Honda CX 500 first Café build

pauliexjr wrote:

Pud wrote:

mate that looks good
you have done the now--- fighter
youhave done the past ----- cafe
so go on whats next compleate the trilogy go for the future?

Perhaps the hint is there in the word 'trilogy'?

This was my attempt:





Never again, I hated the original cruiser and I hated the trike it became even more

Never been a fan of the trike mate, I like going fast as I can round twisty corners. sugar myself going in and laugh like a monkey coming out the other side,



I think I might like to do a track day 600, or something, that as you drop the clutch and lunges forward for a split second makes the planet go backwards.

I'm a newbie here and was just wondering about your front brakes. I have a 1980 CX 500 D and I only have one front brake rotor. Is the dual rotor a European thing or a mod you made? By the way your bike looks fantastic. I love all the pictures, Great inspiration to me to get off my butt and get out in my garage.

I guess it must be a euro thing mate as they all have them over here.



I've been sitting here wondering why you guys remove one

I think honda just figured we didn't need dual rotors here in the states. My bike runs great, but it feels like the brakes are made of wood. I guess I'll have to see what it will take to put a second rotor on it.

Glad you listened to me and left the engine as is and didn't spray it

I saw a lovely CX recently that had it's engine sprayed and it just looked wrong.
The rest of the bike was mint and it really would have looked better with the original engine finish even if it
was a bit tatty.
Love this bike.

I'm really glad too buddy.



I had a bunch of parts turn up this week, so its time to get my butt back into gear and crack on.



I want to focus on getting my clocks on. A couple of weeks back I made a mount from an old door kick plate and mounted my speedo to it.

The tacho has the same body and mounting holes so I just have to continue what I started to the other side.



I removed it from the bike and applied a strip of tape to make marking a bit easier.



After marking up the points for the holes I dot punched where I'm going to drill





Then removed the tape



I want to give them a cafe look, so I put a small wire brush in to my drill press



I went over the plate with one line then overlapped to where the center of the last circle finished



And so on until its done.



You cant see the most of it but I think its worth the effort for the bits you can see. I also did the underside of the plate too.



Then connected them up, and ticked off another job.

Nice bit of engine turning there IED. Looks SWEET.

Thanks mate.

Now then.

This is going to be interesting, I've never done a seat pad before and if it works out it has all sorts of plus's for other projects.

I brought this foam from ebay



It has a peel off sticky back



First I need to make a temlpate to work from and an old wheetabix box is just the job.



I started with a center line and went off of that



Then used it to cut round. To round the corners I drew round a rattle can cap.



Now I have a basic shape to work with



Now I can start trimming it with a craft knife blade



Use a sharp blade and a sawing action and it cuts really well without draging

Then I used 120 grit paper to sand the edges and finished it off with 220 grit.



I sanded all round and got a reasonably good finish



Once sanded I peeled off the back and stuck tape over the rear corners so I can lift them to access the seat fixing screws.

Then I made a back stop for the pod the same way.



I'm happy with the end result and consider it a win.





Not much more to do now, the list is getting smaller all the time.

M8 that can be a real credit to you

-I love the custom plate you made
-That's kinda what I have in mind, nice!

Two words.
Awsome and Respect,

Thanks lads,

this weekend I made a small bracket to fix the rear light mounting plate to the battery box then I wired in my front and rear lights. I've shortened the aftermarket clutch cable that was way to long and mounted the rear indicators. I also wired in the clocks so they now light up.

Its all going really well and I'm not that far away from the finish line now.

Next weekend I'll be bleeding the front break lines and I'll inlist the help of my sone Nick, that is if I can drag him away from his Xbox

Any further words of praise would be superfluous, you are de Man!

It looks good. And actually, It also looks good without the big, square radiator.

Would it be possible to replace the radiator with a smaller one? Perhaps a round one that better fits the fan and cowling? I'm sure your bike will look good with the standard radiator and I'm mostly asking because I have dreams of building something similar some day [newbie alert!].

/Alex

I'm looking at alternative rads at the moment mate and have my eye on something a bit sexier that might fit it.

At the weekend I did a bit more wiring hooking up my new headlight



Clocks, although they are cable driven they have back lights



And my new rear light setup. The indicators are going to be changed for somthing a bit suxier, but these are ok to check position for now.



It was a bit of trial and error as I could get the lights or break lights to work, not both. I figured it out in the end and its all working fine now.



My little front break res arrived too so next weekend I'm gonna be bleeding the front breaks.

Hello
-Cant wait to see the finished upgrade!

Thanks mate.

My new indicators arrived during the week and I think they are a massive improvment on the old ones i mocked up with





I also will be dumping the old warning lights cluster



Im going to drill my headlamp and mount the blue high beam with the amber indicator warning lights either side of it



The oil and neutral lights will go between the clocks



I'll get stuck into those in the morning and let you know how it goes.

Ok, high beam and blinkers

First thing to do is drill the holes in my headlamp to clear the light fittings



they should be a nice snug push fit



I then went 1.5cm each side of the blue main beam lights and drilled for my indicator/blinker warning lights, and set those in too.



I wired the live warning light in with the new blinker live and the earth went to a common earth. They work and look great



Lastly I drilled out between the speedo and tacho to house the green neutral light and red oil pressure light and the job's a good'un.



I cant stress enough how important it is to get a good copy of a colour wiring diagrame, and pin it up to keep you on the right track. Take one wire at a time and before you know it you'll get through it.

Cool as penguin piss mate....sweet colour scheme

Oncas wrote:

Cool as penguin piss mate....sweet colour scheme

lmfaro that was funny

The 59er's


The Reverend Bill Shergold, 2nd from the right


The Reverend Bill Shergold, who died on May 17 aged 89, enjoyed unusual celebrity in the 1960s when he was known as the "ton-up vicar" or the "biker priest"; decked out in black leathers astride a Triumph motorcycle, Shergold ministered to the rocker fraternity in east London as leader of the 59 Club.

When I was thinking about a number for my cafe racer the #59 did cross my mind. Then sadly this year we lost one of my racing heros Marco Simoncelli.

So from 59 we have a man down.

After that, the number of my little 500 cafe racer was obvious, Marco's number








R.I.P. Marco

My son Nick and I bled the front break lines this morning, so the only thing left to do is paint my rad, fit it and fill it up with coolant.

Next weekend the bike will be finished []

Mate that is so awsome


have got the bit between my teeth again and the engine is in bits

Lookin good...Nice touch to Marco, proper mans racer that fella.

What do you think about getting a few of us to meet up at the Ace ? maybe next spring allowing for a few projects to get completed, might be good to put faces to names ??

count me in if im done