Honda CBX550 Cafe Racerish

[SuusCustoms]

Hi All, I thought I'd post up a few bikes a mate and I have been busy with over the last 12 months. The first is a Honda CBX550, built in about a month for around $1000 late last year. A quick overview of the build is below:

As bought:


stripped:


Tank modified for a flat bottom edge:



Space frame tail underway:



haven't uploaded the paint, seat fab........ shots, but here's the end result:

[TerraRoot]

loving the dedication to chop that little small bit out of the tank to make it flat bottomed. Magnolia.... magnificent (and not just cos mine is magnolia either..). Not so sure about the small head light and its placement (little high?)
did you make any rear seat hump?

[SuusCustoms]

We looked at doing a rear seat hump, but at the end of the day we loved the space frame look of the tail.

just found some of the progress pics and thought I'd share:

[dungbug]

Liking that, kinda different from the usual C/R stuff.

[TerraRoot]

I see what you mean about the space frame rear, how about a hugger for the rear (magnolia of course)
something like this but the same length as the front:

it would balance the colors

[SuusCustoms]

We definitely considered that, may still happen once it gets on the road

[twoblackcats]

Like that allot I think the hugger idea would work a treat, plus it would save a fair amount of discomfort if caught in the rain

[davytelford]

looks good don't see many cream bikes matches the Volvo

[wrighty]

Its very original with the tubular rear... very much of a brat style with the colours and seat .

Dont see many modified cbx's.

[downton]

Unusual choice of colours that realy work well on this bike!!..Also love the Volvo and the trailer , all three look absolutely stunning together!

[SuusCustoms]

Thanks guys, teh trailer's a bit of a story in itself, it was bought for $50 from a previous owner who intended to turn it into a garden ornament but couldn't get it into the back yard. Built in the 50's (based on the Austin A50 hubs and wheels), no rust but the drawbar was bent from carrying somethign too heavy.

In a week I stripped the original wood, cut the sides off, cut the drawbar and shortened it to remove the bend, added reinforcement down the centre (still sorting this out, the initial attempt turned out to be a little fragile), knocked up the floor and wooden track from the cheapest hardwood boards I could find, painted the frame to match the bike, sourced some Peugeot 306 rims (couldn't afford tyres for the A50 ones), some cheap guards and wacked on some mustang hubcaps I'd bought for $5 at a swapmeet a while back.

With wheels and tyres on the entire trailer still weighs little enough that I can pick up the entire thing. Towed brilliantly on a 2000km round trip behind the Volvo, but the shortened drawbar made it a p***k of a thing to back!

[soyboysigh]

NICE! Would be great to see a wire-spoke conversion on those rims, but other than THAT it's about as awesome as can be imagined - What I really dig is the matching paint/powder on the frame, swinger, and lower forks. A great factory original look - Maybe ONE more improvement, would be to strip the engine to bare alloy, finish it with a clear-coat and polished side-covers! 'Cause aside from the Vincent Black Shadow, blacked-out motors are definitely more of an '80s thing. Something I've been doing with bits on my CB750F & CB900F is to round off the sharp corners and beveled edges of practically anything on the engine (clutch cover, ignition cover, starter-clutch cover, generator etc etc) using a "bastard file" and detail sander etc. Those machined looking edges have a very '80s Honda vibe, whereas soft domed covers are more of an earlier more organic type of aesthetic. IMHO there's great potential in ALL of the Honda powerplants from this generation, to dial down the futuristic/modern aesthetic and render more of a '60s retro gp-racer vibe ala RC-181 RC-166 etc. Just a brain-fart! And as for the wire rims thing? I'd go with at LEAST a 2.15" WM3 rim up front - more like 2.50x18", and 3.00x18" or 3.50"x18" rear - Barring THAT, I'd go with a 2.50-3.00"x16 yeah I said SIXTEEN inch front rim, for more of a VF750F kind of thing, and either the same 3.00-3.50"x18" rear wheel, or 3.50x17"-4.25"x17" rear wheel, for more of a VF1000F Bol D'Or thing or SABRE/MAGNA CBX750F, Nighthawk-S type of stance, if you will. Plenty of exciting things one could do with wire wheels, they needn't stick to the standard model of WM2 19 front and WM3 18 rear - After all, it IS an '80s bike - what better way to tip the hat to the '80s than in odd-ball rim sizes, while keeping all other aspects firmly planted in the retro café thing?

ANYWAY yeah - just a few lil' BRAIN FARTS there. Your bike I already awesome, it doesn't NEED any of this stuff. Just wanted to throw out some different ideas vis-à-vis wire rims, being that I'm sure you've already considered the conversion!

-Sigh.