66 CB77 Cafe Racer "Red Molly"

drewvdubber said:
very cool to see another one of these being done up.

can you show some more views of the clubman from the top and back. i am torn on whether or not to put one on my bike. my buddy has one coming in for his bike that i am dieing to put on the tree to see if i like the look/feel. we shall see. i did up my seat, did you check that out?
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I'm glad you posted that - I hadn't seen the tail - very creative my friend ;). I'm trying to figure my tail profile out now. These bikes are pretty small and the cockpit gets a little cramped pretty quick if your not careful. The clubmans do position your upper body pretty low making you want to scoot your but back pretty far to get your body position correct. I would make sure you run the seat base out as close as you can to the top of the shock (look at the Titan bike that someone posted up on the first page) before you ramp up with your butt stop. You will also probably want to position the foot pegs to the rear most position and make a new shifter rod. Ive spent this week trying to figure this all out - cant you tell. Make sure you put the clubmans on the bike before you weld the tail bump to the seat pan. I think I'm going to trim the clubmans up a bit to bring the grips closer to the bike. This seems to help reduce the amount of forward lean and makes the bike a little more comfortable.

Heres a link to a few more pics http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u245/byrdman76/
 
yeah i have the controls set to the back as well and am making the new shift linkage. my buddy works at a tool and die shop so we are going to make the rod and then use spherical rod ends.
 
Got a little bit more done on the CB. Rebuilt the wheels and added some rubber. Finished the battery tray and began working on fabricating the tail section. The plan is to french in the tail light - we'll see how it turns out. If I'm not happy with it I'll put a small round retro light with some polished trim and mount it to the outside of the tail section.

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cb_77_tailsection001.jpg
 
that seat is looking great - nice proportions. I wish I could find one of these bikes :'(
 
hotfunk67 said:
that seat is looking great - nice proportions. I wish I could find one of these bikes :'(
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Thanks man ;D Hopefully the final result will turn out as well. I just cant wait to ride this thing 8).
 
Got the tail section skim coated with short hair filler and smoothed things out with some light weight body filler. Next I'll begin on the seat pan. I still need to shorten up my bars so that my controls and cables will work properly. Once I get thast done I'm going to begin on fabbing up the high mount exhaust.

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man that is looking great! I just picked up a XT500 yamaha... i have to say the wheels all around are sharp on this sucker, but on that one man you have to rock the drum brakes... makes these bikes that much cooler... build looks awesome!
 
Thanks for all of the comments guys! ;D I cant wait to hit the curves with this thing and rip it up a bit. The bad part is that I have to tear it completely back down again to paint it. I have learned one lesson - never buy a bike that has been torn apart by the previous owner - "sure all the parts are here in these boxes..." There is no such thing as a good deal when this is the case.
 
HI byrdman76! Been away for a while, now just hoping to stick around and catch up on the progress you've made with Red Molly. Of course, since you have twins at home, I know you can't have much free time, but seeing your work is always a pleasure.

OK, so I still drool over the photos of your project "SCUD" GS550 (for those who don't know, the GS550 is a project bike byrdman76 built not too long ago, which you can see here:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=104862

Go ahead, check it out! byrdman76 does INCREDIBLE work!

This Honda is turning out to be another jewel in your crown; thanks for keeping us updated! OK, not looking to waste your time; just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work, and ask you to please keep posting detailed photos. I'm the world's WORST mechanic, but I'm DETERMINED to learn; I'm able to figure out a lot of things simply by seeing photos of the work in progress.

In the GSR thread, you mentioned using "NON-woven" fiberglass cloth to build the SCUD tailpiece; I don't know the first thing about working with fiberglass, so I hope you don't mind a few questions:

Is the fiberglass cloth you use available in bulk? I've seen packages of (woven) cloth in an autoparts store, but the cloth was only eight square feet; what size packages do you buy? Where do you buy it (auto parts store, hardware store, home improvement store...)?

What can you tell us about resin? Is there a particular type to use? Are there any types we should avoid?

Sorry for the pathetic questions, but I'm worried about buying the wrong stuff, and wasting money on something unsuitable for the job...

Thanks for your time, and remember to keep posting photos to inspire us wanna-bes!

EDIT: changed one line to show that the GS550 SCUD project bike was built more recently than "a few YEARS ago"; sorry for the confusion...
 
kneedragger said:
HI byrdman76! Been away for a while, now just hoping to stick around and catch up on the progress you've made with Red Molly. Of course, since you have twins at home, I know you can't have much free time, but seeing your work is always a pleasure.

OK, so I still drool over the photos of your project "SCUD" GS550 (for those who don't know, the GS550 is a project bike byrdman76 built not too long ago, which you can see here:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=104862

Go ahead, check it out! byrdman76 does INCREDIBLE work!

This Honda is turning out to be another jewel in your crown; thanks for keeping us updated! OK, not looking to waste your time; just wanted to tell you to keep up the good work, and ask you to please keep posting detailed photos. I'm the world's WORST mechanic, but I'm DETERMINED to learn; I'm able to figure out a lot of things simply by seeing photos of the work in progress.

In the GSR thread, you mentioned using "NON-woven" fiberglass cloth to build the SCUD tailpiece; I don't know the first thing about working with fiberglass, so I hope you don't mind a few questions:

Is the fiberglass cloth you use available in bulk? I've seen packages of (woven) cloth in an autoparts store, but the cloth was only eight square feet; what size packages do you buy? Where do you buy it (auto parts store, hardware store, home improvement store...)?

What can you tell us about resin? Is there a particular type to use? Are there any types we should avoid?

Sorry for the pathetic questions, but I'm worried about buying the wrong stuff, and wasting money on something unsuitable for the job...

Thanks for your time, and remember to keep posting photos to inspire us wanna-bes!

EDIT: changed one line to show that the GS550 SCUD project bike was built more recently than "a few YEARS ago"; sorry for the confusion...
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Hello Kneedragger - welcome back! Thanks for the comments on the bike and thanks for the props on my work even though it may be a bit crude compared to some of the other fiberglass tail sections I have seen lately - for example "rockcitycafe" That guy does some freaking great work :o.

Sooo I stick with the "off the shelf" fiberglass resin from the big box stores and actually went with fiberglass matt this go round instead of the woven stuff (there usually right beside each other). I used some left over woven for the seat pan but for very curvy applications on the SCUD seat it was a bitch to get the woven stuff to stay put - it constantly wants to pop up. I used the aluminum foil trick this go around that rockcitycafe showed in his thread around the edges of the seat pan - it worked GREAT in keeping the matt in place. I am just wondering if I missed a step or something. The aluminum foil was a little bit of a pain to get off once everything had dried.

The one thing that I also noticed was that the matt material wants to kind of slide off or attach to the brush when applying the resin. It wasnt a big deal but i would have to go back and add more matt to these areas since I was worried about them not being as strong.

On another note the biggest thing that you have to remember is to go through the complete process in your mind before you actually begin. Make sure that you precut all of your material and actually lay it out step by step. Doing it while trying to hurry before the resin turns to jelly is asking for allot of trouble and a BIG MESS!

The SCUD will actually be hitting eBay at some point :'(. I took a few new pictures of it the other day for my add. I just cant decide if am going to list it now or wait until next spring. It will be sad to see it go, but I get just as much enjoyment out of building these things as I do riding them. unfortunately, as you all know they can tally up quite a bill and unfortunately I cant keep them all and continue building others - cycle of life I guess ;)

Good Luck on everyones projects and keep the photos coming. I get a ton of inspiration from this site and I'm sure others do as well. I'm just a wanna-be myself and cant get enough of these awesome machines that actually have some soul!

Later,

Byrd
 
Thanks for the quick reply, byrdman, I didn't think you'd see my post so quickly...

I tend to think that you'd get more money for the SCUD bike if you held onto it until springtime; it just seems logical that more people would be looking for something special as the weather turns nice. People in the snow belt might be reluctant to bid on a motorcycle with winter fast approaching, because they'd really just have to store it until next spring. If they don't have much space available, they might decide not to bid on the SCUD at all. IMO, your work deserves top dollar; the more income the SCUD bike generates, the more you'll have available for new projects in the future...

Of course, this is ultimately your decision; we know you have a family to support, and raising kids means that "disposable" income will be limited. From an economic standpoint, I'd prefer to see you wait to put the SCUD on the auction block.

Who knows? Maybe this winter you'll find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or hit a big jackpot in a lottery, and you'll be able to KEEP the SCUD bike. If you sell it, you'll probably never get it back, so again, waiting until you're positive you NEED to sell it seems the best course of action to me... besides, if you KEEP it for a while, maybe I'll be able to convince you to post about fifty thousand more photos of it over the winter, to keep me motivated to build my own SCUD bike.

Lastly, though my birthday has already passed, Christmas is coming, and if you happened to be in an ULTRA-generous mood by late December, I'd be willing to give the SCUD a good home for the next fifty years or so, though I promise to give it back to you once I turn 100... OK, so I'm a bit older than you are (OK, OK, so I'm more than 20 years older than you), and being on a "fixed" income means that I'm actually "BROKE", but I REALLY like how the SCUD turned out... and even old men have dreams of beautiful cafe bikes, and beautiful women who lust after old men who ride beautiful cafe bikes...

In fact, I did check out the rockcity website recently; I'll have to find the "aluminum foil" thread you've referred to... and I guess I still have a lot to learn about fiberglass. I DID look at the stuff sitting on the shelves in the local stores, but I still haven't got everything worked out in my head yet. When time (and budget) allows, I'll begin by making a mock-up of the seat I want out of "plant foam", or something similar, as shown in some of your SCUD photos; once I have that done, I'll start buying my materials, then try my hand at working with 'glass... probably won't be pretty, but as long as I learn something from it...

Still wondering how much material is in the packages of fiberglass cloth you buy... As I mentioned, I've only seen packs that contain eight square feet of material; is that how you buy it, or do you get something in a (larger) bulk pack? I'm willing to buy in bulk to save money; it won't spoil or ever be too "old" to use... maybe I should stop by some boat repair shops to see what they have available...

Keep the faith, byrdman; if I happen to win the lottery anytime soon, we BOTH know who you'll be selling the SCUD bike to...
 
Sounds like a plan man - I think your right about waiting until next spring/tax return season. I wanted to get it on eBay earlier, but I also wanted to take it to Barber for their Vintage Days Festival a few weeks ago. We usually do not winterize our bikes here in NC. The temp gets warm enough in the afternoons if the sun is out to ride year round if your prepared gear wise. Thanks for the advise regarding the snow belt.

I can easily get one seat out of one package of material sold at home depot or Lowes. Probably the 8 sq. feet package your referring to - If its different I'll let you know. If your looking to build just one, I would stick with the smaller can of resin as well. I bought the resin by the gallon and I still have 3/4's or more of the resin after two seats. You will also need some short hair fiberglass filler for smoothing things out and some light weight body filler to lightly hit any imperfections - about a pint of each. Skim coat the whole thing with the short hair and sparingly use the body filler. Make sure you mix the resin exactly as stated - don't short change the activator. it will be easier to work with but it will be weaker and nearly never dry. Don't over do it with the activator or it will begin to harden too soon. Also make sure you get a few chip brushes to paint the resin onto the form. They will tell you to dip each piece - Instead I just hold it in place on the form and apply resin until it is completely saturated.

I wish I had the resources to give it away for a good cause ;D but I'll be more than happy to help you out with yours with some shade tree back yard knowledge.
 
man that was great! thanks for the hlep! i have been beating my head against the wall trying to get this right!!!
 
The CB77s are some sick little bikes man. That little 305 can really rip it up. I got a friend who has a superhawk back home for sale. Where you at in NC byrdman? I'm located in Durham.
 
ultimatefiend138 said:
The CB77s are some sick little bikes man. That little 305 can really rip it up. I got a friend who has a superhawk back home for sale. Where you at in NC byrdman? I'm located in Durham.
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What's up ultimate. I'm over in Raleigh. What kind of bike do you ride?
 
BigBSBusa said:
I'm just down the road from you guys in Fayetteville.
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Both of you guys should check out ncssportbikes.com

Great group of guys that are mostly made up of late model sportbikes but are open to anyone - I have always been welcomed with open arms when I rode myy cafe to one of their events. They get together every Thursday night and go for a short ride to a random place to eat, then head downtown to napper tandys or the Hibe. on Glenwood. Very cool level headed people - not a bunch of punks.

Check them out.
 
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