cafe bikes and cruves?

neckyzips

Been Around the Block
im just getting back into ridding and my cafe projects after 3 years of ups and downs with starting my own business, its been tough but im seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and looking to get back to riding. about 10 years ago, i picked up a cb500 barn find, after a day of tinkering got the obvious issues sorted and running good. new tires, tune up and headed off to deal's gap, not my first trip but the first on on a bike as old as i was. after an hour of interstate riding it was great to see how she did in the twisties, while most of the newer bikes could eat me alive in the straights but i wasnt holding anyone back in the corners. which brings me to my question: i see tons of cool videos from suppliers, builders and the like of flat out running, but not much of cornering, nor do i see many posts about handling tweaks. to me its tons more fun to go blasting around the corners than streaking down the straights. what are your thoughts on the subject? is the primary goal to have a good looking bike that runs well, or do you factor handling into the build as well?

ps, if you have any links to well done vids of nicely built cafe's zipping through the corners id love to see them.
just a few past and present rides
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Nope, right enough spot. Corners beat straights by 100X I have no pics of me in the corners but there are a few really good ons of members at Deals etc. so when they see this they should respond.


Nice rides, I will make it there someday soon. I have a road not far from me called the dragon of the east with close to the same curves but almost no traffic, if I can get someone with a camera I will get some pics in the spring when I hit it.

Cheers

Maritime
 
There is not a whole lot you can do in the handling department for these old bikes. The aftermarket is ok for options depending on what type of bike you have. I'm pretty sure most of us like to keep the bike as stock as possible. Once you start changing out swing arms and front forks you can dramatically change how it handles. At that point the bike becomes a bit of a mutt. Then there are steering stabilizers and adding more metal to the frame to stiffen up everything.
 
i was thinking i was all alone in the corners department for a bit! glad to see others enjoy it as well.
i was really surprised by the cb500 handling compared to my experiences with the 750 which felt a bit unstable lots of frame movement when flipping and took a long time to settle into the corner. the 500 flicks back and forth with little to no upset. i would love to swap over to a mono shock, and inverted front forks, but i can imagine getting every thing dialed back into would be a nightmare. my r6 track bike was no fun, if you weren't going balls out you had to really hold it down to get it to corner. where as the old zx7 just fell in, set there till you came out, a much more confident feeling, very solid and planted.

ive been working on another cb500, big bore kit, 17"rims laced to the stock hubs, duel disk set up, etc, the frame doesnt seem to be an issue but the pipes and kick stand mount have to be delt with. im curious as to how it will corner, it will deffenatly need the rear lifted a bit, and the forks stiffened, then a damper, i already fixed some of the weak points of the frame and braced up a bit. now if i can con "oldskool" into building me a tank... any ideas on tucking the exhaust out of the way?
 
Its definitely all about handling for me. I could care less how fast the bike is in a straight line. My CB450 is stock suspension (for now), im guna try to fit some early 90's cbr forks and maybe hagon's out back.
Even stock, i give guys on modern sport bikes a run for their money on certain roads (maybe mostly operator error on their part???)
 
My XS650 has a Realm Engineering rear suspension setup with bronze swingarm bushings, tapered steering head bearings and Race Tech springs and cartridge emulators in the front forks. All set up just a few weeks ago by Doug from DEK Performance while at Kiley's place in Alabama.

Handles very nicely :) And it goes stinking fast in a straight line too.

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I'm all about the corners!!!



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Tim, love that shot of dragging pipes. Cant wait for Barber again next year! That road south of the track is worth the drive alone.
 
If not for the cornering and technical riding, building cafe bikes sure would be a waste of time. Haha...
 
My DS7 out for tracktime during it's build...
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And it's a 40y/o 250... Fast is seldom used in the same sentance.
But there's an old adage: "It's more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than a fast bike slow" ;)
 
Not to sound like your mother, but open jackets offer next to zero protection when you fall off. Please zip them up - just in case.

/Mom :)
 
It's all about the curves, and acceleration and braking. Cruising around town is a part of it, but a small part.
 
I need new pipes on that bike - something to kick up. I have an opportunity to buy a 2 into 1 MikesXS header/megaphone that supposedly adds 10HP at the wheel based on their dyno testing, but it looks very modern.

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Tim said:
Handles very nicely :)
KillBoy1.jpg
Tim, you need to move that muffler rearward, and upward. At the relatively modest lean angle shown in the photo, the muffler should not be dragging on the ground. It's a safety issue: if you were to lean a few more degrees, you would start to lose rear tire contact.
 
Love the corners and the CX works pretty well in them, I dont have any great pics of the tighter stuff and this one is an older one, it's since got new rear shocks, rebuilt forks and clipons, corners even better now :)

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Cheers
Steve
 
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