KAY 100 Fighter morphs to Cafe Racer

Teazer, the bodywork started out as ever with good old CAD [ Cardboard Aided Design ] !

I sketched the form I wanted onto a piece of cardboard and on the 3rd or 4th variation I had the lines where I wanted them. Then it was just a matter of picking up on the BMW fixing points. Once I was satisfied with that, I sketched in where I wanted the shaping - nothing worse than flat alloy in my opinion.

The seat base was an old R1 unit which I reshaped and joined up with the side panels. I cheated with the actual seat ... I had a "Police" single seat unit and just fettled everything to fit around that. Gives me a super comfy seat with it's own original fittings. I'll get that recovered in the black perforated Jaguar Connolly hide I have

At that point I sent it to ace tin basher Pete Kyte .... he's the guy that all the UK museums [ and Japanese factories ] to for new / repro tanks, fairings etc. He transformed my cardboard and sketches into the shape you see.

Once I had the alloy panels, I got my pal at RAM to take moulds and produce a couple of sets of side panels for me.

Pete Kyte also modified the seat for me and again - moulds taken.

I still have all the Pete Kyte alloy originals, and if I can persuade my polisher to come out of retirement I might just get a tank and the side panels highly polished [ tank is alloy ] just for the craik.

Just for reference - the Black RS is how it all started out ! I paid £600 for it with a full MOT and rode it back from Heathrow Airport to Redditch. I sold all the unwanted parts, fairing, panniers, top box, exhaust, bars ............. for £945 !!!!

Thanks Beach. I didn't know that you had Pete Kyte in the mix. That man is a master with alloy sheet. His Honda CR93 tanks are beautiful.

The 2001(?) R1 seat did look familiar, and the way that the other parts swooped and curved was really nicely done. I have made plugs from foam for larger objects like seat humps and tanks, but the thin sections were causing me a headache. Now I know.

I have the TIG welder. All I need now is an English wheel, power dolly and the skill to use them. IIRC, Pete uses an oxy torch and hammers by hand into a leather sand bag to get the curves. Old school for sure.

Pete was local [ 18 miles ] from me and made me several one off pieces over the years, including the tank for my Guzzi Cafe Racer. It was almost a direct copy of a GRP unit that was popular at the time. His work was truly artistic.

On one occasion he had a Max Deubel sidecar fairing in to remanufacture [ bent to hell ] all he had to work on was the remains and pictures ! Needless to say the result[ 3 weeks later ] was superb.

Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda all entrusted him with work on their priceless old racers going back to the 60's.

One thing about Pete was his prices, "ordinary" peeps like me got charged "ordinary" prices. My Guzzi 1 off tank was CHEAPER than an off the shelf Guzzi, Goldie or Manx unit.

WHOOOO! that's a lotta red.

3DogNate said:

WHOOOO! that's a lotta red.

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Yes !! - the bike was called "Simply Red". However,in my defence, before the bike was completed the exhaust was changed for Stainless Steel + Stainless Conti's and the seat lowered to follow the top frame rails.

All the fixings were changed to stainless and the rear springs were changed for chrome units.

The Dell'Ortos were highly polished with velocity stacks and a new set of polished alloy Tarrozi rearsets ...... just to break it up a little !!!

A Cafe Racer enthusiast in Denmark bought it over the phone and it was subsequently featured in several European Bike mags.

I have resisted the urge to paint the engine in my KZ750 Cafe Racer red !!!!

That is indeed a lot of redness there.

Tanks looks like a Wassel copy of a Rickman Metisse racer. Had one on a T120 racer I built way back in '78. Mine was off the shelf though. Not a Pete Kyte original.

rickman seat ?

That was a fairly common look, but Dunstall typically had two parts or a top entry to a sarnie compartment. Chuck I think had flutes, Read Titan is a possibility. Probably made by Bill Roberts or Mitchenall brothers.

It doesn't have the duck tail effect that I had on this unit T100, not that I can remember where I bought that seat....

Think OEM Italian - late 60's/early 70's.

I bought a complete bike with a blown up engine. For an engine rebuild in those days, I could have built a Tribsa !! Logical answer, put a 500 Triumph lump in the rolling chassis !

Ah ..... Bill Roberts, another great bloke. Did you ever see [ or pic of ] his Manx Norton mounted above the fireplace ?? !! 8) 8)

Nice T100 BTW !!

That was the only bike I ever had that came with 17, 18 and 19" rim options depending on the year.

It was ridden all winter around Edinburgh and one plug lead was close to the clutch cable, so on wet salty days I would get a 30,000 volt shock from the clutch lever.

Don't remember that seat OEM unless it was on a Ducati 450 single

And the prize goes to Teazer !!!

Ducati 450SS to be precise. Although I'm pretty certain the same seat was used on the smaller capacity version as well.

My seat came off a complete bike I bought [ £25.00 ] with a blown engine in 1972 [?]. I was going to rebuild it until I found out the price of parts, so it ended up with a 500 unit motor in it.

Something like the Red one - but 450SS - if you follow ! I used a 5 gallon Taylor Dow Goldie tank and 7R seat.

Been a while since I saw a Tricati. There were a few of them built back before Ducati singles became collectible.

Are those Thruxton mufflers on that red Tricati by any chance? Those would be quite rare if they were genuine originals.

teazer said:

Been a while since I saw a Tricati. There were a few of them built back before Ducati singles became collectible.

Are those Thruxton mufflers on that red Tricati by any chance? Those would be quite rare if they were genuine originals.

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My pal has a brand new pair still in their wrapping !! Says he'll build a bike round them one day ..... how many times have we done that eh ? Oh yes, he also has a GENUINE ex. Thruxton Triumph. As you may recall from old posts - I ended up with the ex. Bob Mac Connie [ and a RAy Knight version ] ................................................. ahhh, pass the Rose tinted goggles.

That sounds too much like me. My first Triumph twin stated off as frame and motor bottom half IIRC. Several of my GT750 projects started as piles of bits or with a frame or set of cases and a pile of used cranks.

Thruxton pipes are probably more rare than any other Thruxton parts, so it makes sense to build a bike around them. Motors are more or less stock with a few mods but frames were modified IIRC and could be replicated without too much work and a tank is just a tank, so your mate is on the right track.

Never a fan of the Connie or later versions but always a fan of the late Bob Mac.

teazer said:

That sounds too much like me. My first Triumph twin stated off as frame and motor bottom half IIRC. Several of my GT750 projects started as piles of bits or with a frame or set of cases and a pile of used cranks.

Thruxton pipes are probably more rare than any other Thruxton parts, so it makes sense to build a bike around them. Motors are more or less stock with a few mods but frames were modified IIRC and could be replicated without too much work and a tank is just a tank, so your mate is on the right track.

Never a fan of the Connie or later versions but always a fan of the late Bob Mac.

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The 7R seat now being used for my KZ is one such !! It's been on countless bikes since the 60's. Every time I looked at it on the garage wall - I kept thinking..... "One more Cafe Racer"

The Connies were very much a Marmite bike. In the day I just wanted to be different ! The bonus was of course because they were not popular - they were cheap ! And put together properly - they didn't do the "Royal Oilfield" bit.

A simple frame brace mod made the frame into an excellent base for a Cafe Racer. Ray Knight gave me the tip, but it wasn't allowed for proddie racing.

My first [ ex. Bob Mac ] Connie was the fastest thing up the lay-bye until a wicked Vincent / Norton turned up [ in the Tales ]

Had a bit of a "moment" when I had a proper look at my new [ to me ] K1200RS front wheel.

There was some serious corrosion on one part of the rim where it had been stored outside under a cover ... almost.

I was fearing the worst [ as it was dirt cheap ], but after I attacked it with a wire wheel on my grinder ... relief.

There's NO pitting at all in the alloy rim - the corrosion was only in the powder coating. Phew .......

When funds allow I'll get them powder coated in the same blingy Gold we used for the "Scream" [ Oilhead CR ].

The wheel and forks are going down to my machine shop guy next week to have the new front conversion spindle and spacers made.

Sub-freakin-scribed!
I told ya you'd want to hang on to something to build after you beat that shit back

Can't wait to see how it turns out ;D

Hey Red, thanx for your encouragement ...... second [ 3rd ? ] chance and all that.

I managed to hang on to the KZ [ well on the way now ] and the Kay.

The KZ was a deliberate choice .... last Cafe Racer and all that, but nobody was interested in paying me anything like a decent price for the Kay.

They went to rock bottom on the prices over the years after I was diagnosed, but suddenly last year the prices started to fly again [ a bit like me !! ]. So as the Kay was still in storage - coincidentally parked next to the Orange "Scream" project. 8) - it made sense to get it finished. It was literally only a few weeks away from completion when I got the dread news.

I did sell off the front end conversion and some other bits, but essentially the project was as I left it.

I've now replaced all the parts I sold off - mostly for the front end conversion to 5 spoke K1200RS wheel, 4 pot Brembos and K1100RS forks.

I'm waiting for a guy to get back to me on the Kay tanks he has. IF he has a dent free unit, I'll get it polished along with the Pete Kyte side panels. Then I have an either or !! :

Result .... the tank is totally dent free and the bonus is that the paint has already been stripped !

Unfortunately the flanges for the side mounts have been taken off, but as I only need one small tab to mount the front of the Pete Kyte alloy panels I'll simply superglue some tabs on.

Once the parts are all polished I can offer them up and see if it was a good idea or not !!