sounds cool man, when can we see some pics?
Hey someone pas me the wrench........ Ahh screw it where is the torch
Hey someone pas me the wrench........ Ahh screw it where is the torch
Introduction - Serious Project Bike Inside..
:long but worth it: 
Hello all, how goes it? Jason Michaels is the name and I'm in the process of building a Cafe Racer. The bike is mostly made up of CB450 and Black Bomber parts. You'll find some custom work, some Royal E and some modern crotch rocketry. First though I must share the story of how I acquired her.
I've lusted after a Cafe bike for over 5 years now. Growing up racing moto-x the dirt was my home. I made the gradual transition to crotch rockets around 18 and saw my life flash before my eyes..twice. After the third human death trap I vowed to never get on one again. So I stepped away from bikes all together until I picked up an XR250 just last year... Within a week I had stripped the entire bike down the bare frame and was rebuilding her from scratch to a Motard tune. What a blast it was! It really made me remember how much I loved turning wrenches on bikes. When she was finished she was a riot to drive around down, everyone turned there head. (not too many Motards here in Tampa) But even with the 50CC bore kit, gearing, exhaust, ETC she was still a tad to slow and I was found wanting. I was going to stay true to my crotch rocket promise so that was out... Well I started perusing the net and I saw my first Black Bomber. Oh god was I in love. Glorious lines, simplicity, power and pinache all rolled up into one sweet little package. So I started looking and wasn't prepared to spend the $$$ on a complete bike. Hell, I was going to rip it to pieces any ways! So I was patient and I started buying pieces...yes pieces before I even had a bike. Gas tank was first, front fender, rear fender, shocks, 500CC head, ETC the list goes one! My friends thought I was daft!
So moving forward, I am a member of the CB450MSN group and I saw a post from a guy who was getting rid a CB450 project for FREE. I called him immediately and snagged it up. A good friend picked it up and was kind enough to store it for me until I could lug my Land Rover up to Nashville to pick it up. Well, two weeks ago I made that trip...with my dog and box of basic tools. I had the bike mostly dissassembled in under 20 mins and put it in the back of the Land Rover One Piece At A Time. We made the trip in mothertruckin fashion non-stop there and back and even made it back to Tampa in time on Sunday to tear her down to nothing!
So now that we're up to current I'd love to share my ideas with all of you. If you care to indulge me great, if not so be it...
What I'm looking for in the end is not only a traffic stopper but an all around amazing performer. I realized I can't have the fastest bike if I have the best looking bike and the best handling, ETC...so I'm willing to compromise. A bit. As of right now the bike is completely torn down and the frame and essential pieces are at the powder coater. I should be picking them all up Friday to start to put her back together. I guess the best way to brake this down is to do it in sections starting at the front..
Front end -
The CB450 forks are small and IMOP simply not enough for what I'm going to put beind this bike. I've looked into swaping a Zuki front end with a single disc over which could be done with minimal effort but even still..it's tiny. Plus the handling could be much better with some modern advances in suspension. My solution? To swap over a complete late model CBR front end. Complete with the clips down to the dual disc brakes. The wider stance and inverted forks will allow for a tad wider tire along with the superior dampening of the inverted forks and dual front discs. Score! Two problems I see I face at this point (I'd love opinions) - the first being the shear fitment. I'm not so worried about this as I can mill down the spike and/or cut and add to get it to fit in the neck. The overall lenght is about right from what I can eye ball (going to measure this weekend) and other than that it will be a basic swap over. I can pin out and use all the existing controls on the bars including the throttle. My issue lies in the wheel...I hate mags! I'm in the process right now of trying to find a company who can build me a spoked wheel with the hub fitment that will match that of a CBR and support the dual discs. Any suggestions out there?
For the gauges I'm going to ditch the classic kit and go with a Vapordash (for tracking and tuning I'll go into this later) and will fit a air/fuel mixture gauge next to it (go into later about tuning) and I plan on going with two smaller sized round lights. A bit of a Tiger look.. I'm not sold on this but in my mind it looks so cool!
Center mass -
The tank is the piece of glory in my mind and I'll sacrafice the weight. A fully restored Black Bomber tank with NOS badges. God I love this! I'm building two seats, one a single for racing/hard riding and second for two people on the weekends. I can fab up some sort of a quick release system pretty easily I think. I'm building a small cross brace in the rear section behind where the air filters would go. Going to mill it up and tap the frame to bolt it in place. Should help with latteral collapse and shear wiggle... Ditching the center kick of course and some other metal... I plan on riding her on the street as well so I need lights. I plan on removing the battery completely and running a small capacitor. I've got this setup on my XR and it works great! It takes one or two more kicks to get the bike started (charges when you kick) but once it's going I have no problems. I'm going to stay classic on the turn signals and brake lamp. The front and rear fenders are original Bomber parts and are being re-chromed as we speak. I'll fit those until I get tired of them and then chop up some stock 450 fenders I'm sure.
Moving towards the ass -
I got a great idea from a guy on CB450MSN about the rear swing arm...and I took it from there. The CB450 is a tad to short IMOP compared to other 100MPH+ bikes you see on the road. 2 maybe three inches at the most could give some major higher speed handling. So then I started to think about the rear swingarm..so simple I'd hate to ditch it! Make it longer? Naw, it's worth more to sell on eBay. Solution? Looking at my XR250 the rear swingarm may fit right in place. I'm going to fiddle with it this weekend. I can tig up shock mounts on the sides and viola! 2.75" longer rear with a tad wider track and the same very simple chain adjustment. Oh yeah, and the main hub bolt is even the same diameter. What about the center shock mount? Gone! If this doesn't fit easily I'm going to mock one up similar and make it out of aluminum myself. Going with a nice aluminum rear wheel with spokes as well and a single disc.
Engine -
This is the grey area for me and I'm looking for suggestions here. I've got a smart-ass kid (he rocks!) building my engine as I feed him info... I've got specs on CAMS, porting, ETC but I'd love to compare them to others and what they have done so please, speak up! One major thing is that I'm hearing I need to go with a 500T head vs the 450 head. Can anyone confirm this? As for exhaust I plan on running something very similar to the guy on this board that posted int he Black Bomber thread. With the K&N filters hanging on to those carbs for dear life! That brings up another question. I've got the stock carbs from this mid seventies CB450. Is there something else I can bolt on here? I really want to get as much performance out of this thing as possible...
My lord, that's enough for now! I plan on keeping this thread updated with all my progress and photos so please stay tuned and give me your thoughts!
- JM
Yes, this is an AK-47..
Hello all, how goes it? Jason Michaels is the name and I'm in the process of building a Cafe Racer. The bike is mostly made up of CB450 and Black Bomber parts. You'll find some custom work, some Royal E and some modern crotch rocketry. First though I must share the story of how I acquired her.
I've lusted after a Cafe bike for over 5 years now. Growing up racing moto-x the dirt was my home. I made the gradual transition to crotch rockets around 18 and saw my life flash before my eyes..twice. After the third human death trap I vowed to never get on one again. So I stepped away from bikes all together until I picked up an XR250 just last year... Within a week I had stripped the entire bike down the bare frame and was rebuilding her from scratch to a Motard tune. What a blast it was! It really made me remember how much I loved turning wrenches on bikes. When she was finished she was a riot to drive around down, everyone turned there head. (not too many Motards here in Tampa) But even with the 50CC bore kit, gearing, exhaust, ETC she was still a tad to slow and I was found wanting. I was going to stay true to my crotch rocket promise so that was out... Well I started perusing the net and I saw my first Black Bomber. Oh god was I in love.
Glorious lines, simplicity, power and pinache all rolled up into one sweet little package. So I started looking and wasn't prepared to spend the $$$ on a complete bike. Hell, I was going to rip it to pieces any ways! So I was patient and I started buying pieces...yes pieces before I even had a bike. Gas tank was first, front fender, rear fender, shocks, 500CC head, ETC the list goes one! My friends thought I was daft!So moving forward, I am a member of the CB450MSN group and I saw a post from a guy who was getting rid a CB450 project for FREE. I called him immediately and snagged it up. A good friend picked it up and was kind enough to store it for me until I could lug my Land Rover up to Nashville to pick it up. Well, two weeks ago I made that trip...with my dog and box of basic tools. I had the bike mostly dissassembled in under 20 mins and put it in the back of the Land Rover One Piece At A Time.
We made the trip in mothertruckin fashion non-stop there and back and even made it back to Tampa in time on Sunday to tear her down to nothing!So now that we're up to current I'd love to share my ideas with all of you. If you care to indulge me great, if not so be it...
What I'm looking for in the end is not only a traffic stopper but an all around amazing performer. I realized I can't have the fastest bike if I have the best looking bike and the best handling, ETC...so I'm willing to compromise. A bit. As of right now the bike is completely torn down and the frame and essential pieces are at the powder coater. I should be picking them all up Friday to start to put her back together. I guess the best way to brake this down is to do it in sections starting at the front..
Front end -
The CB450 forks are small and IMOP simply not enough for what I'm going to put beind this bike. I've looked into swaping a Zuki front end with a single disc over which could be done with minimal effort but even still..it's tiny. Plus the handling could be much better with some modern advances in suspension. My solution? To swap over a complete late model CBR front end. Complete with the clips down to the dual disc brakes. The wider stance and inverted forks will allow for a tad wider tire along with the superior dampening of the inverted forks and dual front discs. Score! Two problems I see I face at this point (I'd love opinions) - the first being the shear fitment. I'm not so worried about this as I can mill down the spike and/or cut and add to get it to fit in the neck. The overall lenght is about right from what I can eye ball (going to measure this weekend) and other than that it will be a basic swap over. I can pin out and use all the existing controls on the bars including the throttle. My issue lies in the wheel...I hate mags! I'm in the process right now of trying to find a company who can build me a spoked wheel with the hub fitment that will match that of a CBR and support the dual discs. Any suggestions out there?
For the gauges I'm going to ditch the classic kit and go with a Vapordash (for tracking and tuning I'll go into this later) and will fit a air/fuel mixture gauge next to it (go into later about tuning) and I plan on going with two smaller sized round lights. A bit of a Tiger look.. I'm not sold on this but in my mind it looks so cool!
Center mass -
The tank is the piece of glory in my mind and I'll sacrafice the weight. A fully restored Black Bomber tank with NOS badges. God I love this! I'm building two seats, one a single for racing/hard riding and second for two people on the weekends. I can fab up some sort of a quick release system pretty easily I think. I'm building a small cross brace in the rear section behind where the air filters would go. Going to mill it up and tap the frame to bolt it in place. Should help with latteral collapse and shear wiggle...
Ditching the center kick of course and some other metal... I plan on riding her on the street as well so I need lights. I plan on removing the battery completely and running a small capacitor. I've got this setup on my XR and it works great! It takes one or two more kicks to get the bike started (charges when you kick) but once it's going I have no problems. I'm going to stay classic on the turn signals and brake lamp. The front and rear fenders are original Bomber parts and are being re-chromed as we speak. I'll fit those until I get tired of them and then chop up some stock 450 fenders I'm sure.Moving towards the ass -
I got a great idea from a guy on CB450MSN about the rear swing arm...and I took it from there. The CB450 is a tad to short IMOP compared to other 100MPH+ bikes you see on the road. 2 maybe three inches at the most could give some major higher speed handling. So then I started to think about the rear swingarm..so simple I'd hate to ditch it! Make it longer? Naw, it's worth more to sell on eBay. Solution? Looking at my XR250 the rear swingarm may fit right in place. I'm going to fiddle with it this weekend. I can tig up shock mounts on the sides and viola! 2.75" longer rear with a tad wider track and the same very simple chain adjustment. Oh yeah, and the main hub bolt is even the same diameter. What about the center shock mount? Gone! If this doesn't fit easily I'm going to mock one up similar and make it out of aluminum myself. Going with a nice aluminum rear wheel with spokes as well and a single disc.
Engine -
This is the grey area for me and I'm looking for suggestions here. I've got a smart-ass kid (he rocks!) building my engine as I feed him info... I've got specs on CAMS, porting, ETC but I'd love to compare them to others and what they have done so please, speak up! One major thing is that I'm hearing I need to go with a 500T head vs the 450 head. Can anyone confirm this? As for exhaust I plan on running something very similar to the guy on this board that posted int he Black Bomber thread. With the K&N filters hanging on to those carbs for dear life!
That brings up another question. I've got the stock carbs from this mid seventies CB450. Is there something else I can bolt on here? I really want to get as much performance out of this thing as possible...My lord, that's enough for now! I plan on keeping this thread updated with all my progress and photos so please stay tuned and give me your thoughts!
- JM
Yes, this is an AK-47..
