Topic: '74 CB350F poor man's cafe (with seat update)

[socalenduro]

are you running no pods no filter no nothing?

[tigerbeat]

Lookin good so far man.  I've been rockin' the yellow light too, haven't ridden at night with it yet though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/--karla--/4298536366/in/set-72157600721850171/

[davis96]

are you running no pods no filter no nothing?

I'm running velocity stacks. I removed the rubber velocity stacks from the airbox assembly. The way they are filtered is as follows: I cut steel screen into the right size circles, which are sandwiched between the intake throat of the carb and the little ridge on the inside of the velocity stack, on the outside i put green generic small engine filter material cut to fit, and used 2 small pieces of safety wire through the foam to tie it to the steel screen on the inside and assure that the filter material wont fall out. Works great, they effectively cured my rich-running condition and I didnt have to spend the money on pods or wait for them to arrive in the mail.





I reealllyy wish I could get ahold of a drum wheel brake for the front..

[davis96]

Lookin good so far man.  I've been rockin' the yellow light too, haven't ridden at night with it yet though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/--karla--/4298536366/in/set-72157600721850171/

Looks great man! I ride mine at night all the time, the yellow light works just fine

[Industrial Cafe]

can you get a shot of what that light looks like on the road?
I just wanna see it, even if it's on a kickstand and you take a shot from the riders seat.

[socalenduro]

are you running no pods no filter no nothing?

I reealllyy wish I could get ahold of a drum wheel brake for the front..

id check out some of the other sites....id be surprized if you couldnt find a cb350 twin guy who wouldnt swap you to get your disc set up

[davis96]

can you get a shot of what that light looks like on the road?
I just wanna see it, even if it's on a kickstand and you take a shot from the riders seat.

yea I'll take a pic after it gets dark

[davis96]

A little update.. I wasnt feeling the bedliner on my fiberglass seat anymore, and am too lazy to finish the bodywork on it for paint. Soooo I took a trip down to the thrift store and bought an old brown leather jacket to mangle. cut 'er up and covered the seat:

The remnants, I'm thinking I'll make a tool bag with some of this leather, bc at the moment I have nowhere to put my tools, and this ole girl LOVES to break down so tools are a must


Oh by the way all of the work done in this seat recover was done using this super-professional $3 sewing kit I'm fairly sure I bought in a grocery store a few years back. Wouldve probably taken 1/10th of the time had I had a sewing machine


The result:



used this after i finished it to make it darker and shinier and to give it some character:


Once I got it on the bike, I decided it looks too shiny and nice and didnt quite fit with the general feel I was going for soo here it is after a bit of distressing... the difference doesnt really translate well in pictures but it looks pretty beat up now, which is perrfect 

[Industrial Cafe]

WOW. I hope my seat comes out lookin half as nice.

[Trevor from Warragul]

I think you should cut 6 inches off the front fender & paint it matt black.  You should also paint the forks & rear shocks.  Just my $0.02.

Trevor

P.S.  I have a 350/4 in pristine condition, but I like your bike a whole lot

[davis96]

I think you should cut 6 inches off the front fender & paint it matt black.  You should also paint the forks & rear shocks.  Just my $0.02.

Trevor

P.S.  I have a 350/4 in pristine condition, but I like your bike a whole lot

I was going to go this 'black out' sort of route, but since im headed in a bit of a different direction you will see when I post new pics... the brown leather seat is in addition to a hand made brass tail light and some other brass bits are in the works... the general theme is old.. leather, patina'd brass, black tank with some parts sanded through, rust.. I'm hoping I can bring it all together

[Trevor from Warragul]

Great, I like the whole "rat rod" theme!

[socalenduro]

using and old leather jacket is genius.... instant vintage feel

and nice mandolin

[davis96]

using and old leather jacket is genius.... instant vintage feel

and nice mandolin

Thanks! now all i have to do is get at it with some sandpaper and kick it around in the dirt for a while to get the 'real' vintage feel

[motomotard]

seat looks awesome.  real good job on that with just the cheapo sewing kit.

[davis96]

seat looks awesome.  real good job on that with just the cheapo sewing kit.

I appreciate it! I ended up using like 4 diff colors of thread since there wasn't very much of any one color.. but the shoe polish ended up coloring them all quite nicely

[camelman]

Great job, Davis!  It looks great.  I was planning on the same thing for my future cafe build, but I hadn't thought of using an old leather jacket.

Camelman

[Stev-o]

Nice seat!

[cb350twin]

That seat is tits! What kind of pan is that & did you use any foam or anything? I wish I knew how to sew. Looks good.

[Old75_ratafe]

That seat is bad a s s

[Industrial Cafe]

how bout that picture of "how that headlight lights up the road"

[davis96]

how bout that picture of "how that headlight lights up the road"

sorry boss i got your message its just slipped my mind every time it gets dark.. but ill get it to ya rest assured

[davis96]

a few pictures:






The tail light is built 100% found objects around the house

[socalenduro]

sic....

[davis96]

how bout that picture of "how that headlight lights up the road"

here ya go man