1975 CB200T CAFE PROJECT, few questions

[Keogan]

Ok, so i'm looking to turn my perfectly running, perfectly good cb200t into a cafe style goddess.

First things first, I need some handlebars, I'm torn between the two styles but i'm leaning more towards the non clipons.

I've seen a variety of seats, with a variety of prices, and I've seen some wikked bikes sans a cafe style seat.

Headlight, now you have to understand, I'm a student, I don't have tons of money, and only a garage bay to do work, I can't fabricate parts and I've seen a lot of custom setups. advice?

I'm pretty fluent in small engines, so I love working on this bike, its an amazing break from school. I'm currently working on getting a title for the bike, its turning out to be very frustrating, as I expected. But for a $400 piece of gold, I'm willing to jump through some hoops.

also looking to buff up the engine plates and pipes, how do I go about this with little to no tools?

Picture of my law school commuter attached.

 

[Big R]

first things first - dont spend a dime til you get a title. Your $400 lump of gold may turn into a lump of parts depending where you are.

Clubmans are definitely cheaper and more comfortable to run (especially without rearsets). The seat...... well I personally hate working with fiberglass. I would save up the $ and buy a pre-made one. But it is possible to diy. And what were you thinking of doing with the headlight?

 

[teazer]

It's been a few decades since I was a student and I'm still skint and I make fantastic bikes - no false modesty here mate.

Side covers can be stripped of the clear with wet and dry or just paint stripper and then smoothed with successively finer grades of wet and dry and polish by hand. A power drill is better but you can do it by hand.

Rich's approach is spot on. When it's legal, or if it's legal, then it's time to start the research. Search this forum and others for pictures and other builds and zero in on a look you like. Clubm,an's/Ace bars are easiest to fir and allow you to keep the stock headlamp ears etc. Pipes can stay stock. Avoid expense there. Look for color ideas.

The stock seat is a reasonable height off the ground and many cafe seats are too low. I'd make a simple seat model out of stiff card and make a seat from that if you're OK to play with composites. That way, the seat shape will be all yours.

A technique I use even today is to get nice large blow up prints of the stock bike and a sheet of plain white labels to cut up to blank parts off that I want to remove and then get out the pencils and crayons and play with shapes and colors. Or go straight to photoshop if you are good with the software. When I use the software approach I end up saving dozens of color schemes and I find I start to zero in on one look fairly quickly, but sometimes it takes time for the vision to emerge.

Take that time to play with ideas. This is the cheap fun part of the build. Take the time to take lots of photos and if necessary, take the seat off or other parts off and take more pics to play with.

 

[Keogan]

I like the clubman handlebars on this bike, so I think I'll go that route. And I love how clean this bike is, I want to really buff/clean the aluminum, any ideas on how that can be done efficiently. When I fix bicycles I usually use storebought aluminum polish with a rag, and that takes forever and doesn't always turn out how I want. Essentially I'm going to start out moving towards the picture below. It seems a little easier than most, just need DOTHETON guidance!
http://imgur.com/l8WUR.jpg/img]



This seat is about the right height. And I love the color, but its a different tank/bike. With the cb200 tank being as high as it is, I'd want a little higher bump in the back of the seat
[img width=770 height=577]http://imgur.com/Xfwgk.jpg




Thanks guys

 

[Keogan]

The seat i'm going for is somewhat like this, I like the seat height, the Cb200 tank is a little higher and boxier so I'd have to mimic that on the seat.

 

[Big R]

You could also try some plain old drag bars since they could be had cheaper than clubmans sometimes. Or even a straight 7/8" diameter pipe just to try the "feel" of them.

For the aluminum, try getting some aircraft stripper first. And get it by the big can, not in the aerosol cans. It costs more, but lasts SO much longer and works better. Just removing the original clear coat and dirt will make them appear much better. If there's some small scratches, start working with 800 grit wet/dry sand paper and get a buffing wheel with some polishing compounds. Most likely, if there is a gear head in the area they will be glad to help with the buffing part. The wet sanding though.......it can be tough work so you'll have to do it yourself.