79' CB900 Bob/Chop/Brat/tracker??.... Build w Pics

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kilometric

Young, dumb and havin fun.
Finally decided that I should stop asking a heap of questions on here and put up a build thread of my project.

First time for me doing ANYTHING like this, never really worked on a project but after rupturing a ligament in my ankle practicing for Hattah desert race a few months back I decided to sell my MX bike and get a project before my new bike for next season arrives and before i get kicked out of my home for being a grumpy turd and sitting around the house whilst in between surgery etc...

So long story short, I swapped from this...
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to this....


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It is a 1979 CB900, got it off a bloke on eBay, I wasn't really after something so big but this is what i found and i thought it was relatively neat for the price $1200 with a box of spares and 3 months rego...

So that was the base... looking to turn it into a wrenchmonkee/tracker sort of thing... i realise there will be people on here that wont agree and thats why it took me so long to decide wether or not to post a build thread but on looking everyone here seems pretty open to other projects so this is my bike that i am building for myself and having a heap of fun doing it!!
 
SO first things first, I pulled it all apart in a particular way that i made the most amount of debris in my dads shed... Its a skill that i was born with, not everyone has it but I can teach you.



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Wrapped the headers...


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buffed up the flanges...


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After cleaning up the frame and what not, decided to get stuck into the tank


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I found it had a pretty nice looking colour scheme at one stage, really nice blue under the colour of the tank...




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Also started making up this seat pan, the aluminium i used was a really heavy gauge but it was something that i had lying around so $$$$ wins!


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Fiddling around with the rear guard, I think i have decided to not put a hoop around the back so i can get the guard up and make the rear as low as possible..
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Trying to use the original guard if possible, itd be nicer if it was 1/2" wider on either side but i will fiddle with it and make it work...
 
Also got some rearsets the other week, they are "Gimbel" found them on ebay, They were brand new and the bloke had no photos of it on a bike, so i took the gamble and it didnt really turn out well haha, I didnt realise how much they would make my foot go back and up... apart from that though they are a seriously nice looking set, really well finished but i think ill just go back to the original idea of modifying the stock pegs/brackets... when in doubt black it out!!


Also got my tracker bars in from DCC and some little switches, grips and some fork gaitors... ill put some photos up tonight of where I am currently at with my new speedo and tailight setups... ;D




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Been pretty busy with bits and pieces over the weekend, didnt get to do much on the bike, I did however finally find enough sunlight and heat (Melbourne, Australia can be a bit temperamental when it comes to weather patterns) to spray the frame and some other odds and ends. I had started painting the frame a few different times with Satin black then gloss black and then i finally decided i liked the look/durability of the wrinkle finish paint and I am pretty happy with how the job turned out!!


So I welded up the back of the frame that I had shortened up, cleaned up some bits and got to spraying with as many oil filled radiator heaters around me as possible (very proffesional!)


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The finish turned out looking almost like skateboard grip tape, and has a really cool texture to it.






Welded some bits on the ends here to make it look a bit neater.
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I got up to a mate of mine's auto elec garage and hijacked his sandblaster, cleaned up the forks clamps and some other bits, including the footpegs brackets that i have now decided i will use and modify myself after the rear set debacle... (For sale if anyone is interested in them)


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Quickly just jammed the rear wheel back on to have a look at how it is looking with the new tyres i bought the other week, and i think I am pretty happy with it, the tyres arent as chunky as I wanted (think copper bavarian Pirelli Trials tyres etc...), the guru of tyres here in melbourne (Scotty from Pablo's Tyres) convinced me that having a bike that could possibly be doing speeds in excess of 200ks on trials tyres was a bad idea, even after i assured him this is simply something for me to cruise around on... i think he factored in some testosterone increases when i told him some other mates are building bikes as well... ::)


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I am not sure at the moment what to do with the seat, dont really know how I am going to fasten or how I will be fastening the rear guard on, also beginning to think that the standard rear guard may not quite be wide enough so might have to have a fart around at some wreckers this weekend and find an alternative. Lucky I am working through these problems now AFTER i have painted the frame i know... haha but I have paint left over, if i need to touch it up it shouldnt be a drama, i just want to get the front end back in and looking like a bike again!




P.S Any thoughts on the tyres....? I am not sure if i should maybe get the grinder out and put some more grooves across (left to right) just to give it a bit more of an offroad look...
 
Also, this is sort of the direction I am going in with this, trying to get the seat and rear end to look like this... I havent made a hoop however and i hope this will mean i can drop the back end down a touch




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AND this seat is what i would like... i think a few red touches could look good.


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personally i would not run knobby tires if you are not going to use it off road, i would run the best performance tire you can get to grip in the weather conditions you run in. if you are going to be riding gravel and dirt every now and then get a tire that will work, if not, do not sacrifise handling for a look on the tires.

love the wrinkle frame bud!
 
JRK5892 said:
personally i would not run knobby tires if you are not going to use it off road, i would run the best performance tire you can get to grip in the weather conditions you run in. if you are going to be riding gravel and dirt every now and then get a tire that will work, if not, do not sacrifise handling for a look on the tires.

love the wrinkle frame bud!




Yeah thats basically what the tyre guy was saying, and so we sort of came to the agreement that the best looking thing that would be safe were these Dunlop K70's and now that they are on the bike i think they look a lot better than i thought so I am happy with them!




scrambled home last night after trade school and got the forks in and cleaned up some overspray on the clamps and got it sort of mocked up to check out the look...








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Love the frame!
Now get some rear shocks on her and get her on the ground, and roll those handle bars back.... you got her lookin like your dirt bike roots!!! :)

Seriously, you are doin good work, keep it up.
 
Going to look killer when you get those wrapped pipes back on and it's sitting at true ride height. Good work man.
 
I really like where this is going. Also, I'd offer to buy those rearsets, but I just realized you're not in the states. What's the weight on them? I bet shipping is expensive.
 
flatcurve said:
I really like where this is going. Also, I'd offer to buy those rearsets, but I just realized you're not in the states. What's the weight on them? I bet shipping is expensive.

Yeah I just had them shipped from the states and it was about $65 or something, such a shame that they just dont suit, they are a seriously good looking set and cost me a fortune! haha always the way on ePay!










mitchellsk said:
Going to look killer when you get those wrapped pipes back on and it's sitting at true ride height. Good work man.


Yeah I just sprayed the inners on the discs because I somehow forgot about them when i was spraying the wheels, once they are done I can put it all back together and sit it back down and check out the ride height, I am probably going to put some shorter shock in the rear. The ones that came on the bike are Marzocchi ones and have an extra gas chamber sort of thing, i think they are adjustable or something so I want to go back to just some normal black ones.


Also does anyone know if it is necessary to spray the header wrap with the silicone paint stuff?


Thanks for the comments guys, having fun doing this that is for sure, and it is infectious. Have one mate has bought a Suzuki GS450 and another has already finished a CB125 and is halfway through a CB200, with some other mates looking for projects for summer, girlfriend doesn't approve now that I have decided it is only going to be a solo!
 
Gave the chop to the footpeg bracket on the weekend, sprayed it with the wrinkle finish again, not sure how it will hold up, If it doesn't I will just have to get them powder coated or something. Also added some speeeed holes, some of them look strange in the photos as if they don't go through but they do!


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Currently got the brakes apart and trying to clean them up a bit, when i picked the bike up they were jamming on, I think it was due to a bit of corrosion around the brake solenoids, not really sure how I am going to fix it, I have pulled them apart and sprayed a heap of brake cleaner around to try break it up a bit, I will have a look at it tonight, Having surgery on my ankle again tomorrow so I will have to probably keep out of the shed for a while, getting close to looking at the wiring again, pretty keen to fire the ol girl up again just to boost my enthusiasm a bit!!
 
Great looking build. Love the speed holes and wrinkle on the new rear sets. You'll never know there stock anymore.
 
famousseajay said:
Great looking build. Love the speed holes and wrinkle on the new rear sets. You'll never know there stock anymore.


Yeah I figured I saw a few bikes with the holes in bits and pieces so i thought it couldn't be too hard, wasn't sure how much i could do before it compromised the strength, I just presumed that really they are so over the top from the factory I could get rid of a fair bit of meat before they would start floating away in the wind!


Thanks for the feedback.
 
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