Another cafe racer........

[Zooks]

Stock is super sexy. It shows the Katana 'heritage' IMHO.

[russr33]

Why not have both. I think it would be great and give you two distinctly different looks. One like Zooks said that shows the heritage, and one for the complete custom look. Two bikes in one.

Loving the build BTW. Can't wait to see the finished product. Kudos to Bribird for the parts and work he's done/doing. Nice to see the community helping each other.

[Buffalo Bill]

Stock, but with alterations.

I like the stock tank mostly, but it could use some alterations, to conform it to the new look. At the lower rear portion, it looks like a body panel was meant to cover it. Maybe some body filler should be used to conform the shaping. The SUZUKI lettering looks out of place now, of course well thought out color graphics will conform the stock tank, and improve the look. But it overhangs the seat at your pubic arch, bad painful ouch in an accident
The other tank looks clunky, dump it.
A small tank from some other bike could be found, that would look sharp too. A GS550 tank maybe?
Take a trip to some salvage yards, look at the tanks there with an open mind, something will click.

[Bribird]

Hey Yaddy, thats a hard call to make. The stock tank will take some work to make the transistion to the seat look good. Tough call.....

[pete]

What about a GS450 tank? It has the similar style to the fibreglass, but isn't as chunky and seems to suit the cafe style well. Don't know how hard it would be to make it fit your frame though.

I thought I had a good pic of mine, but I can't find it, so this crappy one is the best I have I'm afraid:

[Old Colt]

I like the cafe tank. To my eyes the original tank does not blend with the tail section.
The 450 tank suggestion is good but I would lengthen the tank and narrow the rear of it.

[yaddy]

Cheers for the advice people,
as i thought, it's pretty much split with the stock and "another". I think i'm gonna see the fibreglass one through, my thoughts here are that, i can spend time on the fibreglass one and try to make it work. If i don't like it at the end, i've still got the stocker i can make work with a bit of re-modelling at the rear. Paint will play a big part in the overall look of the bike and i have some plans which should tie the components together well.

Yeah, deffo big Kudos to my good friend Bribird for his hard work and efforts to help make this project a reality. I've taken advice and comments from a LOT of people on this forum and it all plays a huge part in the development of the bike. Bribird has taken this a step further for me and donated a lot of "hard to find" parts and also, a huge amount of his own time, to help me meet my end of July deadline. Many, many thanks for everyone's support here, much appreciated.

[Bribird]

Hey Yaddy, no kudos necessary. Just helping out my buddy is all. Glad to do what I can on my end. BTW, thanks for the hook up on the correct master cyl for my bike, and dont forget about the oil pan for my oil cooler mod....dude, that thing here in states.....is not to be found.

Keep up the good work!! Your bike is gonna be bad a**!

[midnightcafe]

wow! nice build man, what kind of shocks do you have? I like that you think your seat needs a professional job later on-it looks great as is!

[yaddy]

Cheers on the seat Dude, i'm no seamstress though, lemme tell ya'. It does look *ok* imo, but i would prefer something with a piped edge and maybe ribbed across the middle, or even some grippier textured vinyl for the centre piece.

Those shocks are nothing special, they cost me like £60 off egay, a lot of people give them bad press because they are on the stiff side but i've used them on other projects and found that, cost vs performance, they work a treat. They also look pretty good on this style of build too.

[Zooks]

Hey Yaddy, just a bit more feedback (if you don't mind). I think the tail of your seat sits too high. It gives the bike a 'street fighter' look with its 'arse in the air' like that. I personally think that the 'line' from the tank - through the seat - to the tail should all flow in one plane. I hope this makes sense, it can be hard to emphasise things properly in text.

Basically, I think that the base part of your seat needs to be closer to horizontal to look right.

[yaddy]

Hey, i hear ya Zooks and no, i don't mind.
In the two later pics posted, the seat unit isn't actually fastened down and would sit a further half inch down at the back when bolted. It's still sloping up a bit even then, i will be attempting to get it down a bit more but I'm close to the travel on the underside of the frame, i've basically about 5mm more travel between the frame and tyre than as stock. I don't want to go any less than stock to avoid the risk of grounding the tyre on the frame. The only way i can get the hump down any further now would be to shave this little tab down so the unit fits lower, and replace the battery with a shorter one (something i'm doing anyway because i want a gel battery to avoid the need to run a vent tube). I agree it's a tad high and i'll be attempting to lower it a bit after i pick my gel battery up on Saturday. I don't think i can get it to a dead flat position without re-structuring the frame and that won't be happening........The tanks just thrown on there too and is actually touching the top frame rail so i may be able to change the look slightly by raising the tank at the back and dropping it at the front when i patch the holes underneath and fit the mountings.

Time will tell on this one and i'll post pics of any changes i'm able to make,

cheers for the input Dude

[mcloud]

Hey Yaddy,

Getting mixed signals here. People (me first) tend to categorize mods.
I see street fighter when looking at the tail end and front fender, but then with the glass tank and the gators I see café racer.
I hope you'll go with the stock tank modified to flow with the tail.
I love your work, can't wait to see the end results.
Maybe a ''StreetCafé''

[Zerofreeze]

Hey Guys--A 450 Tank is the way to go..its funny because there 1 on Ebay right now and the bidding is up to $275..I just recently bought a 1980 450 for $150--Pic below is the bike kinda put together with the 450 tank, A Ducati style SS Seat I picked up on Ebay for less than $100 shipped--need to make a seat pad but not a big deal...Also I picked up a Pair of Harley Sportster shocks that are like New of Ebay for less than $45.00...Shipped!!! They fit right on and look great-I am looking for a Headlight of a Euro bike that has a spot for the speedo so I can run a nice clean triple tree--Hope I can get somthing---So look out for those deals to save some cash!!!

[Bad Kaw]

Very interesting build. Great detailed work you are doing; I like the stocker, but your 450 idea certainly has a lot of potential.
Keep up the good work!
-KR