Topic: 1971 CL450 Cafe - BTR001

[BuiltToRide]

Hello Gentlemen & Ladies,

I'm in San Jose, CA. Still pretty new to bikes. Purchased, worked on, and sold a few over the last couple of years. Just picked this girl up for next to nothing. New battery and fresh gas and we're off and running.

Not sure what the plans are yet if any, other than re-routing the cam oiling setup. Still doing research.

Suggestions and comments most definitely welcome. Bike was picked up in Southern California.

Here's what I know about the bike.

Registered non-op and plated.

Frame:
Bunch of tig welded reinforcements
1/4" aluminium engine mounts
Bungs welded into the existing frame for the rear sets
Black Bomber tank with repo badges
Upholstered Airtech seat
Chopped factory rear fender
GSXR 750 rearsets

Suspension:
CB750F DOHC fork, re-valved, shortened springs.
CB500 triples, smoothed and polished
Steering dampener
Vintage S&W race shocks
Bronze swingarm bushings
Ceriani headlight brackets
Tommasellli clip-ons

Engine:
Fully rebuilt with NOS parts including the shift forks, shift quadrant, springs cam bearing caps & intake manifold.
Cappellini moto cam chain rollers and tensioner
External head oiling solving the cam wear issues with this motor
Reground cam and followers, more lift and duration
+1mm oversized intake valves, ported
Cometic head gasket
JE forged pistons for 500cc & 10.5:1 compression
Rebuilt & re-jetted stock carbs
CB500t transmission
k0 clutch (6-springs), Barnett clutch plates
Starter Blockoff
Rewired charging rotor
Omar's 2:1 exhaust

Other than that, she's pretty fast for a little bike.

Here's some pics. Enjoy.

[calj737]

Sounds like a serious little screamer! And I really like the tank, always been a fan of that model.

Someone previously put a lot of love into that bike, solving all it's weaknesses based upon it's reputation as being "fragile". Many chaps here have them, had them, and all really tout their nimble handling and street-wise setup.

How's it run based? Are the grins as wide as the sea? 

[SKTP]

nice

[BuiltToRide]

Thanks gentlemen. The bike is fast for a 500 and runs great!

[calj737]

Thanks gentlemen. The bike is fast for a 500 and runs great!

That must make it really fast for a 450 then?

[BuiltToRide]

 

Been riding the bike frequently and she has been running awesome until yesterday.

1. Bike was hard to kick-start. Usually starts on 2nd or 3rd kick.
2. Once started, the bike didn't want to idle. Just died.
3. Started the bike again and took her for a spin up the street.
4. Failed to idle at the stop sign and died.
5. Started her up again rode a couple of blocks until she puked up a #$%* ton of oil (I believe from the breather routed under the seat) and completely lathered the back half of the bike with oil.

Not knowing where the oil was coming from at the time, I walked her home. I proceeded to clean her up & tried to diagnose where the oil came from. Best guess is the breather, but crazy because there was a good amount of oil on the back half of the bike.

Any insight here? Ideas, ect?

Later tonight I am going to finish cleaning everything up and re-inspect the motor, check the oil level and adjust the idle if theres nothing else obviously wrong.

Thanks in advance for the kind words of advice.