1969 CB450

Shortround

Coast to Coast
Well it's time to finish the last or three CB450's I bought 4 years ago. Here's a pic of the front drum; carbon fiber vents, drilled shoes, and brake cams. Every little bit helps
 

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Now that is really nice. Did you make those covers or are they available somewhere?
 
Thanks for the compliment. I made them.

Shoot. Care to share the secret? Looks like you may have molded a sheet of C/F over the brake plate before cutting it and then trimmed the c/f and glued on mesh, but that's just a reverse engineering guess.

I am amazed at how cheap some C/F parts are out there on sale considering the amount of work in creating the original and then molds to make them commercially. I bought a pair of heel guards recently for a Ducati ST3 cafe racer/naked bike project and they were super light and quite cost effective. I have made a few C/F one offs, but could not have made a pair at that price and that wouldn't have covered the cost of molds let alone the amortization of an autoclave. Nice work.

It's a pity that Honda brake plates are not at an ideal angle to fit a regular shaped airscoop, but that should work. Same design idea as Fontana or Yamaha on their race bikes, so it should work.
 
Carbon fiber plate can be bought for a reasonable price. 6" width 3mm thick plates are generally about $30 - $40 per foot. Thinner, obviously being cheaper. For smalls like that, I buy plates and machine them to shape over forming from blanket and epoxy.
 
Thanks Irk. I have also purchased flat sheets that I used to hang electrical components on for a drag race bike and for filler (modest) panels, but I find them to be incredibly stiff to the point of being almost impossible to curve. I have tried 1.5mm and 2mm in roughly 1 foot squares IIRC.

I am always looking for better ways to do things and to learn from others. I can't just keep doing things the same way and stop learning. Gotta keep learning new things.
 
Shoot. Care to share the secret? Looks like you may have molded a sheet of C/F over the brake plate before cutting it and then trimmed the c/f and glued on mesh, but that's just a reverse engineering guess.

I am amazed at how cheap some C/F parts are out there on sale considering the amount of work in creating the original and then molds to make them commercially. I bought a pair of heel guards recently for a Ducati ST3 cafe racer/naked bike project and they were super light and quite cost effective. I have made a few C/F one offs, but could not have made a pair at that price and that wouldn't have covered the cost of molds let alone the amortization of an autoclave. Nice work.

It's a pity that Honda brake plates are not at an ideal angle to fit a regular shaped airscoop, but that should work. Same design idea as Fontana or Yamaha on their race bikes, so it should work.
Simple really. Make a flat piece of carbon no more than three layers. That way it’s still flexible and will bend around the curvature of the hub. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Irk. I have also purchased flat sheets that I used to hang electrical components on for a drag race bike and for filler (modest) panels, but I find them to be incredibly stiff to the point of being almost impossible to curve. I have tried 1.5mm and 2mm in roughly 1 foot squares IIRC.

I am always looking for better ways to do things and to learn from others. I can't just keep doing things the same way and stop learning. Gotta keep learning new things.
Not sure you have a grasp of what is available and how to build with this stuff. You can bend it with heat (heat gun). It brings the grain of the fiber through the resin, so you want to be considerate of where you're bending the sheet. You can cut perfect holes with a rotobroach and you can cut it with thin abrasive wheels (040, for example) or air saws. You can bend it on breaks, just like metal and you can can sheer it with a sheer, just like metal.
 
Agreed that cutting is easy enough. I have done that. I have not tried heating it to curve it though. That's something I just learned.
 
Mounted the tank and seat. I’m working on a carbon fiber under tail to keep things tidy.
 

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Very nice. Where did you source the gas tank? They have some on ebay like that but a little different .
It’s an eBay tank from India. I paid $200 shipped and it came with a Monza cap and petcocks. But the petcocks are 180 degree and are going to be in the way of the engine; so I’ll swap them out with some 90 degree ones.
 
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