Cafe Racers

[mitch500]

Here is my bike that i have been working on for a bit.... Its a 1978 CB550

[Dozyproductions]

Can you put a 70's tank onto a early 80's honda CB750?

[Brandon12V]

sittin much more proper.

[Brandon12V]

Brandon, what kind of bike is that? Looks like a great "base" to make a cafe racer?

It's a yamaha xj650 Maxim. Honestly its not, lol. It's driveshaft driven so my updated swingarm options are limited. It's a pretty heavy bike(roughly 450lbs stripped down). There aren't many newer forks that will work without heavy modding as the offset on the triple trees aren't as wide as most. This bike has a great frame for building a bobber but if you wanted to build a bike with gsxr forks and a better rear assembly, you'd need to be ready to dish out 1k-1500 right from the get-go for custom trees and a swingarm that will work. Plus it's a 4-speed. Bleh.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fun bike and still gets great gas mileage, but for what I want it was the wrong base to start with. I'm still gonna fix it up and enjoy it, but will probably end up flipping it after I'm done. It's my first bike so mistake have been learned in the proccess. Oh, and oem engine parts are not readily available like with cb's & xs'. I had a hell of a time tracking down new intake manifolds for this damn thing.

Scabz- I'll pm you a link.

[scabzzzz]

Ordered bridgestone se-11's as the dunlops were dry rotting. shocks arrived! oh and I bought marine/watersport vinyl and gold stitching to match. fuck yah. seat foam is on it's way today from Airtech streamlining.

Whered you get the shocks?

[Cha Ching]

;) like this? picked it up on the bay for 40 shipped. plan on getting rid of that ugly chrome.



shocks will be here by the end of the week. also ordered a tank off an rd400!

Brandon, what kind of bike is that? Looks like a great "base" to make a cafe racer?

[Brandon12V]

Ordered bridgestone se-11's as the dunlops were dry rotting. shocks arrived! oh and I bought marine/watersport vinyl and gold stitching to match. fuck yah. seat foam is on it's way today from Airtech streamlining.

[kway]

Don't post usually, but some nice bikes in this thread. Here's my 77 550

Good god man, awesome bike.

[Brandon12V]

Brandon - build looks sick; only thing I really have to add is you really want to have either a fender or a fork brace on those forks, otherwise you're really risking tweaking stuff. Older small-diameter forks just aren't quite stiff enough.


And that GT550 is fucking sick. That after shot is just about everything I want in an old school bike.

;) like this? picked it up on the bay for 40 shipped. plan on getting rid of that ugly chrome.



shocks will be here by the end of the week. also ordered a tank off an rd400!

[OOMPH!]

Damn nice Mr. Cosmos!!! I love this thread!

[gearheadE30]

Brandon - build looks sick; only thing I really have to add is you really want to have either a fender or a fork brace on those forks, otherwise you're really risking tweaking stuff. Older small-diameter forks just aren't quite stiff enough.


And that GT550 is fucking sick. That after shot is just about everything I want in an old school bike.

[Dozyproductions]

The performance is phenomenal. The updated suspension rides like a dream. It is so sticky and nimble through the corners. We raced it against a Honda CBR F2 and the old girl stuck with the Honda till about 100ish (roughly, no really sure as there is no speedo on it). The 550 two-stroke motor has some serious kick to it. All in all i think about a 100 lbs were shaved off the original bike. Braking is also phenomenal as it has dual disc brakes up front and single in the rear off of a GSX-R.

so when can you come to Cali and show a noob like me how its done? ;) On a serious note though your bike is amazing the craftsmanship is obviously well done!

[RVAe30]

Quoted for the record book. VERY nice work my friend, very nicely done.

Sure would like a report on how all the changes have impacted the ride, performance and braking of the bike as a package.

The performance is phenomenal. The updated suspension rides like a dream. It is so sticky and nimble through the corners. We raced it against a Honda CBR F2 and the old girl stuck with the Honda till about 100ish (roughly, no really sure as there is no speedo on it). The 550 two-stroke motor has some serious kick to it. All in all i think about a 100 lbs were shaved off the original bike. Braking is also phenomenal as it has dual disc brakes up front and single in the rear off of a GSX-R.

[Mr.Cosmos]

Don't post usually, but some nice bikes in this thread. Here's my 77 550

[GDA]

couple of updates from my last post in this thread. Tore the bike down from mock up and painted and finished everything and put it back together.

before:

after:

Quoted for the record book. VERY nice work my friend, very nicely done.

Sure would like a report on how all the changes have impacted the ride, performance and braking of the bike as a package.