timdaugherty
New Member
Greetings from Chattanooga, TN! I've very recently delved into the Cafe Racer world with a 1973 CB450K6. First bike was a Suzuki Intruder back in the 90's then into a Harley FXST for the last roughly 10 years. I sold the Harley to my son in order to finance the building of a chopper (Redneck Engineering frame) but quickly realized my daily rider was gone! The chopper is still in the works so the CB fills the garage right now.
I'm approaching this project with the attitude that it's going to be a long process. I'm not doing a complete rebuild at this time. Rather, I'm getting the bike back up and running, replacing old parts with some new cafe style ones, and cleaning everything old that I can without any major work. Somewhere down the road, I'll strip her apart and do a frame-up rebuild/paint/etc.
For now, new rubber is already on front and back. New seat is on order along with new bars (the ones on there were aftermarket, but not what I want). New grips, plug ends (diagnosing a missing left cylinder), rearsets (Viet) and stripping some of the extra weight. I've replaced the plugs, cleaned the points, drained and replaced the fuel, and replaced the oil. Also replaced the battery as it wasn't the correct one for the bike and the connectors weren't mounted onto it (PO cut the circle connector and simply hooked them onto the battery). Have a new throttle cable coming as the old one is too long and worn badly.
Simply cleaning her up so I can ride while I'm slowly rebuilding. FYI...I'm not motorcycle-inclined but have done work on some cars in my life. Original thought when I got the bike home, "what the heck did I get myself into!" Now, "This is feeling very doable." My question, "When does reality set back in!" Hah....I don't have any hair to pull out so I'll resort to drinking I suppose. Open to any and all suggestions, feedback, warnings, etc. I've lurked for a few weeks on here...great stuff! You all are awesome.
Looking forward to my new endeavor.
Tim
I'm approaching this project with the attitude that it's going to be a long process. I'm not doing a complete rebuild at this time. Rather, I'm getting the bike back up and running, replacing old parts with some new cafe style ones, and cleaning everything old that I can without any major work. Somewhere down the road, I'll strip her apart and do a frame-up rebuild/paint/etc.
For now, new rubber is already on front and back. New seat is on order along with new bars (the ones on there were aftermarket, but not what I want). New grips, plug ends (diagnosing a missing left cylinder), rearsets (Viet) and stripping some of the extra weight. I've replaced the plugs, cleaned the points, drained and replaced the fuel, and replaced the oil. Also replaced the battery as it wasn't the correct one for the bike and the connectors weren't mounted onto it (PO cut the circle connector and simply hooked them onto the battery). Have a new throttle cable coming as the old one is too long and worn badly.
Simply cleaning her up so I can ride while I'm slowly rebuilding. FYI...I'm not motorcycle-inclined but have done work on some cars in my life. Original thought when I got the bike home, "what the heck did I get myself into!" Now, "This is feeling very doable." My question, "When does reality set back in!" Hah....I don't have any hair to pull out so I'll resort to drinking I suppose. Open to any and all suggestions, feedback, warnings, etc. I've lurked for a few weeks on here...great stuff! You all are awesome.
Looking forward to my new endeavor.
Tim
