Project Cafe: Part 1

I have wanted to build a Cafe Racer for the longest time. For the uninitiated, a Cafe Racer is a type of 60's British sport bike. Back in these days, guys used to strip their bikes down and race from cafe to a predetermined point and back to the cafe, attempting to make this trip before a single song was over on the jukebox. They were always attempting to 'do the ton' or go 'ton up' which meant go over 100mph, quite a feat in the 60's. Cafe racers were the original badass british bikers.

New cafe-style bikes are meant to look like the old Triumphs, BSAs and Nortons, but with relatively modern, more powerful and much more reliable Japanese underpinnings.

To this end, I am building my own Cafe. The ideal bike to start with is a 70's Honda CB750, but these are commanding a little more money than I am willing to spend right now. I did find an 1985 Honda CB700. It is a little different, but much more modern. 

Here is the bike as it stood when I picked it up. It looked good, ran reasonably well so I loaded it up in the truck.

Then I brought it to the shop.

I have already ordered some clubman bars to bring the riding position back down to something a bit more sporty.

Next on the list is getting rid of that very 80's square headlight, and making a sporty single seat.

There is also now a ninja 600 getting some maintenance in the shop, but more on that later....

W.W. SBSS

7/8/11 Why We Build

I originally wanted to keep this blog entirely about the shop, but I came across something too good not to share recently.

Sometimes people ask me why I like to spend so much of my time in the shop working on cars or motorcycles. I think they see it as pure work, rather than seeing the beauty and having the passion for not only the mechanical prowess of a vehicle, but the character and soul of it as well.

Anyone who has spent a half an hour around me has probably been made to listen to heard recordings of various cars revving or racing or having their power tested on a dynomometer. I love these sounds because they really get at the character of a car. Hearing the difference between similarly sized Ferrari and Ford V8's you can just hear the difference in soul and purpose in them.

I think this video touches on some of what I mean....plus it's got some great old jap tin in it.

HBTV: Depth of Speed - JDM Legends Restored from HBTV on Vimeo.

-W.W. SBSS

7/6/11 Untangling the Mess

After a great weekend, I went to the shop on Tuesday evening to get some serious work done. I haven't finished the gantry yet, so I can't pull the engine out of the car. That left two major items to be removed: the fuel tank and the dreaded dashboard. Pulling a dashboard can be an incredibly tedious affair, as it has the highest concentration of wires, tubes and cables. This, combined with the fact that most of the bolts that hold the somewhat fragile dashboard into the car are hard to access and even harder to see, makes for a great deal of swearing and busted knuckles.

So I started with the fuel tank. Actually, in my car it is a racing fuel cell. It's a strong, aluminum box with a rubber bladder and blocks of foam to keep the fuel from splashing about. It came out pretty easily, mainly because I was the one who installed it originally.

At this point I was going to start pulling the dash down, but then K.Y. came with a van loaded with tools!

After helping him move in permanently, I relented and started dropping the dashboard.

This is why I hate dashes.

But eventually everything came apart and I had the dash out of the car.

Done working on my car for the day, I took a look at the progress K.Y. was making with the Benz. Slowly but surely the Benz is getting ready to run.

-W.W. SBSS