Hey guys Im kinda new here and im just finishing my first project. My names Frank and I help run a sports car club in upstate new york at Clarkson University. I live in Boston when im not at school though. Well im friends with a member on here called Jaguar and he pretty much conviced me to finally do a bike. It is a 1972 cb350 that I found in a garage for 300 bucks. I got it running, and then tore it down to restore into a cafe style bike.
Heres the frame after I ground off all of the tabs and stuff
I then polished and rebuilt the forks. I also polished the hubs of the wheels. I got new cables for everything as well. I cut down the triple tree and polished it. I found new sleeves for the swingarm bushings and got the bushings in bronze. The rear has period cb750 monroe performance shocks to raise up and stiffen the rear for better handling. I also welded in stainless steel in the back of the frame to hold new smaller batteries as well as the rest of the wiring. It also stiffens it up a little bit.
The motor was painted flat black and the side cases were polished. I wanted to not have a front fender, so I cut out the fork brace in it and painted it flat black since I still wanted to be able to turn the bike well. Woodcraft clipons were bought as well. Also the bike has avon tires on it. It has new shoes from ebc on both brakes. I got rearsets off of an r1 to make them work.
After that wrapped the headers in natural exhaust rap. The muffers had holes in them so I just cut them off...I got my friend to spray the headlight and tank at work with automotive silver and clear coat. I also have posh grips and uni pods on the bike at this point. The picture is me filling it up with gas to tune it and maybe take it out around campus for a little but haha.
I ended up getting a seat from roc city cafe. In this pic I have it pretty much mocked up, and my friend had some stickers that we thought would be funny to put on it for the time being. You can kinda see the center tachometer mount I made to fit the tac right in front of the triple tree. And yes, the rear brake linkage is scary and sucks I still need to order a real one and some heim joints.
Oh at some point I replaced all of the gaskets in the motor. Heres a pic of the head off.
So finally I got the seat painted by the same kid and made some sort of cushion so I wouldnt die riding and now im riding it around! I also found a neat tail light set up that fits the seat very well. Heres a pic of the maiden voyage. Its at another members house up here I think his name on the forum is jaguar?
The bike was also really loud without muffers so I found these things called snuff or nots. I dont think they have been made for 40 years but they are on ebay. They are a little butterfly valve that goes in your exhaust pipe and you can open or close them with a knob on the side. Il post pics when I take some but they work great!
Well I probably missed a lot of the build by clumping it all in one post but I hope you liked it! I shall bid you adieu with a last picture of me riding this thing around yesterday.
Heres the frame after I ground off all of the tabs and stuff
I then polished and rebuilt the forks. I also polished the hubs of the wheels. I got new cables for everything as well. I cut down the triple tree and polished it. I found new sleeves for the swingarm bushings and got the bushings in bronze. The rear has period cb750 monroe performance shocks to raise up and stiffen the rear for better handling. I also welded in stainless steel in the back of the frame to hold new smaller batteries as well as the rest of the wiring. It also stiffens it up a little bit.
The motor was painted flat black and the side cases were polished. I wanted to not have a front fender, so I cut out the fork brace in it and painted it flat black since I still wanted to be able to turn the bike well. Woodcraft clipons were bought as well. Also the bike has avon tires on it. It has new shoes from ebc on both brakes. I got rearsets off of an r1 to make them work.
After that wrapped the headers in natural exhaust rap. The muffers had holes in them so I just cut them off...I got my friend to spray the headlight and tank at work with automotive silver and clear coat. I also have posh grips and uni pods on the bike at this point. The picture is me filling it up with gas to tune it and maybe take it out around campus for a little but haha.
I ended up getting a seat from roc city cafe. In this pic I have it pretty much mocked up, and my friend had some stickers that we thought would be funny to put on it for the time being. You can kinda see the center tachometer mount I made to fit the tac right in front of the triple tree. And yes, the rear brake linkage is scary and sucks I still need to order a real one and some heim joints.
Oh at some point I replaced all of the gaskets in the motor. Heres a pic of the head off.
So finally I got the seat painted by the same kid and made some sort of cushion so I wouldnt die riding and now im riding it around! I also found a neat tail light set up that fits the seat very well. Heres a pic of the maiden voyage. Its at another members house up here I think his name on the forum is jaguar?
The bike was also really loud without muffers so I found these things called snuff or nots. I dont think they have been made for 40 years but they are on ebay. They are a little butterfly valve that goes in your exhaust pipe and you can open or close them with a knob on the side. Il post pics when I take some but they work great!
Well I probably missed a lot of the build by clumping it all in one post but I hope you liked it! I shall bid you adieu with a last picture of me riding this thing around yesterday.