New Project! CB450 soon to be a cafe racer!
 

A neighbor/pilot buddy stopped by the other day and asked what I had been up to lately. I told him how it has been a motorcycle repair extravaganza lately in my shop as I ressurected my VF500, brought an old college buddy's '83 GPZ 550 back from the dead and another college buddy got his '77 RM370 tank restored. I then made a comment that I was kind of thinking about building up a cafe bike someday (which made my wife frown immediately ;)). Well my neighbor says he has an old CB450 sitting in his shop that he hasn't touched in 25yrs and if I wanted it, I could have it. My wife could have killed him right then :D.

He had previously mentioned that he and his son's cruiser bikes have sat for a couple years and needed the carbs cleaned. I told him to bring em all over and I would get them going and then accept his free gift of the CB450. Well I got one fixed yesterday and am waiting on a new battery for the other one.

In the next few weeks, I will start tearing into the CB....It will be a great little project and who knows, maybe I will start a side business of fixing/restoring/custom building these old bikes....Would not make much money, but it sure would be fun working on these relatively small managable projects!

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PS: I blame Souk, Dueller, Eric, Higgins etc for recent posts here showing pictures of these cool little cafe bikes. I must have mad cow disease or something....I jump back and forth on hobbies/projects much too often :D

Nice snotter, Tim. See carpy's website...he's started with far worse examples as seen by the link below;)

Also see what carpy is selling some of his bikes for. Judging by the meticulous attention to detail as evidenced by your cushman rstoration, you'll have to either compromise your OCD for perfection or plan on charging $15K per bike to break even:D

Look forward to seeing your progress.

http://www.cb750cafe.com/bikes.php?cat=7&id=18

And here's a group up in your neck of the woods:

http://www.ohiocaferacers.com/

Some inspiration..before and after CB350 twin
 

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Website: http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/poquito.html

Last post..I promise:D
 

CB450...lotsa ideas/pics

http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/armadillo.html




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[QUOTE=Dueller;3910432]CB450...lotsa ideas/pics

http://www.benjiescaferacer.com/armadillo.html





I really like the look of the silver one.

That silver one does look nice...

I looked at all the pics of the CB450 and notice there is no battery...must just run off the alt/mag? Unless he's hidden it in the seat cowling (which would be pretty cool but put a chunk of weight up high).

Also note on the silver CB450 he used the passenger peg location for his rear sets...pretty inexpensive way to do that. Fabbing the brake linkage is doable since its rod actuated drum rear. Mybe an old dirtbike brake pedal? I may have some old parts off a Buell that you could use for shifter linkage...the lever pivots on the mounting bolt of the footpeg. Lemme know and I'll shoot some pics for you.

Tim...with your fab expertise there is a cottaage industry with rear set kits, billet pegs, clip-ons and bars like clipons that mount to a plate that bolts to the upper triple tree. E.g., a set of rear sets in aluminum for a Buell is $250-300 or so and suprisingly simple. And replica aluminum tanks go for $900+.

Oh yeah...don't discard the stock mufflers. Look pretty solid wiyth only suface rust. Should be able to unload them on evilBay to a restorer. The sissy bar and twisted steel handle bars are tru period corrrect custom items for the rat bike crowd:D

Badass

Keep us posted, I'm lusting after one of these.

Get rid of that sissy bar!

Those handle bars and sissy bar are something else aren't they? :D

A bunch of guys use various modern crotch rocket parts for rearsets, but no doubt I will have to fab/machine some trick ones from scratch ;)

I am already thinking of making my own clip-ons and seat, but I will have to figure out what tank I want to use before anything else as that will deermine how everything else will get sized and located. I am going to need a longer tank for sure, but whether I alter mine or go crazy and fab a custom one out of aluminum is yet to be determined. This will be fun for sure and will be very cheap as far as projects go ;) (lots of custom fab from scratch)

Maybe not...here's an airtech seat that looks pretty good on a cb750 w/stock tank. I'd nix the rear fender or bob. FG tanks are expensive (c $500).

http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/hondaz/CB750SOHC1969-77.htm




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and for a cheap ($50) fairing here's a decent one I ordered for the Bueell project (as opposed to airtech set up for $300):

http://www.sportingforless.com/cafe-fairing-w650-rdtriumph-norton-p-31.html?osCsid=27ca933cebc020ad7f14d7c0762a0a31



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I want a lower hump on the rear of the seat and I want to stick with a metal tank. That fairing might work.

Here a few picks I found over the last week....none are exactly what I want, but most have tanks and or other features that I like.

Part of the "fun" will be in deciding how to make it look.

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tim,

in case it gives you some ideas - here's mine (1980 yamaha sr500)

another good site is ww.dotheton.com

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Tim,

Very cool project. I actually like the stripe work on the tank--that paint, bars and sissy bar scream 70's custom. You may get some scratch for them on fleabay.

Ryan,

That is one sweet machine there.

For my own project, the Rover took a hit in the cooling system and tied me up getting it back on the road, so all I was able to do to the CB was change the oil/filter, and disassemble the original bars. I need to snake the wiring out from inside the stockers and hopefully get the clubmans bolted on this week.

Who made your tank Ryan? I would like to make my own aluminum tank someday, but I will have to master an English wheel first. I have built aluminum formed and welded airplane fuel tanks from scratch, but they had no complex curves.

ya know vintage iron in calif. gets a $110 bucks an hour to restore old dirty bikes ground up museum pieces. thats how they afford their vintage maico race team that shows up with mega trailer/semi and scads of maicos various years models that you could eat off the chain they are so clean! good luck at least parts are still avail.

I suspect its from Deus in Australia:

http://www.deus.com.au/shop/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=23

Yeah, I have been looking at web sites for vintage MX recently as I just fixed this aluminum '77 RM 370 tank for a good friend.



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