1974 Honda CB750 Project Bike

“Hey, Billy Jack!”

“Hi, Frank. How you doing?”

“Just great. You know that CB750 I picked up last month?” asked Billy Jack.

“Yeah,” said Frank, rubbing his chin.

“I’m gonna add on some new suspension parts from that old CBR I’ve got sitting in the shed. It’ll be wicked cool!”

“You sure you wanna do that?” Frank asked. Silence greeted his question…

1976 Moto Guzzi 850 LeMans

Sorry for the break from the blog, but I was busy. What can I say?

Up for auction right now on eBay is this really clean, pretty-but-not-truly-restored, Le Mans 850. It has almost 40K miles on it, but the odometer reads only 14K. The suspension is upgraded, and the engine has some upgraded electronics, so it should be a great ride once the carbs are gone through. Cosmetically, I like the bike overall, but I’m not a fan of Corbin seats (looks or sitting on them). The seller admits the bikes current issues and shortcomings in the listing, so if you are interested, click through and check them out.

There are 4 days left in the auction, with one bidder and the price currently at $5K. This seems like a decent bike that could use a good home, but the price seems like it might be a bit on the high side.

(From the seller’s listing)
- Body work repainted to original design pattern
- Stainless fasteners
- Stainless braided brake lines thru out
- Dyna III electronic ignition and dyna coils
- 38mm Marzocchi strada front end, make the bike very stable at high speed
- NOS Marzocchi rear shocks (wow!)
- Agostini rear sets
- Corbin seat is very comfortable on long rides
- BUB exhaust system
- ‘Square’ type front brake reservoir and lever makes it stop like a modern bike

1976 Yamaha RD400 Kenny Roberts Replica

Is this a cafe racer? Not really.

Is it ultra-cool? Absolutely!!!

This is a really well-done Kenny Roberts replica that has been made street legal to boot. The look is there, and the seller’s description claims that the bike is fully mechanically sound (“IT RUNS PERFECTLY WITH A ONE KICK START”). Overall, this is one great bike up on the eBay auction block.

Bidding is currently at $4K on the nose with the next bid supposedly breaking the reserve. There are almost 4 days left in the auction with 14 bidders. If you’ve got +$5K burning a hole in your pocket, this bike could be yours…

Vintage CB750 NOS Interpart Rear-Sets

As I always point out (complain about) bikes that are missing rear-sets when every other possible cafe part has been added, I was glad to see these vintage rear-sets come up on eBay. If your CB750 is done except for the foot controls, here’s your answer. From the picture, everything appears to be there and to be new. Bidding is quite furious with three days still left in the auction and $142 already tendered…

Tarozzi Folding Rear-Sets For Your Cafe Racer

Here’s a nice set of Tarozzi not-really-used rear-sets that might make a good addition for your cafe racers. Like most, they don’t come with a bracket, so it’s up to you to find a suitable place to mount these footpegs/controls. Because they aren’t technically new anymore (although they have never been used), the seller has started the auction at a very low price, but reserve has not yet been met…

1983 Moto Guzzi LeMans III Cafe Racer – Form vs. Function

I think I’ve written previously of my belief that cafe racers need to combine form and function to create a functioning (i.e. fast) motorcycle that follows a certain aesthetic principal. Lots of bike go one way or the other, but very few actually find that nirvana. I believe that the bike pictured below is fairly close to balancing form and function into a workable whole.

Up for sale on eBay is this Moto Guzzi LeMans III that has been cafe’d in all the right ways. Clip-ons, aluminum gas tank, rear-sets, and a custom (albeit non-traditional) cafe seat create a visual package that really is set off in a good way by the cool fairing. All the bits that create the vision of the cafe racer are on this bike. But in addition to the visuals, the owner of this bike has done some things to make this twin-cylinder Italian beauty live up to it’s good looks. Carbs, headwork, and upgraded brakes and suspension will make the new owner of this bike happy with the performance, too. (Click through on the photos to eBay to check out more description and pictures)

Is there anything I would do to this bike. Hmmm. Maybe paint the fairing. Maybe. I wish I had a few grand sitting around so as I could make a bid for this beauty…

Honda CB550 Cafe Racer (and more…)

I found this CB550 on Google, and it turned out that the site hosting it was a whole lot more than just pictures of this bike. The bike itself is very cool with a beautiful paint job, and an overall nice aesthetic quality to it (check out the speedo insert). Clubman bars and a great seat mostly complete the look, but it really needs some nice rear-sets to complete the build.

What I found more interesting was that the couple who own this shop in central Washington state used to be locals at Alice’s Restaurant in mountains above San Francisco Bay. They supposedly had a shop adjacent to the restaurant, and were part of the scene for a few years until moving the shop up to Wahington, and creating this moto-destination. A motel, the motorcycle shop, a market, and a gas station make this a potential stop-over on a criss-cross Cascades ride, or even a destination unto itself as they also rent dual-sports and cruisers in conjunction with a local shop.

Visit their site (timberlinemotorsports.com) and show them some love both for the nice cafe racer build and for the creation of a motorcycle-friendly spot in the far northwest…

1978 Honda CB550 Cafe Racer

I’ve written about the Benjie’s Cafe Racer shop a couple of times before, so it’s nice to see a bike using BCR parts floating around on the web. This particular machine is up for auction on eBay.

The CB550 is quite a nice bike as is. But this has been built up to really look the part of a cafe racer. The BCR tank and seat are what really make this bike shine. It does need two things, though: move the bars to a better position (they appear to be mounted upside-down (do clubmans come flat or with a small amount of downward angle?) and then rotated upwards), and put some rear-sets on that thing. Then this would be a top-notch cafe racer…

2002 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 Cafe Racer

As you may or may not know, I like Sportsters. I have 2005 883 myself, and have been converting it into a cafe racer for the last two years. Cafe conversions of the XL are fairly few and fair between relatively speaking, so when one comes up for sale on eBay, or I find one elsewhere, it tends to end up posted on the blog.

What we have here is a 2002 XL 1200. What does buying a 1200 and not an 883 get you? About 20 extra horsepower and dual front discs. While this bike has some nice mods done to it, it is far from complete. The clip-ons are there. The fender has been bobbed nicely. The bike has the black-out treatment on lots of the parts.

So what’s left?

It’s got to have a new exhaust. I don’t even want to think about how loud the stock head pipes run without mufflers must be. and it probably has moved the power band completely to the top end. I’m going to guess that the carb has been set up properly given that the bike has cams and head-work done to it. Oh yeah, did I mention how loud it probably is?

The wheels: stock Harley wheels are heavy! It needs something lighter. Sportsters can be made relatively light compared to their portly weight in stock form, but one of the most important weight-loss procedures is losing the factory boat-anchors. Plus, Sportsters with 18″ 40-spoke alloy rims built up on nice, stock alloy hubs look really sweet!

Three sets of foot pegs: it’s got three! Pick any two and get on with it. Rear-sets would be best, but lose the highway pegs if nothing else.

That’s it. I’m done complaining. This is a good build-up of a Sportster into an almost cafe racer. A couple of tweeks, and it would be done. And I bet it’s a lot faster than a lot of bikes out on the road…

Honda CB350F Cafe Racer

Here is a fairly standard build of a CB350 four-cylinder cafe racer. The seat goes well with the tank, it’s got reasonably sticky tires, clubman bars are fitted, and the pipe is a nicely upswept 4-into-1 piece of kit that has been blacked out.

But… it is still running standard position foot pegs. And it has the all-to-familiar flat black paint job.

Additionally, the seller is also selling a much more interesting Kawasaki drag bike, but the spelling in that listing looks like an offshore scammer trying to dump a stock-photo slathered GSXR1000. Weird, because this listing was written reasonably well by eBay standards.

Either bike from this seller is a decent buy if you can get past any trepidations you might have at the possible scammy implications of the writing in the drag bike listing. And I will admit that a nice revvy CB350F might be just the bike for me…