the rebirth of Beergood's 750 cafe

But find your damn camera will ya? The pics aren't doing your brilliant handiwork justice.

I begin boxing up my stuff in a few days, I am sure the camera just fell behind something. It's a little funny and stupid how much effort I have been putting into the bike this last week seeing as howI am moving in a week, and my time could be more judiciously spent. At least, I am sure that's my girlfriends opinion.

Me too.


But find your damn camera will ya? The pics aren't doing your brilliant handiwork justice.

[tkent02]

Perpetual evolution.
Once again, I like it.

Well, I got some good progress done on the new tail section. Here is a little background:

My old tail section was an interesting learning experience, but I have never been too thrilled with the way it turned out. It's a little crooked, the fiberglass has some surface cracks. It's pretty heavy, and a lot bulkier than I wanted it to be.

So I decided to go in a whole different tack. I acquired a used tail section from ebay (for under 10 buck), and decided to gut it and make a simple metal base to attach it to. Then I will make a seat cover that snaps around everything. This whole thing will bold directly to the frame, instead of using the hinges and mounts like that old one.

I got the basic structure roughed out today, and I gotta say I am a lot happier already. It's simpler, smaller, lighter, sturdier and looks way better. This is my first attempt at doing any real welding, and that stuff is hard. I am definitely going to need a lot more practice before I consider myself to be even a novice welder.

Beginning of the pan:


Gutted ducktail attached:


A quick glazing and painting:


The tail mounts on with four SS screws, so I can remove it pretty quickly, for whatever reason:

Bye bye battery. I ordered some capacitors from a guy on Ebay and wired them in parallel and made my own home brew battery eliminator. Since I eliminated my turn signals last year, and I got rid of the starter relay today it is looking pretty simple under my seat. All I got is the eliminator, the regulator ,rectifier and some fuses. I am going to keep my eyes open for a Honda RR, but my system seems to work fine the way it is.

I did keep my starter motor though. If for some reason I end up having to jump the bike I'll just manually hit the starter.

Tomorrow I hope to get some good work done on my new tail section.

My mother teaches textiles and other related design classes, so I approached her about making a seat cover similar to Byrdman's. I like the old skool snap look, and it would make it a lot easier to get at my toolkit. Anyway, she said she could definitely help me, and she is sitting on a whole pile of leather. So we went over some samples, and I think I found a grain that I like. So, I'm getting a custom leather seat cover. How sweet is that?

Here are some crappy phone pics (gotta find that blasted camera). I love that wide open frame look:






Oh yeah, I made a new bracket to mount the license plate on the right hand shock. Not entirely sure how I feel about it yet.

Looks good man, very thorough and clean. BUT man! I loved that red and black...super sporty and just stunning. I had saved pictures of your bike in my very exclusive "inspirational motorcycle pictures" folder. Loved the blue too although I think you were right in that the shade could have been better. I know how you feel I guess, especially when it is so easy to change something like color and have almost a completely new bike. Its like they always say: out with the old, in with the old..jk

I love it BG. The grey reminds me off a WW2 Cossack or Zundapp or similar Russian bike.

BTW Header wrap...tasty I did the same.

Where do you think I got the idea from? Actually, I had always kind of thought about it, but your pics put me over the edge.

As for the tail section, it looks good in pics, but it is definitely a flawed first effort. Wait till I finish the new one. Then we can talk.

Hey dont forget who absoulutely LOVES that tail section and would be interested in BUYING it from you :P :-D BTW Header wrap...tasty I did the same.

Some more:

Gotta say, I am loving this thing this season. It is running better than ever.

Today I ordered a few shims to replace those that were getting close to being out of tolerance. I also ordered some capacitors to make my own battery eliminator. My battery has been in sad shape, and I have been kicking it to start it since early summer last year. The thing is, I have gotten used to it, actually I kind of like it. So, sayonara battery. I'll keep everyone posted on how that works out for me. I think I will boyscout a solution so that I can still jump start the starter if I ever need to.

I also started planning my new tail section. I am looking forward to starting that.

Here are some pics of it out in the sun. I am really starting to like this paint scheme.







I also redid the body filler on the inserts to give it a finer edge. I am pretty happy with the results:

It looks fantastic BG As usual! I like the new colour. Very vintage looking. Spokies would set that thing off like no ones business, especially if you did the rim in the gunmetal and the spokes themselves in RED! I am back to debating on my seat set up. I was happy with the one i made, then started looking at the one i bought on the bike, and like the lines better, i think. Then i went back to thinking about that H2R seat, now i dunno wtf i wanna do..LOL

Have you ever thought about spoked rims?

Just about every time that I look at my wheels. However, I have other things to spend the money on first (although a new tire is on the list, so that would make rims easier to do at the same time).

After a short ride I got another burst of inspiration. I was originally going to repaint my calipers, but now I think I might keep them the deep red, and paint the knee inserts red instead. That way there is still some color on the bike without it screaming "Hey, red bike over here!"

I like it, BG!

Agree with you and zooks - very classy. Can't say why exactly, but definately bettery than the red.

Have you ever thought about spoked rims?