[oldhondacafe]

Hi, I haven't posted for quite a while but I've finally retired, last week, so I thought I'd try again. I have cooled off on building crazy, modified, café bikes? and am now more interested in doing something a little more practical? I hope. I've still been buying up old Honda parts and stuff and , now, finally have time to do it. Anyways I surf e-bay a lot for stuff and found this CB450 frame for sale and thought it was close and cheep so I bid and no one else did so I won it. It turns out, it is from the estate of old time Honda racer Bob Hansen. I didn't actually know much about him so I looked him up and he was quite a racer. The e-bay listing also had a photo of one of Bob's replica bikes he'd built and I liked it and it seemed like something I might like to try so I decided to copy that photo and build a replica/ tribute bike from it. I won the frame + swing arm for $50. , no one else bid? I drove down to Fallbrook, CA to pick it up and met Bob's son. He was very helpful and also told me a bit about Bob. Most of the other parts I need, I already have or will get from e-bay. I've stripped the frame and swing arm and de tabbed and painted them and installed new bronze bushings all ready. Now I'm on to the front end. I have a CB450 triple clamp and CB750 forks (disk brake) I'm cleaning up now. then 19" alloy front rim, new spokes and disk hub. I plan to run the stock CB450 disk system but drilled rotor and stainless brake hose. I have a CB750k rear hub and drum brake with 18" alloy rim and new spokes. The rims are the shouldered ones from the guy on e-bay ( I'm lazy and like to shop e-bay and have for years, and like it) I've run them on several bikes now and think even though they are made in China (what isn't, now days?) the are good parts and look nice, plus, I can afford them. Probably Avon tires? The rest of the build will be rebuilding a motor (I have) and making exhaust pipes, rear sets, and alloy parts, brackets etc. I plan to get the CR450 body kit from Airtec and paint it like the photo also. The rest, I'll fill in as I go along. I hope to post photos as I go and since I'm retired now I should have lots of time to do it. Here are a few photos; I guess I need practice working the photos? The 1st is the frame, as I got it. 2nd, is photo from e-bay sale that show a bike Bob built? and 3rd, is painted frame, de tabbed. My hope is to build a bike that looks close to the bike pictured.

 

[oldhondacafe]

Here's another photo of stuff I've done this week. 2.15x19" front wheel, 2.15x18" rear wheel (still need to polish hub and lace up. new bearings for wheels and steering, new chrome clip-ons, nos tach, CB750 fork tubes, 1 resealed and polished & 1 to do, CB450 caliper and new hose, other bits?

 

[TrialsRider]

Congrats on retiring, it's pretty awesome isn't it you finally get to do whatever the @#$% you want to do.

 

[67BGTEV]

This is a very interesting build. Looks really great so far.

 

[upperb]

Very cool.

Enjoy your time building this bike. Be sure to let friends and family know about it and that you are not twiddling your thumbs, now that you are retired (lest they feel compelled to help find things for you to occupy your time--and distract you from your build)!

Looking forward to seeing it come together. Good luck!

 

[oldhondacafe]

Thanks, I slept in past noon the first few days, now I'm hot to do this. It's really nice to go out to the shop and start on something when I know I can, now, work on it all day if I feel like it, and not stop and go to a job. I've done some more today, I tried the cb750 rear wheel hub and I could have made it work but I noticed it was in worse shape than I thought. I used the cb450 hub and it's fine. I drilled it to vent air and will try to make a scoop to force air through it? The front fork dust seals came in the mail today so I threw it all together, like a roller? and took a photo. I will do as much as I can with all the parts I've ratted away for it and when the social security checks and pension checks start coming, Ill order the fiberglass body parts and paint. I still have to weld mounts to the frame for rear sets and the fairing, at least, so when I get the frame finished completely, I'll decide if I paint it black or red? I have a good motor already, it still needs buffing but I'll put it in to see about the exhaust. I've seen them with 2 into 2 and 2 into 1 pipes. I have a decent 2 to 1 pipe and I have some headers I cut out of a CBR1000 hurricane pipe that I might try to fab some megaphones for? I have them on a CB500t and the work good.

 

[TrialsRider]

Things that you want to disappear from view are best painted black, things that you want to draw attention to are best painted in a brighter colour,
no offence intended but that's not really a frame that you want to draw massive attention to, black or even silver-grey will make it blend nicely with the rest of the bike imho.
... only responding to that because you put a ? after the black or red.

 

[oldhondacafe]

I think so too, I'll probably leave it black because the bright stuff shows better that way and I like them shinny. I started on building the rear sets today. I blew up some photos that I downloaded off different sites,( Actually, I'm not that computer literate, I found some photos on line and took pictures of them on my computer screen. kind of reverse engineering?) Anyways, I measured the frame tub that the pegs will be welded to ( 1& 1/8" Dia.) then I measured the picture to guess the other measurements to come up with a paper pattern, then trimmed and fitted it till I liked it. What I decided to do was to make a boxed section, similar to the section that mounts the swingarm pivot bolt. I figure if that supports the swingarm and all the weight and stress that involves then the same type of structure should be able to support the pegs. What I did was to cut a piece of 1/4" steel plate for the outside plate and 1/8" for the inside, then a piece of 1'8" x 1/2" strap that I bent to make the spacer. After I got it shaped and fitted, I tacked it together and tack welded it to the frame, I drilled a 8mm hole in some surplus rectangular tube and used it as a guide to keep the bracket square to the frame while I welded it,(see pics.) I took some playing with it, but I got it on fairly straight, it clears the swingarm, ( through it's full sweep) and I left a large "relief pocket" for the nut that will hold the foot peg, in case I need to change it or tighten it after the bike is assembled,(I tried to leave enough room to use a 19mm open end wrench on it?). I made the aluminum covers out of 1/8" aluminum and tried to make them look as close as possible to the photos. Here's a few more photos of todays work;
the last 2 photos show it mostly done, the long bolt shows where the peg will be. The brake pedal will pivot on that bolt too. The other side will be the same.