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I am just starting to get in to this and looking for help. I am looking for cafe gas tanks and seats to start my first build. I am doing it for resale and fun. Any advise would help I look foward to hearing from all......thanl you in advance
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not much profit in selling cafes. the ones that are done quick look ratty. if you want profit, buy cheap non running titled bikes and get them running and looking good and resell. spend as little as you can on them.
Agreed if you are in fact looking to resell this bike for some sort of profit youre barking up the wrong tree by doing a cafe. If you spend anytime on here you will realize we are a bunch of cheap bastards and would rather build a bike than buy one. I saw a really nice kz 400 trying to be sold for 2000 i dont know if it sold or not but the guy had to of had close to that in it. If you want a cafe build it to ride it not sell it.
If you want to do a Cafe on the cheap and have it look good, then you better have LOTS of connections and TIME. It's taken my seven years to get mine to where it is today. Granted, I didn't wrok on it while i was in Grad School and getting married, but it certainly wasn't a "flip it for profit" project. I didn't pay at all for the painting cause I used "left over" color at the body shop where I used to work, so that saved some, but I still am not convinced I would make a decent profit.
Build one because you want to ride one. not because you want to sell one.
Buying fabricated cafe gas tanks is terribly expensive and many of us try our hands at building our own seats because we're either cheap or just looking to have a unique seat that we can say we built ourselves. I bought my bike for $350 but I guarantee I spend at least $100 on stuff for it each month on Ebay auctions and trips to the hardware store. Trust me I hear about it from my wife all the time.
I tell my wife that I'll be able to sell it for at least what I've put into it if I ever had to,god forbid, but that's mostly just to keep her off my back. I long ago gave up the thoughts of flipping a cafe for profit. Besides after all the hard work and thought that's gone into my bike I'm sure you'd have to hold a big gun to my head to ever part with it when it's finished. ;D
If you can find a titled frame (depending where you live) but the rest of the bike is completely cruddy, you are better off getting it running, cleaned up, and painted. Usually, a semi-restored runner that looks clean will get more resale than a "cafe'd" bike.
You already got the best advise, we build them to ride, not to flip. Thats not to say somebody won't love your build and want to buy it, just that everybody wants to make "Theirs"...
But since you asked for sources for seats and tanks here are some I have found. Google is a WONDERFUL search engine.
http://www.cyclexchange.net
http://www.caferace.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=C&Category_Code=RRBT
http://www.omarsdtr.com/cafe.html
http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/vintage/vintageseats_round.htm
http://www.hotwingglass.com/
http://www.cb750cafe.com/
Heres what you do if you want to build a bike and flip it it keep in mind depending on your skill, it may still cost more than what you will get out of it. but get you an h1 and make an h1r replica out of it
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