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Cleaning up the Cafe

  • Thread starter Thread starter beergood
  • Start date Start date
B

beergood

Guest
Well, after an eventful year, I am back. I popped in quite a bit over the last year, but rarely had much to offer, so I mostly just lurked.

Last May I celebrated a broken right collar bone, and then in July I suffered the birth of my first child...wait, reverse that. Suffered the break, celebrated the birth.

I broke the bone when I crashed my bicycle, and I am now the proud father of a pretty sweet little baby girl. Both events conspired to keep me off my GS, and it was relegated to the back of the garage. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not going to be one of those dudes that stops riding when they have children, I just didn't feel very confident on the shoulder, and also didn't have a lot of time.

This summer I have promised myself that I would get back on the horse, so I dug out the bike, and I have been in the process of cleaning, repainting and giving it a general going over.

So far, all I have really done is strip the old paint job (and body filler), and given it a coat of base color. I know in pictures it doesn't look like much of a change of color, but it is. The old color was a little too candy-assed for me. It was lighter, and had a glittery element.

This color is Rustoleum's Royal Blue. I sprayed it on with my HVLP gun, and it looks good so far. Every time I repaint it, I think about actually buying a quality two part paint, but then I remember that about every two years I have some sort of breakdown and strip it. So, $8 is better than $40+ if you know you are eventually going to be taking the stripper to it.

Anyway, on to the pics:

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I also filled in the area where the fuel door used to be. God, how I hated that fuel door.

I am not sure what I am going to do about a graphic or design. I am pretty sure I will do something, just not sure what, so feel free to post suggestions.

At the moment I am toying with the idea of going against the obvious white strips or details, and putting flat black on it.

Also, the tins are just sitting on there, which is why they aren't exactly lined up, and I have to do a lot of other cleaning/polishing on the rest of the bike.
 
Dont get me wrong, I hate cafe bikes...


But I do like how you used the tail section instead of building a god awful bulge in your seat cushion.
 
Hah! Why would you click on a post that has Cafe in the title, if you hate them so much? Are you the same type of person who rails against the fifteen hours of reality TV you watch each week?

Okay, I'm just kidding there. To each his own, you are well within your rights to hate cafe bikes. And lord knows, there are some doozies out there.

As for the duck tail, I just really like the look of it. Also, I am cheap.
 
I was wondering where you had gone off to. Kids and broken bones will do that to you. I hate those fuel doors as well. It's looking good. I'm not to fond of flat black, for what it's worth.

cg
 
Agree with the fuel door removal. One of the first things I did to mine when I got it was remove the fuel door.

When you took off the frame extension on the left hand side for the rear pegs was the frame underneath a solid rube or did you have to weld in a piece to cover the hole it left? I've really wanted to take those triangles off for a while now, but don't want a gaping hole in the frame. Also need to figure out the rear mount for the exhaust on the right side.
 
The tube is hollow. I left about 1/4 inch of it on when I cut it off so that it wouldn't weaken the other tube too much. I haven't welded anything on it. Being black, it kind of disappears into the rest of the frame.
 
beergood said:
Hah! Why would you click on a post that has Cafe in the title, if you hate them so much?

Okay, I'm just kidding there. To each his own, you are well within your rights to hate cafe bikes. And lord knows, there are some doozies out there.

As for the duck tail, I just really like the look of it. Also, I am cheap.
Click to expand...


Sucker for punishment... :D


Notice I said the words "like" and "cafe" in the same post. That "duck tail" looks good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE
 
still_bluenoser said:
Dont get me wrong, I hate cafe bikes...


But I do like how you used the tail section instead of building a god awful bulge in your seat cushion.
Click to expand...


I don't hate cafe bikes, but I agree that I hate the god awful bulge. A lot of guys do the quarter sphere look that does not at all take into account the lines and shapes of the bike. Yours looks good, however, drop the tail some and loose the grab rail you don't need it anyways :D!
 
Good to see you "back on deck" old mate .
Congrats on the Bub , the recovery and all that $hit .
A little advice on the bike , if I might ................. RIDE IT .
Worry (or not) about the cafe/not , bulge/not , paint/not stuff later .
Ride the bloody thing .
You WILL be doing the Dad stuff , and the family stuff , and all the other stuff . So you need to do a little bit of "you" stuff as well .
Ride the bike and have a bit of fun .
You'll be a more goodly Dad if you're a happy one .

Cheers , Simon . ;)
 
Good ta see you back! I'm likin' that colour too actually.

I'm currently thinking about colours for mine... I'm thinking that blue is nice...
 
Bike is looing great! But, what are "tins," and what are you using for an ignition switch? I tried an aftermarket one to clean up the "office," but it couldn't handle the current.
 
No battery. Just a small series of capacitors wired together under the seat. kick start or don't start.
 
Also no key or ignition switch, but there is a trick to starting it. Keeping it simple.
 
Here is a pic of the dash as of last year. There will be some small modifications coming this week.

482_0275.JPG


As you can see, no key. The toggle switch controls high beam/low beam headlight. There is a neutral and oil light. The kill switch on the right hand controls still kills the motor, but the starter button works the horn. Other than that, there isn't anything else. I have a total of three wires going into my headlight bucket, which I think is awesome.

The bike's wiring was in a sad state when I got it, and after struggling with it for a few seasons, I yanked it all out and started from scratch a couple years ago. There is a thread about it here somewhere. Anyway, it has been much more reliable since I greatly simplified it.

Since it is garage kept whenever I am at home, and I live in a pretty safe neighborhood I don't worry about it getting stolen from here. And I rarely leave it parked unattended in a bad area. Also, it doesn't just "start up", there is a trick to it. I figure if someone thinks about stealing it, there are going to be staring at it for quite a while before deciding to move on and steal the bike next to it. Also, I don't worry about someone pushing it up a ramp to get it. There are way more bikes out there worth way more money to merit stealing this.
 
After messing with the wiring on my 750, I am really wanting to strip it all out similar to what you have done. But living in a apartment complex with no garage stops me.

I really like the look, and simplicity of your bike. Clean and simple, just like a cafe should be.
 
Did a little more paint work and assembly:

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P6231903.JPG


It was overcast, and I was trying to get some shots in before the rain. Not the best conditions for photos.
 
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