[LiLBull]

Saw the cover of american bike it has a red bike with a single side mount front fork a single mounted rear wheel and a side mounted engine.Different yes, cool not really.It just the bikes they build (CUSTOM BIKES that is) has grown to a scope of CNC machining.
I think its great they keep pushing boundries in design and in cnc machine abilities,but cool is not a word Id associate with them art is more like it .
The bike looks great all by itself, looking at it on a poster on the wall or as a feature in an artical.But soon as you stick a rider on it the bike almost always looks to small, to big, to stretch to low, to tall ...They look wrong with a driver on them...kind of kills the cool factor to me.
I went to a custom bike show and alot of the TV guys bikes were there and out of the hundreds of bikes I liked not on was one of theirs .A few friends and i walked around i found 15 bikes that stood out as cool just undeniable COOL they all had a handcrafted feel to there look ...and looked like they didnt cost a Gazillion dollars (for a machine with TWO wheels)
At least a Vintage Cafe Racer looks mechanical,is machanical,a cool bike even if you stick a rider on it it looks COOL.
May be its just me but I enjoy looking at these custom bikes but I real dont want one sitting in my garage waiting for me to take it out ,they dont call to be driven just looked at.
I HAVE NEVER seen a vintage racer that didnt make be want to jump on and blast down the road NEVER!Or collect them and smuggly covet them in my garage.I just cant say that about the current style of custom bikes .

Im so far behind ,that I think Im in first.

Edited by - LiLBull on Mar 24 2007 09:00:06 AM

Edited by - LiLBull on Mar 24 2007 09:02:35 AM

 

[rat]

I agree...

my CB750 build is purely practical (for me)...

I've swapped out the front end to a GL1000 for the dual discs, wider trees and larger fork legs. I'm going to keep the mid-controls, swap out the swingarm for a DOHC to add some length, I've downsized the brake master from an 11/16 to a 5/8 to improve feel... it's not a performance machine, it's gonna be a highway hauler. I am going to drill the front rotors, and add some cartridge emulators eventually.

There are concessions to "cool" on it. I've added apes, because I find them comfortable, swapped the front rim to take a 16 X 5" tire... and most of the parts I'm using are old, vintage crap that I can find for cheap (pre-war gas taps, a 30 year old Triumph tank, a 60 year old Tractor headlight, 40 year old Triumph risers etc).

I'm not a fan of the over-engineered "look what i can do" bikes... no soul.


Right now, it's a stock frame on 16X3" rims, with a tank precariously perched atop the uncut frame, and it looks like a crackheads monkey bike. I'm hoping to have it on the road by mid summer.


One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[rdrce698]

"Right now, it's a stock frame on 16X3" rims, with a tank precariously perched atop the uncut frame, and it looks like a crackheads monkey bike. I'm hoping to have it on the road by mid summer."


how do you post that and not provide a picture!

Pete

 

[rat]

heh!

here it is.

Threw it together to see if it sat level. It does. Once the DOHC swingarm is on, I'll add a spacer to the dampening rod to compensate.

Horizontal frame rails will be coming out (the tank is about 4 inches higher than it will be in the pic because of them) with all the necessary gussetting and reinforcing of course.

That's my 350 in the background, should be on the road in a couple of weeks.

The tire to the left is my buddy's ground up rigid SOHC build... it's pretty sweet.

ugly isn't it?




One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[n/a]

I like all the BEER!!

Champ

 

[LiLBull]

ehhh what is that behind the tool box a 350 or 450???? see how whats in the back ground matters its an old ebay trick have absolutely nothing in the back ground or us idiots come out of the wood work asking about beer and handle barless bikes and everything else off topic....looks good so far ...really man what is that behind the tool box...really..?

Im so far behind ,that I think Im in first.

 

[rat]

It's my '72 CB350.

It's getting a CB750 front end, Thomaselli clubmans and a 1/4 fairing this week (hopefully... depending on whether or not I get off my ass).

Then I'll ride the snot out of it all summer, and as time permits, it's getting some wrapped CL350 pipes, with a megaphone collector, some rearsets and a leather cafe seat made by yours truly. The plan is to tear it all down next winter and paint it... "cast iron" sliders, frame and niggly bits, with flat black tins and fairing.





One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[68grandprix]

That thing looks retarded.

 

[Bret]

Less beer during the build might be helpful. Although, maybe there's something to be said for not needing a kickstand. Very inovative.

Cheers, Bret @ Glass from the Past

 

[rat]

Retarded? That's a little harsh... I think you just lack imagination. It'll end up exactly how I want it to.

As for the beer... I don't drink. That's my buddy's garage.

Here's my initial idea... original drawing stolen from Armuss at homemadehonda.com, and altered to fit my ideas.

One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[Geeto67]

I'm not really a big fan of stock framed honda chops either, however can I make a few suggestions:

1) ditch the bars and risers. It looks like you are going for that low (don't say bobber) shorty chop look. That GW front end is already hella long, why not slide it up through the forks. Since that will look kinda funky why not use clip on bars to hide the fact that you slid the forks up through the trees. A while ago I made a pair of ape clipons by cutting a set of 7/8ths ape hanger bars and pressing them into a sportbike clipon brackets I found int he salvage yard. for safety we added a set screw. They looked awsome but it didn't fit my project and I gave them to a friend. Hide the original bar clamp by removing the caps and making a tach mount.

2) I am assuming that you are going to run strut bars and not shorty shocks, right? personally I would go with the shorty shocks, otherwise, why not just hardtail it the traditional way. Go with the shorty shocks, much better ride. With that DOHC rear swinger your shocks are going to be at pretty radical an angle so get heavy springs

3) get tires for those rims soon. I hate mockups where the nice chroms rims get sucffed on the floor. Plus you are going to need them to get your frame height setup.

4) calculate your rake and trail. Nobody wants a dangerous bike but nobody ever seems to do this, they think they can just lower and chop and then scratch their heads and wonder why when the thing gets a death wobble at 50mph.

+1 on currently looking retarded. Maybe, eventually it will look cool but right now...ummmm...well...and I am not even going to get into the problems you are going to have based on that drawing.

As my friend chris is fond of saying: "don't confuse hairy and sweatty with warm and fuzzy", you don't want harsh I'm sure the guys at hondachopper.com will happily suck it for you all day long by telling you your doing a great job.

 

[rat]

Alright.

NO. I have no f*&king interest in hardtailing bikes. No struts, no hardtails, no rigids. I have two blown discs in my back already, and there's no way in hell I'm suffering through another crushed sciatic nerve. The 12 1/4" shocks are staying.

Scuffed chrome wheels? They're getting painted.

Rake and trail? Rake is going to be stock, and since the 16' tires I'm using are almost the same diameter as the stockers... I'm not too worried. It'll be right when I'm done.

No I'm not shoving forks up through the trees. If it comes down to it, and I need to shorten the forks more than a spacer can handle, I'll buy new legs.

Thanks for the input... but I thought it was fairly abvious from the pic that the only thing done to the damn bike was lacing and truing the wheels and adding a GL front end so far.

The risers were thrown on to see if I liked them. I don't. They make it look like a praying mantis with a broken back.

As for the drawing... yeah, I can see the f&^ked up trail in that... it's a pic made with PAINT for f*&ks sake. And as you can see from it, I enlarged the front wheel to see what 21" would look like, I'm going with a 16"... you guys have never "photochopped" a bike for shits and giggles before? So any "problems" you see with that pic can be attributed to my artwork.

Damn... have some foresight.

At the end of the day, I'm building it for me. It'll be safe, it'll be comfortable, it'll be rideable, and it'll be dependable. If it looks retarded to you.. so be it, I'm not building it for you.

I'm not looking for anyone to "suck it"... but I'll keep your suggestion in mind for those cold lonely nights.







One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[rat]

but I will admit to liking your clip-on idea.

One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[Geeto67]

it isn't just the rake and trial that bothered me about that - I figured it wasn't to scale or anything - what bothered me about it was that a lot of guys will try to get that low down look and not realize that when their suspension is compressed the rim will hit the pipes or the frame. Also in in relation to the engine, it looks like the down tubes and backbone have been lowered (and the tank will smack the carbs) which when you go to build yours won't look like the drawing at all when done.

as you have probably noticed the GL1000 front end is way taller than the cb750 stocker and sliding it up through the trees and attaching clipons aabove the top clamp is a good way to get you back to stock height and hide the fact that the gl1000 forks are longer.

and the clipons with funky bars coming out are a neat idea, I have started to see guys doing it with springer front ends now which really looks cool.

 

[rat]

The backbone and downtubes are remaining uncut... All I'm gonna do is lower the seat rails so they're in line with the backbone, and put a 11" X 5" oiltank in there.

One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[68grandprix]

I don't think I lack imagination...I built this out of an old XS650 that was cut in half.

Jimmy



Edited by - 68grandprix on Mar 26 2007 1:42:56 PM

Edited by - 68grandprix on Mar 26 2007 1:45:24 PM

 

[rat]

got any pics of it when you stripped it down, slapped your sporty tank and on it and sat on it envisioning it done?

One man's story
is another man's shame,
Ain't bound for glory
I'm bound for flames

 

[68grandprix]

I've got some pics of when I was building it, and a few more of when it was done. I'll scan them to my computer right now and post them (I didn't have a digital camera back when I was 19 in 2004, when I built it). It'll be a few minutes. Jimmy



Edited by - 68grandprix on Mar 26 2007 2:35:11 PM

 

[68grandprix]

I took an auto collision repair course at the local community college and fro my end of year project I decided to build this chopper. I already had an 82 XS (Heritage Special) that was my first bike, so I knew a little about them. This one was a 79. I was into chops because of all the biker build offs and monster garage, etc that were on TV then. The hardtail came with the bike, I just modified the frame to make it fit(I don't know what bike the hardtail was for, but it wasn't an exact fit at first).

The tank I got for free from my friend's dad. He had gotten mad and punched a big dent in the top of it. I pulled it out with a stud gun and painted it. I made the bars from the stock buckhorn bars. It's kinda funny, I realized they looked exactly like clubmans upside-down when I got into cafe bikes.

More to come in a bit. Jimmy

 

[68grandprix]

I used slugs in the top tubes, bent the rear downtubes in and fishmouthed them, and used batwing gussets on the bottom.

Here's the rolling chassis mocked-up

I used the stock rear fender. I just welded the license mount holes shut and painted it.

Then it got mounted low to the tire with custom struts.