Topic: Just Browsed Project Forum, Makes me a bit sad...

[robdrobd]

Has anyone else looked at some of the bikes on here and wondered, "Why didn't that guy just hose that bike down, scrub it with some soap,  and start riding it?" I think half the bikes that are being ripped apart are in better shape than any bike I've ever owned.  

[Nortstudio]

I think this is a can of worms.....

But I'll dive in...

this is one of those "to each his own....to each his own....to each....."

Keep saying it, it gets easier to enjoy the forum as a whole

[Coyote13]

Think about it this way.... the clean, unmolested, classics....not gonna be found in projects.


Just my .02



Believe me, we're out there.

[Mandic]

I did that with mine.  I hosed it off and rode it for a few hundred miles until the winter hit.  Then I tore it down and did it up my way.  Made it easier to know what had to be fixed.  If I had dove right in making it how I wanted, I wouldn't have known about the bad valve seals and major smoke screens my bike had going. 

[Hush]

I slapped mine together from the boxes of parts I was given, changed the oil and rode it....actually I haven't stopped riding it, just every now and then I'd take something off and flash it up.

[Kong]

Actually I see very few pristine bikes being either 'chopped' or 'cafed', almost all of them are beaters that have sat a good number of years rusting away before they ever see a cut-off wheel.  I have also seen a lot of guys post a picture of their new purchase, which they would like to do their thing with, and then seen many posts suggesting that the bike was too nice to do anything other than restore or sell for a profit - to be used to chop a lessor bike.  It happens all the time.

So while it happens now and then it seems to me that for the most part just the opposite of what you speak of is the more common situation. 

Of course it could be maybe all of us just owned nicer bikes than you, all our lives.   

[nomad]

Has anyone else looked at some of the bikes on here and wondered, "Why didn't that guy just hose that bike down, scrub it with some soap,  and start riding it?"

Honestly, it's never even crossed my mind.

Most CB owners have a different vision of what they want their bike to be.  The amount of resources/ time poured in these bikes also varies from owner to owner.  We each invest whatever resources we deem appropriate to achieve the vision we have for our bikes.

I don't understand why it would make you "sick" (from the title of your thread) that others don't share your opinion of what a CB should be.  There are a lot of things in this world that make me "sick," but someone else's vision of what they want their bike to be isn't one of them.

So tell me... at some point in your life if you had the time, money and resources to build an absolutely awesome custom CB, you're saying you wouldn't even consider it much less do it?

[axe]

Has anyone else looked at some of the bikes on here and wondered, "Why didn't that guy just hose that bike down, scrub it with some soap,  and start riding it?" I think half the bikes that are being ripped apart are in better shape than any bike I've ever owned. 

I feel the same sometimes. What gets me most is when someone takes a 7/10+ bike and cuts it up into a cafe or bobber. At that rate, stock CBs will exist only in photographs.

[robdrobd]

I guess "sick" was the wrong word choice. I guess I am just wondering when the cafe racer trend is going to die down. I even did it with my last bike (cb550f.) I guess it will just make the original condition bikes more valuable. Anyway, didn't mean to ruffle feathers, just wanted to start a discussion.

Maybe everybody just does have better bikes than me and I am getting jealous.

[Bankerdanny]

I mentioned somthing similar to FunJimmy the other day when he posted a before and after of his bike (which I believe was last years SOHC4 Forum bike of the year last year or 2009). The before shows what appears to be a clean original blue CB550F.

Jimmy pointed out that most of his original parts were sold to pay for the build. So while a clean older bike may have been lost, somewhere out there a new one was restored with his parts. A motorcycle version of the circle of life (insert obligatory Elton John ballad here).

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=85101.msg958660#msg958660

[Coyote13]

This guy might make ya feel a little better....


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=85536.0;topicseen

[robdrobd]

This guy might make ya feel a little better....


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=85536.0;topicseen

I'm gonna tell him to leave it the way it is. I think it will turn more heads in its current condition.

[robdrobd]

I mentioned somthing similar to FunJimmy the other day when he posted a before and after of his bike (which I believe was last years SOHC4 Forum bike of the year last year or 2009). The before shows what appears to be a clean original blue CB550F.

Jimmy pointed out that most of his original parts were sold to pay for the build. So while a clean older bike may have been lost, somewhere out there a new one was restored with his parts. A motorcycle version of the circle of life (insert obligatory Elton John ballad here).

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=85101.msg958660#msg958660

Circle of life is a good way to think of it. Without these cafe builds, there wouldn't be any parts around for the restorations.

[Bankerdanny]

This guy might make ya feel a little better....


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=85536.0;topicseen

I'm gonna tell him to leave it the way it is. I think it will turn more heads in its current condition.

I don't know, the original quad exhaust is gone, the headlight shell is probably gone too and the seat appears to be modified. If I were to pick up a bike like that I would probably treat it similar to what he has described. I would keep the color, which I love, then I would lose the touring gear, maybe install a set of adjustable clubman bars from Omar's (or maybe just a superbike bend for my not so flexible back and not so flat stomach), pick up one of the padded cafe seat cover kits from eBay, throw on some decent roiad tires (I am partial to Avon Roadriders, which I have used on my last 2 bikes), and add Dunstall or Norton style reverse megaphone mufflers.

Voila, mild cafe style while retaining some of the original bike charm.