original or cafe,,,

[ROCKO]

the cb100 i recently purchased appeared original but well weathered,with angle grinder in hand and sparks flying a bike enthusiast neighbour starting waving his arms and yelling 'do you know what those bikes are worth original'--i'm not about resale value but believe it may even increase when reborn as a cafe,,,byist thoughts and quotes to sling back over the fence will be much used and appreciated,, ;D

 

[Big R]

There's 2 reasons why a restoration can go for big $$$. One is if the bike is collectible. And normally, a CB100 doesn't fall under that category. The other reason is because of the amount of cash it takes to restore a bike properly. From NOS parts, stuff getting rechromed, etc. The amount that goes into has to be at least equal to what you could sell it for.

That being said, make a list of all the stuff that it would need for restoration. Then look on ebay or wherever for them. Also find out how much chroming and paint costs. Add all that up and ask your neighbor if he will buy it when it's done.

 

[ROCKO]

cheers for the reply bud but i think i'll be keeping it all for myself,ballpark figure when i'm done 1500 which includes my purchase cost,obviously a lot of man hours are not in that guess,i'll get photos together asap,,i truly am lovin this challenge,its comin up sweet

 

[Big R]

Oh ya, I forgot to say: it's possible to "cafe" a bike without cutting the frame up. I did a CL175 and the only metal that got cut from the frame was the battery box. All the other tabs, brackets, and mounts were pretty un-obtrusive. Just food for thought.

 

[ROCKO]

ta big rich,noted,so far i've only attacked the guards,put z bars on,fashioned a pretty wild looking throttle set up(definately temporary ,its a good laugh i'll make sure to get shots of this), lowered speedo so its nearly flush with top of bars, wiring wiring wiring,lets not talk about fcuken wires at the moment,,QUESTION-is it possible to take perfectly good seat cover off carve out the foam and fix it back on snuggelly or will mum need to cut and restitch on the sewing machine?

 

[Big R]

Not really. The cover wont fit anywhere near the same- folds in all the wrong places, creases, and if it's old enough it will probably begin to crack all over from the new shape.

 

[Reddy]

You can take off a cover and put it back on. I've done it quite a few time. Usually I was doing something like repairing a seam in an otherwise good cover. That being said the above poster is also correct. If you significantly change the shape of the foam or the material is not supple you will not have a good result.