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14th April 2012
Jimmy’s CB500 has entered the garage ready for a natural / industrial type transformation. Won’t be a massive transformation as it’s a bike full of character that we’re going to build upon.
17th April 2012
Check out the blog post I did about Jimmy’s meeting to discuss direction etc. It involves Passiona…
19th June 2012
Originally, Jimmy wanted us to build a cafe racer with upside down forks, single sided swingarm, full strip down and repaint for a top end custom, something that would not look out of place amongst some of the best CB Cafe Racers on the planet. They were lofty goals that needed a big budget to be acheived.
Jimmy wasn’t comfortable with the quote for the “Super CB Cafe” so we looked at the project in a different light. Jimmy gave us his budget and we came up with somthing that we think is going to be more exciting, more fun to ride and will turn more heads on the street and on the blogs. Time will tell if we are right.
First thing we did was strip the bike back to basics and take a grinder to the subframe. No turning back now!
We powder coated the wheels, hubs and spokes in black and fitted Heidenau K60 Dual Sport tyres front and rear. Now before you get all hot and bothered by us fitting “knobby” tyres to a street bike, I should point out the tyres are made in Germany and are the tyre of choice for many BMW R1100,1150,1200 GS, Triumph Tiger, Suzuki V-Strom etc riders. Besides, it’s more fun when the bike squirms around a bit yeh?
^A Cobra kit that we’ll get around to one day. That is an Impala in the background
We’ve fitted some Renthal bars that could be a little narrow but we can easily change those later. We’re thinking of an underslung exhaust and a thin flatish seat with a small kick half way along similar to a cafe racer. It’ll follow the lines of the tank and make it look as if its doing 160km/h standing still.
Late October 2012
4 months between updates is probably enough…cough…
This thing has changed direction so many times..first it was going to be a cafe racer, then we went basic street tracker, then we were going to do a multi coloured comic book style and now we’ve heading in a classier street tracker style. We’re nearly there, should be finished by the end of November.
Engine out and made the rear fender, battery box etc
The engine didn’t look so bad when it was in the bike. Phark me, this is going to be interesting…
Eagle eyed viewers will notice we’ve changed the rear tyre for something more “aggressive”. What Jimmy wants…
^This rear fender is welded to the battery compartment and is separate to the rear fender that sticks out the back.
Mid November
The engine has been painted with VHT wrinkle paint which covers up the imperfections while also looking fantastic.
Early December
We are waiting for the tank to come back from paint and then we’ll put it back together.
