T8's 750 Cafe Racer Project

[mikerophone]

Mikerophone, have you joined the utah rider page yet?

Yep. Joined last spring, did you guys end up riding last year at all? If this weather holds, and isn't too wet, we'll have some nice early spring riding!

Didn't see the link for Max's website in your post, but Google to the rescue... That R100 he shot is sweet, can't wait to see what he does with yours.

Oops! Sorry guys, here is the link to Max's page: http://www.maxdaines.com/social/

Mikerophone, have you joined the utah rider page yet? Glad to hear from another fellow Utahn. I think this year we're actually gonna make our Spring Ride work.

[mikerophone]

Looking good! Glad to see more progress on this, and yes, spring sure feels like it's sprung here in Utah, I've been riding all week feels so good!

Didn't see the link for Max's website in your post, but Google to the rescue... That R100 he shot is sweet, can't wait to see what he does with yours.

I finished shaping the left side of the plug. Once that was done I cut it into sections and traced the profile of the section onto a piece of cardstock. After all the tracing was done I retraced it all onto wood, cut it out, and put it together. This should ensure a more symmetrical part and cut down on time evening things out. I'll be filling it up with foam tomorrow and getting it ready to shape.

Still working on the seat plug. Pics to come soon. I've almost finished with the symmetrical wooden skeleton. Once it's done I'll be able to fill the gaps with foam, let it cure, and start shaping. In other news, the bike is being taken on as a project by a great local photographer and filmmaker, Max Daines. We met last night to talk about film and photo ideas and what kind of canvas my bike could end up being for him. He liked it and has some great ideas for presenting my bike to the motorcycle community via Iron and Air and Pipeburn. Here's a link to his website if you want to see a quick shot he took of the bike last night as well as some of his other work. It looks sinister! He's got skills. Also, often times I post up to date photos on my instagram so if you're into that go ahead and give me a follow @t83rbug. Now that Max has taken on the project you guys will get to see some professionally shot footage and photos of the final stages of the build. Anyways, I hope everyone is as excited for spring as I am.

thats coming along very nicely i like the lines the seat taking

ozman

I got my brake line back from Galfer the other day so I installed it. It fits great. Spring is prematurely approaching here in Utah and it's got me feeling like the bike NEEDS to be done soon. So, I've been working on what I have been putting off for far too long. The seat plug. I have so many hours in the thing and it's still not done. My method of getting symmetry has changed so I will be documenting that for you guys. For now I have just been working exclusively on the left side of the plug trying, through trial and error, to get the right shape and the best body lines. I almost reached completion of the left side today (sorry no pics) and I should be onto the next steps a little at a time next week. So here are some progress pics from earlier in the week.



Primered the plug after getting the overall shape correct. The body lines are sharp right now but I will mellow them out later. For now the sharpness makes it easier to shape correctly because it's easier to see the changes. It will also help me shape the fillets more consistently when it's all done.




I needed to add more material under the plug at the rear so rather than fill the large area with body filler I used foam in a can and the result was great. I was able to easily cut and sand it to the correct shape then use body putty to finish it off.

Brackets are cool and I actually dig the the matted look of the headlight!

Not a whole bunch going on but there has been consistent progress. I was able to open up the back end of the headlamp bucket and hem the sheet metal to make it look like it did before I cut into it. It was necessary to clear the damper bracket better with the headlamp as low as I want it. I sandblasted the chrome and made a nice finish that paint should adhere to. No need to go all the way through the chrome.

Thanks guys! I'll definitely hit you up when it comes down to motor time, Chuck. I appreciate your willingness to help me make my machine a beast. I installed the new parts yesterday. They look pretty good so I thought I'd show you all. I also removed the front brake line because I need to send it back to be reworked for the new M/C. Slowly but surely. Next up on the list is to finish the tail section and get that baby in fiberglass.

Got these sweet little spherical washers to compensate for the slight angle changes when the headlight ears are clamped down onto the light. The machine tolerances were right on so they were a great fit.






The new M/C

[Chuck78]

Wow. This build keeps getting more & more amazing.

Hit me up when it comes time to get it running. I've got a lot of tuning tips to share from my 750 build, some good big bore piston sources & custom piston/sleeve sources if you go that route. The gs1000/1100e engines are slightly lighter & slightly narrower if you were looking at that route. An air/oil cooled bandit 600 or 1200 engine would adapt amazingly into the old chassis as well... More narrow again! The 1100e is a direct bolt-in, however. The 82-83 versions were even more refined & powerful. You could ride it a season as is & build up an 1100E pretty well in the meantime!

Awesome work!

First off, thanks for the compliment, GSX1000E!

So after pretty much wasting 7+ hours the day after Christmas machining a fixture and half of the parts, I screwed everything up. A total loss. The machining process on these parts is a multi-process deal and I set the origin wrong on the final process. The machine ran its process about an inch offset ha . Live and learn as they say and yesterday I came up with a new way to keep my origin and was able to pump these puppies out first try. In record time too. From getting the materials, to making the fixture, to having the final part in my hand only took about 4 hours or so. You may think that's a long time for such simple parts but the machine is a personal CNC made for prototyping and such so it does not have the horsepower a production machine would. Plus my CAM software is not the best and it runs some of its processes quite slow. Anyways the parts are done. There are imperfections everywhere on them but I decided I need to find joy in the stories the imperfections tell. Likely nobody but me will notice anyway. So, here's to a new year and a new outlook on perfection

WOW!!! Those look way beyond fantastic!

Got her eyes back today! Still a little adjusting to do to the headlight ears (3D printing paid off/Saved me a lot of machine time) It's crazy how much a headlight can give life to a project bike. It makes it seem almost ready to ride!