91' CB250 Nighthawk Cafe Racer style ...

[Pnbell]

Hey guys, a few weeks ago I found a decent little 91' CB250 Nighthawk on craigslist for cheap. Fairly lame bike in most aspects, but also fairly solid, so i decided to have some fun with it. Here's a play by play of the build.

The Day I bought it, stupid and ugly, this will be tough.:

New home at the Shop:

Seat and Fairing Removed:

Put the Stock Seat back on and the bike already looks cooler! but no … this a build thread:

Made a New Tail Section out of Fiberglass, Chopped the frame, and of course installed the obligatory Clubmans…:

Quick Paint:

Foam Seat, Metal Mesh and Lights!:

Said 'bye bye' to those Giant Mufflers, 'Hello' to some Fork Gaiters, and placed a Sticker over the gouge I just put in the paint!:

And Ta'da! a CB250 Nighthawk which is a bit more exciting to look at and a lot more fun to fly around the City on.

After installing a larger main jet, and tuning the mixture screw the bike runs pretty well. All said and done this project total was under $1k, the bike has minimal power, but also weighs very little. Basically its just a Fun little toy to fling around the streets of DC!
This project is not really done, so any ideas, feedback, criticism, harsh words are all welcome.

 

[CALfeRacer]

I just sold mine, good little bike. Looks like yours was pretty nice to start.
However, I can't say I'm a huge fan of the seat. Doesn't really work too much with the tank or frame lines, in my opinion. However, if you like it that's what counts. Did you ride it much before putting on the pod and mufflers? I'm curious how those affected the power on it.

 

[Pnbell]

Yea, I know the lines aren't great ... neither the frame or the tank are ideal for this type of build. I did fit a CB350 tank on the frame, but it was way too small, looked ridiculous.

Ultimately the goal was simply to make a fairly lame CB250 a bit more interesting. I really just used the Cafe Racer style as inspiration. But shit, maybe I take on the challenge of making this thing 'Do the Ton!'

I've been working on bikes for years, but this is really my first 'cosmetic build'. So I was using it as an inexpensive learning process.

To answer your question: I only rode it once before and at that point it had been sitting for 3 years (still fired right up! Love Hondas) but I really can't make a fair comparison. After swapping the main jet from a 110 to a 118 and enriching the mixture screw a bit, there is only little bit of bog right off idle. I had it up to about 70mph yesterday and it rode nicely. Also I stripped off like 20-30 lbs I think, so this thing weighs nothing ... might be under 300lbs wet.

 

[pukhkan]

heres a cb250 classified did a while back!!!!

 

[CALfeRacer]

Yeah, the tank and frame don't help. Interesting the 350 tank was too small, I was curious what it would look like with a more "cafe" tank on it. Someone on this site swapped a 400F tank on and it didn't look bad. As far as the frame, chopping it after the shock gusset where it really kicks up might help, at least that's what I was planning on doing when designing a seat.
If you cut 20-30 off then I'm sure you're under 300 wet. If its 291 Dry, how much can a quart of oil and 3 gallons of gas weigh??? Getting it to do the ton would be very impressive... I'll make sure to stick around to see if you can pull it off

 

[Pnbell]

Yea, my first attempt, great learning experience. Better next time i'm sure. As far as doing the ton, I'll focus on that; first step, stop eating … ???

 

[Pnbell]

Haven't done a whole lot of work -busy summer- ... but covered the seat with vinyl. Came out good for my first attempt.

 

[ToastyTofu]

found this part for mine! thought you guys might like to check it out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BILLET-6061-ALUMINUM-TOP-TRIPPLE-TREE-CLAMP-82-08-HONDA-CB250-CM250-CMX250-/191544249979?

 

[CALfeRacer]

found this part for mine! thought you guys might like to check it out.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BILLET-6061-ALUMINUM-TOP-TRIPPLE-TREE-CLAMP-82-08-HONDA-CB250-CM250-CMX250-/191544249979?

That's pretty sweet. Wonder how its supposed to work for the rebel and nighthawk though, given the 2mm difference in fork diameter.

 

[ToastyTofu]

Fork offset and spacing is the same. Im running a rebel front end on my nighthawk. Im sure they know what their doing.

 

[CALfeRacer]

Doesn't the rebel have 33mm forks while the nighthawk has 31mm? I thought that was the case, which would cause issues properly clamping a set of nighthawk forks.

 

[ToastyTofu]

and 2mil. can't you just bore it out 2 mill? what's that like .080? they work great. just sayin'.

 

[CALfeRacer]

They look great, and I'm sure they do work great.
I'm just saying the advertising is a bit misleading. I'd be pretty bummed if I bought those thinking they'd work for a rebel and having to actually bore the fork clamps 2mm or having to make shims so my 31mm NH forks would work. Unless I'm thinking about this wrong and you can get enough clamping force on the 31mm forks with a tree made for 33mm.

 

[ToastyTofu]

beer can shims bruh. works good enough for pirsig, works good enough for me