Maxwell's '74 cb450 cafe build.

History:

After a few years out of the sportbike game, and years of longing for an old Honda twin, I finally pulled the trigger late this summer. I found this gem, a 1974 cb450k7 ss in a barn from some super hick (albeit eloquent and nice) kid in Darien, NY. It did not run at the time but it looked good aside from the terrible front end, and it was mostly original. I took a chance and picked it up for $500.00.


After getting it home, a quick compression test revealed 165+/- on both cylinders COLD!! and about 180+/- to temp. Super healthy engine, so I continued to move forward with the bike.


garage teardown


new forks old handlebars. Picked these cb550 forks from focusinprogress and rebuilt them. They look great with the gators.



clubmans


mirror, clutch lever and perch, no gauges


cleaned tank with metal rescue rust remover bath. This stuff is awesome. Check out this link. It worked SO well.


shorty exhaust

Well, after rebuilding the carbs, and purchasing new cables, cleaning the tank, etc, I ran out of summer. Here is a video of the bike before I put it away for the year. It is sorted out for the most part, but was running incredibly lean due to the new pod style filters and free flowing exhaust.
[video]http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u375/pmaxwellh/3021251B-7569-4970-BB89-60BBDBEA6B7E-1462-00000121FA0D0B73.mp4[/video]

nice bike dude!

Very nice, Paul!

Back to Current:

After a few months tucked away, I finally got back around to it this weekend. If you look at some of these previous pics, the frame shows some surface rust, the rim spokes shows some rust, and it generally needs some cleaning.

Also, I have had plans to basically build the bike up from the frame and replace pretty much everything… so here we go. Diving in head first.

I have been blessed with a great workspace, and this christmas I got some new tools and this nice Kobalt chest. Sweet



xmas present/ space


teardown


engine out

completely bare, stripped frame.

And so here we are, down to a bare frame. I am going to be shaving off some stuff I don’t need and respraying the frame black to clean it up. But why not powdercoat you ask? Because I’m sure there will be further modification down the road so i’d like to have the ability to chop the frame some more without feeling bad about ruining some very pretty PC work.

Plans:

-Utilize stock seat pan (with the folding and locking feature which I really like), but i’ll be reupholstering it so be low profile. Maybe brown leather with some stitching. we’ll see. Kinda like this but I won’t be hooping my tail just yet.
http://www.bikeexif.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/honda-cb450-cafe-racer-4.jpg

-Rearsets
-New exhaust. I really like th CL style side exhaust. I am looking. Let me know if you have anything!
-Refresh electrical… but nothing crazy. It works, but i’ll be replacing coils, wires, and some general cleaning and modernizing of the harness
-new tires, and painting the spokes black. The chrome lip is still very nice and rust free. That should be a fun tape job to prep these.

  • I am going to ditch the clubmans and use clip ons. Whatever, piss off. I think it’ll clean the front end up.
    -Poach the smaller gauges and taillight from my '72 cl 175. I may just end up using the tach gauge. We’ll see.
  • Clean the engine up a bit. I like the original petina, but some cleaning and degreasing is in order. I already have stainless allen hardware throughout.
    -re-jet the carbs (both main and pilot) It’s WAYYY lean right now.
    -Looking into velocity stacks. :eek:
    -Heavy duty rear shocks. I am 215lb so I need to keep that rear end stiff. Also, stock measures 13" eyelet to eyelet. If you look at it the tire looks low tucked into the frame. I am thinking of running an inch taller. Thoughts?
    -More general cleaning.
    -Floating rear fender welded to swingarm. Just incase I get caught in the rain with the velocity stacks I may or may not get.

Blah, what a cluster. Keep me motivated with inspiration! Look for updates in the coming weeks.

-Paul

Glad you listened to me and threw this thread together after we chatted the other day. Prepare for me to bombard this thread with inspirational cb450 pics and info. BRB…

^ lol yeah. Productive weekend. Inspiration is certainly welcome.

OK, check out this build…I REALLY loved the end result of this guy’s project…I thought the exhaust was especially cool, with the copper tips.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=15615.300

As for velocity stacks…get ahold of the guy from Steel Dragon Performance and tell him the guys from GarageSpun reffered you after our experiences with his CB550 and CB750 stacks…they are handcrafted, impressively…and reasonably priced. I beleive the guy’s name is mike. I can maybe dig up his direct email address if you want it…

Also, I’m on the fence about the seat on that bike you posted…

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lAtAIDJt0lY/TuisneamAPI/AAAAAAAAEyA/j5WPEe8ZduE/s640/honda3.jpg

I almost like it, but it seems like the area against the hoop in the frame could be a smoother shape/transition. It’s also kinda bratsyle-ish.

I kinda like this one:

http://modernmoto.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/honda-cb450.jpg

Oh, and those shocks I got that I showed you I got here:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=shock&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_armrs=1&_ssn=ophir4u&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313&_nkw=12.5"+shock&_sacat=0

many color combos and different lengths also available…

---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

Oh, and FWIW, those forks you pulled off would likely sell to someone building a chopper out of a cb550 or cb450…if you still have 'em list them up for sale on SOHC4.net

yeah, the green cafe is where a lot of my inspiration has drawn from. That exhaust is a cl350 exhaust with some bends welded in to bring it back through the frame, and then the copper tips. LOVE IT.

Listen, I really really like the functionality of the stock seat pan. It folds up on the stock hinges, has a compartment for documents, and I can lock the helmet to the bike when I am away from it. For now i’d like to do something low-profile on the stock pan and shave off the remaining metal behind the stock hoop on the frame.

that won’t be very hard to do at all. step one is to make the hoop and see how the stock pan sits with it…then get out the cutting tools haha.

Oh, and as far as clip-ons…if you’re looking to DIY and save a bunch of loot to make them, refer to my CB550 build thread for how I made mine…I snagged a spare lower triple clamp for $5 and cut it up to use for the clamp portions and welded some handlebar stock to them at my desired angle

I really like this one.

Looking forward to see updates on this. Looks like you’re off to a great start. :tup:

Nick, link to more pics on this bike?

don’t be a faggot, get another bike!

Let’s talk length. Look at the pictures of the bike together and how far the tire is tucked in. Those are the oem 13" shocks. I am thinking of going up to 14". Tell me why or why not.

DAMN I WANT ONE OF THESE

I think max the guy sells that I got mine through is 13.5" (which is what I put on mine)…the lower mount is adjustable and could surely get you the additional .5" if you desired it. It’s gonna be one of those situations where you set the bike up with the OEM shocks and ride height and go beat the snot out of it to feel how it responds to cornering and fast steering changes, then throw the 13.5"s on and try again, then adjust to 14" and see where it feels the best. you’re a tall MF’er so I’d guess 13.5 on the stiffer shocks and put the cb550 forks about a half inch or so through the top tree and see how she responds. IIRC you took my advice and are running 10w-40 oil in the forks correct?

---------- Post added at 04:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:21 PM ----------

I’m doing builds on the side if you are the type that wants a finished bike…

Yeah 10w40 is in the forks. That is a good point. I really like those resoirvor shocks in the gold finish as they compliment my color scheme nicely. Hrmmm… cheaper then the progressive springs too…

my points exactly…

So, look at that stock hoop on my frame, as seen in this pic:

I am going to cut and grind down the frame right after this. This will allow the tail section of the frame to be completely underneat the seat, while also allowing me to use the stock seat pan as the seat pan has rubber bumpers that sit on top of that piece. It should also keep things ridgid without having to hoop the tail section. I can look into that further down the road if I end up doing a true cafe tail.

don’t throw away the hoop after you cut it off, we can re-use it later if you want to re-position and shorten it later…the bends will be useful.

No, no no. That chrome piece is bolted on.

Maybe this is a better pic:

See the tail section of the frame and that hoop. Keeping that and grindind down the 2 inches of material after it, as well as the brackets for said chrome piece. I’ll take some more pics tonight if I get back to it.

This way I can still use the stock seat pan without any frame showing.

Spent a small amount of time in the garage tonight. I didn’t do much beyond some cleaning of the garage and the frame.


I don’t know why I thought the shocks were 13". Upon closer look these stock Showa’s are 12 1/2". I’m going to spend a bit of extra coin and go with the progressive 13" with the HD spring rating. That should set me up right the first time.




Here is the material that I would like to shave off. I’m basically just going to make it as flush with that top hoop as possible, and take off the turn signal brackets.


The seat pan has a nice deep well. Here’s the document holder I was talking about.


Stainless hardware on the engine. I like the original patina on the engine so I won’t really be going crazy cleaning it. Call me lazy.

-Paul