Hey guys, new to the site and new to the Cafe sceen as I'm only 23 but I'm in love with it anyways. I'll give you a quick rundown of the bike history and the build plan and throw some pics up later next week when I get a chance.
Bike:</u>
1972 Yamaha DS7 250 2-stroke. I picked her up when I was 17 for $250. She had been sitting for 7 years with no fuel stabalizer in a garage. Condition isn't too bad for such an old girl who hadn't been taken care of at all. Plugs were fouled and carbs were dirty, 2 broken spokes on the rear wheel, small dent in the gas tank from where she had been laid down a long time ago and mismatched blinker covers cause apparently one had been shattered. Cleaned the carbs, replaced the points and changed the plugs. Got her running for awhile but with no fuel stabalizer the gas tank had rusted out so the rust in the gas lines quickly fouled out everything again and she quit. I left for the military before getting a chance to do anything else with her.
Thought Process</u>
I want to build it up from the mind of someone in the late 70's who got the '72 for cheap, maybe a pass down from their dad or a barnyard find kind of deal, and decided they wanted to upgrade it to a cafe racer with more modern parts. So they took parts off of a mid-70's junkyard bike to help create their racer, along with doing their own custom body/fab work. Essentially, keeping it relatively period correct and all in the 70's.
Build</u>
Only in the tear down stages right now. In the process of removing everything to clean her up and start to get the pieces to re-assmble it all. But here come the ideas.
Body
1: Trim front fender for streamlined look
2: Lower the OE headlight mount and attatch blinkers to OE headlight supports for more streamilined blinkers
3: Black clubman handlebars
4: Lower/recess tach and speedo into the gas tank for streamlined look
5: Fab OE gas tank for gauge recesses and knee grip indents
6: Rebuild OE seat pan with low profile seat and OE passenger seat
7: Custom fabed passenger seat cover cowl with tail light notch
8: Trim rear fender to flush mount with seat
9: Custom fab OE rear brake light to flush mount at seat end with intigrated/attatched rear blinkers
Performance
1: 73-75 RD350 front wheel w/single disk brake assembly
2: Custom 2-1 exhaust, underframe, termination at back tire
3: Relocate pegs to the rear and rebuild linkages for more aggresive riding position
Preposed Paint
1: OE paint scheme, repainted for matte black with OE shimmer yellow/gold on tank, oil tank, side cover, headlight and custom cowl
2: Matte black frame, bars and chainguard
3: Flat black powdercoated OE wheel rims, flat white pinstriped with polished chrome spokes
That's the plan so far. I'll post up bike pics and concept art pics when I get the chance so you can all see my vision and plan. I'm stuck on an island 9000mi from the states with nothing to do in my free time but work on my bike, so I'm hoping to have it done before I leave here in a year and a half.
Feel free to let me know if you have comments or suggestions, I'm always open to new ideas and new perspectives, especially since you guys I'm sure have been doing this a lot longer than me.
Thanks!
Bike:</u>
1972 Yamaha DS7 250 2-stroke. I picked her up when I was 17 for $250. She had been sitting for 7 years with no fuel stabalizer in a garage. Condition isn't too bad for such an old girl who hadn't been taken care of at all. Plugs were fouled and carbs were dirty, 2 broken spokes on the rear wheel, small dent in the gas tank from where she had been laid down a long time ago and mismatched blinker covers cause apparently one had been shattered. Cleaned the carbs, replaced the points and changed the plugs. Got her running for awhile but with no fuel stabalizer the gas tank had rusted out so the rust in the gas lines quickly fouled out everything again and she quit. I left for the military before getting a chance to do anything else with her.
Thought Process</u>
I want to build it up from the mind of someone in the late 70's who got the '72 for cheap, maybe a pass down from their dad or a barnyard find kind of deal, and decided they wanted to upgrade it to a cafe racer with more modern parts. So they took parts off of a mid-70's junkyard bike to help create their racer, along with doing their own custom body/fab work. Essentially, keeping it relatively period correct and all in the 70's.
Build</u>
Only in the tear down stages right now. In the process of removing everything to clean her up and start to get the pieces to re-assmble it all. But here come the ideas.
Body
1: Trim front fender for streamlined look
2: Lower the OE headlight mount and attatch blinkers to OE headlight supports for more streamilined blinkers
3: Black clubman handlebars
4: Lower/recess tach and speedo into the gas tank for streamlined look
5: Fab OE gas tank for gauge recesses and knee grip indents
6: Rebuild OE seat pan with low profile seat and OE passenger seat
7: Custom fabed passenger seat cover cowl with tail light notch
8: Trim rear fender to flush mount with seat
9: Custom fab OE rear brake light to flush mount at seat end with intigrated/attatched rear blinkers
Performance
1: 73-75 RD350 front wheel w/single disk brake assembly
2: Custom 2-1 exhaust, underframe, termination at back tire
3: Relocate pegs to the rear and rebuild linkages for more aggresive riding position
Preposed Paint
1: OE paint scheme, repainted for matte black with OE shimmer yellow/gold on tank, oil tank, side cover, headlight and custom cowl
2: Matte black frame, bars and chainguard
3: Flat black powdercoated OE wheel rims, flat white pinstriped with polished chrome spokes
That's the plan so far. I'll post up bike pics and concept art pics when I get the chance so you can all see my vision and plan. I'm stuck on an island 9000mi from the states with nothing to do in my free time but work on my bike, so I'm hoping to have it done before I leave here in a year and a half.
Feel free to let me know if you have comments or suggestions, I'm always open to new ideas and new perspectives, especially since you guys I'm sure have been doing this a lot longer than me.
Thanks!