I was then immediately off to a tour in Afghanistan. That tour was as a scout pilot in the army flying the OH-58D in the 2-17th Cavalry. "Scouts Out!!!"
Anyway, it was a hell of a tour, lots of excitement, lots of crazy sh*t, but there is always lots of downtime.
A dude can save some serious bank on a year long tour, and while there I schemed and planned and researched on the net and snatched up eBay parts (shipped to my home) like crazy. Hence the "Spoils of War" nickname.
Through my research I began to question the rideability of a CR750 replica with a replica tank. Just too stretched-out.
Back in 1970 roadracers sat way on the back of the bike, putting lots of weight over the rear wheel and cutting graceful, smooth lines on the track. Advances in tires, forks, and the huge power of modern bikes made the riders move toward the front of the bike.
I decided to upgrade the suspension of my CB to modern parts, and the wheels to a size that could use some better rubber. I gathered the parts to assemble a CBR1000 front end, but with the even bigger brakes from a CBR954. I used the CBR954 triples because that bike doesn't have a steering damper mounted on the top clamp (meaning no ugly holes on the top of the clamp). The 954 triple clamps offer the perfect amount of trail (according to my plans) with the longer shocks that steepened CB750 frame, the shorter CBR fork, and 18" wheel.
I decided to use 18" rims to retain the big-wheeled vintage look after making sure I could get decent 18" rubber. The V-rod front tire is a 120/18 and the somewhat recent ZX-6 uses a 180/18 rear, ensuring those tire sizes will be around for a while, at least in sport-touring quality.
I'm no computer whiz, but I nugged my way through learning how to draw on Microsoft Powerpoint. I found a Honda factory diagram (with measurements) of the CB750 frame and swingarm, and created a scale replica drawing.
I spent a lot of time building a frame, swingarms, wheels, brakes, many many tanks, fenders, headlights, oil tanks, forks, shocks, blah, blah, blah.
I came up with this: