Maybe attacking this project from a different angle would have merit? If you are the sort that always dives into the deep end and is willing to swim to the far shore come hell or high water and will always persevere no matter what, get some design ideas of what you want and start carving up your bike. Most people are better served taking more bite sized chunks and getting one thing successfully completed before moving on to the next. Decide what you want to work on first, and get that sorted out before moving on. Maybe you want to do some engine changes. Get some new pipes, and learn to re-jet your carbs to get it to run well. Then change to a new air filter system, and rejet. You will have learned a bit with the pipes, so sorting out the new intake will not be so daunting. You do not need a lot of fancy complicated crap to do this well, but you do need to learn how engines work to make educated changes. Work your way up to each new element of your modifications and keep having fun. Lots of things involved in re-imagining your bike take skill and knowledge, which you will have to acquire in order to have a good outcome. You can't just decide you need to weld something up without learning how to weld first for example, but you can use your project to learn and if you are patient you can be proud of your work even if it is your first attempt. Do one project at a time until you have some confidence in your skills and experience before taking on too much, and keep your projects small enough so you can keep riding your bike!
It may also be of benefit to consider how "cafe" bikes started out. Cafe bikes originally were an effort to improve performance, and the "style" evolved out of this intent. Now things are a bit backwards in that the "look" is often more important. For my own work, I am rather severely focused on the "look" of the finished bike, but function and performance and the balance between those elements and reliability and comfort take absolute precedence. Make your bike ride and perform well and do not sacrifice comfort and safety. Figure out how to make it look like your dream after. If your bike looks great and is a bitch to drive you will stop riding it. If it is a joy to drive, you will ride it all the time no matter how bad it looks. You CAN have both, and ANY bike can be made fabulous, but make it work great first. Fixing the cosmetics can be difficult when working around function, but fixing function having to work around cosmetics can be impossible!
