cheap, cool cruiser bikes?

[mitch500]

Here's my 78 CB550 cafe style and here's my 76 ironhead. Take your pic, I like them both:)

[///M42 sport]

sweet thnx

its pretty lame none of my friends have bikes...cant learn on one before I buy

[mitch500]

Take a motorcycle safety course. To easy to freeze up if your a unexperienced rider. I'm teaching my girlfriend to ride but I'm entering her in a class to fine tune everything.

[Dozyproductions]

It's taken me a long time to accept that front tire as not being backwards, but that's the mfgr recommended direction.

Here is another pic from the other side.



It's still a work in progress so a few things are still going to change.

Im guessing that there's an entire community for this style and bike but what swing arm and forks are those? Did you have to modify the frame? Street fighters are so sick!

Edit: lol at the viragos are slow comment in a cruiser thread.

[travish325]

It's taken me a long time to accept that front tire as not being backwards, but that's the mfgr recommended direction.

Here is another pic from the other side.



It's still a work in progress so a few things are still going to change.

I love this! Looks just like a older version of mine

[iflytii]

Im guessing that there's an entire community for this style and bike but what swing arm and forks are those? Did you have to modify the frame? Street fighters are so sick!

Edit: lol at the viragos are slow comment in a cruiser thread.

Thanks for the complements guys. That fork and swingarm are both from a GSXR 1000. The swinger is a little newer (2007) and the fork is from a 2005. Wheels are GSXR 750, with the standard 120/180 rubber for that bike. I could have squeezed a 190 in back but really the 180 looks good and is plenty of rubber for this bike.

The front end swap is primarily just a bearing swap with this particular fork. I did have to customize the races and get a custom triple. The rear end required a little cutting on the frame for clearance, mainly just the rear brackets for the exhaust/passenger foot pegs. It also required custom bushings and mounts for the shock and linkage - but that's pretty basic fabrication.

All in all, not a terribly hard thing to accomplish. There are quite a few doing similar modifications and while I think our inspirations draw from a few styles, we ultimately get lumped into the street fighter category. I didn't really build it to fit into any style, I was just pulling certain cues from bikes I like while maintaining enough of the vintage that it's still a kz at heart.

Advice for the OP. You don't need a big/fast bike to have fun. My bike is quick, but certainly not fast in comparison to the bikes the new parts came from. It's a blast to ride, very light and nimble. There are tons of older bikes floating around on craigslist, and in fact that's where mine came from. I zeroed in on KZ's, because that's what I liked. Because of that I was able to do enough research, find many forums, and become expert enough to make good decisions when I purchased mine. Find something you think you like or at least narrow it down, do some research, go hunt one down...

[IronFreak]

Checkout the Triumph Bonneville, I test drove one 4-5 years ago when I bought my Triumph Daytona 995 special. It was a complete blast, I was just a little to big for the bike. (6', 250lbs.)



Not from factory, but you can have a little fun and make them looks pretty sick.

[Ryan Stewart]

Cheap? Get some old Japanese 300 or 500 and bob it. Looks decent, can be had for nothing and then has all of the hipster cred.

[Vtec?lol]

Build one, chicks dig it.

dat springer!

[Q5Quint]

Just ask yourself what you want to do with the bike first~

Just because it is a sport bike doesn't mean it is not comfy, and just because it is a cruiser does not mean it is.

I discovered I wanted to be able to ride 2 hours down the parkway and visit friends, and maybe camp out a bit. This means I need bags and a spot for camp gear. Not much room on the bobber, and a backpack is less than comfy after 2 hours.

It looks cool though. Tried some cafe bars on it and it made it nearly impossible to turn/be stable at that rake, but looked super neat. The drag bars were fine but hurt my back after about 1 hour of riding. It is 100% more comfy with the big hangers.

If you are just scooting around town and trying to look cool at the sandwich shop or something, you can get away with the uncomfortable stuff.

My buddy has been riding the suzuki vlx 800 across the country and loves it. A bit under-powered but comfy.



You can chop/bob them out too and keep the comfyness, I think. Same bike as above but with different fenders/bars/pipes/seat.

[wikkid]

You want to buy a cheap Suzuki S40/Savage/Boulevard (any year) and make it into one of THESE.
The kits are about $3000. The bikes can be had for $1000 - 2000 and up.