New Project! CB450 soon to be a cafe racer!

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

OK, got it. it's sodium bicarbonate...same as plain old baking soda. Pool people use it to change the ph of the pool. it's very light, gets sucked up by the vacuum more easily than glass beads, which is why you may want to just get a big tub of it.

wonderful stuff for cleaning.

Thanks, there is a pool supply shop on my way home from work. I will have to pick some up.

[obrut]

tim

i snapped some quick pics of the bike this morning. the alloy tank is a pretty nice detail - particularly the join line which gives it a hand made look.

the muffler innards are trashed and its going to be replaced with a more period looking BSA type.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Ryan, where is the battery?

I love the open triangle where my battery and air filter are.

[obrut]

hey shaun

it doesn't have one! a google for "sr500 battery eliminator kit" should throw up some options.

[Tim Hancock]

Looks nice Ryan! I like the bars and the triple clamp area....looks all business!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

very cool Ryan! wish I could do that with my bike.

[obrut]

thanks guys.

i wish i could take credit for this one, but it all goes to the previous owner (and mostly the shop before him).

however, as is always the case, i can't leave well enough alone and have a few little mods planned...

tim - here is a link to the top bridge part:
http://www.vanem.com.au/Handlebars.htm

[Tim Hancock]

Hot d@mn!! I got it running this morning on the freshly cleaned carbs (just shot some gas in the hoses with a tiny funnel as the tank needs a thorough cleaning) after first having to take apart the kill switch and start button for cleaning. After 25 years on old Champion plugs, this thing runs PERFECT! It idles very low and will throttle up instantly. Hmmm, maybe I better finish cleaning the tank out and throw a different back tire on it just to try it out.

I simply cannot believe how PERFECT this little b@stard runs.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Tim, what are you doing this weekend? Come on out! Petcock getting here tomorrow.


No surprise to me it's running so well.

[Tim Hancock]

Changed the back tire to something I had laying around and fabbed up a quick set of temporary handlebars from a piece of 7/8 OD 4130 airplane tubing this weekend. I drove it up and down the road a few times and it runs fabulous. I think this is going to make a fun little bike!

The guy I bought it from dropped off the seat and tail light yesterday..... I am guessing I won't be using these for anything



Looking better just from stripping off the chopper want-to-be crap!
I can't wait to tear it all apart after I choose a course for how I want to configure/restore it.

[obrut]

looking good. how about: fit a cafe seat; shorten the mudguards; and leave the rest a little ratty. maybe fit a smaller/neater tail light.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Can't wait to see you REALLY get into Tim.

What bars are those? I think that style would look great on my bike as well.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

Can't wait to see you REALLY get into Tim.

What bars are those? I think that style would look great on my bike as well.

Hancock Specials ..... I whipped them up out of a piece of 7/8 OD 4130 airplane tubing. They are actually pretty comfy for now, but I will probably make some clip-ons once I figure out where I want to mount my rearsets and figure out what tank/seat set-up I want to go with. If I end keeping my new temporary bars, I will probably get them chromed.

I found a '71 CB450 parts bike for $50 with no title at a local shop so by this time tomorrow, I should have a new upper triple clamp and missing tachometer to play with. I think I will leave the bike together as I build components to try them out and tear it down after I get it set-up and working close to how I want it.

I also might pick up a fairly clean '75 CB 360 from the same place for dirt cheap if I can locate a derilect titled one somewhere for cheap as the 360 has no title.

I am having a blast playing with this thing!

[Tim Hancock]

We got twins!

Picked up the $50 parts bike tonight. Engine has compression and more importantly, the upper triple clamp and tach are both intact and will live someday on the first one. Hmmmm maybe #2 would look cool as a Honda RC450 replica race bike. My wife is gonna kill me when she sees this second POS that followed me home

[Shaun @ Tru6]

You are a madman Tim Hancock!

[obrut]

tim,

as odd as this may sound - i'm jealous.

i bought a built bike because i knew nothing about them and my car 'projects' keep me pretty busy. however, now i wish i had bought something i could build up/mod myself.

its a sickness...

[jyl]

You can combine the two bikes for a dual disc front end?

[Dueller]

Progress please

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Dueller

Progress please

Slowly but surely, I am inching my way into this project (wife is after me to clean the hangar for daughter's graduation party in a couple weeks). I did powerwash the $50 parts bike and then cleaned my workshop area to get both of the bikes in that room. I took a shock apart to find max tire travel upwards so that I can know how low I can mount my rear seat area (I cleaned one up just for the hell of it). Today I pulled the battery then fired up the cutting disk and started removing the rear frame section and unwanted brackets. Now I will mock up then fab up the seat while the tank is still on the bike for reference and I will be also cutting the passenger peg mounts (either shortening them or removing entirely0 and fabbing up rear sets while the engine is still installed for reference.

one shock "kind of cleaned a bit"


yesterday


today

[Tim Hancock]

Might go with an all aluminum tail something like this with some sort of small tail light residing just under the rear shroud. The other option is to simply form something up out of fiberglass, as I don't like many of the large humps many of the store bought tails look like.