New project: 1974 Honda CL450

Well, now I've gone and done it. I've bought my first project bike, a 1974 Honda CL450. Mostly original but not running. It has been sitting for 10+ years and the PO states that it needs a new "Stater" (not starter) and probably some carb work. I bet it's nothing but varnish in there.


If you know of any good resources and documentation, inspiration, etc. please let me know. I'll probably cafe the bike after I get it running.


Tim Burke

Looks like a great bike to start with. I think dotheton.com is a pretty good place to start for inspiration. ;-) Are you going to go monoposto with it?

so clean! Nice foundation to start with man, good luck!

great find, should make a good cafe'.
Where in cincy are you?

Thanks everyone. I'm in the UC / Clifton area. I'll probably work on getting it running first, and then think about a frame off restore. Powdercoat the frame, and rebuild in a more cafe style. As time and money allows... of course.

Oh, by the way, I've setup a Cincinnati Cafe Racer's Facebook group if you are interested: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_147160538675693

He probably meant stator

lassenc said:

He probably meant stator

Click to expand...

I had to look that one up. Alternator stuff. Hmmm... i'm hoping it was a guess and that it was wrong. We'll see. I should begin to dig into this guy in about 10 days (work travel comes first). I'll keep you updated as I dig into this. I'm sure I'll have questions.

Well, i'm fairly far along. I've replaced the coils, condensor, rectifier, starter solenoid, spark plug/wires, i've cleaned the rusty tank (twice) replaced fuel lines, rebuilt the petcock and then replaced the leaky bastard. I've cleaned and rebuilt the carbs and pulled off the old air filters and put on Uni sock filters. But I don't like them so i'm waiting on some velocity stacks from Dime City and some new jets. I'm also going to pull the standard battery and battery cage and put in a super small Antigravity battery.
I had finally gotten it running and even did a short ride around the block. So i'm happy that the motor is otherwise good. Yesterday I pulled the wheels off and i'm putting on new tires (somewhat knobby tires for a good scrambler look). I cleaned and polished the front hub/wheel and then put on the tube & tire. But I must have pinched the tube when putting it on. Sigh. So i'm going to have a pro do the rear and redo the front. (Any advice where to go in Cincy?)
Soon, i'll be riding this bike... and then this fall / winter I will do a cafe down to the frame.

Nice. Can't wait to see more pix and let us know how those velocity stacks work for you.