UPDATES ON THE 1981 HONDA CB650 FOR 6/7

UPDATES ON THE 1981 HONDA CB650 FOR 6/7

Today I had the CB650 in the shop (apartment) for a few bits of work I needed to get done on her.  Actually, for the past two weeks it's been off the road because I discovered that gasoline was leaking through the patch work done on the bottom of the gas tank after it was lined and repaired.  As you can imagine I was not happy about this because I spent about $300 dollars on that beautiful paint job, which is not longer beautiful underneath around the petcock spout.  I'm a strong advocate of doing things right the first time around so that things like this can be avoided but I guess not everyone lives by this policy.  There wasn't much I could do once I realized what had happened but take it back to Dave at La Habra Radiator to fix.  It won't be leaking again but I now have to decide whether to pay to have the bottom re-painted or just leave it as-is.  I'll most likely have it touched up down the line unless I can find another tank in better condition. 

The front left brake caliper was also leaking, which was enough to set me off because these were rebuilt less than a month ago.  Yet somehow, fluid was dribbling out where the brake pads were so I had a new rubber O-Ring installed and it seems to be okay now.  Eventually, I will need to invest in new brake calipers but I'd really like to avoid spending more money on those until I can get some money saved up.  I should've just ran new ones from the get-go rather than salvaging the ones that came on the bike, but they seemed fine back when I first started driving it.

After long consideration, I decided that the front fender was a bit out of place so I had it chopped down and painted black to match the rest of the bike.  I took 4 inches off the back and 3 inches off the front.  I'm really happy with how it turned out and it definitely gives the bike more character.  I've seen several other builders do this and liked how it looked so I gave it a try.  I wasn't 100% happy with my paint choice, so I may pull it off and strip it back down and use a higher gloss paint.  I do like that it kind of matches the front forks though so I may leave it.  That's the beauty of doing this stuff yourself.

The next thing I accomplished today was installing the black 7" rock guard on the headlight.  I did this same thing with my CB360 Cafe Racer and really liked how it turned out so I used it again here.  It's pretty easy to install with a little patience.  You just need some thin metal wire to run through the cracks of the headlight to hold the guard in place.  The brackets that come with the rock guard do not work for this application and aren't made for CB headlights, so you kind of have to jerry rig it.  Below is a picture of the headlight bracket and the front fender with the updates from above.

Here is an overhead view to help give you a better idea.

Overall, I'm happy with the work I accomplished today.  There is still more in store for this build and the work just never seems to end with these Cafe Racers, but that's part of the fun, right?

Thanks for stopping by.