Hi, from Thamesville Ontario

[Will McD]

HEY! I'm from Thamesville Ontario, I own a 1982 Honda CB650. I bought it 2 months ago with the intentions of turning it into a cafe racer. I first discovered cafe racers when I came across Steve Carpy's website. I fell in love with retro style combined with the sport bike performance. I was pleased to learn that there are other canadians that enjoy cafe racers as much as i, because none of my friends even know what cafe racers are and they're only interested in the latest crotch rockets. Anyway, my cb came in excellent condition considering it has 70,000 kms. The chrome is all excellent. I've ripped off  all the dead weight and so far I've added cafe bars, an old kawasaki gas tank, little blinkers, and i made my first ever cafe seat out of fiber glass. I don't have a credit card (as i'm only 19) so ebay is really not an option for me, so in order to find a tank that i thought was cafe'ish' i bought an old kawi tank and it fit on with only a little fabrication. The cafe seat was a lot more work than i thought it would be, and im still not finished!! I shaped it out of foam then painted it and covered it in plaster to make the mold for the fiber glass. I think the seat came out looking a little bit to high.  Maybe thats because it is so short?? I like the short look, but maybe its the low gas tank that makes it look to tall. The stock battery does fit under the seat though, so that was a bonus    Let me know what you guys think of the seat and the tank! i like constructive criticism!
     So now im trying to decide on a paint scheme, I was thinking of black or maybe a British racing green. I cant decide if i will use the checkered stripe down the center, i like it, but a lot of people dont Any ideas!!?? 

well its not letting me attach my picture so ill try again later... 

[locO leoN]

Hey Will,

Welcome to the site!!.. Im glad you found us!!.
There 2 members onthe board who also have cb650's and so far your is the closest thing that we have to a cb650 cafe racer!!..
Looks great so far..
Add more pics!!

Just a thought, how about lowering the front end about 2 inches or so. It might offset the size of the back end a little bit.

Cheers
N

[78kz]

Welcome Will.

Do try to get some pictures up, as I'm planning my own seat build this Winter.
From the looks of your avatar, it seems your well on your way to having a nice Cafe Racer. 

[saucer]

i love the d.i.y. spirit of the caferacer, and that you can turn pretty much any bike into a cafe,your bike looks great, i hope you find this place as much of an inspiration as i do,

[Will McD]

locOleoN, i also had the idea of lowering the front end, but i cant figure out how i would do it. the forks have air pressure adjuster valve and a hose that runs across the top of the forks. The cafe handlebars are right up against the top of the hose hookups on top of the forks. i guess the only way to lower it a bit would be to get clip ons. I forget what size my forks were, but they are a rare size so i would probably have to buy new clip-ons (about $85 ) unless anyone knows of anything cheaper?? has anyone ever made their own clip-ons??
    Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! ill try to get some pics up. any paint ideas?

[locO leoN]

Hey Will,

send or post a pic of the top of the tripple tree.
You should be able to push the forks through the upper tripple tree clamp by loosening the clamp bolts.
I'll have a better idea once I see how it looks.

BTW, Wheres Thamesville?

Cheers
N

[Will McD]

Here is a pic of the top of the forks. you can see that where the hose attaches to the forks, is right up against the curve of the handle bars. I thought about cutting the handle bars in half and making them wider, but the forks would still hit the handle bars and i would only be able to slide the forks up about 1/2 an inch. I really don't think there is any way move the forks up through the triple t's with the handle bars on.  Are there other bikes out there with this pressure adjuster system on the forks??? Anyway, Thamesville is near Chatham (about halfway between London and Windsor) A 3-4 hour drive form Toronto. Ill post some pictures of my seat here and in the seat/tank section. I found a good website on how to make a fiber glass seat. it helped me out a lot... http://www.matteoforgione.com/matteo/caferacer/cafe.html 

[Will McD]

more pics...

[locO leoN]

Yep, sure looks like you will need to go with clip-ons if you want to lower that front end.

[oldog]

Hello Will,
 I just joined a short while ago myself. Thamesville is just down the road from me here in Blenheim.  

[pyro139]

forget noel
as a 650 owner there a way to drop front end since you have a 82, same for 81, you need remove top bar clamp with clamp and bars off caredull cause fuse box attach to top clamp .
push forks thru to point you want the(make sure there equal or will have break drag problems(learnt this hard way)) once forks where desired put on bars with grip's straight down attach top clamp install screws but dont tighten down angle bars to where you want themthey will be tight against forks but will work, tighten top clamp, side note your hose connecting forks will be above top clamp.

[pyro139]

also what you do with the stock tank? if have it and it still good what want for it i have 81 cb650c and my tank is shot

[Will McD]

  Thats a great idea, and one that i would never have thought of. Thanks a lot eh, I will definately do that. As for the stock tank, i'd love to help you out but i've been building this bike with no major alteration to the frame or any welds on the frame so that if i need to all the stock parts will bolt right back on, so I am going to keep all the stock parts. Are these 650s pretty rare? The salvage shop I go to has all kinds of tanks but I didn't see a cb650. cb750 parts seem to be quite common... Anyway thanks for the tip    

[oldog]

Will,
 Just curious...what salvage shop do you deal with in Thamesville area?

[Will McD]

Will,
 Just curious...what salvage shop do you deal with in Thamesville area?

I'm glad you brought that up. Actually I used to deal with Sonic Cycle Salvage in London (about an hour away, but you know that), but soon found out that they can be a bunch of pricks when they are not in the mood to help you out. When I first started messing around with parts for my 1980 yamaha sr250 when i was a kid (only about 3 years ago) i found out that they didnt want to help me out. I only know of one other salvage shop around and that is also near London, in Dorchester, N.C.K cycle salvage. The guy is real nice and knows what he is doing. Not a big place but very organized and clean, total opposite of sonics. If you know of another place, especially one that is closer to us, i would Definitely like to know about it   Not a fan of driving on four wheels to pick up parts, less time driving, means more time for riding 

[oldog]

Will,
 Yep...Sonic Cycle in London are RIP-OFFS...they will sell you a Briggs N Stratton carburator for your Honda!
   There is a guy in Chatham that specializes in mostly jap  stuff. He is a mechanic as well. He is very well known in Chatham for being reasonably priced. He has tons of salvage parts. He is on Grand Ave. (just past Taylor Ave. on the north side of Grand.) as your coming into Chatham on #2.
 I don't want to post his name on here cause he might get pissed. Ask around as he is quite well known.

[Will McD]

Yah I've been to him a couple times. Hes a great mechanic, helped me out when my gas cap seized shut. He also fixed my sr250 when the ignition box got fried, it was like $200 for a new one and he found me one for $70 at Sonics. Thats how i came to know about them. So Yah I'm going to that guy in Chatham for all my mechanical needs. So anyway have you got a cafe racer in the works? we should go for a ride some time, hopefully mine will be finished early next summer.

[pyro139]

will finaly got to my front end and ya too tight unless you go with different bars 1/2 inch most can shove forks thru trees

[Will McD]

will finaly got to my front end and ya too tight unless you go with different bars 1/2 inch most can shove forks thru trees

Aww, that sucks. I was looking forward to lowering it. I'm about 8 hours away from my bike so I can only look at pictures, but i was thinking, maybe it would be possible to do what mysta2 did with his clubmans, below the triple tees. I think it looks really cool, but im not sure if it would work on the 650. Its hard to tell from the pictures I have. What do you think?