1982 Honda Nighthawk 450 running again.

1982 Nighthawk 450 that my buddy and I are building. It's been going really slow so far, but we finally got it running again. It still needs some work, so this video isn't to show off my bike. Well ok, maybe to show off the custom exhaust we built lol. We're still planning on putting some tips on the exhaust, so it's in the final stages and functional.

Here's a list of the customizations done so far (some of which still needs to be put together, but the "invention" of the parts are done):

Frame bobbed, lowered, and hard tailed.

Hard tailing done not with struts, but by welding the frame to the swing arm, and then those weld covered with angle iron and welded again. Said angle iron being an old brown steel bed frame.

Forks and engine were from original bike we got for free. Frame (with a title!) from an identical year/make/model bike purchased from junkyard for dirt cheap.

Custom exhaust made from exhausts from both bikes. Took them completely apart and ditched the equalizer which took up waaay too much room under the bike. Then we used 2 straight pieces and 4 adapters bought from AutoZone to connect the stock pipes that we rearranged to make what you see and hear in the video.

Electronics that were in area covered by side cover moved to underneath seat, bolted to 2 rails which are welded to frame under seat. These rails are, yet again, old brown steel bed frame.

Shifter and brake linkage fabricated with various brake parts, threaded rod and foot peg mounts.

Handlebar riser cover inset with instrument panel lights from a 1976? Honda (purchased on eBay for $10) installed in place stock ginormous gauge cluster monstrosity.

Stock seat relieved of its old foam and vinyl cut down to make a plastic solo seat pan.

Battery mount made from, guess what? Old brown steel bed frame, welded to the bike frame.

Since frame was so extremely lowered, foot pegs had to be relocated. This was done using a U shaped piece of steel about a foot long (fabricated from two pieces of old brown steel bed frame clamped together in the shape of a U) mounted to the front motor mount since this frame doesn't have a down tube (visible in video). Then a hole drilled through the "arms" of the U and a 1/2" round bar inserted through. We're still messing with design ideas on how to actually mount the foot pegs to the round bar. But hey..it's there dang it! :D

Side mount license plate mount made from flat pieces of steel cut from old brown steel bed frame.

$5 cone shaped light with a lil visor on the bezel we got from a truck stop will be mounted to license plate mount as a brake light/license plate light.

"Customized" gas cap lock. We had no keys, but a drill helped out tremendously in allowing us to use numerous items to now lock/unlock the cap.

Empty 2 liter Sams choice ginger ale bottle (nothing but the best!) gas tank for testing purposes. Plastic bottle lid customized by my buddy to accommodate the random rubber hose found on whatever it was connected to, to connect the ginger ale gas tank to the carburetors. This is also visible in the video.

Used a battery charger/jump starter to start bike as we had no extra usable batteries. That's why it was weakly starting at first (you see me switch the charger from trickle charge to jump start).

There may be other things I've forgotten about as it has taken awhile to get this far along.

Comments (and useful ideas :D) welcome.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Nighthawk running again
• Honda
• nighthawk
• 450
• cb450sc
• bobber
• chopper

[OnlineScooterGuide]

A friend told me about your video - Appreciate it

[CustomNightHawk]

@OnlineScooterGuide You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it :)

[kc550]

Sounds wicked, I'm very interested in that exhaust...

[CustomNightHawk]

It was pretty easy all said and done. As long as you got at least a stick welder and grinder, you can do anything I did to my bike.

[carknower]

haha, nice job.

i wrecked my 89 500Ex

so im fixing it too.

exept i have more done to it. i just need to take it back to Dmv and get my plates and tags.

[CustomNightHawk]

good luck, i had some issues with it since i got the fame from a junk yard, but it turned out alright. it's more or less finished now, just having to keep things held together. definately not a pretty bike lol

[paulfranke]

cool vid. love the guy smoking a cig and holding the gas haha

[theoryindesign]

take off the pipe and cow udder, get some 1 and 5/8 inch gal. pipe at home depot that will slip on , then buy baffle with baffle wrap, insert , tach weld, then wrap it with exhaust wrap.......rejet the carbs and get air pods

[Jonny08651]

i have an 82 cm450a with 58000 miles on it(mostly my dad). and i would die for those exhausts. how did you make them?

[616kid]

Love the bike. These Hondas are fun to mess with.

[616kid]

Thats a good way to do it. I cut off the exhaust and the H-pipe and ran 1 1/2 electrical conduit back. I welded a washer in with a 1/2" diameter hole for back pressure. It sounds pretty good although it is damn loud. Check my video and you can hear it running.

[kc550]

Did you remove the mufflers and just carry on the pipes to the back?

I want to cut my mufflers off and run the pipes back, but I'm hoping it won't sound like crap, but if that's what you did then by all means I'd do it in a heartbeat.