2000 CB500 Brat Style Cafe Racer Project

hh_12345 wrote:Juhone, how do you plan to fill the gap between seat and frame?

I will build an electronics box under the seat that will fill most of the space there. The box will contain battery and all the electronics. Between the box and engine, I'll keep the OEM airfilter package. I don't mind any openings on lower part of the bike. There probably will be some empty space just over the swingarm.

Hello! Time for a project update.
Today I got everything ready for paint. I hope I've remembered to cover every vital hole and thread. I'm going with powdercoating because it's cheap and should be quite durable. I'll have the frame, rims, step holders and front fork sliders painted in matt black.

I had huge troubles with disassembling the front forks. Previous owner had the damped rod bolt super tight. Haynes manual's loosening method didn't do jack. So I had to clamp the slider down and hit the bolt open with a hammer. I was terrified that I might break the bolt, but luckily both of them loosened after on . 

I also modified the step holders by cutting the passenger pegs supports. I'm not having any passengers on this ride. Though on the right side I left one beam to hold the exhaust support.

Another update on the build. This week I got the frame, front suspension, rims and foot guards back from the paint shop. Everything is now powder coated to matt black (though I'd say it's more like a satin black). They look pretty sweet IMO for the price (220€ for sand/glassblasting every part + paint). I also got new tires. I went with Pirelli MT60's, to get a bit of scrambler look going on. I hope they're half decent to ride with. Another thing I got done, was painting the brake callipers. I really like how they turned out.

juhone wrote:Another update on the build. This week I got the frame, front suspension, rims and foot guards back from the paint shop. Everything is now powder coated to matt black (though I'd say it's more like a satin black). They look pretty sweet IMO for the price (220€ for sand/glassblasting every part + paint). I also got new tires. I went with Pirelli MT60's, to get a bit of scrambler look going on. I hope they're half decent to ride with. Another thing I got done, was painting the brake callipers. I really like how they turned out.

Wow those calipers look awesome! You have me thinking about getting something similar done for my project now!

I'd also be interested to see how those tyres ride on the road. Presumably you won't be doing a great deal of off-roading!

Time for another update. I got a lot done today and the bike is now a rolling chassis. Woohoo! I assembled the front suspension and banged on the new steering bearings. Wheels are on and the brake calipers are mounted too. Super happy how everything is working out so far. Let me know what do you guys think? I also started working with the tank. I have half of the paint stripped, but more on that later.

Wow! that's looking fantastic Well done so far  

That's a great man cave you have there!

JT

Thanks ratatooie & jonnyteabag. Unfortunately that's not my cave. I'm just renting couple of squares in the hall

New video update on the beginnings of the assembly:

juhone wrote:

hh_12345 wrote:Juhone, how do you plan to fill the gap between seat and frame?

I will build an electronics box under the seat that will fill most of the space there. The box will contain battery and all the electronics. Between the box and engine, I'll keep the OEM airfilter package. I don't mind any openings on lower part of the bike. There probably will be some empty space just over the swingarm.

Great progress so far!

I came across this bmw that seems to have somewhat similar tail/frame area   to the cb -  it could be a good reference  in case you decide to  prepare an additional tail element.

http://www.pipeburn.com/home/2017/03/26/85-bmw-k100-brat-scrambler-motorelic.html

hh_12345 wrote:Great progress so far!

I came across this bmw that seems to have somewhat similar tail/frame area   to the cb -  it could be a good reference  in case you decide to  prepare an additional tail element.

http://www.pipeburn.com/home/2017/03/26/85-bmw-k100-brat-scrambler-motorelic.html

Thanks for the link. That's a sweet looking bike!

Hey guys, it's me again spamming this thread
I finished painting the tank and just had to do a test fitting on the bike. I think it came out great. Well, there's couple of imperfections on the paint, but they're pretty small and I'm ok with them. As you may see, there's a big ol' dent on the side of the tank. The previous owner must've dropped the bike sometime. I didn't see the dent when buying the bike because it was under the side fairing. I tried to straighten it out with couple of different methods, but I managed to straighten it only about half the way. I'm not too bothered about it. It sort of gives the tank a rougher character. I'll have the video about the tank part up in a day or two.







I also repainted the front fender and started test fitting some of the steering instruments.

Here's the video of painting the tank.
 

Good job, the paint design suits the cb tank really well.

Removing good quality factory paint is a real pain

That looks great. Really impressed with this build and your progress!

ratatooie & hh_12345 - Thanks!

Last week I painted the engine and managed to get it back on the frame. It was for some reason really hard and I had to be extra careful not to scratch any paint on the frame or motor. In the end I managed to bolt it in place, but I took something like 45 minutes of trial and error before I found the correct angle.

It's starting to look like a bike again!

Great project, I really like what you did with the tank. Love the bare metal look!

That's coming on really nicely now, definitely much more tasteful than more cafe/brat projects I've seen. Especially the detailing on the engine fins.

For the under seat section to the tank are you going to get some sheet metal and paint it black?

Jameshambleton wrote:That's coming on really nicely now, definitely much more tasteful than more cafe/brat projects I've seen. Especially the detailing on the engine fins.

For the under seat section to the tank are you going to get some sheet metal and paint it black?

Thanks! I'll build a battery and electronics box under the seat. That'll be the last step of the build, because I need to see how much space there is in the end and how big the box need to be. And naturally it'll be black.

Another update. I've been tinkering with the bike quite a bit here and there.

- Almost every part of the engine is in place (there's still couple tubes missing that I'm having hard time remembering where they went ). 
- New head light
- New front and back turn signals
- New licence plate mount
- New brake light
- New exhaust slip on

Not to keen on the end can or the tail to be honest. 
Had you thought about fitting a tail tidy or fitting the end can onto the end of the headers to show off the rear caliper seems like a shame to hide it behind the exhaust.

Jameshambleton wrote:Not to keen on the end can or the tail to be honest. 
Had you thought about fitting a tail tidy or fitting the end can onto the end of the headers to show off the rear caliper seems like a shame to hide it behind the exhaust.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure how much more tidy I can get with the tail. I want this bike street legal, so that puts some constraints to the design. For example the rear/brakelight needs to be seen on certain angles as well as the turn signals. Plus they have to be 18cm apart. The licence plate is a bit problematic as it needs to be at maximum of 30 degree angle with visibility on both sides. As for the exhaust, in perfect world I would've liked to have MotoGP type short steel exhaust, but I couldn't find any that was street legal and reasonably priced.

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Here's the latest video of the build. Check it out.


I also started building the battery/electronics box. It's just sheet metal with hand tools. Water jet and bending press would've been cool to have

Hey guys, 

I finished the battery box and got it on the bike. So far it looks like it's doing it's part. I had to get a new battery for the old one didn't fit from the top because of the gap between the seat frame was too narrow, but with a bit thinner battery it worked out well.

Hello Everybody!

I did a first test ride! Just a couple of kilometers, but still pretty eventful. The engine started coughing after about 1km and I pulled over just in case and it died down. It felt like it was out of fuel so I switched to reserve and I got it started again. I was a bit puzzled because I put close to 10L of fuel to the tank and before the ride I had run the engine on idle for something like 15 minutes (to monitor the temperature and function of the new temp meter). While I was stopped the bike smoked quite a bit and gave me fright before I realised it was the engine paint baking in and the heat wrap around the pipes that was still a bit moist. Also the new speedometer didn't work, so I'll have to figure out what was wrong with that. There was also a leakage of coolant, but I located the spot and I think I got it fixed now.

I've had the biggest troubles of the build with the new meter. It's Koso TNT-02. I wonder if anyone else has used it with their bikes. Couldn't find anything on the search...

But alas, I feel confident that I'll get those last issues sorted out and can do a proper ride to determine if I like the bike. It's hard to say after so short ride and I couldn't focus on the experience because of all the "drama". 

How is the bike now? Having you sorted all the teething problems?

Your fuelling problem could well be that you've put the little plug on the wrong breather pipe (near the swingarm), hence creating a vacuum in the tank as some fuel goes through..happened on a bike I got years ago.

Undo the fuel cap and if theres a hissing of air then thats a clue.

muttley1

Hi

Juhone's bike appears to be for sale https://www.nettimoto.com/en/honda/cb/2199529

BR,
Antti