History
I’ve had a few modern sport bikes in the past and gone the last 10+ years without one mainly due to family commitments. Back then it was all about spending the whole day away riding but in recent years, things have sort of shifted towards creativity from my artistic side. A cafe racer bike was always appealing because of the look, the coolness, the impracticality but I was never really interested in buying one and rather wanted to create something I could call my own.
Since I love the 80s, the technology, the music, everything, I knew I wanted something from that era and ended up buying a cheap non running bike with a box of bits thinking “how hard could it be?”. Well, let’s just say that I had bitten off more than I could chew.
The build process was initially overwhelming because I hadn’t done it before but I knew I was good with my hands and am a patient person. First was dismantling, bagging and tagging, then removing the engine without any special equipment. Modification and fabrication of the rear subframe putting my newly acquired metal and welding skills to the test. Sandblasting the big bits, frame, engine wheels was a bit of a challenge but not impossible thanks to a temporary makeshift enclosure. Full strip down, repaint, rebuild of the brakes, wheels and suspension. Previous owner claimed the engine was running however compression testing wasn’t too good so I knew it could at least do with a top end rebuild but thought while we are here, you know, might as well go all the way. Besides what did I know about rebuilding engines? Nada, but I was about to learn. Completely tore down the engine, had a beer, maybe two, got the cylinder bores measured for roundness and honed, head resurfaced by the local engine shop. Did some mild head porting and polishing myself with a dremel, replaced the rings, all gaskets and seals. The bottom end bearings weren’t in too bad shape but they were replaced just because but choosing the correct bearings was a very time consuming process as to do it properly, required measuring journals to calculate the most appropriate bearing size. Some of the aluminium engine parts sanded back and polished, others deburred and repainted. Setting the valve shims clearances was quite a pain as it was very fiddly but some single malt scotch helped. Full strip down, clean and rebuild the carburettors, man what a job this was. Decided to stick with the stock airbox as the standard carbs are already quite sensitive and difficult to get running right.
Modifications
Rather than putting on some rear sets to replace the standard footpegs, controls and mounts, I decided to carefully chop up the originals for something unique and still functional. Front shocks shortened by 58mm as I couldn’t stand the look of the shock tops protruding like towers through the top triple clamp. The triple clamp itself was reinforced on the underside and the stock bar mounts ground off for a clean top. A custom made bracket to complement the analogue gauges and the gap in between along with custom made number plate bracket, chain guard, front fender using the original bracket, choke pull bracket. Fuel tank originally had a jerry can style cap and locking mechanism which I never really fancied so it had to go. The indents were filled with solder and had a new custom cap made up for a clean and simple classic look. Relocated battery, rectifier / regulator, spark units and solenoids to the seat pan. Rather than trying to work out the original wiring loom then having to relocate a lot of circuits, it was tossed in the bin and a full rewire was done in conjunction with a Motogadget M-Unit Blue. Apart from the cool features that come with an M-Unit, the main advantage was being able to use small and simplistic switches which don’t actually need to handle the load currents allowing you to use thin gauge cable on all the input circuits and also eliminating the fuse box. A solenoid operated fuel shut off valve was installed which automatically cuts the fuel when the ignition is off as coming from modern bikes, I kept forgetting to manually close the fuel petcock after a ride. I decided to keep the centre stand because it’s old school and particularly like to equally see both sides of the bike standing upright rather than lent over to one side. Both the centre and side stands had to be lengthened due to the new stance by altering the suspension geometry. Prepping the tank, seat unit and front fender was key to obtaining a killer paint finish. I lost count of how many times these were primered, guide coated and block sanded. Once the base coat was on, accurately masking up the lines was a job in itself, especially on the curved areas. Then the fear of pulling the tape off when the paint was dry enough to handle but not quite cured, luckily this went very well.
The bike is heavy when compared to something modern of similar capacity even after removing lots of the unwanted equipment but she is old school and that alone is cool. Suspension is firm thanks to the YSS rear shocks and the shortened, stiffened front forks. Performance from the freshly rebuilt stock engine is good for something from the 80s era with an amazing sound produced from a nicely tuned 4 carburettor engine. Brakes perform reasonably well being dual front disc with dual pot callipers either side operated via a 17mm master cylinder.
The colour scheme was inspired by a custom Porsche 911 Singer in Absinthe green.
