I'd Give My Left Arm...

...for a fuel tank? No
But as I'm waiting for my 'project' tank to show up from an eBay buy I managed to clumsily do(missed the end of the auction, so had to message the guy, which luckily he was great about, and did the deal with good humor)...I'll post about how I got to this point:

For the last few years I've been wanting to build a "cafe racer" and started looking for a 1970ish BMW which I thought would make my ideal project bike(if it weren't for the $3000+ entry fee) until one day last December someone told me where "an old cafe racer bike that I could have cheap" was sitting, saying "you can't miss it, you can still see the big orange sun painted on the side thru all the dust"....seemed strange enough to be right up my ally
...anyway, I bought that bike, but it wasn't really what I had in mind at all, more beyond what I was after, as it turned out to be a "real racer"(or racer clone for the street) a 1991 GSXR750.. I thought I might still try to 'cafe' it alittle and make it a naked bike, but ended up just doing basic; new tires, chain, sprockets, plugs, oil, etc and putting around 500miles on it each month(almost 4,000miles so far) and loving the paint scheme just how it is
...but it's a real beast to ride, especially slow(it's very fast and loves to run right past the 'ton' in a blink and keep on going) so I kept looking for my cafe project bike:
When I came across a Virago, which I had seen some cool cafes done out of...but this Yamaha VX535 turned out to be such an easy ride I just ended up leaving it alone and using it for a 'town bike'

while still looking for my cafe build, I was taking the GSXR on long rides(300~500mile day trips with a buddy hunting down curvy roads)...and then about 8 weeks ago I was doing an innocent U turn at 2mph and slid right off the road on some sand..."bam" the bike went down on its side so fast I didn't even have time to take a foot of the peg...after standing the bike back up, riding for another 20 min. or so and stopping for lunch to get out of the oncoming rain..yup that pain was getting worse, too bad to even pull the clutch in to be able to ride home, and I had to admit that my arm was broken

seemingly to test my will and passion, suddenly everything started happening...and I had my(this) project bike...as well as a new work bench fell into my lap, spurring me to do a complete garage makeover struggling with the broken arm....

Like Eating Wads of Spaghetti thru a Straw

I was really dreading this procedure
...the hand controls of CB/CL350 bikes run all their wiring inside the handlebar tubes....one of the first things I did was to yank the original bars off and pull the hand controls and all the wiring out of them to use with my other bars...a few days later I got the other bike with the broken bars and needed to reuse the good old bars on that one, and wished that I would have left the wiring in them.... as now I'll have to pull wires right back thru those bars as well

Anyway, I guess it wasn't so bad to do....tho I also had to cut holes in the new bars for the wiring to enter and exit...but now I can look at the bike with brake-n-clutch leavers plus the mirrors mounted

Diligence for Days

I've still been working on the bike alittle almost everyday
One project I had going was to refinish the chain guard and bottom triple clamp

The chain guard needed to be clearanced for the larger rear shock, so I spent a bunch of time working on the dent with a hammer and wooden block... Then sanding and filling any small imperfections
While the cast iron triple clamp I wanted to grind off the steering lock and then smooth
...both took many coats of paint which then the next day was mostly all sanded right back off, this process repeated for days..it was so hot(90-100 degrees every day) that the paint didn't really want to dry, but more like melt and then harden some over the cooler night to sand in the morning....starting with 50 grit and black paint, then 80, then 120 grit sandpaper and silver paint, with light guide coats of black with at least 5 days of that and 200 grit...till I got to wet sanding with 400 grit and hopefully now the first top coat that won't sand down thru to any guide coats or metal with 600 grit next
...so here they are before the 600 grit, more 'metal/chrome' paint and last there will be a clear coat still to come....not so much after a 'chrome' look, but more hoping to come off as finished aluminum

Up or Down?

...ok, so that last post helped me, just seeing those two photos together and I was able to spot very small differences in lines that will end up defining the character of this "Cafe Sport" bike...I think mainly the bike is just entering one of those youthful 'ugly duckling' stages like an early teen kid or a puppy who's back legs unexpectingly suddenly grew longer overnight ... Do notice it's first 'red part' has gone on with the rear shocks/springs, I have a whole tub of new 'red parts' that will soon hopefully give just the right touches

Anyway...which way do the front springs go? Up or Down?
...on one fork I have the tight progressive coils at the top, and the other fork I have them at the bottom
(oh, and I would have taken the black plastic sleeve off the fork tubes, but they hide some rust burns)

Not So Much Feeling It

Time to step back and look/re-group
...yes I see progress, but I want to make sure everything is headed in the right direction...as something is seeming alittle off from an earlier still I captured ...here:

I can't be the first?

...someone had to try this before me

So I got these NOS aftermarket "Red Wing" rear shocks, much larger and stiffer than stock....and I then had to figure out a way to get the front to be less 'mushy' to match
I kept looking at the springs on the old rear shocks wondering if their progressive wound coils might just be the ticket for the front, and give me the step up in spring rate stiffness I was after...they seemed close to the same length and diameter as the others, but alittle thicker gauge of windings...so I gave it a shot, and I'm thinking it's gonna be just hunky-dory

Nit-n-Grit

..it's all in the little tiniest details
Working in 100 degree weather, the smallest movements produce sweat...
I'll do a post at some point about how this project stirred an entire work space makeover and how once the garage was ready for action again the temps climbed up into the triple digits
...but this is about working from front to back(now that it's time for the bike to go back together)...the other day my buddy helped true/mount/balance the front tire on one of the wheels(4) that I had cleaned the week before, so I thought better get the front forks ready
Doing some mods to the shock towers(not going to cover springs with rubber boots) and I have a cool chrome fender from a different gen Honda that has to fit in there too!

Are they Breeding?

A few days later, another tragic lost 1971 CL350 followed the first one into my garage....it had been wrecked, then sat like that for about 7 years without being touched...thought I could use it for parts, but it's looking more like it could benefit greatly from any/all stock parts coming off the Cafe Sport and possibly, with a lot of time and work plus a small chunk of money for a few new cables/odds-n-ends...be back on the road

...tho it would be easier and much better in the long run, to just start with a non-wrecked nicer bike for $200-$600...I feel kinda sorry for it... It needs love and it will make good use of the old parts from my other bike

Few earlier photos

Didn't take too much time sitting and looking at the bike to start to see where I wanted it to go, so I started pulling it apart right away

I had this cool handle bars that came with another bike I ride(the previous owner had swapped for a taller set, and I kept the upgrade) and I always felt they would make a unique cafe racer set mounted up-side-down...tho I am going with a modern look, these seem to throw the whole scheme back into a different direction of some sort of pre-1920s vintage look....so it will be very interesting weaving the two opposing styles together and make it look as if it came from its own time/place where that is how things were done and everything jives as if came from the same era

Bare Bones

Jumping ahead alittle(so you can get some idea of what the lines of the bike will be like)
Here I have stripped down the bike, and just taking a look at the new tires and a cardboard windscreen
...also note that I have the gas tank sitting up about 2" higher than stock mounting, I kinda discovered this once when I didn't put the tank all the way on and thought it actually looked pretty good like that

Daring Spider

The bike I found to try this project on was a pretty derelict 1971 Honda CL350. Collage kids had passed it around for a few years never really doing much to it trying to get it running...looks as if someone put some new brake shoes in the front drum, and someone else at some point tried changing the coils(it only came with one, marked "CB360" from a parts recycler)...not that any of those things would have gotten it into any sort of running/riding shape at all, as the bigger problems like all the control cables being froze up and tires completely shot.. Just the whole thing badly weathered... for $200(tho no title) it came with two keys and a shop manual, so I convinced my buddy to bring his truck and ramps and come get it

should have snapped photos of how I found it, sitting next to a fenced off high power electrical transformer station ... but once I got it home I did meet its primary caretaker, a large 'Daring Spider'( they leap out at pray to catch in mid air, then haul themselves back to their look out perch) I let him say as long as he wanted, now I'm not sure if he is in one of my other bikes, or made it back across town to the transformer station

Starting out

Doing a semi modern version of the simple "cafe racer" CB/CL350...thinking it will be a "cafe sport" bike