Fisher Price: My first Cafe Racer; CB175

Ok, Long story short. I bought this last year about this time. I only decided to really get after it about a month ago. I am a reformed mini-trucker so the urge to cut first and ask questions later is quite prevalent. This build is sponsored by Pandora radio, NewCastle brown ale, and Miller High Life.
Stock...not for long.


Then came clubmans and a carb rebuild.


After that came rearsets and a cafe seat.






Here it is as it sits now.



Do you have any idea how difficult it is to turn the gauges even that little bit. Also, note the polished factory controls. That was an entire snow day start to finish.



Drilled the front hub last night. Chucked up the hole saw and yelled "fuck the world". Actually, I shivered tensely (it's freakin cold here) until all six holes were cut. It will wither work or it is ruined.



These rearsets took about 5 weeks to sort out and get working. I am particularly proud of the fact that there is no "bent brake rod" and I used the factory brake switch. Word.


Shift side...as to be expected



Polished alternator cover



Polished points cover



Broke the key off in the ignition while fitting the clip-ons. Guess I had too many beers.



Modified hiyabusa led tailight...



with turn signals



Much more to come very soon. I have plans to paint the tins and fork covers in a few weeks. Then comes the engine goodies. I know it will never be a rocket. The fastest I have had it is 76mph. I hope to be able to see 80 consistently. I figure just rider posture alone will boost max speed a bit.

Shamone Mof
I like the gauges.
The six to twelve o'clock rock.

I'd like to see some details about the rear brake. I was holding up y rear sets and scratching my head just this afternoon. I'd love to see how you worked all that out.

As I said it took about 5 weeks to sort out as a first timer. I used the factory exhaust mounts to support some custom aluminum brackets."I installed these when I had the clubmans on...so, I didn't really know where the pegs should end up. Then I actuated the linkage via the factory linkage. I sawed off the original brake pedal and kept the rest of the linkage. This allows you to use the stock brake light switch and you can also keep the factory exhaust. I am still working out how to beautify the setup but it works. Here are some pics.
Side note: the parts I noted as polished ended up covered in finger prints. I will post pictures of these items cleaned up a little later.

Also, pardon the distortion, I was using a "fish eye" lens.

rentedshoes said:

Drilled the front hub last night. Chucked up the hole saw and yelled "fuck the world". Actually, I shivered tensely (it's freakin cold here) until all six holes were cut. It will wither work or it is ruined.

Click to expand...

I think this is exactly the way I approach things, too. (I mean both yelling "FTW" and drilling and hoping). Also, the seat and tail-light are pure sex. I love it. That little thing's awesome!

Good work so far. What's up with NewCastle? The beer or the city?

Big Rich said:

Good work so far. What's up with NewCastle? The beer or the city?

Click to expand...

New Castle beer...The one and only.

Lets see more on that tail light - looks like a winning choice for size and shape, and the signals in it are the icing on the cake.

Interesting solution on the rearset. It always amazes me what can be done with the little CB's. Very cool.

I second Tim's post! That tail light looks to be the answer to some of my problems.........how to, Please??

very cool!

Do a search for "motorcycle integrated tail lights" and you'll find a ton of options. I'm not even close to building my electronics on my BSA, but when I get to the tail lights, I'm definitely doing something along that line.

Great work so far, rentedshoes!

The post office didn't deliver my packages this weekend. So I still have a broken ignition switch and no front turn signals. What happened to all that "neither rain or SNOW nor dark of night" bull shit the post office used to tout?
Oh, well. It will give me time to finish up the tail light mounting and put oil in the fork & if I am lucky a quick test run up and down the block. If not, I can at least sit on it and drink a beer and look at my reflection in my wife's car window while making engine sounds. Vroom!

On a a serious note; I will try to post pictures of the tail light install tonight.

Ok, here is the blow by blow on my seat install.

It all started with this:
Please waitImage not available

Hmmm.... Now if only there were a bunch of birds around here to shit on my bike. You might be o to something.

Snow day yesterday. Can you believe I spent the whole day at work anyway? What is wrong with me? Today I got to spend on the garage. I made some progress on some simple things. I replaced the ignition switch. Of which I took no pictures. It is pretty plug and play.

I mounted the front turn signals after a few hours of modifying the stock fork ears. Man, this is a PITA! I really should give up on the stock ears but the fork tubes inside are so tiny that I think it will look silly with aftermarket ears.

Believe it or not, the headlight mounting bolts don't block the turn signals. I scoured the local ACE hardware for some button-head allen-bolts to replace the factory ones but had no luck. So instead, I bought some chrome washers to clean up the whole assembly. $4 well spent.

Then I fired up the bike and went around the block to find 2 problems. It appears that the LED turn signals don't draw enough current to flash at regular intervals. I suppose I need an aftermarket resistor/relay. The other problem that came up is that the neutral light now stays on all the time. It is not a big issue but I'm not sure if I will be able to put up with the green light mocking me while I ride. Tips?

I fabbed up a steering stop. I love using shit in ways it was never intended.



Next, it was time to get street legal again.
I fabbed up this license bracket a few weeks ago

This will mount the plate vertically. I fabbed a tab for the state inspection sticker. I wil probably ditch this setup once I find a suitable aftermarket plate frame and mount that isn't $100.

Erskine said:

Shamone Mof
I like the gauges.
The six to twelve o'clock rock.

Click to expand...

Turning those gauges was amazingly difficult. But then again, aren't all clean mods?

You're deffo going about this the right way, working around a runner rather than having to take it out of commission.

I need a 6 to 12 face but can't seem to find anything on the net I can download.

Erskine said:

You're deffo going about this the right way, working around a runner rather than having to take it out of commission.

I need a 6 to 12 face but can't seem to find anything on the net I can download.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I like to ride it around the block and to work from time to time to see how it is coming along.
Have you found a high-quality image file for a gauge overlay? If you have I bet I could modify it to work for both of us. My wife and I both have training in this area.

Do you mean something like a Jpeg photo?