Cafe Racer Forum -

Hi,

Having eventually decided on my donor bike I'm hoping some knowledgeable folks out there can help with my initial questions

I've bought a Honda CX500 1981 bike with a 1982 CX500E (eurosport) engine. It's quite obvious that someone has already began to play with it (pretty ham fistedly) the rear of the frame has been hacked off with the seat re-fitted using an aftermarket grab rail as a support!

I'm hoping to café it properly & I'd like to improve the performance as well as the asthestics of the bike. I'd love to fit rear sets but there doesn't appear to be an easy/good looking way to do this?

The bike was running very poorly so I stripped & cleaned the carbs out, fresh fuel in and it's running ok except for odd popping and f*rting as one of the air box rubbers has been cut off in the past (I couldn't quite get it air tight to create the pressure)

It has a 2 into 1 motad exhaust fitted, which has a couple of dents. My ideal would be to ditch the air box and fit pods, I'm guessing this has been done previously and someone could let me know which jets would suit which pods when matched to the motad?

I'm planning to have the exhaust powder coated black, is there a filler I could use on the exhaust or is dent removal the best way forward? Or do I junk this one, bite the bullet & shell out on a new one?

I'd also like to replace the boxy fuel tank with a tear drop shaped tank similar to the cx500 custom? Has anyone any experience of which tanks are freely available which fit on and look ok (I know there's going to be some fabrication required)

All help would be greatly appreciated.