Topic: My CB500 cafe racer

[livefast_dieold]

Hi everyone.

I'm Riccardo from Italy, 24 years old engineer student.

In the past three years I've build this bike:



The engine was heavily modified: bore to 600 cc, Futura cam, head porting, carbs off from a CB750 with straight collector, lightened and polished rods and crank.
Here's a pic of what i consider my personal masterpiece (tons of hours of work): crank+rods





I will also need some good advice about the CB750 engine, because I'm preparing a bike for endurance race for next year championship...

[Bill/BentON Racing]

Dude that crank and rods will never work,just send them to me NOW!! .BEAUTIFUL!!,Bike looks great,mods sound even better.Been on a dyno yet,Tell us more.Great Job!!,Bill

[turboguzzi]

benvenuto riccardo!

Not many Italians round here, so hope you stay with us a long time (unlike the others who post 5 messages and then dissapear)

I race in the italian 500 gruppo 5 championship with a 500/4, so if you need any help let me know. Three members of my club (porta nuova milano) are the 2009 endurance 500 champions actually.

You better get running fast with that 750 racer, usually first race of the season is in early april at the adria circuit!

Let me know if you need any help or advice.

TG

[paddy paul]

Beautiful bike , good job, I just love what the people on this site do to these bikes!!!!!!

[bwaller]

Welcome Riccardo.

I imagine you do have a few polishing hours on that crank & rods alright. Looks like your intakes are much longer than stock too, how about another close-up of those?

[nippon]

Hi and welcome!
You did a really nice job, expecially the details like the routing of the oil cooler.
Are there any close up pics of the cooler available?

nippon

[le_sterls]

I'm drooling over that goregous machine...

[voxonda]

Welcome Ricardo,

That bike is a mess, just send it over and I will get rid of it.  

Ciao, Rob

[Ecosse]

welcome to the forum! hope you stick around too.

you do beautiful work and deserve to be proud...  more pix please!

[Sam Green Racing]

More pics of Valentinos bike here.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=62470.0#lastPost

Sam.

[Ecosse]

thanks sam. 

[turboguzzi]

Welcome Riccardo.

I imagine you do have a few polishing hours on that crank & rods alright. Looks like your intakes are much longer than stock too, how about another close-up of those?

Had to slash Fabrizio (samoto bikes ) for being such a dork, blowing up his garage in bienno seemingly has not helped.

+ on brents request. close ups please.

TG

[livefast_dieold]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

The intakes are exactly the same lenght of the original one. In this way the low rpm torque it's not penalized and I was able to use the original carb retaining plate of the cb750 (with some modification  )

So, you'r demanding for other pics, here they come:





outake polished:



intake ported and sanded:





polished valves:



work in progress:




pics of the cb750 I'd dismantled last week:

[livefast_dieold]

benvenuto riccardo!

Not many Italians round here, so hope you stay with us a long time (unlike the others who post 5 messages and then dissapear)

I race in the italian 500 gruppo 5 championship with a 500/4, so if you need any help let me know. Three members of my club (porta nuova milano) are the 2009 endurance 500 champions actually.

You better get running fast with that 750 racer, usually first race of the season is in early april at the adria circuit!

Let me know if you need any help or advice.

TG

well. I have a problem with the clutch, and I red it's quite a common issue with empowered cb500.
It slips at high rpm (over 6000)! I was wondering if only with the EBC harder springs the situation will be solved or if there are other solutions...

I'm not new to endurance races in Italy. Me and my mates won the first race last year in Adria in the 500 class 
Unluckly, due to university problems (we are all working on the thesis...) we weren't able to partecipate to other races until the Franciacorta race in october, where the engine decided to give up before the start.

Pics:



Me on the left, Giovanni in the centre and Luca on the right.
Giovanni and Luca are friends from university. One day we find out our common passion on vintage bikes and races, so thanks to Giovanni's father (who is quite known because it's Piero Laverda, yes, that Laverda) we were able to do a race with a replica Formula 500. 

Me in action:

[Sam Green Racing]

With a race win allready under your belt and such style, I'd better stop calling you Valentino

Riccardo, ain't it nice when your mates dad is Mr Laverda well done son, stick at it.

Sam.

[turboguzzi]

hi riccardo,

yep, remember your bike.

I had managed to solve my clutch problems with Barnett Kevlar plates and more preload on the stock springs (+1.5mm)

It will be interesting to see how well you do with your CB750, currently most people in 750 are on ducati/guzzi or more modern fours, havent seen a cb750 actually racing in gruppo 5 for a few years. Maybe in Rjeka a CB could be faster than a 750 twin because of the power, but in Adria and Franciacorta, a lighter, shorter bike seems to work better.

I was running shorter intakes than you and still felt that they killed to much power high up, might be ok for the street with a 600 kit though

have you ever put your bike on the dyno?

[livefast_dieold]

hi riccardo,

yep, remember your bike.

I had managed to solve my clutch problems with Barnett Kevlar plates and more preload on the stock springs (+1.5mm)

It will be interesting to see how well you do with your CB750, currently most people in 750 are on ducati/guzzi or more modern fours, havent seen a cb750 actually racing in gruppo 5 for a few years. Maybe in Rjeka a CB could be faster than a 750 twin because of the power, but in Adria and Franciacorta, a lighter, shorter bike seems to work better.

I was running shorter intakes than you and still felt that they killed to much power high up, might be ok for the street with a 600 kit though

have you ever put your bike on the dyno?

I have to check the rules, but I'm going to install the front forks and wheel from a cb900dohc, which are far better than the original ones. I think that original Honda frames are good enough to compete against Italian and English frames, but we need to seriously improve suspensions.

Barnett Kevlar plates? where did you buy that?
For the intake: having them that long makes the bike really fun to ride, at low rpm it's a kick in the ass!!!

Here's some close pics of the oil cooler (taken from a v-strom) and the modified cb750 carb retaining plate:





as you can see, i divided in two pieces the plate so the cb750 carbs will match exactly the intake port of the cb500 without any bends. I've have obtained a full straight carbs-to-head conduct which i assure you works great!


Talking about cb750 endurance prep: there are some great parts manufactures in the US like APE or cycleX. It's seem to me that APE has the highest quality around, right? While cycleX it's cheaper but I'm not sure about the quality, any advices? Voxhonda, i saw that you sell very nice parts in your site, I think we have to talk after Xmas 

Are there any manufacture in Europe? Or at least retailer? I really need some CR carbs at a good price!!!

[turboguzzi]

I am with a similar setup, so yes, straight shot works really well, see my own project

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=27474.0

barnett plates: there is a guy, Manfroi from Roma who imports them, but you will find them cheaper online

you need plate 301-35-10018 or HPK-60A

One warning regarding tuning work, most common 750 performance pistons are usually big bore, so not legal if you want to compete in 750cc class.

if you build a big bore motor then youll be competing in open class against some very serious 1100cc bikes,

if you want to build as a 750, then mark from M3 racing is your guy.

by the way, our federation published today the schedule and first endurance race is in February in sardegna, hurry up!

TG

[Zaipai]

Welcome Riccardo.

Wow nice work on that bike Riccardo, that polish work is top notch.. Can't wait to see the 750..

Enjoy..

[livefast_dieold]

I am with a similar setup, so yes, straight shot works really well, see my own project

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=27474.0

barnett plates: there is a guy, Manfroi from Roma who imports them, but you will find them cheaper online

you need plate 301-35-10018 or HPK-60A

One warning regarding tuning work, most common 750 performance pistons are usually big bore, so not legal if you want to compete in 750cc class.

if you build a big bore motor then youll be competing in open class against some very serious 1100cc bikes,

if you want to build as a 750, then mark from M3 racing is your guy.

by the way, our federation published today the schedule and first endurance race is in February in sardegna, hurry up!

TG

those prices makes me think about sell one of my kidneys...or maybe a piece of liver.

[HawaiiMike]

Wow that bike is nice.  I like the Laverda too!

[turboguzzi]

I am with a similar setup, so yes, straight shot works really well, see my own project

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=27474.0

barnett plates: there is a guy, Manfroi from Roma who imports them, but you will find them cheaper online

you need plate 301-35-10018 or HPK-60A

One warning regarding tuning work, most common 750 performance pistons are usually big bore, so not legal if you want to compete in 750cc class.

if you build a big bore motor then youll be competing in open class against some very serious 1100cc bikes,

if you want to build as a 750, then mark from M3 racing is your guy.

by the way, our federation published today the schedule and first endurance race is in February in sardegna, hurry up!

TG

those prices makes me think about sell one of my kidneys...or maybe a piece of liver.

Agree, looks like 750's are more costly to prepare than 500's

TG

[Bluegreen]

Wow. Bike of the month candidate?

[le_sterls]

Wow. Bike of the month candidate?

I'd say so.... one of the best lookin bikes on the forum I'd say, just a personal opinion though 

[sangyo soichiro]

Nice bike Riccardo.  It's cool to see that you race too.  I bet that's fun.