Author Topic: '83 CB650z - rat cafe (Read 7400 times)

madsen5 · « **on:** June 28, 2009, 02:37:26 PM »

I'm a new member from denmark. I have been lurking for a while but now i want to show you what I'm up to.

First of all I have to tell you that this is a budget project. The main purpose is to have an excuse to leave the girlfriend and two kids in the house and 'escape' into the garage once in a while. But when I do I might as well try and get something out of it.

I bought the bike a couple of months ago for the equivalent of a 1000 dollars which is very cheap in a country that have 180% tax on new cars and bikes (I'm not kidding you). It was looking allright and was able to start and run though it was very rough. It has been crashed but I didn't think it was serious. You can see the before shot - it's the one with the blue tank and other blue stuff.

My goal is to make a very simple, clean and perhaps a little ratty Cafe Racer.

First thing to do was get the plated. In denmark this means the bike is looked over and checked in relation to safety and that it hasn't been modified to much. I only had to get new tyres, repair a few electrical problems and give the bike a general tuneup. And it passed the test.

In the last month I have been riding the bike and started to make e few changes:

Replaced the front fender with generic glassfibre part
Removed the instruments
Replaced the bars with clipons
Replaced front light with eBay light
Replaced the tank with CX500 tank - I like the indents and the look of it when lying flat
Made my own seat with a seat cowl of a Suzuki GSXR600 - it still needs some work
Simple backlight and plateholder

I think its starting to take shape. Still have to do:

Rebuild front end and place clipons under the upper fork clamp
Mount electronic tach and bicyclecomputer in aluminum bracket
Complete new wiring - very simple
Free up the triangle behind the carbs, battery goes under the tank I think
Mount K&N oval filters and re jet the carbs
General cleanup and removal of excess parts, framebrackets etc.
Hope to find something cheap for a rearset
But most importantly - have fun as I go

There is a few pics of the bike at the stage that it's at right now. I will keep it in primer till the shape is finished. Please give me a lot of feedback and ideas, but keep in mind that its a budget project. I would love a tank/seat set from Benjie's and a completely rebuild engine, but I don't have that kind of money for this.

Hope my english is not all too broken

madsen5 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 28, 2009, 02:39:24 PM »

And a few more pictures....

scunny · « **Reply #2 on:** June 28, 2009, 02:59:12 PM »

hi madsen, looks like a good start on the bike. as for rearsets I just cut the existing mounting plates down

Hush · « **Reply #3 on:** June 28, 2009, 04:54:13 PM »

Congratulations, you have made an ugly bike look good.

Your english is nearly perfect too.

Pinhead · « **Reply #4 on:** June 28, 2009, 05:17:02 PM »

I thought the 650 went to DOHC in '83 and the Z model was only in '79 and already had rearsets...

I like the looks of that tank. Did it take any modification to mount it to the frame?

CBJoe · « **Reply #5 on:** June 28, 2009, 06:35:15 PM »

Holy Crap

What exhaust system is that? I've never seen that on a 650 before.

Oh yeah

Looks good.

Cheers, Joe

madsen5 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 29, 2009, 12:34:04 AM »

Thanks for all the compliments on the bike

I think it's actually an '82 model sold in '83. Also the European models where a little different than the US ones. The z was sold all of the years here. But I'm not really sharp on model history.

Both the frame and the CX tank is unchanged, but i made a few very simple brackets to make it fit. The front mounting points on the frame has been moved down and forward a bit and the tank is lifted around 7 cm from the frame in the back. I have mounted it a lot flatter than it is on the CX. I think that gives it a more aggressive look. Also it gives me a lot of room between the frame and tank in the back. I hope to fit a battery in there.

The exhaust is a Marshall Deeptone and is very common here. It sounds fantastic but unfortunately it has been scraped in a crash. The idea is to repair the scrape, paint it flat black and wrap the headers.

Scunny - did you move the brake and gear arm on your mounting plates? Can you show pictures of what you did?

manjisann · « **Reply #7 on:** June 29, 2009, 04:10:19 AM »

Nice look! I like how you left the wheels unpainted.

Brandon

Buber · « **Reply #8 on:** June 29, 2009, 04:20:14 AM »

Unpainted wheels are standard on the european Z.. So you just kepp them clean.. And they are mounted with pressed dents "inward", if you know what I mean...

scunny · « **Reply #9 on:** June 29, 2009, 10:12:20 PM »

I left the brake and gear linkages as they were, soon as I can find my camera plug I'll post the pics

scunny · « **Reply #10 on:** June 29, 2009, 10:52:03 PM »

hopefully these pics will work

cafeconleche · « **Reply #11 on:** June 30, 2009, 07:51:23 AM »

what happened tp the cx500 tank? im interested if you want to get rid of it.

madsen5 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 30, 2009, 03:01:25 PM »

Hey Scunny - thanks for the pictures. That looks fine with the cut down standart brackets, it lightens the hole thing up. I feel like I need to get my feet back a bit further though. May be I'll find the money for an aftermarket rearset sometime.

Cafeconleche I still have the CX500 tank on my bike. I think you are looking at the pictures of Scunnys bike. I found the tank on German Ebay and I only paid 60 dollars for it. There's lots of them out there. Also if I had more money I would probably use something else like an aluminium or proper racing tank that fits the frame a little better.

I hope I will find the time to remove the rear fender/airbox this week. I'm going to replace it with the K&N pods that you can see in the picture below. This probably means that I have to re jet the carbs as well. Right now the main jets are the standart size 95. Any of you guys have any idea what I should go for? I have the CV carbs with no extra groves in the needle but should I shim them?

Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

sangyo soichiro · « **Reply #13 on:** June 30, 2009, 03:13:07 PM »

I love your tail light. But Denmark need to do something about those huge license plates.

[Edit:] I love the rest of the bike too. Especially the tail.

greenjeans · « **Reply #14 on:** June 30, 2009, 05:10:03 PM »

That's too nice to be a "rat" cafe..... looks like it's all busines. Pipes really look mean.
I dig it, looks fast sitting still.

madsen5 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 03, 2009, 02:27:32 PM »

So tonight I had the chance to remove the airbox and rear fender and put on the K&N filters. The original jets were 92's so i followed the advice of K&N to up them by 15%. 15% up is 106 but the closest I could find was 108.

Putting everything back together was a real struggle. I didn't expect that. These filter are supposed to fit the bike. I got the filters on but the carbs are not level and the filters are hitting the frame. I really hate stuff like that.

Next up was the test ride. From 1/4 throttle and up its bogging out. Its much better with the choke on which tells me that its lean. So what do you think I should do next? Up the jets even more or maybe try to shim the needles?

You can see in the picture how bad the fit is. Ideas?

cb650 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 03, 2009, 05:02:29 PM »

With the cv carbs the stock jet should have been at least a 118. The haynes manual lists the single cam 650's untill 84. Try the 650 site. Half the guys there are not US but is is a slow site. http://www.hondacb650.com

madsen5 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 04, 2009, 01:10:39 AM »

It seems that nothing about these carbs is like the book. The jets are different from from what I can find in the Haynes book also the needles are different, mine are labeled 80B. I can't find that in the book either. The carbs are labeled VB54D which also I cannot find in the book. The closest is the UK SC model which have VB54E carbs with 95 jets and 12S needles.

Unless someone knows more about these carbs I guess I will have to assume they were stock and just go from there. I will try and get some jets in the 120-130 range today.

About the fit of the filters I guess that maybe the VB44 range of carbs on the US models takes up less space than the VB54 range of carbs on the European models and that's why I don't have enough room. I don't know.

I will ask the question on the hondacb650 forum as well, thanks for the hint on that, maybe someone there knows more about it.

madsen5 · « **Reply #18 on:** July 04, 2009, 04:28:10 AM »

So I just put in the 125 jets and the result is...... no real difference!?!

So I'm up to size 125 from size 92 and still very lean, doesn't that sound a little strange?

cb650 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 04, 2009, 05:39:23 AM »

Something might still be pluged up in the carbs. Dont know what else to say except good luck. It takes some doing to figure out jets.

madsen5 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2009, 10:50:37 AM »

I decided that I cannot live with the airfilters and carbs not fitting correctly in the frame. Also the carbs I have are not in a very good condition. I read Soos's thread about the kawasaki GPZ 600 carbs beeing a perfect replacement. Besides being a better carb with more adjustment options they are about 3 cm shorter so I think that will solve the problem with the airfilters.

Yesterday I found a set of GPZ carbs on Ebay and got them today for 20 GBP (30 dollars). The guy will mail them tomorrow and hopefully I will get them monday or tuesday. It will be really interesting to see how this goes.

madsen5 · « **Reply #21 on:** July 23, 2009, 02:52:37 PM »

Monday I got back from Greece - warm weather, fabulous lamb, great scenery. Oh well - to the point.

When I got back the Ninja carbs had arrived. They are not as good looking as I had hoped for, but complete and functional. I spend the last couple of evenings tearing them apart, soaking, cleaning, boiling jets and putting everything back together.

It looks as if they have been run without a filter in a dirty environment. The slides were very dirty on the inlet side, but I got them cleaned up so they don't stick.

Best thing is the K&N filters fit the new carbs fine. If my measurements are correct they will fit the frame no problem.

Hope I get the chance to fit them tomorrow... I can then spend the night dreaming the bike will go perfectly with them.

Check out the pics!!!

madsen5 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 23, 2009, 03:06:05 PM »

more pics...

Hush · « **Reply #23 on:** July 23, 2009, 07:24:54 PM »

You are gonna be in so much touble with someone when they see you have used the stove and their best pots for boiling bike bits ha ha, love it, can't wait to find out if the Kwaka carbs work for you.

Nicolai · « **Reply #24 on:** July 24, 2009, 06:31:41 AM »

Nice bike...

I'm also a sohc4 member from denmark but I will keep it in English so everybody can read along

Where did you buy your seat (or just the back end of the seat)? I love the look of it I might buy it for my CB500 cafe.

And for whoever that mentioned the big numberplates in denmark....that we can live with, but a 180% tax on cars and bikes is much harder to accept

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Author Topic: '83 CB650z - rat cafe (Read 7400 times)

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