My freebie 1973 CB450 Brat / Cafe / Whatever you call it

[Jrusso96]

After skimming the forums for some time I figured I'd post some pictures of my project from this past winter. I started with a 1973 CB450 in basket case condition that I picked up for next to nothing. It was a project that someone started to teardown and then abandoned and let sit for about 10 years. It was missing the rear swing arm, shocks, air box, carbs, half of the wire harness etc. So I figured it was a good candidate to take the grinder to. The design isn't too original but I like the look of the brat style bikes. Here is what I started with:



At least the teardown was quick and easy:

 

[Jrusso96]

Made a quick low profile electronics/ battery box - just deep enough to fit the Antigravity 6ah battery. I basically rewired the bike from scratch, which actually went very smoothly after sifting through all the incorrect wiring diagrams out there. Also spooned off tires, cut the spokes and had the hoops powder coated and then I laced them up to some fresh eBay spokes that worked surprisingly well.

 

[Jrusso96]

Alot of the parts came from Dime City as you can probably tell, as well as a handful of cheapo ebay parts (headlight, gauges, shocks) In this pic I am mocking up the seat and the tail light, which is an LED tail/brake light off of a Honda CRF250x



Fast forward a bit, by February my garage was too cold so the project moved to my laundry room. The I just cleaned up the motor, polished some pieces and did a little bit of paint on it. Didn't go too crazy cosmetically because I had no idea of the condition in terms of weather it ran or not.




The swing arm is off of a CB360, it is a couple inches longer and I think it improves the look of the rear end substantially.

 

[Jrusso96]

Spooned on the Avon Roadriders, and it was finally a roller.



Went with the black Renthal superbike bars. Also, cut and painted the fender.

 

[Jrusso96]

Buttoning up the last of the wiring, convereted to the Spark regulator rectifier combo along with the Lithium Ion battery. Works great so far!

 

[Jrusso96]

Misc progress

 

[Jrusso96]

Here is the first day I had it on the road. After a couple weeks of chasing around a carb issue - which turned out to be a bad BRAND NEW pilot jet from a rebuild kit. Cleaned up the original pilot jet and swapped that in, a little tuning and it ran great. I built the exhaust from scratch, bought a stock set off pipes on ebay and cut off the flanges to use on the end. Then bent up some tubing to make a straight / side exit 2 into 2 exhaust. Finished them off with brass inserts on the ends from Dime city which aren't in the first picture. I was originally going to have them ceramic coated black but once they started to turn colors while getting the carbs tuned I had to leave them bare. The bike now runs and rides great. I have a bout 500 miles on it so far with no real issues. Its a blast to ride.

 

[DohcBikes]

Very Nice!! Fantastic job. Clean and simple. I could do without seeing the rear peg mounts, but I know that some people leave them there. Again wonderful job, lots of style in that bike.

Edit: I see now in the second pic that the peg mounts are starting to disappear. Thumbs up.

Now, about those $10 pods.....

 

[Jrusso96]

Very Nice!! Fantastic job. Clean and simple. I could do without seeing the rear peg mounts, but I know that some people leave them there. Again wonderful job, lots of style in that bike.

Edit: I see now in the second pic that the peg mounts are starting to disappear. Thumbs up.

Now, about those $10 pods.....

Thank you - Yes the peg mounts are now gone! After looking at it I knew they had to go, so I hacked them off. Next winter I will smooth them out completely. As for the pods, I intend on replacing them also. Although it runs well after going up a few sizes on the mains. What is the consensus on the best pods to run?

 

[Gumper]

Very nice indeed. Could you please tell me the exact model of bars you have there, low, medium? A couple more pictures would be appreciated too.

 

[catsy]

nice build!
ballzy doing all that without even know the motor condition, glad it went well.
where did you get that headlight? do you have a link?

 

[BriMed1983]

well done, looks awesome.

 

[Jrusso96]

Very nice indeed. Could you please tell me the exact model of bars you have there, low, medium? A couple more pictures would be appreciated too.

Thanks! The bars are Renthal Ultra Low "Superbike" bars. I ran clubmans on my last build, these are 10x better.

 

[Jrusso96]

nice build!
ballzy doing all that without even know the motor condition, glad it went well.
where did you get that headlight? do you have a link?

Thanks! I did a visual inspection and then put it all together and was praying all was okay. The smart thing would have been to rebuild before I put it all back together, but luck was on my side this time. The headlight is actually an eBay special from china. J&P cycles has one which is probably much better quality. I'll see if I can find a link. I knew I wanted a 5 inch light that mounted from the bottom. Sounds pretty basic but It took me forever to find one that looked right. Unfortunately it is almost useless when riding at night. I may swap the guts from another light I have into this bucket.

 

[515CUSTOMS]

You bike looks soooooooo good. I saved the pictures of it on my phone months ago and look at them every few weeks. I plan on building my cl350 alot like your bike.

 

[Jrusso96]

You bike looks soooooooo good. I saved the pictures of it on my phone months ago and look at them every few weeks. I plan on building my cl350 alot like your bike.

Thanks! It's funny you mention that, I just picked up a basket case 1970 cl350. I plan on doing it similar to this one also. I may start up a build thread for it. Good luck with yours, have fun!