CL360 & CB650 CUSTOM UPDATES

CL360 & CB650 CUSTOM UPDATES

There were only a couple minor updates on the progress of my two CAFE RACER projects.  The biggest of the two being that I got to fire up the Honda CL360 for the first time.  It sounds mean!  I have a feeling I could be getting into some noise pollution trouble with this thing if I'm riding either late at night or really early in the morning.  Perfect.  At any rate, drivers won't miss me when I'm out on the road.  I am still waiting on the tank paint to finish so I can strap it on and cruise on this thing for the first time.  Hopefully by next weekend.

I had received a call from Justin's Cycles on Monday morning of last week.  Justin had let me know that the carbs were leaking slightly and wondered if I had rebuilt them or anything and I said no.  I just stripped the paint and got them looking good.  I didn't want to rebuild them until we tried them out and knew for sure they were going to need it.  He insisted they did.  So another $100 dollars out the window and an additional $25 for a new push throttle cable since the one I had on there was no good.  I had replaced the pull throttle cable but never could find a push on Ebay so I figured I'd just reuse the one I had.  Wrong!  The throttle does feel much more responsive now, so well worth the money.  This should be it for a long while as far as expenses on this build go.  Since this has been such an expensive first build, I've decided not to sell the CL360, as there's no way in hell I'd get anything close to what I've put into it.  So that leaves the Honda CB650 C...

The goal will be to sell this bike with profit.  So far I am looking good to do that.  As you can see from the picture, the new shocks have been installed which will give the rear end a higher lift than the stock ones.  The crash bars have been removed from around the engine as well.  They add weight and make the bike too bulky.  I've been playing around with fun concepts for what I plan to do regarding the seat situation but haven't decided on one yet.  The mag wheels I will be painting black because it won't cost much money and it will give the bike a much fresher look.  This coming week, Justin will be rebuilding and cleaning the carbs and installing the new battery I ordered.  The turnaround time on this project will be much, much quicker.

Till next week…keep your throttle open.

PROJECT - HONDA CB500 FOUR RESTORATION

PROJECT - HONDA CB500 FOUR RESTORATION

On Saturday, January 25th I finally got to pick up the motorcycle I've been waiting all month for.  This is more like the bike I've been waiting my whole life for if I think about it.  It's a 1971 Honda CB500 Four K1, making this bike 43 years old this May.  They only made this model for three years from 1970-1973. This is my fourth motorcycle so it's rather fitting that it's a 500 FOUR.  On New Years Day I was on Craigslist looking around at some of the motorcycle posts and saw this one listed.  I knew immediately that if I didn't act fast I would miss out on this awesome find.  The nice couple selling it were originally from Argentina and had bought the bike over 34 years ago and hadn't been riding it for about 33 years of that.  I knew that was accurate because there was only 4800 miles on it.  I was the first one to arrive to view it.  The rest, as they say, is history!

I have been posting a lot of Cafe Racer stuff on my blog recently, so this will be a nice change of pace. Don't worry, I'm not chopping this thing up.  It is way too beautiful and in pristine condition, so instead I am going to restore it and save it as part of my collection.  I know what you're thinking…"What is there to restore?" Right?  Well, I agree with you, this bike is in great shape, but there is still a lot of work to be done.  From what I can tell, this bike is going to need the following:  Break line flush/replacement, new tires (which I've bought already), new drive chain, new battery, gas tank flush and rust remover, re-chroming of all stainless steel, carb rebuild and cleaning, new engine gaskets, allen bolt heads swap out from phillips screws, oil change, new ignition switch & keys.  

On Monday (tomorrow) of this week I will be having my new friend, John, who works at JBJ Cycles, out to look at the 500 Four and give me a quote on what it would cost to restore the matters above.  I can't wait to get this baby running again!  I probably won't ride it very often but as of today I'm a member of the OC Vintage Bike Club and they get together once a month right down the street to keep the love and awareness of vintage motorcycles alive and well.  This will be an event I'll surely be bringing this ride to once all work on it has been completed.  In the meantime, I'll be taking my completed 1975 Honda CL360 over there to get some feedback.  I'm about a week away from putting a fork in that project.

Here are some more close-ups of the new bike (prior to being washed and cleaned):

HONDA CB650 CUSTOM PROJECT - UN-BUILD DAY 1

 UN-BUILD DAY 1

Step 1 was taking off those gigantic handlebars since I'm going the cafe route.  These black clubman bars were just the ticket.  They were an easy swap.  I also updated the throttle tube since the other one had been glued on to the old grips and couldn't be re-used.

The rear taillight, sissy bar, turn signals and seat were removed so I could attempt to fit the new fiberglass seat pan on.  I haven't decided on paint or seat color yet, but I do have some fun ideas. The carbs are gonna need to be cleaned and rebuilt but the bike runs and sounds great!  The battery will also be getting replaced if it isn't able to hold a charge, which I am going to assume it won't.

The shocks were a little rusty so I switched those out before I was done for the day but wasn't able to grab a picture because my phone died.  They are black and chrome and help raise the seat up a little higher.  New grips were also thrown on after I trimmed the length of the throttle tube down an inch or so.  Before I called it quits for the day, I did an overall cleaning of the exterior to get all the dust, debris and grease that had accumulated on it from sitting for the past 8 years.

Next week I'm going to remove the crash bars and get those two giant turn signals up front removed and swapped out for some small bullets.  Some new headlight brackets will be ordered too.  I'll also get the wheels pulled off so that I can get them powdercoated.  In the meantime, I need to decide what color scheme I'm going with...

HONDA CB650 CUSTOM PROJECT

HONDA CB650 CUSTOM PROJECT

On Friday, January 17th 2014 I purchased a Honda CB 650C from a very nice guy by the name of Tom Kimberly in Orange, CA.  I had responded to a Craigslist ad about the bike and really just wanted to see what condition it was in and I was very pleased with what I found.  Long story short, I signed all the paperwork and made it official on the spot.  It's much bigger than my CB360 but it's going to be a really fun project.  This is the third bike I've bought so far and have one more on the way next week.  I'll post about that later...

I made a couple calls to find out how much it was going to cost to have the bike picked up and taken over to Justin's Cycles in La Habra.  It didn't occur to me to have my AAA account add motorcycle coverage so that I can have 4 motorcycles moved a year.  I'll be able to take advantage of that in a week or so… or until I can buy a truck.  lol  I ended up opting to have Justin himself pick it up for me on Saturday morning early, before he opened his shop.  After we loaded the 650 I met him later to go over what my plans for this build would be.  I'll share some of those things with you in the next post.

CAFE RACER PROJECT: RE-BUILD DAY 4

RE-BUILD DAY 4

I got a few more things done yesterday at the shop.  The biggest move was getting the gas tank sent off to Bruce the painter.  If the final product looks as good as I think it's going to, I'll have a great machine to cruise around on.  I threw the gas tank on to get an idea of what it will look like and I'm definitely feeling it.  As far as the other things that were accomplished…keep scrolling down.

The handlebar clip on mirrors were finally attached.  They were originally manufactured to slip inside the handlebar tube, but the fittings that came with it did not fit a 7/8"s bar so I was able to take that fitting off and clip them on the outside instead.  They look pretty cool!  More than anything, I was just glad that I didn't have to buy another set or anything else to make them work.  I'm happy with the choice of chrome.  

 

The rear taillight and license plate bracket was also put on.  Similarly to the clip on mirrors, the fitting that came with this product was not made to fit perfectly on the rear wheel.  Justin was nice enough to make a special fitting for it by sending the rear hex nut through his mill machine to make it a little thinner.  Otherwise it would not have bolted on all the way.  The wiring will need to be fed up the rear shock absorber, but it will hardly be noticeable.

While I was out of town, the linkage I ordered showed up so I took that with me over to the shop so we could figure out if the rear sets will fit okay with the exhaust pipes underneath them.  The rear brake still needs to be connected because I ran into a bit of an issue with the linkage rubbing against the swing arm.  We are going to have to try a few different methods before deciding on the best connection.

Another thing on the "To-Do" docket is welding a couple tabs to the frame so that brackets can be attached to the exhaust pipes because currently they are kind of just floating in place.  They will be much more stable after  which.

The platinum drive chain was the next thing to go on the bike.  It was a little long so we had to cut it down to fit but once it was done, I was very pleased with the final result.  I managed to snag a really cool shot of Justin using a grinder to cut the chain.

Not bad eh?

Rock guard installed. Check!

CAFE RACER PROJECT: RE-BUILD DAY 3

RE-BUILD DAY 3

I am finally getting around to getting these updates from last week posted, as I've been out of town on business for the past six days.  All I could think about all week was how bad I wanted to get back to finish this project.  I am so close to being done; I can't wait to start it up and cruise!  Last week I put in about five hours total and the below is pretty much a summary of the work I accomplished.  The biggest updates being that the new wiring is done as well as the work on the engine as far as new gaskets and allen head bolts.

The carbs and the throttle assembly went on at the same time since I had connected the new throttle tube/gel grips to the pull cable mechanism ahead of time.  The carbs went on pretty easily, and I secured them with the fasteners so they wouldn't come flying off.

After the carbs were on good and tight I used two more fasteners to attach the intakes.  One was giving me some trouble because the rubber grommet had either shrunk or the sealant had come off and it wasn't staying on, so Justin had an extra laying around I swapped out.

The kick starter lever was probably the easiest part I installed.  It was a one screw tighten job.  I already cleaned it up and what not when I took it off the old bike.

I moved on to the 13-tooth sprocket next.  This was yet another part I took the steel brush to in order to clean up before I put it back on the engine.  I also got two new bolts for the bracket to help bring it back to life even though no one is going to see it once the chain cover is put back on.  Once I get my new platinum chain on there it is going to look slick.

You can't really tell from this picture but I put two new allen head bolts on the points plate.  There were four screws in there, the two outside ones were pretty stripped and I didn't want them on there for future use.  This was a quick change out.  There was also a bolt I needed to put through the frame that helps hold the engine in place near where the center stand used to be.  Since I had those brackets removed due to my decision to go center-stand-less, the bolt was a little too long on both sides, so I slid on a couple spacers on either end so that the hex nuts could be tightened.

There was a stripped bolt in the old front brake hub where the speedometer cable was supposed to connect, so I had to have Justin drill this out prior to being able to install the new one.  I got to see how he does it and while it's not a complete science I found it to be a pretty incredible process.  After two or three failed attempts to remove it using an impact with a phillips end, we resorted to the drill.  After he drilled in a bit in the clockwise direction, he had me use a blow torch to heat up the area around the screw.  I repeat…I used a BLOWTORCH.  Somewhere Tim Allen is grunting AGGGRRR AGGGR AAAAGGGR for me.  Then Justin used another bit to twist the bit inside the screw in the counterclockwise direction and it finally turned and we popped it out.  It was of course replaced with a new un-stripped bolt and the new speedo cable was installed.  Dunzo!

The last things I did was re-install the old exhaust pipes since I did paint them and they look like they are going to fit with my rear sets on.  We will have to install a couple mounting brackets in order to lock them in place, which I'm hoping won't ruin the powder coat job too much.  They will be discrete but necessary to keep the pipes from bouncing around.  I'm not sure how they stayed clamped on before I took the bike apart, but I think they sat right on top of the foot pegs and that was enough to keep them in place.  The tachometer cable was also installed as well before finally parting from it for the day. 

Overall, lot's done.

CAFE RACER PROJECT: WALK-A-ROUND

WALK-A-ROUND

Here are just a few pictures to show you where I am at with the build currently.  I will be posting about each thing I accomplished today later this week, but in the meantime…