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Hey guys. I know I haven't been around for a long while but I think this deserves me to start posting again. Before I start I want to make it clear that I don't want to hear any "That's too nice to mod" comments. They are my bikes and if I can improve them in my eyes, I will!
Anywho.
This latest project is a 1972 CL350 that I totally scored. It's super clean... it just needs a carb rebuild, new battery, and some new gas and it probably would have fired right up. But where's the fun in that?
I'm going for what I am calling a Brat-tracker. It's basically going to be a bratstyle and street-tracker inspired standard motorcycle. Plans include:
• Lowering 1" in the rear and 1.5" in the front.
• New bars (pictured)
• New tires (Firestone deluxes)
• New paint.
• No front fender.
• Bobbed back fender.
• New turn sigs and taillight. Stock headlight and gauges.
• And a custom seat.
We have the stock seat off my '73 that will be kept around for extra cush and two-up riding. I'm going to have my old red/white tank off the '73 repainted cause I had no luck selling it and it's already got POR-15 lining it.
More pics to come. If you have any questions, ask. I will do my best to answer.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 11
Quick update.
Tank and side covers are at the painters. This paint job should be really different and special, keep your eyes peeled.
Forks are off and will be lowered 1.5" this weekend. New 12" Redwing shocks installed. Wheels are off to get new Firestone Deluxe's installed. Carbs off to clean and rebuild. Just need to fab up the seat and re-assemble. Thinking 2-3 weeks and we'll be blasting it around town!
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 12
Weekend update: Just got the 19"x4.00" front and 18"x4.00" rear mounted up... Firestone Deluxes. They look fantastic. Can't wait to get them installed on the bike. Need to get the forks lowered and the fender bobbed this weekend and I'll be able to do that.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 12
Brad,
I am very fortunate to have really talented friends. On my first bike the paint was done by a friend of mine in trade for some clip-ons I had laying around and a $100 AGV Dragon helmet. I just paid for the paint. The pinstriping was done by my friend Josh Christy that owns vanchase.com and I think it cost me about $50 and a bottle of Sailor Jerry... but I've known him for years.
Josh from VanChase is painting the tank for this project and I think it's really gonna be something special and different. Picture this... we found a 1970's dirt tracker tank and stuck it on the bike... complete with fading and distress etc... but all new paint. I'm really putting it in his artistic hands. I don't know what he's going to charge me, but I'm sure it will be worth whatever it is.
Once it's done and if you like what you see I will ask him if he want's to take on another tank/covers project and if so I'll get you in touch.
- Woody
bww_mn said:
Woody, just curious, if you'd be willing to share:
Where do you get your tanks/sides painted and could you share a ~ price? I'm having trouble finding someone locally and I'd be willing to ship.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 12
Got the new bars drilled and wired tonight. Pulled the carbs apart ready to get ultrasonically cleaned, and dissembled the fork legs.
Ran into a little issue tonight with the forks. I was planning to just add a spacer on the dampers to lower the forks, but on these CL forks they are a sealed up damper/rod/piston unit. I'm going to take the damper assembly to a machine shop next to my office and see if they can just cut the damper rod and re-thread it where it threads into the fork caps. I don't think it's going to me a major setback... but I will know more tomorrow.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 18
Quick Friday update.
These might look like stock CL350 damper assemblies... but they aren't! The damper rod has been shortened by 1.5" and re-threaded. I thought this was going to be a big set back since with these forks you can't just shim the damper like on a lot of them, but the machine shop two doors down from my office was able to cut and re-thread the stainless rods in just a couple days and only charged me $20! Sweet deal if you ask me!
If anyone plans to do this, the threads are a 7mm he said. He had to order the die and that caused a little delay. I will have the bike back on it's wheels by the end of the weekend!
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - Updated June 19
Welcome to WEEKEND UPDATE!
So today I re-assembled the lowered front forks and re-installed them. Got the wheels back on, I love the way they look! Installed the rear turn signals. Bobbed the rear fender and removed the extra bracing on the sides of the fender to make it slimmer looking.
It's really starting to come together. The tank is my spare while the old red one is being painted, and I just stuck the seat pan on for mockup in relation to the rear fender. Pipes are just on to mockup as well. I removed some extension/spacers that were on the pipes that added about 8" to them. I'm going to shorten the lower header about 1.5" so there is a little less stagger and so the joint of the tip and the header will be hidden behind the stock heat-shield.
I will have the carbs back from being ultrasonically cleaned and should be able to rebuild and install them next week, along with the stock airboxes/filters.
Left to do:
• Install new battery
• Install taillight
• Finish wiring up everything and hiding wires
• Re-assemble and install carbs
• Finish seat cowl and carve foam to send to upholstery.
That's most everything. I should have the tank and side covers back from the painter in another week or so. Probably about the time I get everything else buttoned up.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - NEW PICS June 19
PHeller said:
Questions:
What bars?
Bikemaster Euro Touring Bars - Available from Dime City Cycles
What signals? Mini Billet Single Filament - Also, Dime City Cycles
Any changes done to the frame? No frame mods, but the damper-rods in the forks have been shortened (lowered) 1.5" and the rear shocks are 12" instead of the 13" stockers... might do 11" in the future. We'll see how it rides.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker tweed jacket bike - NEW PICS June 19
Geeze... why don't I have more time to work on the scooter? Anyway... I found some time to head to a friends and get the bumpstop welded up. I made a template of paper earlier, and then I scanned it in flat and made an autocad file to have a fab shop CNC plasma cut the cowl out of 16G steel.
Ignore my crappy welding... I'm not great with with a welder... but I'm really good with a grinder ;-) Also, my bends look worse then they really are, and since this is being covered in padding and vinyl I figure they won't be visible.
Here are the pics. Sorry they kinda suck... just from my phone.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker Project Bike - NEW PICS July 21
It's getting close folks!
Today I installed all the new cables. Black break, throttle, clutch, speedo, tach. The brake and clutch cables I had professionally shortened by a guy here in town. The tach and throttle cables didn't bug me with their length. I shortened the speedo housing with help from you guys, but I wound up ordering the Motion Pro inner wire kit for $12 instead of jacking with re-squaring the meter end of the inner wire. Not too bad. The clutch and brake are routed really smoothly and they lay down nice and tight to the bars. Very pleased with how this baby is turning out.
Also new in these pics is the rock guard on the headlamp. It's intended for a Jeep. I clipped off the outer ring to make it a smaller diameter and then installed from the inside, using the pressure from the bulb to hold it in place. It looks BOSS! It was a huge PITA to get the bulb back in to replace the pivot screws, but now that it's done it still adjusts just as it should... unless you guys have ever really looked at how the bulb is held into the headlight ring, this probably doesn't make sense. Anywoo... it looks awesome and really adds to the look IMO.
It's getting dang close to fire-it-up time... soon. Very soon. The weather here is still in the upper 90's+ so I'm not too worried about it... there is still plenty of good riding time to come.
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker Project Bike - NEW PICS July 21
Got the tank and side covers back today... OMG... I love it. I'm not gonna post the final pics until I have the seat upholstered and the bike is complete. It's way different then what most people do to their bikes... I think people will either get it and love it... or they will hate it. I don't really care, cause it's my bike.
The nice thing is that my painter is going to buff out the stock tank and remove the crappy vinyl pin-striping tape and hand stripe it. He also did a set of side-covers for me in satin black. So I will have two tanks, and two sets of side covers. We don't wear the same clothes everyday... why should my bikes.
Hopefully I can get the seat upholstered this week and take pics soon. Everything else is buttoned up other then plumbing the tank and tuning it up.
More progress pics and details soon.
- Woody
valvesprung said:
This is shaping up to be one of my single favorite builds so far. Attention to detail is amazing man, can't wait to see the paint!
Re: Woody's 1972 CL350 Brat-tracker Project Bike - NEW PICS July 21
Bummer you couldn't have put the battery in the rear tail section and done away with the sidecovers/glovebox/battery holder completely-would've looked super-tough. Really diggin' the seat. Did you do something other than black?
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