750 cafe thing - opinions welcome

[ggreenfield]

I really like the cafe racers and when I first took a good look at this bike I saw how simple it would be to make it a single seater. The bike is just so boxy and square tho that it doesn't really look to me like a cafe racer especially with the mag wheels. I've decided to stay with the boxy look and make the single seater. I had a really enjoyable time taking apart the tail section and cutting the frame apart. mwahahah So anyway...Below my trusty assistant Nick holds the tailpiece in place. (click for a larger view)


Seat- As you can see my artistic skills were realized to their potential in the 2nd or 3rd grade but here is the idea for the seat.

The pan and rear of the seat I'm going to attempt to make from aluminum (with plenty of padding on the front of course) since we have alot of that lying about. Hopefully I can still use the OEM seat lock and have a nice secure compartment.

Headlight - Still open that. I think a single round 8" headlight would look best (or maybe smaller) and yet I really like the dual headlights both for aesthetics as well as great night vision, visibility and they can easily be mounted on a smaller bracket than the OEM square headlight brackets.

Gauge Cluster - while fully functional (well the speedo is 5 MPH slow) is also outta there. Likely it will be replaced with some small round gauge set that I have yet to find and the signal & idiot lights by LED's all mounted in an aluminum bezel situated much lower that the OEM cluster.

Handlebars - Dunno yet. I don't imagine putting clubmans on but I have to sit on the bike in its new configuration with a seat in place first.

Color - So far red of some unknown hue/tint and a black stripe down the top of the tank & tail. I could easily see canary yellow or even an orange.

Side panel & Tank emblems - To be replaced with graphics laid in under the clearcoat. I could use some help with the fonts for "GS 750" on side the panels.
I kind of like this for the tank:



Front signals - Gone to be replaced with some small LED cateyes
Rear signals - Replaced with LED cateyes or maybe a mod to the stock tail lens with LED's.

Front fender - As you can see I already put an angle cut on the front, another angle cut at the bottom rear but not too high.

Additional mods:
Bug screen.
Pods.
4-1 exhaust.

2 goals:
Do it all for as little as possible.
High visibility.
Well that and an excuse to drink more beer!

[tkent02]

I like where you are going with the seat, to me the ugliest part of these '80-'81s is the square headlight, keep us posted when you get an idea on that.

[halliwood]

if you want a full out cafe put clip-ons on it not handbars, also look at putting on some rearsets, and one big thing that will really set that bike off is to put all the electricals under the tail and take off the side covers.

[TheCafeKid]

Oi, clip-ons will require a bit of fanagling, such as losing your stock forkears for the headlight, in favour of some smaller, out of the way ones, so you can mount the clipons UNDER the top tree clamp, (which leaves a hidious open top tree clamp IMO) or pushing the forks up thru the trees bout an inch or so to get the clip-ons ABOVE the top tree clamp. A warning to you, lowering the front end will quicken the steering of your bike a touch, and might make for some erratic handling untill you are used to it. Do yourself a favour, IMO, and get some clubman handlebars untill you are sure you are comfy with that riding position. They are cheap enough, and, seeing as clipons werent around back in the TRUE cafe days, no less cafe than clipons, if not moreso. Rear-sets, depending, are an added bonus, but, unless you fab them up yourself, using modern sets from a more modern bike and some home made brackets (not hard, do a search, lots of good stuff on it here) expect to spend a small mint on bolt on set ups. Frankly, i could live without em, but its not bad to have em. :-D

Oh...and ditch the Squah headlight. Hideous

[Zooks]

Welcome. There are some absolutely beautiful cafe bikes on this site (some of the best ever done). Do a search and you'll find lots of pics for ideas.

[StrtLegal]

I was actually contemplating the same seat conversion on my bike but I'm going with a full seat, sort of like a Bonneville-esque look. As for handle bars, get clubmans, less money for the same (sort of) look. And rearset are a must, my hip cramps up because I lean over so much.


PS - You need a new rear tire...Safety First!

[ggreenfield]

Does anyone know of a single seat conversion using the stock 750E tail? I've been hunting for some other examples (and I swear I've seen some here somewhere) but as of this moment no luck. Currently digging through the "Post a picture of your bike" thread. Oy vey it's a big one!

StrtLegal - Yep she needs both tires replaced!

[StrtLegal]

I know some people have made their own single seats using foam and fiberglass...and some with a wood frame. If you search the appearence forum you should be able to find some.

[ggreenfield]

I know some people have made their own single seats using foam and fiberglass...and some with a wood frame. If you search the appearence forum you should be able to find some.

Well as for the seat pan I intend on using aluminum since I have access to that for free. (The one and only fringe benefit of my job). I was just looking for some pics of converted 750E's specifically using the stock E tail. Most pics I've seen have a custom tail.

[ggreenfield]

Got the tail mounted.



After stuggling for a few hours trying to measure the frame and transfer those measurements to aluminum stock, I finally wised up and made the patterns with cardboard. That was much easier and could have saved me several hours had I thought of it earlier.
:roll: Lesson learned!

I hope to make available the patterns I used for the fender, seat pan and anything else not yet done.

[ggreenfield]

The fender has been replaced by an 1/16" aluminum panel screwed directly to the frame. This really opened up the area inside the frame

and under the rear section of the frame. The styrofoam is holding everything in place for me while I run in some self-tappers. This is redneck engineering at its finest.



Tomorrow I cut the seat pan and license plate holder. I have yet to completely visualize the back of the seat but it needs to snap in from the top. The OEM seat latch expects to receive the lock bar from the top and then push it slightly forwad to make it snug. I'm going to try and use this functionality to make it all fit together nice and tight.

The license plate will protrude from the rear just below the brake light and serve as an extension to the fender. Hmm.....should I hinge the plate and put it on an easy to trip spring just in case? Maybe....

[tkent02]

That looks pretty cool, I might just have to ride down there to check it out in person one day.
Curious how the seat will look, keep us posted.

[ggreenfield]

That looks pretty cool, I might just have to ride down there to check it out in person one day.
Curious how the seat will look, keep us posted.

Cmon down. I'm even on the north side of town.

I might have worked out a trade for a round headlight. We'll see how it looks.

Also just ripped the front signals off. It's amazing what a slimming effect that had. Now to tidy up those unruly cables.

[Escobarclan]

I give!

What in the world is a 'cafe' bike?

[tkent02]

I give!

What in the world is a 'cafe' bike?

Kind of a home made race bike, looking like something from the sixties.
They are cool if done well.