Hi All:

Last winter, I asked this group what the best, old British bike was. I found a couple old bikes in my price range, my favorite was the BSA single. That bike was in upstate NY, and try as might, could not get my father to ride the old girl 1200 miles to Texas.

Anyway, I ended up settling for a 1969 Honda CL350. Over the winter, I built her into a cafe racer. Here are some pics.









Linky to the build diary

I look forward to any feedback.

--Chris

PS This is the first bike I ever rode. Riding bikes is much scarier than driving the BEC Se7en!

Love the style.

Bloody nice job, I like it

Cheers

Alex

Looks great

Thats naughty of you it reminds me of how old i am !!!!

i went to kirby lonsdale about 10 years ago and going past a cottage saw through the front window a triton parked in the front room next to the side board, guess he had no swmbo

what does cafe racer mean?

cracking job though! nice one!

Its a british bike style from the fifties and sixties, before they imported anything bigger than a 250 from japan ,

they used to congregate at the local greasy spoons with the bikes all parked up outside,

I want one - lovely!

quote:

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Originally posted by blakep82


what does cafe racer mean?

cracking job though! nice one!

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Thanks gents. It was fun, cheap project. I aid $500 for the bike, then sold $500 worth of bits off it. My total out of pocket is around $500. Not too bad really.

The café racers were hooligan bikers who raced from one café to the next. The goal was to ‘crack the ton’ or ‘ton up’, which meant to do 100 MPH.

It’s the café racer bike I like, not so much the lifestyle—though it is catching on in the US.

--Chris

I LOVE THE BIKE ITS VERY VERY NICE JUST ONE THING I DIDNT LIKE WAS THE K&N AIRFILTERS.
(COULD YOU MAKE THEM BLACK AS IT WOULD BE MORE IN KEEPING WITH THE STYLE OF THE BIKE)

And you have the roads (if not the speed limit ) to enjoy it too - Superb job...

ok, who (like me) has been looking for such bikes on ebay?

Hi Tim:

It is cheap to make these kinds of bikes youself. There are all sorts of diamond-in-the-roughs out there. Were I in your area, I would look closely at old Ducatis.
This is what my bike started out like (Apologies for the big pic):






--Chris

I got a Yamaha RD400 (the road going version of the 350 GP racer) up to 110 mph once. That was seriously scary. I was basically airborne. The bike weighed next to nothing. Got a warning from the nice policeman who stopped me for - ahem - "speeding". THAT wouldn't happen nowadays!

I really do love it! Perhaps my next project will be a bike!?

On ebay at the moment:

very nice but why wrap the exhausts?!?!"!

Here's a pic of my cafe racer.
Bill.

quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
very nice but why wrap the exhausts?!?!"!

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Hi:

That bike would make a good foundation, but keep looking. The RD400 mentioned about is one of the best beacuse of its lightweight and power. The downside is that the exhaust creativity is limited because its a 2-stroke. That said, my next cafe racer will probably be a Yamaha 2-stroke.

The exhaust wrap is there so I don't burn the leg. It is a real skin saver. The look is not for everyone though...

[EDIT] Bill: I could not see your cafe.

--Chris

[Edited on 11/9/07 by chrisf]

Wow I like it I had no idea that this sort of thing could be done on such a budget. I have been thinking about a custom bike for a while. So as I have no idea what’s involved what have you made your self and what is bought. Do you have any other in progress pictures?

Thanks for the comment. The entire build is documented here.

--Chris