76 Cafe "Triple 9"

[Bert]

Smoking bike....looks so very cool and different. Great execution of what you imagined.

[Pony Ruiz]

thanks for the link. price is def. right. got me thinkin now......

[BGarth]

Yes indeed! Very nice

[gdurfey]

Wow, giving me some great ideas. Can readers nominate his bike for Bike of the Month???!!!!!!

[CYBORG]

no they can't.......but i will

[Nohands]

That is an awesome looking bike and time well spent, I hope my project comes out as well as yours! I had hoped to be done by this spring, but with time and funding it mY take almost as long as yours :O

Job well done

[sunnbobb]

Without a doubt one of the better builds I have seen. Bravo! A thanks for sharing the process with everyone. Some good tips in there.

[bladredhead]

love the shelter mods
love the gas tank modification
paintwork is very appropriate
little details abound!

very nice work, and hopefully your son gets to take a picture as the pilot some day

[Devo26]

Thank you all for the kind remarks! I spent a lot of time on this site looking at other builds and finding answers to technical questions. There is a good chance that something you posted either helped me or influenced me in some way so thanks again!

I am going to attempt a write up, there are some things missing because I either lost the pictures or was too filthy to run inside and grab a camera. Anyways here it goes.

I'll start with the photo that inspired me to buy a Gold Wing. I'm not sure if this person is a member of NGW, if so good work!

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[Devo26]

While driving the bike home I felt like I was driving through water not air. The fairing and bags and all of the other unnecessary weight made the bike feel sluggish at best.

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I'm a young guy and not ready to ride slow and comfortably so after getting home the first thing I did was stripped off the fairing and bags. I had to move the headlight from the fairing and buy some small blinkers to make her road ready, but that didn't take long. I played around with some graphic ideas that obviously didn't make the cut. I used my wife's craft vinyl plotter to cut out all of the decals and throughout the build you will see that I use it a lot.

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[Devo26]

My computer at home took a dump so I will be posting on my lunch break or after work as I get time. Please be patient with me. I will try and post more pictures to keep things rolling.

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[Devo26]

Thanks to whoever made my avatar and signature by the way!

[mikenixon]

Nicely done! One of the better looking bobbers, to be sure!

[Roady]

Thanks to whoever made my avatar and signature by the way!

You're more than welcome ... your build deserved the best.

[Devo26]

I quickly realized that the carbs needed attention so I ordered one of Randakk's kits. While I waited for it to come in the mail I did a few other things. I realized pretty quick that I wanted to do more of a cafe style bike. I had read that clubmans didn't work very well and that clipons would hit the shelter. Somewhere I read that you could use a low rise handlebar upside down to achieve the lower look. I bought some super sport bars because I read somewhere that someone else used them. I installed them and liked the look, but the angle it held my wrists at was terrible. I just lived with them for a while but I wouldn't recommend them. I also bought some smaller headlight ears. You can find them by googling "Headlight ears". I found they fit well and lightened things up a bit. There are some other more expensive ones out there that I have my eye on, but these will do.

The first big project I did was reshaping the seat. My seat is my original double seat modified to look more cafe. I stripped off the duct tape and cracked vinyl and drilled out all of the rivets. I modified the seat pan to give it a straighter line on the bottom. I did this with an angle grinder. I also brought the pan in tighter to the bike with a rubber mallet and the edge of a table. I used a flap wheel sanding disc on an angle grinder to shape the foam. The stock seat foam wasn't quite tall enough so I found a block of foam and adhered it with some 3M Super 77 (I use that stuff on everything) After a full Saturday of seat shaping I finally ended up with something I liked. (Sorry I don't have any pictures of this process) Money was tight on this build so I realized I wasn't going to get the professional seat covering I wanted so I stole some black fabric from my wife and some thin foam and attempted my first sewing project. I really just wanted to try out the style I had envisioned so I sewed the foam into the seat like they do with a cheap tuck and roll and I had my crappy cover... It did help me visualize and isn't too far off from the finished product. but it really was a piece of junk. I think I'll leave the sewing to my wife.

Here is a picture of the bike at that point.

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I left the wing decals on the shelter because I thought they were kind of cool. I designed them in Inkscape (a free SVG program) and cut them out on the craft plotter.

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