Honda GB250 Clubman

[Herbonius]

• I picked up my first bike the other day - a 1988 GB250 Clubman. These bikes were only sold in Japan as far as I know and were Honda's version of a cafe racer out of the factory. The bike is in great condition, the only negatives being a couple specs of rust on the triple tree and some surface rust on the exhaust.
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm not entirely sure what exactly I'm going to do with the bike yet, an image will hopefully appear as I go.
  
  I've already ordered:
  • Clubman bars.
  • Black GT grips.
  • Titanium/gold colored exhaust wrap.
  
  Already I know that I want to:
  • Switch to bar end mirrors
  • Replace the side covers (I don't like how they don't cover the whole triangle in the engine frame).
  • Paint rear-set bracket black.
  • Paint chain guard black.
  • Switch to a smaller, green rear fender.
  • Green front fender
  • Smaller, round brake light and switch to clear indicator lenses.
  • Remove grab bar
  • Change to a slimmer, flatter seat.
  
  I really like the existing green, cream and gold color scheme so I might take it a little further. I want to keep it classic but get it a bit more aggressive looking.

 

[YogiBear]

Re: Honda GB250 Cafe Conversion

I had no idea Honda made a GB250. I think it looks pretty nice the way it is

 

[13thenewblack13]

Re: Honda GB250 Cafe Conversion

if thats the original paint, i would totally leave it, looks badass

 

[Herbonius]

Re: Honda GB250 Cafe Conversion

Here's a bit of a mock up showing what I had in mind. I think I will keep the original color scheme. It it's in great condition and really nice.
I think I'll polish the engine too.

 

[Herbonius]

It seems to be all fashion related.How about some good real shocks,fork oil,sticky tires,flushing the old brake fluid with new?Finding one of the GB-TT fairings?N.B.,You can't just paint over chrome and expect it to stick,it needs to be chrome stripped.The OEM seat would be comfortable,any smaller would be a pain in the ass.Don't paint much besides minor details,bikes going slightly crusty is cool and real.And looks good.

I'm aware that I need to prepare the chrome for painting and I will be sorting it mechanically -- I just think that the look of the bike is perhaps more interesting to most people as they are an unusual bike in the West.

Although I do like the GB-TT fairings, I'm planning on keeping it naked for the moment.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

NICE!
All we had available here in the states was the GB500, I need to do some searching, there is another member across the pond who is building one of these GB's in a size we never saw here...

 

[Herbonius]

Got my license today. Next step is to get the bike registered and then it's full steam ahead!

 

[Herbonius]

Finally got my bike in to get registered.

While I've been waiting I've been rethinking the look of the bike. What do you think? Bump stop or no?

 

[Facius]

Looks awesome with the bump!
But i would keep the side covers as they were, makes the bike look heavy going all the way to the bottom. And paint the rearset bracket black.

 

[SwissGuy]

Seconding the bump.

I also want to say that this may be the prettiest Honda I've never seen!

 

[noexit]

I agree with keeping the small side covers. The SL350 had massive ones like your mock up. I'd keep the rubber knee pads too. Make's it look sporty, like you're going to need them to keep on the bike.

The bump looks awesome.

 

[VonYinzer]

Are you in Japan?

 

[Herbonius]

VonYinzer - I'm in Melbourne, Australia but I did live in Japan for a long time.

I've had so many people encourage me to keep the look of the original bike recently that it has really started to grow on me. I may just tidy the bike up, figure out a way to polish the engine (definitely want to do that. Matte gray really doesn't do it justice) and rechrome the exhausts.

Thanks for all the input. I'm positively confused now.

 

[VonYinzer]

Ha. The bike looks great. You should definitly go with the bum stop seat.

 

[Herbonius]

It's been a while since I've posted as I've been too busy riding the bike and getting to know it!

I ordered a bump stop seat from Japan and love the look.

Please excuse the dirt. Rained on the way home last night...

Rear profile:

Rear profile:

Front end:

I love the look of the bump stop but I do need to tidy up the back end a touch. I'm not entirely sure what to do here. No amount of adjustment to the seat will make it fit. Any suggestions?

Although it specifically designed for my bike, it really doesn't fit very well. Any suggestions on what I could do to improve the back end?

I haven't had a chance to get to the paint shop but this is how the bump stop will look when painted.

I may put a two-tone vinyl sticker on there to match the tank but I'm not sure yet. It looks clean enough just in green I think.

Once all this is done I'll be happy with the look of the bike and I'll move on to improving the performance a bit. It's a little slow off the line and the rear sprocket is wrong I think as I'm revving the hell out of it just to sit on 100kmh (60mph)

 

[Rat_ranger]

My plan of attack would be to remove the grab handle, shorten the fender like you were thinking, and smaller signals. That bump looks good on there.

 

[.Spindat.]

beautiful bike, love the look of a bump and fender

 

[timbutterfield]

Sweet bike.

We never get the cool stuff here in the us. I would love to have the honda cb 400ss.

 

[Herbonius]

I've been trying to paint my bump stop seat for the past two weeks and it's driving me crazy. I have a good, clean environment to spray in and I prepare the surface well but every time I spray, the spraycan inevitably sputters at least once, spoiling the coat. I then need to wait 48 hours for it to cure before I can sand out the offending paint drops and do another coat -- where it will inevitably sputter again, wasting another two days.

Has anyone got any tips to stop this from happening? I clean the nozzle before and after spraying, I'm spraying horizontally from about one foot away and I'm doing dusting coats rather than putting the paint too heavily. Aside from the areas where the can sputters, the paint looks great. These drops on the paint completely spoil it though.

 

[mac_d]

Hi Herbonius,

Love your bike, I've got an '88 GB Clubman, silver. Just wanted to know where you bought your seat from and how much, I've been looking for ages to get a bump stop for my bike.

About the painting, I've had the same problem and in the end had to switch to another brand of paint with a better nozzle and thinner paint. Also, sometimes if you have inverted the can too many times and blown clean the nozzle (after finishing painting) there isn't enough pressure in the can any more to keep the nozzle free from paint build up. Hope this helps.