UJM fate - I vote STOP ruining awesome bikes, build rad Cafe's out of the rest!

This is more to my liking, I'm not saying it's better, it's just more to my liking.


https://www.facebook.com/clasicmotos70y80/videos/1161924123945018/
 
Liberace had a CBX. John Wayne had 2 x z1300's*



























* I may have ever so slightly made all of that up, but you get the idea.
 
I’m fully on board with what chuck is saying. A few years ago I bought a 1980 Cb750f. The guy I bought it from made me promise not to chop it. At first this was tough. I fantasized about screaming down the road on a “cafe racer”. I didn’t chop it though. I focused on bringing it back. Over these few years I’ve had several others tell me not to chop it. Typically it only crosses my mind when something goes wrong, and I have to drop money on it anyway. But again and again, people who know motorcycles tell me not to chop it.

I’ve assumed people were telling me this, because they doubt my abilities. That’s a fair assumption. I’m no machinist, and definitely not a master fabricator. Either way, the bike is all still there.

As time goes on, I’m learning the shortfalls of the design. This gives me the opportunity to make a great bike fucking awesome by bringing it into the present. Modern amenities and such. Out with the old and in with the new.

Though this is a continuous process, I’ve essentially created the ultimate sleeper and gained just as much admiration from the people who matter.


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irk miller said:
I think that I'm proud that I am not in that video.
Shame on me for making it on the video for a whole 2 seconds.
Still looking for that number to call.....:p
 
Sadly, all these fell off the all original, 90% complete, RD400 we're building...
IMG_4542_zpsjdlj5vbv.jpg

I'm gonna blame gravity, that way it can be considered a natural occurrence ;)
 
I say make it yours and ride it, whatever that means to you. Put a skateboard on it, paint it flat black and put some electrical tape on the headlight if that's your thing.

I find nothing more annoying than "motorcycle collections" or "motorcycle investments"
Collectors in general I find ridiculous.
These motorcycles were built by the millions to be ridden, crashed, customized, chopped, bobbed, and "cafe'd".
The were not built to sit in some old douches garage so he can jerk off looking at it before he sells it for a profit to the next douche to do the same.
 
SONIC. said:
I say make it yours and ride it, whatever that means to you. Put a skateboard on it, paint it flat black and put some electrical tape on the headlight if that's your thing.

I find nothing more annoying than "motorcycle collections" or "motorcycle investments"
Collectors in general I find ridiculous.
These motorcycles were built by the millions to be ridden, crashed, customized, chopped, bobbed, and "cafe'd".
The were not built to sit in some old douches garage so he can jerk off looking at it before he sells it for a profit to the next douche to do the same.
Probably dies before that, leaving his relatives to sell that priceless collection on auction.
 
datadavid said:
Probably dies before that, leaving his relatives to sell that priceless collection on auction.

in my area we have a large community of older collectors - you can usually find valuable and rare cars and motorcycles for a good deal because the children of these collectors have no interest in the cars, have no idea what they are "worth" and just want to sell them to pay for nursing home care.

people constantly scoff at the price of CB350s in good condition, "$2,500+ on a 40 year old bike?!?!" uh... yea that $550 that it was new back in 1972.... is about $2800 in 2018 dollars... it's not that high of a price - and it doesn't make the bike any more valuable than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago.
 
Indeed. Simply being old doesn't make a bike desirable or valuable. Even being rare doesn't automatically make a bike worth a lot. If it were shite then, it'll still be shite now, but with the added hassle of being aged and cranky.
 
The Limey said:
Indeed. Simply being old doesn't make a bike desirable or valuable. Even being rare doesn't automatically make a bike worth a lot. If it were shite then, it'll still be shite now, but with the added hassle of being aged and cranky.

What!? You mean my yugo won’t be worth thousands one day?
 
I think almost all of you nearly completely missed my point because you were busy taking offense to something I wasn't necessarily accusing you all of!
Building a cafe racer out of a rusted apart bike that is sunk in the mud and would otherwise be sent to the scrap yard is a very awesome and noble thing. Taking a nice original bike that just needs the typical maintenance and carburetor rebuild, and hacking it to pieces before doing any legit maintenance work is a shame... especially because most of these bikes never get to looking like a professional build quality and are rendered basically worthless for resale even... I see this far too much. What I see far too little of in the real, non-digital world, is professional quality builds of the likes that are boasted about on the internet with impressive build threads. People don't make build threads about their bike that they don't even know how to disassemble a carburetor on yet they hacksaw the back of the frame off first thing...
 
The other enormous part of my point is that in fact these bikes are clearly getting more scarce in a lot of areas of the country, but some of you just have not gotten to witness that yet. Shopping for cheap project bikes this year has been drastically different than the past decade... This is the first time that I am realizing they are becoming harder to come by.

And as far as someone trying to debunk my suggestion of taking KZ LTD models or GS L models and turning them into cafe racers vs the more desirable standard/sport models. This is an awesome alternative to hacking a great bike.. up. Why? If you are going to put a set of triple clamps that are not made for that frame geometry, matched with a set of forks that they came with, that are too short for this vintage bike chassis, you are getting rid of the leading axle forks anyway, and all of the chrome trim and stepped king queen seat, so there is no difference between that and hacking to pieces a standard model KZ or GS once you do a modern fork swap that has the exhaust one inch off of the ground... , these bikes are built off of the same frames with a few variations from the standard / sport models. Some have the 16-inch cruiser back wheel, but that doesn't really do much other than give it a big wide tire and trade the weight of cast aluminum for the weight of a big fat tire. Plus so many cafe builds get a wheel swap anyways... swap wheels, seat, forks... there you have it, no difference between a GS550L and a GS550E if both are hacked up into amateur cafe racers.
 
Chuck78 said:
I think almost all of you nearly completely missed my point because you were busy taking offense to something I wasn't necessarily accusing you all of!
Building a cafe racer out of a rusted apart bike that is sunk in the mud and would otherwise be sent to the scrap yard is a very awesome and noble thing. Taking a nice original bike that just needs the typical maintenance and carburetor rebuild, and hacking it to pieces before doing any legit maintenance work is a shame... especially because most of these bikes never get to looking like a professional build quality and are rendered basically worthless for resale even... I see this far too much. What I see far too little of in the real, non-digital world, is professional quality builds of the likes that are boasted about on the internet with impressive build threads. People don't make build threads about their bike that they don't even know how to disassemble a carburetor on yet they hacksaw the back of the frame off first thing...

so I started my build not knowing anything about bikes (just having been involved in fast cars on the road race track)

I hacked a lot up - I even made mistakes. I bought a grinder to fix those mistakes. then i bought a welder and fixed those mistakes...
It was funny because a friend and I building our own bikes up doing stuff always go to a local vintage bike meet, and its usually full of much older dudes, it's cool they all have super rad and sometimes rare bikes. But we stopped going because we felt kind of out of place there - and I had one of them recognize me at the store and told me how all the guys missed us.. because we were the dudes getting dirty hacking stuff up and making our our bikes our own way just like they did back when they were our age - there was no judgement for taking a very VERY good condition CB350 and turning it into a bobber, there was none of that.
When my uncle who I raced with in SCCA worked at a local honda bike dealer, he told me that they threw away countless CBs... they were so cheap... lower tier bikes that people rode for a year then traded in.. most of them never maintained. a Honda CB, Yamaha XS.. whatever - they are NOT in any way shape or form desirable now other than as an easy platform for 'cafe racer' builds.
now.. a cb450 black bomber in perfect condition ? who cares.. I would love to have one but if Fred Krugger wanted to make something epic out of it I wouldn't say he's crazy.
 
Live and let live

If someone wants to hack up a pristine version of a bike, let them go right ahead.
Chances are though the rate that this happens at will be self limiting.
If the options are anywhere between 500 for a complete POS, or 3000 for a pristine version, which is most likely going to be chosen for the project?

I see ads all the time people asking 4-5k (canadian mind you, so thats like 24.97 USD)
For pristine cb350 twins, or kz440’s or other trash like that, and i think “why?”
Like who in their right mind wants to drop that kind of cash on what was basically a disposable entry level bike back then?
“But it’s a rare bike”, ya sure it is but so is a yugo and i wouldn’t want one of those either.
 
I customized my Honda CB450, Condor, AKA black bomber, back in the 60's. This was just before I went into the Army.
 

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Chuck78 said:
I think almost all of you nearly completely missed my point because you were busy taking offense to something I wasn't necessarily accusing you all of!
Building a cafe racer out of a rusted apart bike that is sunk in the mud and would otherwise be sent to the scrap yard is a very awesome and noble thing. Taking a nice original bike that just needs the typical maintenance and carburetor rebuild, and hacking it to pieces before doing any legit maintenance work is a shame... especially because most of these bikes never get to looking like a professional build quality and are rendered basically worthless for resale even... I see this far too much. What I see far too little of in the real, non-digital world, is professional quality builds of the likes that are boasted about on the internet with impressive build threads. People don't make build threads about their bike that they don't even know how to disassemble a carburetor on yet they hacksaw the back of the frame off first thing...

Nope didn't miss the point, and didn't get offended, just a difference of opinion is all!

I'd MUCH rather someone take a perfectly decent bike, chop it up, ruin it and learn something than have it go to someone that's just going to look at it.
Make, chop, destroy, create, LEARN. That's what all of this is about in my opinion.
 
Nope didn't miss the point, and didn't get offended, just a difference of opinion is all!

I'd MUCH rather someone take a perfectly decent bike, chop it up, ruin it and learn something than have it go to someone that's just going to look at it.
Make, chop, destroy, create, LEARN. That's what all of this is about in my opinion.
+ 1
Bikes should be used and enjoyed, not preserved
 
I'd rather see a bike revived as a Cafe Racer or a special, or even as a rat, than simply get weighed in for scrap or allowed to rust back to its constituent molecules.

If people are worried about bikes becoming scarce then they should put their money where their mouth is, get off their arses and go restore a few themselves. Until that time they should zip it, and let people build whatever they want.
 
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