I have a 1979 Honda CB650 that I bought to build what I thought could be turned into a cafe racer. I have recently found out from another forum that I have the worst motorcycle to try and accomplish that with. I think it was because of what I was trying to build wasn't a cafe racer to them when I posted this picture. I don't know the rules when it comes to building a cafe racer so that could have been the problem. I thought this was a cafe race but maybe I'm wrong.. I thought I would get some second opinions in here to play it safe.
New member from Central Florida
- Thread starter Sinister1
- Start date
The term cafe Racer has morphed to encompass almost any bike with a sort of retro flair. Sure, back in England in the sixties it supposedly meant a stripped down high(er) performance bike but we are not in England and the sixties were a long time ago.
The issue for many people is not so much about building a racer for the street but the fact that many bikes "built" as cafe racers handle and perform less well than a stock bike and some are dangerous.
A 650 Honda has some issues in terms of weight and parts availability but is not an inherently bad bike or one that could never be turned into something more fun. First priority is always safety and style is important but cannot come before safety and reliability comes a close second. Even if you don't intend to ride further than the local Starbucks, breaking down is a pain in the ass at best and potentially dangerous too.
Take your time to read everything you can about the bike and about bikes other people have modified. Get a Factory Service Manual and read it from cover to cover. First time through, not much will stick, but when you start to work on the bike you will find in invaluable. ANd don't be afraid to ask questions. You may not always like teh answers and sometimes they will be inappropriate but are all opportunities to learn and grow.
Have fun.
The issue for many people is not so much about building a racer for the street but the fact that many bikes "built" as cafe racers handle and perform less well than a stock bike and some are dangerous.
A 650 Honda has some issues in terms of weight and parts availability but is not an inherently bad bike or one that could never be turned into something more fun. First priority is always safety and style is important but cannot come before safety and reliability comes a close second. Even if you don't intend to ride further than the local Starbucks, breaking down is a pain in the ass at best and potentially dangerous too.
Take your time to read everything you can about the bike and about bikes other people have modified. Get a Factory Service Manual and read it from cover to cover. First time through, not much will stick, but when you start to work on the bike you will find in invaluable. ANd don't be afraid to ask questions. You may not always like teh answers and sometimes they will be inappropriate but are all opportunities to learn and grow.
Have fun.
The original 2 shock scheme can be made to work very well. For most people, keeping it is the best plan as it likely will be superior to most DIY monoshock conversions. The reason is that converting to a single shock system changes very substantially how the frame is loaded and failure to properly consider this will likely result in a reduction in performance quality. For example, with the two shock scheme, the riders weight is fairly directly supported by the shocks which are themselves supported quite directly over the rear axle. When you remove the two shocks virtually all the loads have to pass through the swing arm pivot placing higher and additional loads on both the arm and the frame around the pivot. The rear suspension loads will be redirected to wherever the new single shock is attached, and the loads from the riders weight will now be cantilevered off of the main frame. You can certainly address all of these issues, but the original design did not have to cope with these loads and therefore likely will not be up to the task without changes. Just because you can fabricate all the bits to make it work mechanically doesn't mean that it will work better or even as good as the original scheme. But it also doesn't mean that you can't in fact make it better, it's just more complicated than it looks on the surface.
I did some more thinking while looking at different pictures of other CB650's and taking into consideration what you two have said and I'm going to stay with the two shocks on the outside. This is my first build and it wouldn't make sense to try and recreate the wheels at this point in time. The next thing I will have to research how to lower the front while utilizing the original equipment. Thank you for all the great information you guys have given me thus far
Have a care about lowering the front of your motorcycle. I know it is super trendy and most of the bikes you see that have that racy look have lower than stock front suspensions, but consider what you are doing. Lowering the front of your bike by simply sliding the fork tubes through the triple clamps is very easy, but you will be doing more than reducing ground clearance. Lowering the front alone will pitch the attitude of the chassis down in front, which will steepen the rake angle and reduce the trail. Making the rake steeper will likely make the steering sharper - that is turn in, the "willingness" your bike has to enter a turn will increase. This might be a good thing, but likely the factory arrangement has pretty good balance to begin with. Reducing the trail will reduce the stability especially at speed - probably not good and possibly dangerous if the stock set up is short to begin with. It is somewhat of a delicate balance - you want steep rake and minimal trail to make the bike "feel" light and quick handling, but as a rule this translates into unstable straight line performance. Manufacturers go to a lot of trouble selecting a compromise that yields both agility and stability. Modern bikes get away with steeper steering in part by having vastly stiffer and stronger chassis in all the right places - a fair trick to pull off on an old steel tube frame. You can also lower the back to keep the original geometry, but reducing ground clearance has the obvious problems and most old bikes don't have any to spare in the first place. You may love how your bike looks, but scraping in turns is hard to endure and can be dangerous. After you ride your bike around for a while, you may very well want to change how it handles and fooling around with the rake by raising or lowering the front is a good cheap way to experiment. Doing so for aesthetic reasons is maybe not such a good plan. If you want to make your bike look a certain way, and most people do, it is a lot more sensible to alter the parts you see rather than the mechanical parts that are where they are for a reason. Changing and/or moving around the bodywork for example will have a big impact on the looks. Headlight, handlebars and instruments define the attitude or stance of a bike so moving these around or changing them might get you the results you want without impacting your bikes drivability. When I build a new bike, I spend a lot of time getting it to drive perfectly and get the seat, foot pegs and bars exactly where the rider needs them to be. It would be hard to overstate how vitally important this is and I take as much time and as many "fittings" as is needed to match up a bike to the person that will be driving it. Once that is accomplished, I know I have a perfect motorcycle for the person riding it and I can focus on how it looks - all the mechanical work is completed and the aesthetics can be designed around it. We all want to start straight away on making our bikes look cool, but you'll be way ahead if you start off with making a great driving bike that fits your physique and then making it look great.
