Hi, I'm Bo and I'm from Sweden so I hope you could understand my English.
I bought a 1981 Honda CB250 last summer with a broken Engine and this is my first bike and also my first build ever, the plas for this bike when I bought it was to do a cafe racer. The engine was not running but the seller said that a valve was broken and when I took it apart I found a broken inlet valve and it was because the clips had loosen, but I also fins a broken cylinderhead bolt wich I get loose after alot of work. I ordered the parts I needed for the engine but in the north of Sweden it seems to be long delivery time on old Honda spareparts, I bought som parts from a Honda dealer and the parts the dealer coulden find I buy on eBay.
Whil I was waiting on the engine parts I started to planning for the cafe racer build, I think we can agree that the CB250N dosen't got the best gas tank for a classic cafe racer but I deside to use the stock gas tank but to still get some of the straight line under the tank and the seat I was was thinking about to let the front of seat go under the back of gas tank where the original sidecovers should be fasten to make the line. Here's a picture of a cardboard template that shows my Idea of the new seat.
After thinking about the first plans for the build I took the bike apart for cleaning it up, after geting the dirt of the frame it show it was so good that I decidet to not do anything about it for the time.
When I finnaly got the enginge running I stated to fabricate the new seat, I choosed to do it from 1 mm thick iron plate, I started to make the front part that fits to the gas tank and the upper side och the seat. Then I made a plate for the rear fastening brackets that I unsrewed from the original seat, like this I can easy take away the seat like you can do with the original seat.
With this done I started to do the upper part of the cuts, I desided to try to make it to match the back part of the gas tank and after it was tac welded I started to made cardboard templates for the sides of the cuts.
The I starded to do the the sides of the cuts and tac weld it to the seat, with the sides of the cuts on it I trimed the under line for the seat and put some supports under the seat to make it stiffer.
A new rear frame was build to hold turners, licenceplate, licenplate light and a red reflector. This rear frame was made and fit in to the original bolt holes in the frame.
After this was done I started to look at the ugly, big plastic meter house, sidecovers and a new exhaust, a pair of new mufflers and a 38 mm diameter pipe was bought and I welded new pipes between the downpipes and the muffler. A friend of mine who alos got a CB250N made a pair of new cups to put the original meters in. A new controlpanel for the signal lamps was made and 6 mm LED:s is used as control lamps.
New side covers was alos fabricated out of metal and I used the screw holes for the original side covers brackets to screw the new side covers in place.
Next I was to get of the black paint in the aluminium parts around the handlebar and after a lot of grinding and polishing it was lookig good.
Next step was paint the panel and new meter houses black and mount it on the bike
Then I started to prepare the gas tank for new paint, before I striped the paint of the gas tank I was clean it from rust on the inside with lemmon acid but when I strip the paint I got a some holes on the upperside, so I called a friend who do tig welding and he changed the whole area around the gas cap and I ordered a new flip-up gas cap. Then an other friend paint the parts with 2K epoxi primer before starting to put filler on it, I first use fiberglass filler to fill the deepest parts.
To get a better riding position I decided to move the foot pegs backwards, and to do that I order a rear set on eBay. I designed new fastening plates in AutoCad for the foot pegs and the plates was laser cut in a local shop. An mockup with threaded rods was done to get the correct mesures of the brake and the gear shifter rods.
I design new logos for the gas tank and the cuts and a friend of mine did the printing of thoose at his company that do stickers and other adverticing stuff but It was hard to deside if I shouild have white and black or white and orange so I order both.
A new tail light was made from a flush mount tail light and an other tail light that I bought on eBay. This was done because the flush mount light had festoon lamps so I couldent have both tail and brake light in the same rear light.
After a lot of work with filler and grinding I finnaly got the seat, gas tank ready for paint, the color is an VW color called urban grey. A friend of mine did the paint but I have done all the work with filler before paint my self. I have started to fabricate the bottom part of the saddle from 6 mm nylon plastic.
A new shorter aluminium front fender was baught on eBay and I will fabricate new fender brackets out of 3 mm thick aluminium. I think this fender looks better than the long stock one but I hop it's still enought long to do the work as a fender to protect you from getting dirty in bad wether.
Here we are now about eight months after I started the projekt, the next step is to make new rods for brake and grear shift pedals and a stop for the brake pedal backwards movement, fix the front fender, wait to the paint to get a little bit harder before mounting the parts on the bike and put on some decals and countinue with the saddle. The plans for this bike is to do this things for this spring to get the bike able to drive it in the comming summer and maby do some small things on it. I really would like to get rid of the clearcoat of the engine side covers and valve cover and polish the aluminium but just now to focus is to get the bike going for the summer and drive it. If it runs well and I like it I mabye tear it apart next winter and paint the frame and some other things on it.
I bought a 1981 Honda CB250 last summer with a broken Engine and this is my first bike and also my first build ever, the plas for this bike when I bought it was to do a cafe racer. The engine was not running but the seller said that a valve was broken and when I took it apart I found a broken inlet valve and it was because the clips had loosen, but I also fins a broken cylinderhead bolt wich I get loose after alot of work. I ordered the parts I needed for the engine but in the north of Sweden it seems to be long delivery time on old Honda spareparts, I bought som parts from a Honda dealer and the parts the dealer coulden find I buy on eBay.
Whil I was waiting on the engine parts I started to planning for the cafe racer build, I think we can agree that the CB250N dosen't got the best gas tank for a classic cafe racer but I deside to use the stock gas tank but to still get some of the straight line under the tank and the seat I was was thinking about to let the front of seat go under the back of gas tank where the original sidecovers should be fasten to make the line. Here's a picture of a cardboard template that shows my Idea of the new seat.
After thinking about the first plans for the build I took the bike apart for cleaning it up, after geting the dirt of the frame it show it was so good that I decidet to not do anything about it for the time.
When I finnaly got the enginge running I stated to fabricate the new seat, I choosed to do it from 1 mm thick iron plate, I started to make the front part that fits to the gas tank and the upper side och the seat. Then I made a plate for the rear fastening brackets that I unsrewed from the original seat, like this I can easy take away the seat like you can do with the original seat.
With this done I started to do the upper part of the cuts, I desided to try to make it to match the back part of the gas tank and after it was tac welded I started to made cardboard templates for the sides of the cuts.
The I starded to do the the sides of the cuts and tac weld it to the seat, with the sides of the cuts on it I trimed the under line for the seat and put some supports under the seat to make it stiffer.
A new rear frame was build to hold turners, licenceplate, licenplate light and a red reflector. This rear frame was made and fit in to the original bolt holes in the frame.
After this was done I started to look at the ugly, big plastic meter house, sidecovers and a new exhaust, a pair of new mufflers and a 38 mm diameter pipe was bought and I welded new pipes between the downpipes and the muffler. A friend of mine who alos got a CB250N made a pair of new cups to put the original meters in. A new controlpanel for the signal lamps was made and 6 mm LED:s is used as control lamps.
New side covers was alos fabricated out of metal and I used the screw holes for the original side covers brackets to screw the new side covers in place.
Next I was to get of the black paint in the aluminium parts around the handlebar and after a lot of grinding and polishing it was lookig good.
Next step was paint the panel and new meter houses black and mount it on the bike
Then I started to prepare the gas tank for new paint, before I striped the paint of the gas tank I was clean it from rust on the inside with lemmon acid but when I strip the paint I got a some holes on the upperside, so I called a friend who do tig welding and he changed the whole area around the gas cap and I ordered a new flip-up gas cap. Then an other friend paint the parts with 2K epoxi primer before starting to put filler on it, I first use fiberglass filler to fill the deepest parts.
To get a better riding position I decided to move the foot pegs backwards, and to do that I order a rear set on eBay. I designed new fastening plates in AutoCad for the foot pegs and the plates was laser cut in a local shop. An mockup with threaded rods was done to get the correct mesures of the brake and the gear shifter rods.
I design new logos for the gas tank and the cuts and a friend of mine did the printing of thoose at his company that do stickers and other adverticing stuff but It was hard to deside if I shouild have white and black or white and orange so I order both.
A new tail light was made from a flush mount tail light and an other tail light that I bought on eBay. This was done because the flush mount light had festoon lamps so I couldent have both tail and brake light in the same rear light.
After a lot of work with filler and grinding I finnaly got the seat, gas tank ready for paint, the color is an VW color called urban grey. A friend of mine did the paint but I have done all the work with filler before paint my self. I have started to fabricate the bottom part of the saddle from 6 mm nylon plastic.
A new shorter aluminium front fender was baught on eBay and I will fabricate new fender brackets out of 3 mm thick aluminium. I think this fender looks better than the long stock one but I hop it's still enought long to do the work as a fender to protect you from getting dirty in bad wether.
Here we are now about eight months after I started the projekt, the next step is to make new rods for brake and grear shift pedals and a stop for the brake pedal backwards movement, fix the front fender, wait to the paint to get a little bit harder before mounting the parts on the bike and put on some decals and countinue with the saddle. The plans for this bike is to do this things for this spring to get the bike able to drive it in the comming summer and maby do some small things on it. I really would like to get rid of the clearcoat of the engine side covers and valve cover and polish the aluminium but just now to focus is to get the bike going for the summer and drive it. If it runs well and I like it I mabye tear it apart next winter and paint the frame and some other things on it.