CB350 Steampunk Frankenstein Cafe thing called Isabel

Thanks mate. It's not too nice to ride at all (which sounds like it's crap to ride, which it also isn't ). At the moment it's mostly just too broken to ride. Kinda looks like this at the moment:




Like my patented valve-compressor tool?



So.. like I said, I've been inspired recently (mostly thanks to discovering Troy's Willow and a few other board-tracker type bikes) to think about heading in this direction. Good excuse to learn to weld (don't worry, nothing structural, at least initially) and get into a bit more fabrication. Haven't quite decided whether to go whole new bike or 'evolve' Isabel as yet. It's all very dependent n moving somewhere with a garage before I can really do anything anyway, but in the meantime I can make devious plans...

OMG...Isabel is dismembered....!!

Makes me sad....Looks like re-incarnation in the works...but still, Isabel was inspiring.

Good luck with the vision.

Nice Valve tool...I am inspired by that too... 8)

I was thinking disemboweled rather than dismembered, but whichever it is, is horrible to behold!

Crazy

i suppose every artist has the right to change their outlook on the piece of art hey I’m all for it, the sketch looks awesome good luck buddy. liked it before and will like it after.

hey... somebody just sent me this thread.... sweet looking ride you made. I have my own steampunk in progress. I started it 2 years ago. the bike was in a garage fire & then left outside about 10 years so I had to start off with a frame strip & total engine build. should be a runner by summer. I did a little research back when & there just isn't many SP bikes out there... seems like a big percentage exist only as a graphic image. anyway, not trying to steal yer thunder but here's mine

Dude, I don't wanna come off as anti-steampunk or homophobic or anything like that - at all - but you missed the mark by a mile, in that you didn't grow a handlebar moustache for your picture. And I know I can tease about the gay thing because that banker's lamp is obviously a cheap knock-off ... and the t-shirt has to go - you should have a flouncy sleeved pirate shirt, unbuttoned all the way. With a shaved chest and his eight-pack abs oiled up and shiny, hair slicked back and wet but obviously with styling product rather than water. Nut-hugger tightie whities or an "athletic support". Those shoes aren't Calvin Coles, neither are the L.L. Bean sailboating shoes. I mean, if you wanna pose like that with a bike like that you've got to at least do the whole male modelling thing right.

Don't take it the wrong way, when my own current TWO projects are done I'm doing a calendar shoot with my lil GRRRL's classmates, nothing too cheese-cake in fact it would probably only sell in a Lesbian bookstore - but yeah what I'm saying is we're actually planning on doing at least 10% of the calendar with this young "Twink" friend of hers - knowing HIM he'll probably go for the standard cheese-cake shots, forever ruining my own enjoyment of "girl on a bike" photography. And yet it must be done, all in the name of equality....

Back to YOUR photoshoot for a minute - IF you're gonna do the steam-punk thing, the dude in the chair subject matter is just a poor choice of steampunk character. He barely qualifies. In the steam-punk genre, the aviator hero war-bird pilot character is like ... it's like in Dungeons And Dragons it's nerd-cool (anti-cool, which is therefore cool - "hip to be square") to play the evil wizard or the dwarf with the big axe, or the highly androgynous Elf thief in a uni-tard, the Ork beast, the armoured Knight-mage, etc - but NOBODY gets away with being the gorgeous muscle-bound warrior idiot man-child. Because his whole character was created to make fun of the football team. What you've got going on there is a disconnect between Robert Oppenheimer and the crew of the Enola Gay - See, in steam-punk you've got some very basic characters to work with, just as two-dimensional as the D&D types. The naughty Victorian lady who's accent is a mix of high tea-with-the-Queen Posh and East Chelsea Cockney limerick, who's Bustier slash petticoat dress has the pattern of your grandmother's curtains, the chest of a German milk-maid, and the hem-line of a French maid outfit from a cheap sex shop. She carries a chintzy Penguin-from-Batman gun-umbrella which shoots either darts or cap and ball bullets, maybe there's a knife in the handle. The sword inside that's reserved for the gentleman's cane - he wears a three piece tweed suit with a gold watch-chain and watch-pocket with either a top-hat or a bowler, square toed shoes, and round eye-glasses. Both lenses. The monacle is reserved for the elderly fellow who's moustache is curled upward in a spiral across each cheek. Unless he wears it down like a Walrus. His attire is more of a high-ranking colonial military in fashion, his foot-wear is riding boots with many buckles. a decent caricature can be found in pre edited-for-racism Tintin comics. Speaking of which, one - actually TWO characters which steam-punk has neglected are the steamship captain and the steam-locomotive engineer. While the steam-car motorist is over-represented. Steam more aptly lent itself to public transportation. Though that's a little too low class, as it's mind numbingly dreary to think of peoples lives in those years unless they were fabulously wealthy. So it goes without saying they're all a bunch of fucking Monarchist Tories. I wonder whether the genre is as popular in the U.K. as it is overseas.... ANYWAY yeah, the whole centerpiece of this type of fandom is the "anti-hero" - maybe in some dystopian pseudo-socialist steam-punk there's a hero of the story who's a conscientious objector. Or if it's from the far far left he's the boiler operator on the battleship Potemkin. Certainly, I've neglected to mention the huge category of aviator characters - but they're all Balloonists or Zeppelin pilots, more to the point they've built their own craft. If there's a place in all of this for a Korean war jet ace he's a villain in some sort of time travel piece. Probably not unheard of.

There's a third way of interpreting the photo, in which both the motorcycle AND the man in the leather chair are simply a back-drop. But you don't have the bottle of alcohol with it's label facing the camera. And the room doesn't project an air of old money. If anything, too much of a nouveau-riche yuppie type of thing. A Heineken or a Zuma maybe, but none of the golden barrel-aged spirits - they wouldn't pay for an advert like that, it's the wrong demographics. Too fast of a bike for a Jack Daniels ad - which is to say, an import. Not enough plaid for Loch Lomond Scotch. There are no barely-legal Southern Peaches, so it can't be Southern Comfort. It's not gay enough or steam-punk enough to read Euro-trash, like for a V.S.O.P. French Cognac. Besides the glass is too small.

I now know more about steam punk style than I ever found necessary or desirable!

Thanks for nothing SoyBoySigh!

Crazy

Noddy78 - what's happening with Isabel?

It's a long time since we have seen any of the new work.

Crazy

[Upper-class British accent] Good gods man, what on earth are you jabbering on about!? [/Upper-class British accent]

Anyhoo... yes, there has been progress of sorts, though due to lack of garage and a few pesky gremlins I have nought in pictorial form to show for it! She's been fanging around town off and on (more off than on) for a while now, but I'm currently chasing what seems to be a charging problem... pun intended... "currently"... ah dear...

So yeah, got some new Mikunis almost dialled in, new indicators (made from copper wine goblets no-less) some other odds and sods. Plus plenty of extra character now she's being used! I'll have some new pics up once I get her reliably running... could still be some time... plus it's winter here, oddly enough copper, brass and leather don't take kindly to inclement-weather riding.

I will put the painful pun down to the unhealthy influence of SoyBoySigh!

Winters in Tazzie can be a bit fierce, even here in SinCity the mornings are getting a bit nippy. I will look forward to seeing a refurbished Isabel around springtime.

Crazy

What a cool and original build! Gave me a couple ideas for my 350 rebuild. Thanks for the detailed rebuild play by play, I love the gauges!

The first Aussie I stumble upon, let alone the very first bike build I look at once registered, and it is this genius!

Incredible build mate, I am blown away with your ingenuity.

Noddy78 said:

Yeah, I initially thought "just print out some new gauge faces and stick 'em over the old ones" but as soon as I thought it I dismissed it, printer inks just wouldn't stand up to UV. Even professional signage grade UV inks are only guaranteed for about 5 - 7 years. So that's when I came up with this alternative. It's a laser-etched (or chemically-etched) sheet of 0.25mm brass. You can go as detailed as the brass is thick apparently (well, the place I found to do it for me could). Which is then backed with a 0.5mm thick piece of tinted acrylic (so that at night the lights behind would show through the etched numbers) and sandwiched back in place of the old faces. When I ended up going a different direction with the lighting in the gauges I just sprayed the backing acrylic matt black so now the etched numbers just show through to a black background. But you could realistically do it with any metal or plastic, with any colour/s underneath. No ink, nothing to get faded by the sun.

Yep, I love it.

Holy shit, they're crazy! I reckon one of those would be the whole budget for my entire build and then some! And probably a touch OTT... but I love the concept. They are very cool.

Yep, I think we're on the same page mate. Some Steampunk stuff just gets a bit too out-there. Which is great for a showpiece I guess, but I also wanted this to be a useable/ridable bike. After all, it's all a bit pointless if you can't actually ride it. It's more a Steampunk inspired bike, than a full-on sci-fi extravaganza. Not that I don't love that too though.

Picture's worth a thousand words (I have no idea what it was used on originally, some old american car I assume):

Click to expand...

Model T ford

Well, it's been a while, but after 6 months of roughly hassle-free riding I'm almost prepared to call her 'done'! A few additions since last update, a temporary garage to house her in (and take a few pics), and everything all looking nicely worn-in and grungy, she's looking a bit like this:

Bike looks great... I like the fuel lines... you ever thought about some copper velocity stacks?

Steampunk epitomised - without covering a bike with functionless junk!

Crazy

Really came out looking good!

Thanks folks, I'm pretty stoked with how she all turned out in the end.

vbtravisd said:

you ever thought about some copper velocity stacks?

Click to expand...

I have actually, probably go brass though. When I can be bothered with screwing around with carb jetting again (I'm a bit scarred still) I'll probably do that.

Well, it's time for the next one!

Something a little like this:

Noddy78 said:

Well, it's time for the next one!

Click to expand...

I hope this is a second bike and not a new incarnation for Isabel!

Crazy