My '74 CL450

[ichabod]

Hey guys, just wanted to share what I have been working on the past 6 months.

I got this bike from my father in law, complete basket case. I talked about it in my intro thread way back in June of last year.

Things here and there have slowed me down. I returned to school to finish up my degree, my job and I have a 6 month old daughter. I'm not finished yet but am getting very close.

Anyway, here it is:

This is how I got it...

Frame

buckets of parts

frame blasted and painted

engine cleaned up and mounted

rims hubs and new spokes

rims blasted, painted, then I laced them up

starting to look like a bike

decided to go with a larger tank, got a great deal on an old CB450 tank

decided to hammer in some knee dents

painted the tank and lined it with red kote

roccity seat, painted

starting to get somewhere

took the stock seat and cut down the foam to make a new pad

got it down to size, then took some fake leather material and spray adhesive to make a new pad

and this is where it is now

Still need to install mufflers, got some emgo dunstall replicas, I just want them angled up and need to figure out how to do that. Also need a tail light...got one but am not all that pleased with it so I am have a new one on its way.

Big thanks to everyone over at Dime City, they have helped me out a lot with this...most every part that is new came from those guys.

Thanks for looking! and sorry for the poor quality photos, they were all taken with my phone.

wow, I just previewed the thread and it totally makes it look like this was all done (or could have been done) in a weekend. haha, it has been a long slow process.

 

[session101]

nice work!

please post a video after you get your exhaust on, are you gonna put some rearsets on?

 

[ichabod]

Thank you!

I'll make sure to get a video. No problem.

I have a set of the loaded gun rearsets, linkage and all of that. I know where I want them. I just first want the mufflers on to see how I need to go about working around them.

 

[ichabod]

Changed the fork oil last night, much much better.

I wanted to ask, I need an adapter to put my mufflers on at an upswept angle. The problem I am having is that there is no muffler shop in town where I live willing to bend a pipe in the size that I need to act as an adapter. (Clamped on to the headers then a bend then the muffler clamped on to that) I would really like to have my mufflers upswept.

I basically need a pipe with a 1-3/4" ID then a 25* bend then a 1-5/8" or 1-1/2" OD. It looks like I need to get one online somewhere since nobody in town will make one, but am having a hard time locating one. If I had a pipe bender and expander I would make it myself.

 

[teddpage]

Check dime city cycles...they have angled, upswept adapters in the muffler section...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

 

[ichabod]

Yeah, I got a set of those but they don't fit. It's the same diameter as the headers. I tried a pipe expander to enlarge that end but it actually broke the tool.

Those adapters are how I found out the shops here won't help me. I took the pieces in to a muffler shop here (there are only two, took them to the "best"/highest recommended) and asked if they would expand them for me, they refused and basically shut me up anytime I tried to ask something. I couldn't even get to the point of asking if he could just make one. He just kept saying, "nope, won't do it" anytime I started to say something. He said he doesn't touch anything motorcycle related. I asked if he knew anyone in town who might be able to help me, or if he could point me in the right direction. He said nobody in town will touch anything relating to motorcycles, nobody has tubing/tools that small (which is a lie, I know there are cars with pipes this size), his only "help" was to tell me to go get my car inspected because my sticker is about to expire.

 

[BCBarker]

take it back in there and tell him it's for a car! wear a pair of Groucho Glasses so he doesn't know it's you