cb450- angelica was her name (maybe)

[redahtamn]

Hello all, this is going to be my first project build here at dotheton. I have lurked, asked questions and bought some parts here. Just never had an actual build here. This is going to be my second shot at glory and hopefully it turns out as nice as I can picture. My patience and wallet will be tested, that I can assure you.

Every great thing begins with a story:
Three years ago I was trolling on craigslist and found a 1971 CL450. I had been wanting a bike for ages, since I was a kid actually. The bike was $350 bucks with title. After a quick presentation to the wife we were off to pick it up.

He said all that it needed was a battery:
………I will blame this on the fact that I was new to the motorcycle world. I had no idea about checking for compression, spark, testing coils or timing. So in my haste to get this thing going and learn a thing or two about engines I tore the motor out of the frame and broke it down.

Thus it sits:
This bike has sat in pieces for the last three years, on a shelf in my basement. The awesome thing about it is that it doesn’t scare me. I know what a camshaft is, cam lobes, cam chain, all the stuff that scared the hell out of me a few years ago. I can stand back and truly enjoy what is about to come, that is a good feeling I tell you.

Where do I go from here:
Simple facts are this:
Front end- cb360
Rear end- cb360
Engine- .75 over pistons, rings
Exhaust- stock with shorty mufflers
Carbs- stock

I have a picture in my head of what it is going to be. As long as I take the time, endure the patience and push myself the project should turn out extremely well and look beautiful.

I need to complete the following:
Swap 360 rear and front end to the 450 frame
Mock up seat, signals, gauges ect… for final assembly
Reconfigure a cb360 gauge to fit a cb450 rpm gauge guts
Create custom wiring loom
Smooth out 450 frame
Por 15 a lot of components (new to me)
Perform custom paint job (new to me)

I have completed a few things at this moment, but I need to organize my thoughs and pictures before I blast you all with useless information. We all love pictures!!!!! Heres what the bike looked like a few weeks ago.

 

[redahtamn]

Thoughts are running through my head all the time on what I need to do to get where I want to get with this bike. First things was to get the front and rear ends swapped from my spare 360 frame to my 450.

Me and the boys (ages 1 and 3) got down and at it last night. We broke down the 450 front end and removed the rear end. I removed all the excess garbage that was on the bike when I got it. (anyone need a sissy bar?)

I needed to educate them on the use of some good old orange hand cleaner in the end

 

[redahtamn]

The front and rear off and ready for, something

 

[w_ll]

This is great cant wait to see how she come along!

 

[redahtamn]

We kept on trucking on the bike and got the rear section back on relative ease. Turns out a 3yr olds hammer stricks are quite gentle and were suprisingly accurate. One we got the rear on we flipped it over and got the front mounted up. I threw on one of my 360 tank to see what it would look like, pretty sweet!

 

[redahtamn]

so now I had a decision to make, do i roll the 360 tank or keep the old 450 tank. There was no doubt that the 450 tank had a good line that fit well with the chopped off tail section, but I love the 360 tanks. Add to that, the 450 tank had quite a lot of rust; I aint afraid of no tank rust but that tank had me feeling a little nervous.... The 360 tank wont need much adjustment either to get it to fit how I would like. 360 tank it is! (I think)

 

[redahtamn]

Figured out that attachments doesn't mean "shows up in the thread" added picture links for everyone!

 

[Scruffy]

If you leave the tank as is, definitely the 360 tank. I'd have probably stuck with the 450 front end, exposed springs and a twin leading shoe drum are more my style. But what you have as a roller works just fine, the front fender with the shiny tank and shiny rotor work well together. If you are going to keep the tank, fender and rear shocks shiny you might toss a matching rear fender on. And some kind of shiny chick stick if you decide to rock a 2 up seat.

Not normally a fan of shiny bike bits, but, I actually like where you've gone so far. Keep it up. Good choice for a first build, and major league thumbs up for involving the kids. Grab a cheap CB or CL 100 now for when they get old enough to start riding, you've already got them on the right path.

Nice job.

 

[redahtamn]

I am definetly a fan of black myself, but the parts were available, the parts were nice, so I am using them.

Pretty much my whole direction with this bike is to use what I have availble and make it as cool as I can.

I know the frame is going to end up being graphite gray or something along those lines. I am most likely going to end up using por 15 metal mask for the frame color. As for tank color, seat color, headlight color I am not quite sure.

I had already thought about a fender while I was designing the seat and what I ended up with was a rear fender from a 360. I am going to tap the original 450 rear mounts where the fender used to slide onto, then add a crossbrace in the back so that the fender and seat have a rear mounting point.

I am just trying to get this thing mocked up before I get too crazy with the bike.

Here are some shots of what I am thinking of doing, and what I was thinking before

I was originally going to build a light into my seat, using LED Strips or otherwise, and use the openings of the frame to mount my turn signals into; here are a few shots

the seat was going to end at the rear of the frame and be 1.5 inches in height from the top of the frame

The led tailights were going to be installed directly into the frame with led light strips molded into the seat

After thinking about it, I decided I did not like the idea of not meeting safety standards. The law requies a tailight to be 3.5 sq inches minimum. I could not meet that standard while keeping the look I was going for so I had to do something else.

Thus a rear stop lamp was needed and I had to find a way to mount one so that I could still use turn signals appropriately. After scratching my brain I grabbed a 360 rear fender and threw it on the back. With the use of magnets and a highly technical orange ball I got the look I was after.

technicallity of orange balls is unmatched

heres where I am thinking of putting the light

rearview of new light configuration

In the end, I am not the happiest that I had to use a large rear tailight. However, saftey and the ability to be seen is more important to me than pure astetics of a bike. I have more to think about than just myself these days, the law included.

I am going to do something cool with it. With the use of high flux led's I am going to create a integrated tailight out of the one rear stoplight. It will produces 240lumens of stopping brightness for 2.5W of power. HELL YEARH!!

Check it out:

I am going to need to build seperators for the differnt sections and build a custom led light configuration from 5mm high flux leds. I am going to use gloss white paint to help reflect light as well. my light levels will be as listed below, I am looking forward to tearing into this

Stop: 240 Lumen 2.5W
Running: 80 Lumen .75W
Left: 120 Lumen 1.25W
Right: 120 Lumen 1.25W

in addition to the rear stop lamp I am going to install some yellow turn markers into the backs of the open fram along with the ends of my handlebars.

Should look pretty sweet and help me feel safer (though I wont be)

so thats where I am at, designing lighting circuits and making up some templates for my light seperators.

 

[Scruffy]

You have to run turn signals? That sucks... I rechecked the regs where I live, only need one mirror, a head light and a tail light. No bar height restrictions, no muffler mandates, do have to wear a helmet and have insurance. I can live with that.

You lost me on the lighting... the main house on our farm is still set up to switch to carbide lights if need be. All the plumbing is there, the fixtures are stored in the attic... I still have several points fired vehicles, 2 of which are 6 volt...

 

[redahtamn]

Honestly I could probably get away with not running turn signals. the law states that if they were factory equipped with lights that I have to run them. I could probably say that it wasnt and the cop wouldnt know, its a 71.....

as for the proper sizing requirements for tailights and turn signals, I found that out by accident. Doesnt hurt to know either in my book.

I have my circuit diagrams drawn and should be ordering parts this week and start work on it next week, im not in that big of a hurry honestly.

in the meantime I will probably start work on switching a 450 gauge into a 360 gauge housing for my RPM tach and adjusting the 360 gauge cluster mount so that they are closer together.

little things..

 

[redahtamn]

Not a whole lot has been getting done lately, honestly I reached a point where I have to decide the ultimate destination and design for this bike.

I know that I am going to go with a tank wrapped in carbon fiber

The tank will have a honda wing logo design done out of gold or silver leaf outlined in pinstripping and encomosed within a gold/silver leaf design highlighting the lines of the tank.

I am also considering using a cb500t tank on this bike..

The tank is going set the tone for the bike so i think that I am going to start with the tank and work my way out.

I dont want to get crazy with the carbon fiber but I am definetly considering wrapping the frame in either carbon fiber or fiberglass.

I have also been researching vinyl's for the seat and found some amazing carbin fiberesque vinyl from a company. Its $25 bucks for a yard but it looks amazing. however my local fabric store has some really nice looking black and grey marine vinyl that I may go with. Gotta wait till the samples show up.

Like I said earlier, I need to pick a style for this bike and honestly I am leaning towards cafe'ish

I dont want clip on's or clubmans so I cant really consider it a cafe, this bike has to be comfortable to ride. But I do believe I may go with a rear cowl or something to hide the electronics...... deciscions, decisions, decisions