Here's a link to my build
Ratty CafeAnd a summary of how it got to where it is now.
I bought the bike for $420AUD in July last year, it was located over 1000km from home so a me and a mate hopped in his old postal van (no reverse gear and a badly slipping 1st in the auto) and drove up to pick it up along with another bike and some bits for my Jeep. It was an interesting trip but set the scene for the build, do it as cheap as possible and make sure it was fun
When we picked it up it looked like this, as rough as it was it ran pretty well but had a bad miss up top and wasn't registered.
I had a pretty decent plan of what I wanted so picked up most parts from ebay or the US, much cheaper than here in Australia where the cafe scene is not really that big, in fact I've never seen another on my weekend rides yet the only ones I have seen have been at Deus.
In total I spent less than another $1000AUD on the bike, that included the RocCity cafe seat, Acewell gauge, ebay headlight, ebay bars, budget indicators, ebay water temp gauge, $80 of paint (done by a great mate for just materials) and numerous bits and pieces like pods and jets and silencers (that dont silence at all). The whole thing was built in my garage and painted in the backyard
Some pics along the way.
Seat bars and gauge on
Running and registered
Stripped down for paint
Back together with paint, its a lot lower with the weight on the wheels, check the video
And the video
So the aim of the build was achieved, take a cheap unloved bike that had some character hidden in there somewhere and build a reliable cool fun bike that I could ride everyday, the shaft drive and water cooled V-twin CX is just that. It sounds awesome and I bet I never see another on the road like it
Cheers
Steve
Poll
Author
