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I just bought a cafe racer - woohoo! Wanted one for ages. Having bought it, I want to put my own stamp on it. A couple of things need changing - like the clock mount (which has been hacksaw modified in a hurry at some point), the brake pedal is too high for me.
The headlight looks to high to my eye as well - not a problem to modify the bracket, and the colour... dear God the colour. It's too modern for a bike with these lines. I'd fit spoked wheels, but that's going to be an arse - particularly as it's a twin disk front end, and I'm not prepared to give that up.
I'm thinking black and silver paint with badging in the early Kawaski style rather than fake Norton style - maybe putting the winged K on the mudguard and seat unit, polishing the wheels and forks back up, lowering the headlight, repolishing the 2-1 exhaust setup. The rear mudguard doesn't look good, I'd like to fit a hugger there.
BUT - what would you do? Any ideas gratefully received.
That's no bad at all! it's got a nice silhouette. Tidy up any rough bits, replace all fasteners with stainless, silver paintjob with chequered stripe up the middle, spokes wheels from a Zephyr. Just an evolution of what you already have.
Interesting bike and totally period looking. Kawasaki racing green is appropriate for the bike but not for that Norton Manx style tank. Tank and seat - very sixties style. Paint color and wheels more seventies and exhaust is modern motoGP style, so it's a bit of a mix of eras.
I would keep the color and the rear fender and just tidy up any sub optimal parts like the gauge bracket you mentioned. The rear brake lever should be adjusted or changed to make it more comfortable and easier to ride and just ride the thing. Not much I would change. It's a pretty clean good looking cafe racer.
No idea if they would fit, but you'll be lucky if you find a pair. They're not exactly common.
Kawasaki still listed the hubs as new a couple of years ago, but are/were ridiculous money. If my memory serves me it was over £500 for the rear.
550 Zephyr spokes wheels may fit straight in, or with probably minimal tinkering... if you can find them. In the meantime those standard hoops don't look so bad.
It's a poor photo at a bad angle, I think - with the curving on the lower edge of the tank it's difficult to see the true angle of the tank. The tank line is right, and the seat is flat at the "sit" point - but there is a curve to the lower contour of the seat where the edges go over the frame. What annoys me about the seat is how high it comes at the peak, but that gives room for it to hold the battery nicely. I'm thinking of maybe using paint lines to give a false contour to try and tie things together - silver over black maybe - to try and make that peak look a little sleeker.
Interesting bike and totally period looking. Kawasaki racing green is appropriate for the bike but not for that Norton Manx style tank. Tank and seat - very sixties style. Paint color and wheels more seventies and exhaust is modern motoGP style, so it's a bit of a mix of eras.
I Totally agree. I think the paint needs to change to be more sympathetic to the style of the tank and seat. I also need to possibly lower the "bling" a little - de-emphasising the modern clip-ons by changing their colour. The exhaust is what it is, and I like it. Although it's a modern type, the curves are sympathetic to the bodywork style, so it kind of works for me.
With all the helpful comments so far, a change in colour is a definite. Wheels would be nice, but that's going to be a difficult find. Tidying up the rough edges, maybe painting the clip-ons (or at least the heel guards) to de-emphasise them, new brackets for the clocks and go from there.
I like the slight curve of the line along the bottom of the tank and seat but I think the seat hump is a little large. I would keep that Kawi green and maybe accent it on the tank and seat with maybe some black, to break up the surface of the hump. A stripe along the bottom of the tank carried to the seat, expanding to make a panel with maybe a number in it?
All-in-all, I like your bike, get some nice fittings like braided lines, stainless pieces as mentioned above, cool mirrors, the details can really create pizazz.
If it were my bike, I'd paint everything that is green... black. What is chrome remains chrome. Rear portion of the exhaust changed to something a bit shorter and horizontal to the ground.
Yep, that's the way I'm leaning on the badgework - black badging with a white outline, possibly 305 on the tail as a race number, seeing as that's the CC of the bike. That green has to go though - I need something that's going to soften the line of the seat hump, so probably two-tone it in a dark solid under a light metallic- black under silver probably - with the contour curve lower on the seat than the tank to reduce visual impact.
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