Cafe Racers

[Lof8]

Off the jack!

[samurai pizza cats]

dont know exactly what model this is but i found it parked outside my friends job. Do want tho.

[Lof8]

I'm headed more the bobber route. New bars and paint.


sweet dented gas tank^

Its got lowering shocks in the rear and i've got 2" drop springs still to put on the front. It should be sitting pretty low when it comes off the jack.

[Str8 Rippin]

thanks Scabz! The color is Battleship Gray. To be honest I don't know what color I'm gonna do the wheels. They're so ugly, IMO, that you can either go black and try to hide them.... OR embrace the ugliness and go with a crazy "out there" color. Spoke wheels aren't really an option without at least one deep pocket. I'm looking into a possible spoke wheel swap from a virago but it still require some decent modification.

That virago wheel swap isn't really worth it IMO. I'd black them out. The front is super easy to get a front spoke rim on but the rear is a bitch to find the right virago hub that will fit. Only 2 guys on the xj forum claim to have done the swap with minimal modification. The other 3 or so guys built there setups from the ground up, Like converting to chain drive.

[Brandon12V]

thanks Scabz! The color is Battleship Gray. To be honest I don't know what color I'm gonna do the wheels. They're so ugly, IMO, that you can either go black and try to hide them.... OR embrace the ugliness and go with a crazy "out there" color. Spoke wheels aren't really an option without at least one deep pocket. I'm looking into a possible spoke wheel swap from a virago but it still require some decent modification.

[scabzzzz]

Bike looks good Brandon! Nice job!
I agree wtih @MonkyMadness... but of course you knew this would be a weird cafe conversion from the get-go. You should paint the wheels the same color? Looks neat, what color is that?



As far as my bike, made some progress this weekend. Figured out my bike isnt covered in the Clymers manual. Found the original Honda service manual and it had an addendum to the 76 CB550. GRRRRR..... NO WONDER NOTHING WORKED RIGHT THAT I WIRED UP. Also figured out the left side coil is bad and the starter solenoid doesnt work. Otherwise, bike fires right up. Installed pod filters, and now I need jets. One thing after anothing man! Sheet!

[Brandon12V]

lol nope. I was so pissed off bc I didn't finish my bike in time. Going to the race would have been salt in the open wound.

[gearheadE30]

Did you end up going to motogp? I think I spent like an hour under the bridge on the front straight with some other guys from Purdue trying to get some of the sportbike tools to do burnouts. None of them did, but a bunch managed to stall their bikes haha.

[Brandon12V]

No, youre 100% right man. it would look a heck of a lot better bc the tank would run the same line instead of tank angling up. we did have to cut and re-weld the backbone but I don't trust my welding skills well enough yet to change the angle. it's such a crucial point for structural integrity and frame straightness that I didn't feel comfortable doing it. Good advice though bc it would def look better.

[MonkeyMadness]

seat pan still needs upholstered, carbs need sync'd, tail light needs hooked up, etc but it's running!

Dude looks hot,
If it was me (please take this with a grain of salt, and everybody has a diffrent eye and see's something diffrent, please take no offense)
I would chop out the tank tunnel and rebuild it to allow the
front of the tank to fall to the spine of the frame. I would bring the weld seem in the front right down to the frame, bring the "line" of the tank down to match the tail better and also allowing you to give the "image" of the frame, motor, and bike in total lower..

[nomansland92]

A fried of mine builds them and actually has been on a few of the discovery episodes

[Brandon12V]

seat pan still needs upholstered, carbs need sync'd, tail light needs hooked up, etc but it's running!

[Brandon12V]

It's nice to finally see it's body lines.

[Brandon12V]

I spent 12 hrs on this yesterday after work. didnt get home until 4am and then had to be back at work at 7:30. I am fucking haggard right now. tack welds all the way through with 220 and ground down. I'll be using some quality bondo to smooth it out. I'll be picking up the muffler tonight, mocking the seat and tank, tacking the exhaust together. motoGP is on Sunday here in indy so it's crunch time for me!

[Brandon12V]

^ Looks good! So my buddy and I just picked up another cb360. Traded it for our 1980's Gokart. It's got alot of surface rust on all the chrome but the motor has good compression, the frame has no rust, everything still works. taking it on as a winter project. we only had 150 into the gokart so, in essence, we got it for that price. I dont have any pics of the bike but here's a pic of the kart we traded from 14 years ago when my uncle bought it for me. I couldn't even reach the pedals, lol.