72 cb 450 cafe build (first frame up build)

[ultskir]

When I was 18 my uncle told me I could have his old street bike. That bike was a 72cb450. I knew the bike well, as it had been sitting in the corner of my fathers garage, for as long as I could remember. The bike bike was finally mine, 21 years or so after my uncle had picked it up from the Honda dealership. I set to work. Pulled the tank, carbs, and got them cleaned up. New fork seals installed. While the fork legs were off I put them to my fathers big 8"polishing wheel, and did the same for both engine covers. Man this bike was coming together nicely I thought, and I'd did. I rode that bike for a couple of years. Fun little bike " I thought", but my speed freak inside of me was yearning for more. I picked up an 84 vf1000f interceptor, and that was the end of the road for the little CB. Until now, nearly another 20years have passed, and I now have resurrected it yet again(2014) from Dads garage. The bike was always garaged, but with that being said, that won't keep that east coast humidity from doing some damage. I headed from my Co home cross country to rescue the ole boy, and now he sits in the comfort of my nice high altitude 9600' garage, where it's nice and dry. This is where this new adventure begins. Cleaned the carbs, tanks, and all that jazz, new rubber, battery, flattrack bar, fixed the dents in the tank, primed it, and off and running. Well sputtering! Time to re-jet! The bike came from uncle with a Hooker header, on it, so I would have to do some freelance jetting. I called the closest Honda dealer (Denver) for jetting recommendations, and that was zero help. I ordered up a handful of jets from dime city, and went to work, and after the sending shot I had him all dialed in. Running like new..........cough cough, weeze, weeze. Bike was running "strong", but lack of O2 and the fact that the bike is 42 years old (last summer time of rescue) has a lot to do with it.
Fast forward to May 2015. I'm helping my friend do his CB900f cafe build, and my wife walks into the garage and say to me " you know I'm a bit jealous" I reply " why sweetheart are you jealous?" He response" well, you know seeing Barrett's bike almost done, really makes me want ours to look that good, why don't you do what we talked about to "The Juice" ( the name she gave the bike in honor of our late Great Dane nick named the Juice). My dumbfounded , and bewildered response was " uh ok,sure, yeah, that can all be done. Now your up to date! Let's begin this little project! FUN FUN FUN fun fun!
The plan:
Inverted forks
Good rear shocks racetech springs on/in both
Contact Team Hansen for engine build (498CC BB,custom cams, VM carbs, and chassis gusseting (team Hansen is the current euro world champ in 500 twin class) probably know what they are doing.
Custom rear sets, not just bolted to passenger peg
Rear hoop
Custom hand made seat and cowl
Frame either powder, or paint haven't decided
Paint tank tail section colors of Lily's choice.
That should cover the basics
The pic of the bike when it's green is just after I washed all the cob webs and road grime off if it after its 1800 mile trek back to Co. It looks a lot better than it really is. Surface rust galore, paint in ROUGH shape
The primer pic is obviously after I fixed the dents and shot or primer.
The orange bike is the CB replacement bike VF1000F interceptor. Still have, and she still rips!

 

[ultskir]

Re: 72 cb 450 cafe build

I got some work done on the old boy tonight. I was able to completely dissemble the bike. Motor on a make shift motor stand. I'd like to have a nicer one, but this one is working, and don't really have the time to spend on a one use only stand, so this one will do! Next I de-tabbed the frame, and cut the rear section just in behind of the shock mounts. Then did a little work on smoothing out the visible welds. I will be removing the passenger footpeg mounts once I come up with my placement for rearsets. I figured I'd keep those on as a good reference point for when I do make the mounts, and Chop them off at that point.
As I've been doing research on the go fast goodies for the bike I came across Team Hansen Honda. I saw there chromoly race frame RC replica. Man that thing is way beefier than the stocker. Well I got to thinking maybe I can strengthen the stocker, and get it close to that of the chromoly one. I gave Terry a shout at Team Hansen, and he set me straight. Apparently the the stocker is quite good the way it is. I know I've ridden the snot out of mine, but would like the most out of it. He was saying that there are a lot of people who race competitively with the stock frame, and that gusseting it isn't necessary, just to go back and make sure to weld up any welds on the backbone in the jointed areas, and that should take care of that. GOOD to know, and one less thing to worry about.
I'm not sure how I'm going to finish the frame. I'd like to powder coat, but not sure if that's in the budget. I haven't priced it out yet. I'll probably give some of the Denver shops a call, and see what the going rate is. I know I can lay down a good paint job, and with 2k clear over it it should be pretty tough. Just not powder coat tough. Before i shut it down tonight I laid on a thick coat of Citrus gel stripper. I've used this in the past with great success, so I guess I'll see how it did tomorrow.
Tomorrows agenda: finish stripping frame and swing arm, address the finish on the GSXR forks. Measure the dimensions of that I will need for the rear hoop. That's probably enough for now. This is going to be a fun build.

 

[ultskir]

The donor front end '98 GSXR 750. time to disassemble, clean, and polish. Front wheel might have to stay for a minute, until I find the correct 19" 1 " axel twin disc harley wheel.
Anyone know of one for sale? If so HMU!

 

[ultskir]

I started in on cleaning up the forks. I wasn't sure which route I wanted to go, leave them stock that ridged finish (I like it on my KTM), powder coat, painted, or polished. After some deliberation I decided on the polished look. Of course I'd go with the most labor intensive look, why not! I set out to smooth the ridges of the tubes, wasn't sure what was going to work, so I started with a scotchbrite coarse wheel, hahahaha yeah right. Not a chance! Then I broke out the DA sander with 120 grit, and that actually was working but very slowly. Ahhhh, then I spotted my PC 3x24 belt sander. That would surely work. I clamped it to the work bench and set forth asmoothin! It did a great job, knocked out the ridges in about 10 min per leg. I then progressed to the coarse, then medium scotchbrite wheels, and next I broke out the polishing wheel, and high sheen rouge. That worked well but I thought i'd try something else. I broke out the buffer w/ a new wool wheel and some of the Mothers aluminum polishing cream in the little white can. Man that stuff works, outshined the rouge handily, and much quicker, so if you are going to do some aluminum polishing I'd suggest going this route, once you have knocked off the oxidation, and want not.
I did the call around to the Denver powder coat shops, and it seems that the frame and swingarm are going to run about 2 bills for a stock gun metal metallic. I haven't completely set my mind on that, but I do want something other than black. Metallic charcoal grey would work, but that will be another 100 bucks. They have to clear powder over the charcoal, so that the metallic doesn't oxidize. I figure while I'm getting the frame done I will get the fork legs powdered clear, so that all my hard work wont go to waist and end up looking like my engine covers did.

 

[bushjeeps]

NJ

 

[ultskir]

Today was a little more prep work on the frame. I got it stripped as far as I could with the citrus stripper. That stuff works quite well if you have the time let it sit, and do it's thing. I originally wanted to have the frame media blasted, but I'd have to take the frame and swing arm to Denver (70m away), and that's just not feasible. I then hit the frame with a wire wheel and finished off any stubborn pain that remained. A little words of advice for those that might be doing a similar project on a similar vintage bike. My father informed me that all these old bikes pre 1980 or so would have lead based paint on them, and to be sure to wear a good paint booth quality respirator, to ensure that I didn't inhale any airborne paint dust. The frame turned out really well, and I have toyed with keeping it natural with clear powder coat. Thoughts anyone?
Next I went ahead and fabbed up the electronics tray. Battery, solenoid, ignition switch, and rec/reg. I used 22 ga sheet metal and spot welded it to the underside of the frame. I think it turned out pretty well. First time welding thin 22ga to thick walled steal tube. I was a bit afraid I just blow right through the sheet metal, but I took my time, and did a few test welds on some scrap that I had, and got the feel for it.
I wish I had a mandrel tube bender. It's time for the hoop, and I ordered on from speed moto co. Don't order the one for the 750 and think it will work on the 450. I emailed the guys there, and they assured me it would be good to go. Not so! Oh well, sending it back tomorrow. Now in search of another hoop. I'm also going to see if can possibly source it locally from a muffler shop. I doubt they have dies that small, but maybe. Fingers crossed.

 

[trek97]

Nice work and a good story. PS I didnt read ALL of it. But get the jist.

 

[ultskir]

Thanks trek97. This is the first build up blog/forum whatever it's called that I've done, bot I feel I might be a little long winded thus far. Might have to cut the narrative down and keep it simple I suppose.


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[ultskir]

Re: 72 cb 450 cafe builod (first frame up build)

Little work done today. I just spent time cleaning and de-greasing the motor. I plan on taking down the top end tomorrow, so I can get the cylinders and cams sent out to Terry at Team Hansen Honda. On my way to approximately 48 rear wheel hp (illinois elevation). This ought to make this little bike a bit more interesting than before

 

[ultskir]

Little work done today. I just spent time cleaning and de-greasing the motor. I plan on taking down the top end tomorrow, so I can get the cylinders and cams sent out to Terry at Team Hansen Honda. On my way to approximately 48 rear wheel hp (illinois elevation). This ought to make this little bike a bit more interesting than before

Been in steamboat springs busy opening the new sushi restaurant the Sake2u, so If your are ever in the boat, look me up. I did get the top end torn down, and sent off to team Hansen. I then fabbed up the rear hoop out of .120 DOM turned out well for my first time I'd say.
That's going to be it for awhile unfortunately. I'll be in steamboat running the sushi bar, and trying to find a place for me and the wifey to live. The hard part of this entire move is going to be trying to find a replacement for our 2 deep 3 bay garage .

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