Advice please

Ethan

Active Member
I have parts of a CL450 that my father gave to me. I was thinking of doing a cafe racer out of it, but after getting flayed on another forum I'm starting to rethink. Any thoughts or recommendations from folks with more experience would be greatly welcomed!

My original vision was something sleek, fun, and fast to cruise around town and over some of the curvy mountain passes here. I want it to be safe, mechanically sound, and to ride more like a modern bike.
 
Welcome aboard bud. Don't worry too much about what others say, at the end of the day it is your bike and you can do whatever you want.

Does it have a motor, and more importantly the high pipes? The CL's are cool bikes even in stock trim and they are a factory built scrambler. If it were mine, I'd be going that route and making it into a scrambler style cruiser rather than a street oriented 'cafe racer.' Plus being in Colorado you could throw some knubby tires on there and hit some dirt as well.

At the end of the day, its a 40 year old bike and it will likely never ride like a modern bike no matter what you put on it for modern suspension components. Personally I dislike the look of USD forks, etc, but some upgraded springs and rear shocks can go a long way for improving ride quality.
 
I agree with advCo mate - make this little beast your own. Not to say that taking advice is a bad idea of course but when it comes to the style, man it's all about doing your own thing. I'm really new to this custom world too and have made plenty of foul ups, but learnt as much from them as I did by the things I did right. Take any negativity with a pinch of salt - here on the DTT however you'll get lots of positivity and constructive help which should help steer you through your decisions.

Welcome aboard mate, ask tons of questions and enjoy the ride =)
 
Let me guess... You got the "but they're rare, you can't cut it up, it's worth X" speech?

Eff 'em. As it sits in that pic, it would cost you double the final value to restore it properly.

And as ADV stated, it's yours. Do whatever you want to it.

To add on to some of the things he also said, yeah it'll never handle like a modern bike but you can make it handle better. Better shocks. A more modern or better sorted front end (think 90s, non USD CBR600 forks or the like). That stuff goes a long way when sorting out the handling on an old bike like this.
 
Thanks advCo. It does have a motor, though its missing some significant parts (clutch, stator, carbs, covers, etc.) and the high pipes are in great shape. Definitely keeping the high pipes as that what is unique and cool about this bike. I'm a mountain biker, but not much of a dirt bike rider. I know too many guys that have been busted up on dirt bikes. ;)


 
Ethan said:
Thanks advCo. It does have a motor, though its missing some significant parts (clutch, stator, carbs, covers, etc.) and the high pipes are in great shape. Definitely keeping the high pipes as that what is unique and cool about this bike. I'm a mountain biker, but not much of a dirt bike rider. I know too many guys that have been busted up on dirt bikes. ;)

Nice. The high pipes are awesome. Not saying necessarily a dirt bike as this thing is too heavy for hardcore dirt riding. But some knobbies and decent suspension and you'll at least be able to cross a dirt road when you come to one. The best part about a "scrambler" in my opinion.
 
Engine looks like it’ll clean up nicely, dont see any broken fins etc, do you have the missing parts?

I see you have a box of nitrile gloves, this may be a two box job :)

Steve
 
Sderbyshire said:
Engine looks like it’ll clean up nicely, dont see any broken fins etc, do you have the missing parts?

I see you have a box of nitrile gloves, this may be a two box job :)

Steve

Working on finding all the missing parts. Did a complete tear down just to see what I was missing. Internals look good.

Definitely gonna need lots of gloves for this one! Got a box for me and a box for my son. He turned 10 today and is a major gear head.
 
It's your bike - build what appeals to you.
Take a good look at what other people have done with the CB/CL450 and progress from there.
best advice I can give is to start on the motor first - there's no point in spending money on seat hoops and clubman bars if the motor isn't gonna chooch.
Good luck - and post progress so we can follow along.
 
Ethan said:
My original vision was something sleek, fun, and fast to cruise around town and over some of the curvy mountain passes here. I want it to be safe, mechanically sound, and to ride more like a modern bike.

Then thats what you should build. What others think you shuld build is of no interest. It's your time and money :) So build your sleek and fun bike ;)
 
I appreciate all the advice and encouragement! I'll start a proper build log soon.

Thanks!
 
like others have said - it's your bike. Be sure to have a plan in place and while it's important to listen to experience - opinion is an entirely different thing - everyone will have a different one.

450s are such a cool looking engine and they have a lot of potential, when you're doing "cafe racer stuff" to it, just make sure the changes you make improve performance, not retract from it. thins like open headers/short exhaust, lowered to reduce trail, chopping the rear without adding support, putting pods on without correct carb changes, ect - they are going to hurt your bike and you won't have as much fun (but it sure would look cool!)
 
MiniatureNinja said:
like others have said - it's your bike. Be sure to have a plan in place and while it's important to listen to experience - opinion is an entirely different thing - everyone will have a different one.

450s are such a cool looking engine and they have a lot of potential, when you're doing "cafe racer stuff" to it, just make sure the changes you make improve performance, not retract from it. thins like open headers/short exhaust, lowered to reduce trail, chopping the rear without adding support, putting pods on without correct carb changes, ect - they are going to hurt your bike and you won't have as much fun (but it sure would look cool!)

Absolutely right MiniatureNinja! If there is anything I have learned in the last week of digging into these forums it's how many of the "standard" cafe racer mods hurt the performance of your bike if not done properly. Thanks for the reminder. I have a hell of a lot to learn. Gonna take it in small pieces and not get distracted with the look before the performance.
 
Another big thing to keep in mind is that it's easy to get distracted or feel like no progress is being made on a project like this. It's easy to get frustrated as well.

That's all natural. Just roll with it. If it stops being fun for a minute, no biggie. Step away and come back when you're ready. So many projects get abandoned out of frustration or not meeting some mental "finish date".

Like everyone else said, build your bike. In your time. The way you want. Keep it performing as well as original or better, keep it safe, and again... HAVE FUN.
 
Welcome to DTT man!

I have a mostly compete cb500t bottom end sitting under the work bench in my garage that I believe still has the case covers. I THINK it shares the cases with the cb/cl 450. If they would work for you and you wanted to cover shipping on them, they are yours.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Hurco550 said:
Welcome to DTT man!

I have a mostly compete cb500t bottom end sitting under the work bench in my garage that I believe still has the case covers. I THINK it shares the cases with the cb/cl 450. If they would work for you and you wanted to cover shipping on them, they are yours.



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
Wow! Thanks Hurco! I’ll do some research and see if they will work. I’f they will I’ll shoot you a PM.
 
Ethan said:
Wow! Thanks Hurco! I’ll do some research and see if they will work. I’f they will I’ll shoot you a PM.
Sounds good man, I'd be glad to see this stuff out of my shop and helping get someone else's project going. I'll double check that I still have the case covers as well. I have a few other 500t parts, maybe even a clutch. Find out what's compatable, make a list and if I have it, it's yours for the cost of shipping.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Hurco550 said:
Sounds good man, I'd be glad to see this stuff out of my shop and helping get someone else's project going. I'll double check that I still have the case covers as well. I have a few other 500t parts, maybe even a clutch. Find out what's compatable, make a list and if I have it, it's yours for the cost of shipping.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

From what I can see the parts for the CB500 and CB450 are different enough that I'm not sure it's worth either of our time to see if I can make them work. The engine covers are definitely different. Thanks though!
 
Ethan said:
From what I can see the parts for the CB500 and CB450 are different enough that I'm not sure it's worth either of our time to see if I can make them work. The engine covers are definitely different. Thanks though!

Gotcha, sorry for sending on unreliable info lol

I was under the impression that the bottom ends were the same less the crank. My bad. Honda twins are not in my typical wheel-house, I just ended up with a 500t years ago that I ended up parting out.

good luck, looking forward to following your build
 
I did some more research and it looks like you can put together the top end of the CB450 with the bottom of a CB500t. This would be an interesting build. Any idea how complete your 500 is and what shipping would be?
 
Back
Top Bottom