Dirt guy wondering about street

Matt 193

Matt 193

New Member
Hey there,

My names Matt and I'm a 20 year old guy I race hare scrambles on Dirt bikes (basically taking a modern moto bike doing a few simple mods and racing through the woods, mud, hills, and jumps on a 3-15 mile track with 200 other crazy's for 2-3 hours), I'm really just interested in poking around and seeing if a cafe'/bobber/brat is something I would be into.

What made me interested was my dad has a early 70's rough shape cb 450. I was looking at it and figured there has gotta be a way to make something cool with that. When I started searching around I saw these cafe style bikes. Started looking into it and now I am learning about the different styles (boober, brat, streetfighter, etc)

Basically I was looking for some input from you experienced guys. I can't seem to find many for sale, looking around on craigslist I am seeing honda cb's and yamaha xs' for sale not running for over a grand. If I found one running for under a thousand would that be a miracle? I am pretty confident in my basic mechanical ablities. Meaning I can tear my moto bike down to the frame and rebuild without much problem. However I have never broken into a 4 stroke motor although I'm hoping for these air cooled bikes to be fairly simple and reliable. I also work with metal fairly frequantly at my job as a pipefitter apprentice. I can use most metal working tools fairly well and have some basic welding skill.

What I would like to do is find a bike in rough shape and tear it down clean it up, and build it into a rat rod style project. AKA very cheap not a queen of a bike. Maybe I would ditch the front fender add smaller blinkers up front, put moto bars in the clamps, buy a smaller/thinner tank and seat. get rid of anything unnecessary like elec. start and badges. Cut down the rear fender etc.

How hard is it to find parts, to deal with dual carbs(I can handle a single carb)? And is it possible to do this on a tight budget in my shed, if I am willing to be patient?

Also I know you guys probably won't like this but I will have to put some type of small hopefully not to ugly pegs on the back to ride my wife around every once in a while. Hell maybe I could even make them removable. Don't worry I can still have a small seat I'm a pretty small guy and my wife probably doesn't even break 110.
 
Lots of questions, a couple brief replies...

Although prices for CBs and others have been inflated, there are signs that the bubble is bursting/has burst. Wait until you get a deal. But it may be hard (depending on where you live) to find a running and titled bike for under a grand. That being said, there are plenty of bikes for under a grand that don't need much to get running -- clean the carbs, new battery, plugs and points/condenser, oil change, cleaned out fuel tank. These tend to be the best buys (in my experience) because often the seller doesn't know that it won't take much to get it running, but simply that their bike doesn't run and therefore must not be worth much. Test compression, look for leaks, use common sense.

If you wanna do a complete rebuild, you can always go that route (and aim for cheap). Parts (OEM and aftermarket) are readily available for a ton of 70's era Japanese bikes.

Two carbs aren't hard to tune. Neither are four, once you get the hang of the synch tool and understand how they work.

As for which bikes are best, opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one. I prefer the 69-78 Honda CB SOHC fours. CB350 twins are cool, the CB360 has its fans (extra 10cc, extra gear, but known for cam chain problems). The CB350 is DOHC, great bike, but can be complicated. If you want a single, look for an SR250 or an SR500; great bikes, but the 500s are commanding high prices. I own a few bikes that I like, so I am pretty open minded when looking for new projects.
 
carnivorous chicken said:
Lots of questions, a couple brief replies...

Although prices for CBs and others have been inflated, there are signs that the bubble is bursting/has burst. Wait until you get a deal. But it may be hard (depending on where you live) to find a running and titled bike for under a grand. That being said, there are plenty of bikes for under a grand that don't need much to get running -- clean the carbs, new battery, plugs and points/condenser, oil change, cleaned out fuel tank. These tend to be the best buys (in my experience) because often the seller doesn't know that it won't take much to get it running, but simply that their bike doesn't run and therefore must not be worth much. Test compression, look for leaks, use common sense.

If you wanna do a complete rebuild, you can always go that route (and aim for cheap). Parts (OEM and aftermarket) are readily available for a ton of 70's era Japanese bikes.

Two carbs aren't hard to tune. Neither are four, once you get the hang of the synch tool and understand how they work.

As for which bikes are best, opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one. I prefer the 69-78 Honda CB SOHC fours. CB350 twins are cool, the CB360 has its fans (extra 10cc, extra gear, but known for cam chain problems). The CB350 is DOHC, great bike, but can be complicated. If you want a single, look for an SR250 or an SR500; great bikes, but the 500s are commanding high prices. I own a few bikes that I like, so I am pretty open minded when looking for new projects.
Click to expand...

Cb350 DOHC and complicated?

It's SOHC and about as simple as it gets.

Did you mean 750?
 
CB450 is a good motor so long as it was well maintained. The rocker arms and cams eat eachother quickly if it was low on oil or valve clearance wasn't maintained (and while replacements are available, they're pricey).
 
Thanks for the advice guy's. Sounds like I should be looking in a SOHC motor like a CB 360 I'll have to look into the others yamaha, suzuki, and kawisaki and see if any of them have a Single overhead cam motor.

These four strokes are all new to me.
 
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