I've always loved these:
Now, thanks to Jockey Journalist RDub, I'm building one of my own.
Last January Rob gave me (!) a CL450 basket case that's been cluttering his garage for several years. Said clutter collected dust in our warehouse while Billdozer put the finishing touches on his El Cheapo Sporty. When that bike rolled out of our shop under its own steam, I started banging away on the CL450 immediately.
The first task was to graft Billdozer's Sporty forks onto the CL's head tube.
This was accomplished by pressing out the steer tube on the CL forks and boring the upper and lower Sporty trees to fit:
As you can see, this process was clean and painless.
While Bob at Temecula Motorcycle Repair did the machine work on the front end, I ground off the buddy peg brackets and other extraneous tabs and mounts to make the frame is clean as possible.
The swingarm is off a mid-'70s Honda dirt bike of undetermined lineage. It's approximately 1" too wide at the pivot, so JJ member and friend Leoj is going to help me narrow it to fit the frame.
Wes at Four Aces is helping me make this thing a runner, and he got things off to a good start by finding me a race-prepped '70's CB450 motor at a shop in the SF Valley. Said motor was $800 sans carbs and electicals; I couldn't have rebuilt the two basket cases Rob gave me for twice that.
I'll post photos of this motor and more as the project unfolds. My goal is to finish this bike in time for the Chop Meet in SoCal July 19.
In the mean time, please enjoy the fiberglass bodywork the good Mr. latimer at GP Glassworks in WY is building for me this week:
Very trick, indeed.
Thanks in advance to Rob, Wes, Joel, Chris and everyone else who is helping me build this fun little street tracker. With any luck at all I'll come in on time and well under my $2,500 budget. See you at the races...
Now, thanks to Jockey Journalist RDub, I'm building one of my own.
Last January Rob gave me (!) a CL450 basket case that's been cluttering his garage for several years. Said clutter collected dust in our warehouse while Billdozer put the finishing touches on his El Cheapo Sporty. When that bike rolled out of our shop under its own steam, I started banging away on the CL450 immediately.
The first task was to graft Billdozer's Sporty forks onto the CL's head tube.
This was accomplished by pressing out the steer tube on the CL forks and boring the upper and lower Sporty trees to fit:
As you can see, this process was clean and painless.
While Bob at Temecula Motorcycle Repair did the machine work on the front end, I ground off the buddy peg brackets and other extraneous tabs and mounts to make the frame is clean as possible.
The swingarm is off a mid-'70s Honda dirt bike of undetermined lineage. It's approximately 1" too wide at the pivot, so JJ member and friend Leoj is going to help me narrow it to fit the frame.
Wes at Four Aces is helping me make this thing a runner, and he got things off to a good start by finding me a race-prepped '70's CB450 motor at a shop in the SF Valley. Said motor was $800 sans carbs and electicals; I couldn't have rebuilt the two basket cases Rob gave me for twice that.
I'll post photos of this motor and more as the project unfolds. My goal is to finish this bike in time for the Chop Meet in SoCal July 19.
In the mean time, please enjoy the fiberglass bodywork the good Mr. latimer at GP Glassworks in WY is building for me this week:
Very trick, indeed.
Thanks in advance to Rob, Wes, Joel, Chris and everyone else who is helping me build this fun little street tracker. With any luck at all I'll come in on time and well under my $2,500 budget. See you at the races...