[chetriply]

Just saw Carpy's CB550 on evilbay! Someone buy my KZ so I can grab that sucker! Great 550. Might be too rich for this poor boy but it is killer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260196693023&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:MOTORS:1123king 550.

Gas Right, Brake Left

 

[Geeto67]

I thought I would like it but man I really don't. Man knows how to take a picture though.

Chet, your KZ is a much much much better bike.

 

[Bret]

Man!....What is with people and these finned timing/stator covers? This one is not installed wrong, it's just the wrong cover for the bike. That cover is for a CB750 with the cylinders sloped forward.

Cheers, Bret @ Glass from the Past

 

[chetriply]

Your probably right Geeto. I guess I just like the thought of a nice midsize bike. The KZ is a beast but it's a blast to ride!

I just had a 71 CB350 given to me. I should probably tear into it and see if it's worth building or just parting out. I've had at least 5 350's a 750 four and 5 or so KZ's but I've never had a 550 or anything in that size range.

Gas Right, Brake Left

 

[Geeto67]

quote:
Man!....What is with people and these finned timing/stator covers? This one is not installed wrong, it's just the wrong cover for the bike. That cover is for a CB750 with the cylinders sloped forward.

Cheers, Bret @ Glass from the Past

yeah I saw that...but then again finned covers for a 550 are kinda hard to come by.

 

[UngaWunga]

Maybe it's because I don't like old british bikes, but that smaller rear tire, 19" front looks silly. And the number plate over the front fender... bah. And the fake strap up the tank.

Otherwise, its not bad. I'd strip a few things off of it. And put a real pipe on it. That header is going to be LOUD.

 

[sprinter666]

Uhh not to be a dick but what did he really do besides polish some shit and clean up the bike.. its not that "custom" or weird.. the bike is pretty plain.


----------------------------
http://www.driftalliance.com

 

[Fang]

Just another polished turd. Carpy is so full of crappy. Nothing personal, but he has so much crap in his listing that has nothing to do with the bike. He has all these video commercials of his bikes, but none videos have the actual bike he is selling in them!?! What's up with that?

I like a handful of the details, but the over all effect is bla at best. UGLY TANK, the covers are drilled into swiss cheese, the gauges look silly siting up so high, and the seat really does nothing for me. What is up with those stupid gage faces? Pirate? That is about as gay as the Village People. Take a close look at the BS job he did with the oil pressure gauge. It is the farthest and lowest thing hanging off the bike; just waiting to be busted off. In his words, just another snotter.

I can't believe that people flip out over this crap. Sorry, chetriply. I know you like the bike. I don't. Save your money and buy a real bike.

-fang

'70 Suzuki T350
Download The Fang.mp3 HERE

 

[joe c]

hey fang....you said it bitch! the guy is great at polishing shit. otherwise....i could really take or leave his stuff. and ive never met the guy, but i just dont like him. ive seen tons of his stuff, and read an assload about him and i just dont get him. i came across that ad the other day and didnt want to post it here. but youre right, what the fuck is up with that pirate shit. id be afraid to ride that thing cuz id be afraid to get my ass kicked for being such a fag. it sees to me that he culdnt sell that crap back home, so he just does it here. it looks like it wants to be brit stuff. which is kind of offensive in ways. id rather see an hrc kitted 750, or a yosh 500 than some bike with 59 down the side of the tank. whatever 59 means. i actually like the seat. just not on that bike. i hate those headlights. and whats up with putting the brow on the the headlites these days? my 550 is a 77. i like it way more. its way more original. although revit ali said my turn signals were so big they could signal the comming of christ which i thought was hilarious. and my pipe looks, works, and probably sounds 100x better than that. and its a true period piece. and how about this for a change, build one with an actual motor. does all of his stuff have stock motors??? cuz my 77 is a dog. barely can get out of its own way. ive never even been able to get the front wheel in the air. another 15 hp out of em would really be nice. although ive seen about 110 on the speedo on it at redline.

jc

 

[joe c]

and iron cross tail lights are gay.

and that tanks a stock tank, by the way. too bad its painted. the stock colors are way nicer lookin in my opinion. and with the 4-1, and the sidecover type face, it should be an f model. i way more prefer 4-4's on these bikes. god i still kick myself for not getting the ianucci set on ebay afew years ago. beautiful hydroformed 4-4 megs for the 550. man im an idiot. id love to have those.

sorry...when i first saw this bike listed, all of these things came to mind, one reason i never postd it and hoped it wouldnt show up here.

 

[pampadori]

i think you guys have very valid points. i don't like the tail light, i don't like the Kawasaki seat, and i don't care for the gauge decals. but i'm not bidding on the bike either.

Now, what i do like...
the time spent cleaning and polishing. All of his bikes are all very fine detailed. You can tell he pretty much doesn't half-ass his stuff. I feel like if i gave him a very detailed instruction for a bike that i wanted, i'd be very happy with the way it would be in the end. If i could instruct him what parts to use and all that, sorta take all the creativity and design aspects out of it that he would do better then 99% of the people out there. He isn't lazy, and he isn't going to half-ass it.
i like the way he will answer any email he gets, and talk on the phone to a complete stranger about a cb750. He's not a mean dude at all. He is a little wierd (all rockabilly kids are). But he's pleasant and while i've only talked to him a couple times, i've got him figured out well enough to realize he's not completely retarded when it comes to his business. I'm sure he's read this thread, and i'm sure that he probably wanted to defend himself on here. But he isn't, because he knows how that will back fire on him. He's selling stuff and bikes that he likes, and while you and i may think they suck and all look the same (they do all look the same) he still stays true to what he likes. This is being regenerated in his customers. They see his passionate attitude, and they start to want something to be passionate about too and then they drop $5k on a cb550.

So while i don't like all of his bikes, i can't really say anything bad about him. I'll talk shit about his bikes from time to time.

After rereading this, it might come off to you guys that i care if you all talk shit about him. I don't, say what you want as loud as you want to. It doesn't offend me. I just thought i'd put my 2 cents out there.

'72 cb750
'75 cb750
'76 cb750

 

[Geeto67]

I know carpy through the internet because we run in similar circles. I have had many e-mails with him and a few phone conversations. He is really nice when you talk to him....not like my experience meeting the tuttles back before they were on TV. Anyway I feel bad speaking ill of him because he happens to be very nice and there are times when he has helped me out with obscure parts.

However, I think this carpy cafe thing has gotten a little out of hand. I am happy he has brought some limelite to the hobby but really enough is enough.

One thing you have to remember about him is that he is still only a guy working in a garden shed and that the quality of his bikes reflect that. They are as good as one can get working for one guy working in a shed but they will never be as good as some of the shop stuff out there just because he doesn't have the same equipment (the big one I am thinking of is a professional downdraft spray booth). I am not saying he half asses anything, just that he is at the limit of what someone can do without going to the next level.

 

[chetriply]

No need to apologize to me Fang. Thats the beauty of bikes, there's an ass for every seat. I agree with the points made about the headlight and the gauge faces but the overall detail on the bike is what I like.

I'd never spend that kind of money on a 550 anyway. I get most of my fun building the bike, riding it for a few months and then losing tons of money on it when I sell it. I'm sick that way.

P.S. Maltese tail lights show the world how truly bad ass you are! Or is that how you truly like ass...I can't remember.

Gas Right, Brake Left

 

[catboy]

all the clubman bars...no rearsets on any...swiss cheese anything a drill can reach...

he does good work. he's trying to make a living doing it. more power to him. fucktards looking to by a chunk of culture spend green money too. i bet if you could meet the people that buy and commission his bikes, you'd end up talking to a buch of tourists looking for a hot, "rare" fashion accessory. he's a niche provider.

"Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion." -Edward Abbey

 

[joe c]

you all have a very valid points. in general, bad taste sells. i have to make aweful looking things all of the time for clients. i dont disagree at all that the guy can clean and polish stuff, or have it done, as good as the next guy. and if youve ever taken the time to polish something like a rearhub, you know how much of a pain in the ass, and how dirty of a job, it is. i definitely envy the guy for having the pateince to be able to do that. it is not an easy job. im not a big fan of the style of his bikes because to me they want to be british. in style, and flavor. (for good reason i guess, he is british right??). but to me, caferacers were not originally japanese bikes. they were british italian spanish....but not japanese. to me the japanese bikes came along after the movement was in force, and so to me, id prefer to see a true hrc kitted street legal cb750, or cb77/2. that technology is way cooler than anything pulled in form the brits. in my opinion. and im a british guy at heart! and ill never use another set of fixed clubmans like he has on that bike. the adjustable tomasellis like i got from tex will always be the standard for me. for me, they are the kind of thing that once you use them youd never go back to the other style. im also not doubting the bikes run well, and are gone through with a fine toothed comb and are reliable. nor do i disagree that the guy has some talent. obviously he does. ive never met the guy. ive seen him on tv i guess, or maybe on the web, and ive read alot about him. i think the other issue i have is touting how great every little detail you decided to add is. personal touches to me just do not translate. (sorry fang, im not slamming your bike, its definitely one of my favorites, really cool, but reading the japanese flag thing gave me the same feeling as reading how great it was to carve the mountain roads on the 550 or whatever. if i had the cash, and could see the bike in person up close, id definitely be into buying your bike. it rocks. plus i know its been used the way i like a bike to be used.) maybe its just the pitch and that i hate the "slicky boys" in general. maybe its just that i picture him breakdancing in tokyo or something. like geeto said, enough is enough already.

jc

 

[joe c]

now heres a brit who builds some killer stuff. anyone remember seeing this bike at mid o last year?? it was on the greenie between the garages and the pit lane one night for a photo shoot. i went out and talked to the guy for a bit. the bike was perfect. his web page has a brit rig on it too. and he does cars.

ebay 230200666851

 

[Fang]

Pampadori, thanks for helping put it all in perspective. Carpy is a good guy. He builds nice bikes. And he has done probably 100x more for cafe racers as a mainstream genre of cycles than I ever will. I REALLY like some of the bikes he has built. I definitely do not like this one.

I don't know what to say. Joe, no offense taken. I think I would describe my auction's description as a desperate guy's desperate attempt to scrounge up a buck. I am proud of my work, but I really am uncomfortable tooting my own horn. I actually don't feel good about dissing anyone's bikes -- especially Carpy's. I think I am still trying to figure out how to say I don't like something, point out the reasons why I don't like it, and still not be an ass about it. All I know is all I know. In fact all any of us know is all we know. It takes time, money, hard work and a lot of art to build a cool bike. Sometimes a guy can do all the right things and still not push the right buttons. bla bla bla

I do know that I must be feeling pretty full of myself to be able to talk shit about anyone.

Peace and grease
-fang

'70 Suzuki T350
Download The Fang.mp3 HERE

 

[UngaWunga]

On that Kawabusa... very nice. But it's also unfinished, like most of these bikes. One thing that stands out... no air filters.

But I like it better that that 550.

 

[joe c]

filler up!!!


<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

 

[joe c]

the one thing i noticed mostly when i saw the bike in person was the custom intakes. he re-angled the throttle bodies to make them look like carbs. with no airbox. then put velocity stacks on them. so cool. i guess the mapping can probably be adjusted to compensate for things like that. but thats so far out of my realm. the bike was freakin cool looking. the cool thing is its mostly off the shelf stock parts. just pieced together the right way. when i saw it from 200' away my first reaction was to go see what it was cuz it was so cool looking. there was so much cool stuff on that bike. im not a big fan of the streetfighter scene, or the modern stuff so much, but that bike had the look and feel of an old school superbike, with all the right things added. a real modern caferacer in my opinion. and its got to be rediculous to ride. i like that he says hes like 58 and he looked down and was doing 160mph. so it was time to get rid of the bike.

heres a better link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/KAWABUSA-zrx-street-fighter-Hayabusa-bandit-gsxr_W0QQitemZ230200666851QQihZ013QQcategoryZ50030QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem