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Advise on Cafe Style

KyleBaker183

KyleBaker183

New Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2023
Total Posts
7
Total likes
10
Location
Wichita Falls Tx
I am looking to build my bike to look pretty close to the one in the picture and had a question; how do you get the “hole” under the seat? Haven’t seen an article that shows moving the battery somewhere. I’m imaging that it’s tucked under the seat, but my battery is too big for that is there a smaller one? IMG_6036.jpeg
 
This is where the creativity starts. Though I did a restomod, I'm not a fan of no fenders, no chain guard and giant oversized tires. The fenders because they help keep the bike clean in bad weather and because the front fender acts as a fork brace to improve handling, the chain guard because it keeps chain lube off the rest of the bike aside from the rear rim, and stock tire sizes because it retains the original handling according to the factory frame geometry instead of making the bike quite roly-poly and heavy steering.

That said, it's your bike and you do what you want to do - believe me, I've caught my share of grief for 'chopping up' what looked in pictures like a nice CL450 when in fact it was a 20 footer at best. As for the battery box, though I didn't go for the whole open triangle under the seat (another thing I personally think detracts from the bike), I did go with a smaller battery (4 amp lithium ion) and simply fabbed a thin sheet metal box for it to hang in between the air filters. The guys who hide the battery in the tail section use that big bump seat with a much larger area back there (and I've seen a million cafe racers in my life so that isn't my thing either, LOL). Remember that if you clear out everything in that triangle, you also eliminate the inner rear fender that keeps bad weather away from your air filters and electrics. Just a few things to think about as you plan the details for the style you want.

BTW, this will be your Projects and Builds thread so when you want to change the title just let me know what you want.
 
A real cafe racer is (or used to be) built to somewhat emulate the racing machines at the time, and to perform better than the stock machine. Lowered bikes with 1930s balloon tires may look cool, but have limited cornering ability and traction, and worse handling than a stock bike. As ancientdad said, it’s your bike and your decision, though. I built one back around 1980 and still have it, but I left the battery box and air cleaner setup alone, kept a front fender and shortened inner rear fender, modified the suspension a bit, upgraded the brakes, and mounted decent tires so I could really enjoy the twisty roads around here on it.

IMG_2319.jpeg
 
ballbearian said:
"The kickstand is too short now", thing always cracks me up.
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Which has always made me wonder. The front of the OP's pictured bike has been lowered a bit, seemingly stock length shocks on the back so it has to be the humongous tires. My bike is lowered 1.5" with stock tires sizes on it and I still use the original sidestand.
 
I guess I should have clarified lol. I don’t like the fat tires on that bike. Too goofy looking. It’s like a kid wearing his dads boots. 🤣

I am interested in lowering it a bit, but nothing crazy. As for tires, they’ll be as close to original size as possible.

And no mummy wrap on the exhaust.
 
Nobody here wants to come off as judgmental, especially when it comes to personal style choices, but when many sacrifices in functionality are made for the sake of looks, it is a big drawback for many. I like a bike to be dependable, adaptable to different situations (in town traffic and open road) and comfortable to ride a 100 miles at a time. Truth is, when all said and done, original Honda engineering is a lot of fun and hard to beat for most of us.
 
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ballbearian said:
Nobody here wants to come off as judgmental, especially when it comes to personal style choices, but when many sacrifices in functionality are made for the sake of looks, it is a big drawback for many. I like a bike to be dependable, adaptable to different situations (in town traffic and open road) and comfortable to ride a 100 miles at a time. Truth is, when all said and done, original Honda engineering is a lot of fun and hard to beat for most of us.
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And that's what I love about the car/motorcycle scene. When people are building something they are passionate about, most people dont judge. Most people are very supportive in that vision and help where they can.

I'm only going to be riding this for short trips so im not super concerned with being adaptable. Honestly looking to build something that matches my truck so I can take them both to shows and show them as a pair. IMG_0017.jpeg
 
I originally did something similar going for the hidden battery look and pod filters. I’ve seen many ways people have done it even mounting a license plate under the seat to fit a smaller lithium battery.

I used a battery tray welded by a user from dotheton website and but eventually I went with Honda’s configuration. I agree with ballbearian, their engineering is hard to beat. I ended up just using my OEM battery box and shortened it to fit an Shorai and original air boxes. Hope this helps.

IMG_0911.jpeg
D416C81D-B5FE-40BB-96B5-CAF12E109A7E.jpeg
 
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rortiz5 said:
I originally did something similar going for the hidden battery look and pod filters. I’ve seen many ways people have done it even mounting a license plate under the seat to fit a smaller lithium battery.

I used a battery tray welded by a user from dotheton website and but eventually I went with Honda’s configuration. I agree with ballbearian, their engineering is hard to beat. I ended up just using my OEM battery box and shortened it to fit an Shorai and original air boxes. Hope this helps.

View attachment 27384
View attachment 27383
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Looks like you put some extensions on your pods. How'd that work out?
 
rortiz5 said:
Not great, couldn’t get idle below 1800 but I’m not the most patient or experienced when it comes to carb tuning.
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Kyle's got a 350 with the CV type carbs that mostly don't like the pods. Yours are the older style non CV carbs on your 175, but still like the stock airfilters better. Not to get OT on Kyles thread but you may have some split cable/adjuster on carb tops issues. May have to remove locknuts and maybe file down carb tops. See post #34 here.

CB160 Blue on White maybe

Time to start another log. Mostly poking around, fixing little things and trying to figure out what I should do, besides make it rideable. Interesting machine, must have a 360 crank. 2 lead coil, 1 points. original carbs and filters too. Cool aftermarket exhaust with removeable baffle...
www.vintagehondatwins.com www.vintagehondatwins.com
 
Sitting here, metaphorically biting my tongue, on the basis that if I can't say something nice I shouldn't say anything at all ...

I've no problem at all with modifying bikes to make them go and handle better, but just ruining them to make them look 'cool' just makes me despair.

Something nice - I do like the fuel tank on the bike in the original photo top of thread.
 
Got a CB350 rest-mod-cafe that’s still waiting to get the bodywork & paint done.
Look down in the thread; there’s a few details on electrical. One of the photos shows the electrical/battery tray under the seat.

CB350 Resto Mod Cafe

Started this project a few moons ago. Still not finished. The mechanical work is pretty much done, but the bodywork and painting has dragged me down. Bought a ‘72 CB350 from a friend, and started to tear into it. 2000 CBR600 rear suspension, and 2008 GSXR750 front end.
www.vintagehondatwins.com www.vintagehondatwins.com
 
Here's Kyle's 350 from his introduction.

index.php


Kyle, the truck looks awesome, I love the older Chevy and Ford trucks and red is my favorite color (my custom car buddy in Tampa calls it 'resale red')
 
KyleBaker183 said:
And that's what I love about the car/motorcycle scene. When people are building something they are passionate about, most people dont judge. Most people are very supportive in that vision and help where they can.

I'm only going to be riding this for short trips so im not super concerned with being adaptable. Honestly looking to build something that matches my truck so I can take them both to shows and show them as a pair. View attachment 27380
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Nice truck and a cool idea to have a matching bike! Good luck with it.
 
ancientdad said:
Here's Kyle's 350 from his introduction.
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ancientdad said:
Here's Kyle's 350 from his introduction.

index.php


Kyle, the truck looks awesome, I love the older Chevy and Ford trucks and red is my favorite color (my custom car buddy in Tampa calls it 'resale red')
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Well given the partial mods already and the amount of these built over their production run making it yours, plus matching your truck is a great project. Everyone has already covered the ups and downs of modification. So have at it.
 
KyleBaker183 said:
Bought a tank on Amazon and now I need the bushings for it. The ones from the original tank don’t fit. Help?


The new tanks bushings are smaller.
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Universal usually means they universally need fabrication work. If you have the clearance needed with that tank you’re going to have to modify the mounts or the bracket on the tank. Which part of the new bushing is smaller? That’s usually the best place to start - modifying or fabricating a bushing is pretty straightforward.

Nice C10 - a 70 step side was my last project before this bike. Actually used the leftover paint from that for my tank and side panels.
 
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At first I thought you were going to do a CB750 with clown shoes but reading through see you seem quite sensible.
That has last year 350 forks with disc brake, drum front wheel will bolt straight in if you wanted to change things.
If Windows 11 hadn't corrupted my thumb drive during an update I would have a ton of pictures of various local modded 350's/360's to give you even more idea's
The 350 your starting with isn't pristine but isn't totally disgusting so a very good starting point, tank needs paint, red to match truck sounds good to me..
The air filters have to go, they are too small.
Battery box, I guess you figured you need LiFePo but that is going to need an upgraded rectifier/regulator unit or battery will fail (possibly catching fire)
Personally I prefer battery mounted low and center, either on top of swing arm or underneath if you fabrication skills are good (Suzuki did it with VS750/700 in the 80's, it was in production until 2000's) If your ditching electric start you can fit a much smaller battery, AD uses 4A/Hr lithium I use 7A/Hr SLA, much much cheaper
I can modify the carbs to run with K&N filters, without the mods it will run very rich somewhere around 3~6,000rpm during transition to secondary main jets.
The exhaust is way too short, the cam timing is very mild and really doesn't like short systems, you may not want a long system but could get creative?
mydlyfcrysis just started a thread on his resto-mod 360 from a few years ago with some useful charts and ballbearian has interest in wheel building as it's the best modifications you can do.
Steel rims seem unavailable at present but 'classic' cafe racer rims in alloy are just better (plus cheaper and lighter weight)
I also posted a picture of a 360 cafe I built several years ago that was on display at Ace Cafe Orlando,
Anyway, welcome, we are always interested to see new members with new idea's. Coming from car world may make it even more interesting?
 
KyleBaker183 said:
Bought a tank on Amazon and now I need the bushings for it. The ones from the original tank don’t fit. Help?


The new tanks bushings are smaller.
Click to expand...
I took the stock rubber cushions and cut them down in width and height so they would slip into my chrome Ape 100 Monkey tank, they ended up being half the size but work well.

450 tank mount.png
 
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