

Did a fair bit of work today but haven't posted it because I'm working in the bar tonight and haven't the time.

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

PS,

Its 23.34 ;-)

yeah the pound sucks at the moment.

 

[shinyribs]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

"Working" in the bar??

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's CRF450R 2003 Dirty Bike

LOL, yeah, both, sometimes i barely break even.

 

[Cookie2000ad]

Re: Cookie's Stainless Bolt Party!

Guess what i did?? That's right, more stainless bolts!





Got the carb back in, was a bit of a ball ache, i had to remove the airbox from the seat subframe to do it. Started up fine, still not running great, got it a bit better by adjusting the throttle cables, mix and idle but need somewhere i can make noise to do it properly.











Then i decided to do something actually useful and got to work on the chain and sprox, but most of the bolt heads where rounded out:



So had to take the wheel in to work and do the ole "weld a bolt on" trick:





That was all i had time for, hope to get that job finished today.