Wouldn't want R1100S-Rider getting his panties in a twist, so I wont call this thing a cafe racer. I'll just call it my dirty slut. When I sold both of my previous bikes to finance my 1098 I didn't quite realize that there would be one down side, and that's that I dont have a bike I can feel comfortable leaving parked in public anymore. Well this is what's gonna fill that gap.
It's a 1980 Honda CB750F that I picked up for $700. It's ugly as sin, but it runs and all the parts are there. I actually rode it a few miles before buying, so I know everything works. Hell even the tags are current for another 6 months. :banana
The plan is to ditch all the unnecessary stuff, give it a tune up to get everything running well, add a cool seat frame, and upgrade the front suspension and brakes.
On the first ride I was pretty frightened by the bikes lack of brakes. I thought about going through and fixing up the stock stuff, but since I already wanted to change the bars and the forks are pretty shitty anyways I started looking for a set of forks from a newer sportbike. Well Craigslist scored again, I found a guy parting out a 2005 ZX6R, the same bike I just sold. He had pretty much everything except the bodywork and engine. I really only wanted the front end, but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and I ended up taking the whole thing home.
In the last 2 days I've gotten it torn down to just parts and started selling all the stuff I dont need. If you need any parts let me know.
Here's where things got tricky. I wanted to put the Ninjas entire front end onto the honda. The catch is that the steerer tube on the Kawi fork is much larger in diameter than the honda, and is a bit shorter as well.
The simplest way I could think of to solve this problem was to swap the steerer tubes between the 2 sets of crowns, but that's a little more complicated than it sounds.
The kawi stem was pressed into the lower crown, and by pressed I mean it took everything my shop press had, plus a little heat to break it free. The honda on the other hand was all steel, and the steerer tube was pressed into the crown, then welded on the bottom. This was actually the easier of the 2. Just grind down the weld, and press out. No big deal.
Ok so now we have a steerer tube that fits the frame, but a crown with a hole that's too big. Thankfully I had a fix for this. I pulled a piece of heavy wall DOM tubing off the rack and chucked it up in the lathe and started carefully cutting away at it. I ended up with a sleeve that duplicated the dimensions of the bottom end of the kawi stem on the outside, and was a tight fit for the honda stem on the inside. I then pressed the adapter into the crown, pressed the steerer tube into the adapter, and then welded the steerer to the inside of the adapter.
Poof, we now have a ZX6 fork that will bolt to a 32 year old honda.
I also had to make a sleeve for the upper crown, but that was much simpler. Just a tube with the correct ID and OD to properly center everything.
So here's the first fit up of everything. Looks like the stock clutch cable will work just fine with the Kawi lever, and now I'm just working on splicing all the wires together to make the Ninja switches work everything.
Oh and just so you guys can hate me a little more. As of this moment between the purchase price of both bikes, and the parts that I have sold so far I'm into this thing a total of $605.93 including new rear shocks and a few parts I just ordered on eBay. I still have a TON of stuff for sale too, some of which already have bids and will sell for sure, so really I'm in it more like $475.:banana
My buddy has been riding on them dailing, on a much heavier bike and he loves them. I'm sure they dont perform like an ohlins, but when you're talkin about a 30 year old bike with noodles for a frame I doubt the performance difference would really be noticed when you're riding to the store.
So even though this thing is gonna be a bit of a hack job by my standards, and not a show bike by any means I do want it to be functional, and be something I can ride regularly. With that in mind I'm adding a few details that arent really mandatory, but are nice.
This is the first one. Fitting the Kawasaki fork required the removal of the stock honda steering lock bracket as it was in the way of the Kawasaki ignition switch. Well after getting everything mounted I realized that if I flipped that bracket over and did a little grinding it would actually still work. So after a little toying around with placement I welded it back on, and I now have a functioning steering lock again.
So after my buddy left I got to work hackin on my frame. This is gonna be a solo ride, no room for bitches :flipoff2:
Fabbed up a little reinforcement plate which will also provide a place to mount the seat pan, as well as the tail light bracket (when the light arrives). Also pulled the battery and started cleaning up all the wiring bullshit that sits under the seat. Gonna make a custom battery box and hide it to clean up the look a bit.
Also went ahead and ditched the rear brake. Shit was just gonna slow me down. Saved 12lbs too :flipoff2:
You're making me want to do naughty things. (with my bike, I mean).
I've got a couple Triumph 995i Daytonas sitting around. One of them is DEFINITELY getting the tail chopped and being turned into a crazy streetfighter as soon as I get a garage..... as it is now, I'm building a BMW in my living room, lol....
Didn't do a ton of work on the bike today, but I did get it titled and registered in my name finally. Figured with all the work I've done I might as well actually own the thing LOL. I think the best part of the deal I got was that it had a title, and is registered until Feb.
Also picked up the new shocks, as well as a few other bits and pieces, and the new parts are starting to arrive from ebay. The new shocks took a little bit of customizing to fit, as the bolt holes in the clevises were for a smaller bolt. I ended up drilling and tapping for the right size bolt. I gotta say I'm kinda diggin the ratty rusty old bike with shiny new suspension look. It's kind tough. I think I'm gonna keep it like this for a while til I have all the bugs worked out before painting.
Anyone good with Photoshop? I'm trying to decide on colors and having a little trouble visualizing. Can anyone here play with the colors in one of those side photos for me?
Red tank/seat pan with black frame
Red frame, black tank/seat
White frame, black tank/seat
Any other thoughts on what colors would look cool?
Even without photoshop, my vote goes for black and gold. It's my favorite combo
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