Finished Sissybar & Continuing Mechanical Tweaking

I've had time to give the CB a thorough test—close, but no cigar. Old Faithful runs true and strong until about 60 mph whereupon her get up and go, gets up and goes. I just replaced all the o-rings in the carbs in case that was the cause of the engine's reluctance to run properly, but now if I open the throttle at 60, instead of a quick steady climb in speed, she stutters and seems to loose power. Up to that point, all is well.

I have a feeling there is an issue with firing at those speeds and suspect the coils. In fact, I've had this suspicion for a while and in anticipation of being right, for once, I recently picked up a used set of coils and coil-to-points pigtail. The next plan of action is to swap out my repaired pigtail with this used one in that is in good shape and see if perhaps that solves the problem, if not I will reluctantly pull the tank and replace the coils with the used set and do yet another test. The used set is not pretty, but checked out exactly right when I did a ohm test on the primary windings (4-5ohms, by the way). It ought to work fine. I'll report back once the verdict is in.

These Coils Look Rough, but They Tested Good

Something, however, went right. After my botched attempt at welding a crossbar to my new sissybar, a friend came over and welded it up properly for me, and while he was at it he also repaired my chainguard and chainguard bracket. With the sissybar now completed, I ground down some of the roughness of the weld, cleaned it up, and spray painted it gloss black.

I had made a white oak backrest to which foam and vinyl could be attached, with epoxied-in-place carriage bolts for attachment to the crossbar, with stainless acorn nuts capping the protruding bolts. I went in search of an upholsterer, wooden backrest in hand. First I went to the upholsterer that recently redid my saddle, but found them closed. Then I remembered a lady "Fuzzy" had told me about who he said was really good at this kind of thing. Her name is Norma and she runs Lake Wales Upholstery.

I rode up on the CB to the shop on the street behind the Lake Wales post office. Norma looked at the backrest and at the contraption I had built on the bike to which it would be bolted. To get this done, I was reluctantly anticipating a resultant need to transfer several hard-earned Jacksons into my working bank account. I asked how much she thought it would run, and she said, "$15 and come back in about two hours"! I was happy, but when my daughter and I rode back up to pick it up and I saw the result I was ecstatic! Norma did a marvelous job for almost nothing, and in almost no time. I gladly handed her a $20 and said to keep the change and rode off with a nice soft backrest for my daughter to lean against while riding home.

The Completed Sissybar (Forgive the Cluttered Background)

The new sissybar is very solid and should make loading and keeping the bike luggage in place much easier on the upcoming road trip to Maggie Valley, Barber's Vintage Festival, and the ride back home to Central Florida, and a couple more days messing with the coils ought to have her in good shape for the run.

Cheers,

Road Dog

"Ride Your Own Ride."