Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F) Photos New Light Cluster

[Slams77]

I have followed DTT for a while now and decided to join in April of 2010. I have been very inspired by members’ builds and appreciate the abundance of resources the community has provided, and I often look here for ideas and answers. This is my 1977 CB400F as it sat when I purchased it back in 2009, and since then I have slowly transformed it in to a café racer which is still ongoing. I figured the CB400 would be the perfect bike for this project due to its small but high revving engine and light weight. And with an estimated 37 bhp, I reckon I could utilize more of its available power by removing some of the heavier stock parts and either doing away with them or replacing with lighter parts. Plus, because I like canyon carving I wanted to focus more on performance parts such as a newer master cylinder, stainless brake lines, clip-ons, rear sets, better shocks, newer tires, and possibly the CB550 fork swap which would allow a dual disc setup. With that being said, here is my bike as it is slowly coming together.

 

[BigBSBusa]

Re: Cafe Projcet Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Looks very clean!

 

[kookie31]

Re: Cafe Projcet Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

what a clean bike. very nice

 

[IndieSol]

Re: Cafe Projcet Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

I really like it. Very tastefully done. And these bikes are truly something special.

What's next? That front fender is begging to be cut down a bit. Looks great as is, though.

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Projcet Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Thanks everyone. I love the way pictures can make things appear nicer than they really are, but this bike did start out pretty nice. And being that it had a 75/76 tank, what looks like non US handle bar switches, spliced wiring harness, and other different bits here and there, it made it a lot easier to start the build without having a conscious about taking a perfectly stock unit and cannibalizing it, although I may have eventually gotten over it. Because the bike ran well without any major problems other than the complete airbox unit missing, I may go as far as pulling the engine to paint the frame, but I don’t think I’ll do any of the internals. Here is a little of what I have done so far.
Bobbed the front fender

I ran the bike with clubmans for a while but decided to go with clip-ons instead, so off with the handle bar mounts from the triple tree. Can’t go back if I mess this up! I used a fine tooth saw, a grinder with a flap disc, files for the cut outs, sanded it with various grits of wet/dry sand paper and then polished it a little and this is what I ended up with.

After shaving the bar clamps off of the triple tree, I fabricated my own prototype of an indicator light cluster instead of using the rather large stock unit which was just too bulky. I made it using aluminum tube I picked up at the hardware store and some anodized tubing which houses the LED’s. The new cluster is now 1 inch square and it incorporates the oil light, neutral light, both left and right winkers and resides next to my mini speedometer. Being that this is my first shot at a cluster I am happy with it but now the mental gears are spinning and I have other designs in the works.

It’s slowly coming along.

 

[kookie31]

Re: Cafe Projcet Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

thats a cool lil cluster. real trick lookin

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

thats a cool lil cluster. real trick lookin

Thanks. I had this idea floating around in my head for a while and figured that if was able to reshape the triple tree; I would be able to make my own instrument light cluster. I like that it is inconspicuous.

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Cleaned and soda blasted my calipers. Next is polish then stainless brake lines.

 

[Boswell]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

very nice and clean!

 

[trackfiend]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Nice work man!

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Thanks again. I want it to be functional first and look nice second and it seems like it’s starting to come along. Oh, and of course I’m also trying to shed it of some weight.

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

My headlight brackets which were inspired by twistedwheelz who posted a how to in the $50 mod thread. I just played around with them a little until I achieved the look I was going for.

 

[photocodo]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Slams,
I like the build so far. If you dont mind me asking, where did you get the LEDs for your indicator lights? I have been looking for some small dot sized lights that I can incorporate into my bike as indicators that are not as big as the stock ones. I would love to find out where you got those, also are they different colors (blue, green, yellow).

photocodo

 

[VonYinzer]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Wow, this is great! That cluster looks amazing man, as do the ears.

Photocodo, RadioShack carries all the LEDs you could ever want.

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Thanks guys, here is a link to where I got the LED's and I included a picture of what they look like when turned on (oil,neutral,left,right winker). I also use radio shack sice they do have a large selection of stuff I have needed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-5mm-PRE-WIRED-12-VOLT-CHROME-BEZEL-YELLOW-/320391154361?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4a98cd0ab9

 

[PHeller]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Link to headlight ears thread/post?


They look pretty nice.

 

[imseamless]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

That LED cluster looks really good. Really makes me want to ditch the stock one and try to fab up something like that. Nice work.

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

Link to headlight ears thread/post?


They look pretty nice.

Here you go.
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=6496.410

 

[PHeller]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

So did you or will you cut the frame of your CB400F?

 

[Slams77]

Re: Cafe Project Chela (My 1977 CB400F)

So did you or will you cut the frame of your CB400F?

I will try and make a seat pan base that will work using the existing hinges but if I am unable to do it they will be cut off. I also plan on cutting off any unnecessary tabs and the passenger peg brackets along with rear of the frame and maybe adding a loop or making a bracket for the license plate and turn signals. All ideas right now…I just have to start a mock up to see what works and what doesn’t.