[Godfather1138]

My girlfriend really likes Cafes and wanted to build one for herself. I too have always loved them, but unfortunately I am too big for one (6'9"). I started searching the web, and newspapers, and found a 1975 Honda CB550Four about 2 hours from us. We went to look at it Sunday, and ended up bringing it home. She started working on it as soon as we pulled it in the garage (no lie, she jumped right in on it). She removed allot of eyesore add on parts the first night, and started polishing some of the tarnished chrome.

Anyway, here are some of the before pics that were sent to us before the sale:

Here it is after one night of work:

And the transmission case cover before and after polishing to show how easily it is cleaning up. You can see how badly rusted the pipes are here as well, so if anyone has a good set of pipes for it let me know.

BEFORE

AFTER

She is very excited about it, so I will be posting updates here as they happen to document her work...yes, HER work. We plan on her building the bike, and me supervising it. She is already having alot of fun with this bike.

Just wanted to share.



Edited by - Godfather1138 on Nov 14 2006 11:24:24 PM

 

[jaimesix]

Cool bike.

Cant wait to see the clip ons , 4 into one,.........

Keep it up!

Cafe racer DOHC CB750F

http://cardomain.com/id/jaimesix

 

[Geeto67]

quote:
My girlfriend really likes Cafes and wanted to build one for herself. I too have always loved them, but unfortunately I am too big for one (6'9"). I started searching the web, and newspapers, and found a 1975 Honda CB550Four about 2 hours from us. We went to look at it Sunday, and ended up bringing it home. She started working on it as soon as we pulled it in the garage (no lie, she jumped right in on it). She removed allot of eyesore add on parts the first night, and started polishing some of the tarnished chrome.

Anyway, here are some of the before pics that were sent to us before the sale:

Here it is after one night of work:

And the transmission case cover before and after polishing to show how easily it is cleaning up. You can see how badly rusted the pipes are here as well, so if anyone has a good set of pipes for it let me know.

BEFORE

AFTER

She is very excited about it, so I will be posting updates here as they happen to document her work...yes, HER work. We plan on her building the bike, and me supervising it. She is already having alot of fun with this bike.

Just wanted to share.



Edited by - Godfather1138 on Nov 14 2006 11:24:24 PM

nice 550 - love that color.

Don't think that you are too tall to ride a cafe bike. I'm 6'5" and I ride a cb750, a 550, and all sorts of other vintage bikes.

Some bikes that are perfect for tall riders (because they are as big as switch engines) are:

DOHC cb 750/900/1100F from 1979-82. These bikes are physically huge. Before the corbin drop seat they made me feel tiny. My 82 900F is bigger than most modern sport tourers.

GS750/1100 77-80. Early GS bikes are narrow but very long and good for tall riders. Lots of power and fun bikes.

z1/kz900/kz1000 1973-1980. These feel like enlarged SOHC cam hondas. Big shouldered but also long and roomy. Set of clip ons and rearsets and it will still have more room than most sport bike.

I mean, if you can deal with the riding posture of a monkey fucking a football, you can definatly ride some vintage tin, just gotta get the right bike.

just the right side pipes look bad, the left look fine. IF they are all rusted like that just cut the silencers off and run them as drag pipes. Otherwise MAC still makes aftermarket pipes for these bikes (not the best quality but they will work.

 

[chetriply]

Totally agree on the KZ's being big enough. I'm a sawed off bastard but my buddy who's 6'5" rides the thing in stock trim without a problem. So by the time you get rearsets and a different seat it'll fit great.

By the way, what's the shirtless Dude doing behind the bike in the first pick... Or do I not want to know?

 

[Godfather1138]

The shirtless dude is the guy we bought it from. He was in the background of the only other good pic he sent and that's why I didn't post it.

quote: if you can deal with the riding posture of a monkey fucking a football

I've owned 2 Yamaha R1's so I think I can handle that position. I may look further into it once we get hers further set up. Right now my knees sit about 4inches over the tank, but I am loving riding it.

All the pipes are rusted out, the left side is just hidden in that pic by the peg. We had already talked about just cutting them off for now, but she has been searching for a new set that she likes. I think she is wanting a 4-2 to keep it balanced.