1975 CB200T Café Racer Project

1975 CB200T Café Project

After finishing my last project (1973 Opel GT), I had been considering a motorcycle project for the last year or so. Finally last November, I decided to build a Café racer. I started my bike project by buying one of the Bennelli Tanks on e-bay. And I started to look for a bike. After several months of searching, I found her in a bike shop in my home town. A 1975 CB200T, Silver, with 6,048miles on the clock, and with the Title in hand. The bike shop owner bought her 8 years ago turned her on, and left her awaiting restoration.



Paid $350 plus TT&L and took her home.



The idea was to do a mechanical restoration, and use it as is for a while I learned how to drive a motorcycle…. Oh yea, I forgot to mention I never ridden before.
I expected to take three weeks to ride, it actually took four to drive her around the block a couple of times. In five weeks I had every light bulb, every switch, and both brakes working. Since then I would drive her to work almost every day.

I had to cheat and use an 25oz aluminum water bottle as the temporary gas tank cause the original tank was rusted out. I cut out the bottom of the tank to cover the small water bottle tank so that now one could tell.



The last couple of weeks I have been ordering parts and planning my build. This past Monday I officially started to build the café racer… I tore the front end down and mocked up the Tank, Clip Ons an new headlight. The benelli tank is not mounted yet, that’s the next step.

Looks like a lot of fun.
Like the temp tank idea )

How is the riding lessons going?
Got a little restoration on the go, but I went from riding to learning how to fix a bike.

Do you have an idea of what you want the bike to look like at the end ?

Wow! That thing is going to be AWESOME! Beautiful Opel as well!!
Kev

Blue: Lessons? what lessons, more like self taught so far... but i got the hang of it real quick,. Especially once i asked how to get her in neutral... ha ha, I had no idea, I knew 1st was down, then the rest were up, but that was it. don't get too scared, I am signing up for some rider lessons soon so that I can get my license.

I have been researching(lurking) these forums, and several blogs and have come to decide on the following project plans:

• · Satin Black Frame, all extra tabs removed, and factory welds smoothed out(grinder)
• · mostly blacked out engine, shorty exhaust ending before or near the rear tire
• · chrome outer wheels with black hub and spokes, classic looking tires
• · Cafe style fiberglass seat , bennelli tank (colors to be determine)
• · no rear fender, no front fender, Rear rock guard removed, rear fender converted to tire huger.
• · clip ons, new levers and controls, no Honda control switches, bar end mirrors
• · rear foot controls, near pass foot peg location
• · mikuni carbs with unipod filters,
• · gold/bronze color chain, no chain guard, “taller” sprocket gearing (for top end speed)
• · smaller sealed battery and electronics relocated hidden under seat
  

Nothing is set in stone, but i already ordered a lot of parts and paints with these design parameters.

Looks like a great start!

Looks like you got a pretty solid bike and a clear plan. Good luck with her. Nice Opel as well, btw.

Update:

I made progress on the Frame, and the Tank….

On the tank I finished the rear bracket, I used the stock bracket that holds the Tank rubber mount and fabed up a cross member to the tank.



On the Frame…. I took off all the tabs that did not plan to reuse, also took off the rear rock guard. I then ground and smoothed out allot of the factory welds. I also took a wire wheel to all the frame and striped it down to bare metal.



I then applied the paint. I used Eastwood’s extreme chassis paint in a Satin Black, I have used this companies paints in the past, and have liked the results and the durability of this paint. BTW Satin black is hard to photograph. This pick showed the frame hanging to dry the second coat I had just laid down 15 minutes before.



Plan to work on the Rear swing arm and front forks this week.

whats the opel have for an engine? ls1?

It has a mazda 12A Rotary engine.

Nice work so far. love both the bike and the Car.

Cheers.

Maritime

Im afraid i hadn't updated this in a while, but the truth is that to me, it is more fun to work in the garage than to work behind a computer.... with thant being said... here is my update... ALMOST DONE!!!

I only have a couple of tasks left to be 100% like, the rear sets a bit, Paint the Rear shocks... and also I need to take a bunch of quality Pictures.

For now here are some phone pics

Finally decided on the Color, BMW Platinum silver with a matte finish.










Here is the Latest Pic of her last Friday. Already put on her 170 km (in short trips with no rear brakes)

Loving that bike man and glad to see you could get the disc brake working to satisfaction.

Nice job on this bike! I am interested in learning more about how you use the "bottle" fuel tank. Whats the mileage range and do you have to remove the tank every time to add fuel? How much does it hold? Any plans for changing that setup?

That was a temporary set up. When i first did the mechanical resto, I needed a way to be able to ride, so I used a 25oz Aluminum drinking water bottle, just made a hole and put a brass fitting on the bottom with a couple of orings, this took a couple of tries until i got a leak proof setup. then an inline petcock, and the straight to the carbs via a "T" Fitting. I also drilled a tiny vent hole on the top, and changed the bottle cap o-ring to one that was fuel resistant. This set up had about 9-10 mile range, But I carried a extra bottle and funnel to refill on the road if necessary. ( and it was necessary several times) I ran this set up for about a month and a half (100 Miles).

The Original gas tank was beyond repair, so I gutted out the bottom of it. The shell did have to be removed every time I needed to refill it, but I had the shell just held in place not bolted down so it was pretty easy. You had to kneel down and look under the tank to be able to tell that the set up was there.

So what are you running it with now? Did you repair the tank? Sorry if I missed it in the thread.

I'm running a Bennelli tank I got from e-bay. I still have the CB200 Tank shell which I plan to make into piece of gear head "Art" for my garage wall.

great tank and seat combo! are you able to show how you mounted the speedo central like that?
is it a custom bracket bolted to the triples?

VBroom,
It’s a simple set up, using the mounting holes were the handle bar risers were. The top of the triple trees had the original Speedo/Tach mounting tabs removed. Then using a 7/16 x 2” bolt, through the holes and bushings for the risers, I attached two simple straight strips of steel to the mini speedo.
Here are some pics: