Topic: Making a Cafe Racer seat

[Chris Liston]

I just won an auction for a 77 CB550F seat on ebay last night for 36 bucks.  Pretty stoked.  Anyway, I'm going to build it into a cafe seat for my bike.  This is what I had in mind.  I am going to remove my gas tank and do a really good job covering it,etc.. and make a fiber glass mold of the rear of the tank and then cut it down to the size I need.  Then I'm going to glass the mold onto the rear of the seat pan so that its all nice and connected and smooth.

Being that it will be a exact shape,etc.. of the rear of the tank I think it will flow nicely with the bike.  Any thoughts.  It shouldn't take all that much time for the mold to be formed.  Then after a few more layers of glass I'll bondo it and then sand smooth,paint,etc... 

Let me know what you guys think.

[78_SaltLick]

A good cafe racer website (he makes them mostly out of CB750's), is this:

http://www.cb750cafe.com/carpy.php?PHPSESSID=a1d45a854528874f83470391e433eb3b

Hes a real nice guy, he makes and sells cafe racer seats for a good price, and has answered some technical questions for me, and im sure he would for you too if you emailed him. Hes just happy to chat about cafe racers, or at least it seems like he is. A real nice guy and his bikes are amazing, all you guys should check his conversions out if you havent already.

[Buffo]

The best fiberglassers I have ever meet all work on boats. If I need work done or if I am looking for help I go to them. Most glass on cars need to just look pretty but on a boat you also need all the strength you can get...if they are good they will know all the tricks.

don

[Tim.]

I'm not sure of the look you're going for blening the seat pan into the tank - something like a Tracy body kit?  Most old racers, like the CR750 had a squared off tank (breadbox) and a simple pad for your but with a stopper to keep you from sliding off the back.

Further on Carpy - check out this link - a nice run through of a 750's metamorphosis from rat-bike to one of Carpy's nicer racers.

http://www.cb750cafe.com/bikes.php?cat=1&id=12&PHPSESSID=a1d45a854528874f83470391e433eb3b

For his line up of seats:

http://www.cb750cafe.com/parts.php?id=10&PHPSESSID=a1d45a854528874f83470391e433eb3b

Give you some ideas to possibly emulate.

[Chris Liston]

Yeah, I'm kinda leaning toward the CR750 style.  I just picked up a Cafe Fairing on Ebay so it will keep with the rounded look.  I know its going to take abit of work but it will be worth it. 

[Geeto67]

There is a bike on ebay right now with a body kit similar to what it sounds like you want to do. It was a kit in the 70's similar to tracy bodies but used the stock tank instead of incorporating their own tank, Made by Martin fiberglass. Very swoopy stuff, seat side covers and tank all in one piece. I like the tracy body becase it has the tank as part of the whole body and looks seamless. Still these parts have to be rare these days and look really cool.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda-CB-CB750K-Cafe-Racer-CB750-Seriously-Cool_W0QQitemZ4570371536QQcategoryZ80647QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Tim.]

Here's some more food for thought:

[mikeb4]

Here's some more food for thought:

That's cool .... really different and the tank sorta wraps over the head valve cover, that's a keeper for the photo collection!

[Chris Liston]

Tintin,  thats kinda where I want to go.  except I'm not going to hack my tank to get that look, but it would be neat.