Cm 400 to cafe

[Hortons Heroes]

I'll make this first post quick just to show some of the inspiration and a little of the work already done. I have three of these cm 400's so I decided to turn one of them into a cafe.
The closest one is the one I am working on.


It won't be an extreme cafe build as I lend out my bikes to beginners often and I need them to be rideable in all weather so I won't be removing both fenders.

Here is my main inspiration EDIT Here are some other bikes I am stealing ideas from as well.
http://www.caferacer.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8617




I love the look of cones and no airbox but I am not sold on the extra work yet...yet.

Here is what I have after two bike nights in the last week.
Shortened the front signals and then used the cut off posts to fill where the tach cable goes.
removed the grab bar and luggage rack
flipped the shift lever so that I will use the passenger pegs and then remove the main pegs


Flipped the fork ears to lower the head light and had to cut off some of the extra flanging on them so they would fit upside down.


Took the cut off from the front signal post and it fit almost perfectly where the tach cable was. Just welded the tube shut and bolted it in. Weird what fit.

You can see the lowered headlight in this shot as well as the flat bars. I am really tempted to put on clubmans but would love to see what it looks like first.


Cut down the front fender and used the cut off pieces to reshape the shorter fender. Will be cutting down the rear fender and removing the rear light assembly. I have a sweet old light from R&R salvage I rebuilt that will mount just behind the seat and the turn signals are being relplaced with smaller bullet style that go in the holes where the luggage rack was.



TO DO LIST IS
buy flat bars
clutch cable replace
new tail light
new rear signals
take off grab bar
take off luggage rack
shorten front signals
band back tank to fit
bar end mirrors
turn over headlight
cut down front fenders
small led dummy lights where?
lower speedo
lower ignition
lower choke
take of tach and plug hole
fix rear nut
take off exaust and H box
put on straight pipes
crash bar off
and the list goes on,.

[Rusty Bucket]

The little $65 speedometers have a great row of single led warning lights built into the bottom - very sanitary considering the small amount of real estate the 2 1/4" (?) guage takes.  The 2 bikes I really wanted to use these on both managed to reject the attempt - the first because it had no mechanical tach drive, and in that case I wanted a matched pair speedo/tach, and the other because it had 6v electrics.  The other problem these might commonly bring is one of clearance for the drive cable, which is a straight-out drive and will foul a lot of headlights, especially as a single/centered unit.   As I have been unable to use them yet, I probably am becoming more fixated on the idea - since your bike has 12v and a tacho drive, it seems a likely candidate for these commonly used (by everybody but me  ) guages.  Failing that, it is often nice to keep the stock cluster IF it fits the general appearance you ultimately are aiming for,  and moving them down will at least change their appearance from most perspectives...  the instruments on your 400's are at least traditional round guages, and not entombed in a plastic housing;  that's a good start.  And it's hard to beat the price and compatibility... The bike you cite as inspirational is using a digital speedo with a row of led warning lights, which is a bit streetfighter-modern to my tastes, but it is certainly a nice compact unit.

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[Hortons Heroes]

I was going to lose the dummy light panel and rewire the lights individually into the back of top of the head light bucket with these (my friends idea not mine) or somewhere else with these.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=12v+led+lights&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=Threaded+12v+led+lights&_sacat=0


I like the look of the speedometer and if I center it and drop it down it would look good enough for me. I am also really cheap so if I have a working speedometer then I won't go looking to buy something that may or may not work as well as the one I have.

There are some parts of that bike I really like...and others that I don't I am pulling from a gallery of pictures for what I do next on it.

[Hortons Heroes]

Do you have a link to those little units? I have 2 more bikes and that might fit my budget later on, I am interested to read more on them.

[fast1]

  They are available through M.C. distributing (slow to come but cheap) or Motovan (fast IF their in stock). Have one on Allwynn's chopper and it was accurate till the cable fell off and lost the inner. CHEERS.

[Rusty Bucket]

Princess Auto has LED lights sort of like the ones above - just not as nicely housed.  On my Sporty, which has only the one idiot light, I housed their LED light in a stainless tube, and it's fine.  Not as nicely bezelled as the one in your post, though, which is a cut way above.  The instruments, as Fast1 alludes, are available from many sources - I like this one   http://www.xs650direct.com/  as they are in Canada (but they do want to get paid in US dollars), but everybody's catalogues seem to show these. 
  Putting the nicely trimmed LED's in your headlight housing would be better still;  as long as you will be able to see over or between your instruments to the headlight shell.  Remember there isn't much room for tubes or wires to hang down when the headlight reflector is actually installed;  they take most of the space, particularly at the front.  I put an LED in the pre-existing hole in my 650 Yamaha's headlight, and that is a somewhat more forgiving (spacewise) sealed-beam lamp, and it was still a really tight fit.

[Dennis]

I like the look of the speedometer and if I center it and drop it down it would look good enough for me. I am also really cheap so if I have a working speedometer then I won't go looking to buy something that may or may not work as well as the one I have.

I'm pretty cheap also.  In my thread under "Complete Rebuilds"  "GS650 Mono Shock Conversion" there is a photo of my cut down instrument cluster.  I just took the stock round speedo, and mounted it lowerer and flatter.  I ditched all the rest. 

Its actually the first bike I have had in years where I even bothered to have any gauges.  I figure that if you are speeding, the cops will tell ya.'

Peace & Grease,   Dennis

[Hortons Heroes]

Ba ha ha-Nice Dennis.

I have an over developed sense of guilt when it comes to speeding (nothing crazy I don't often go 10 over the limit). That being said I rod for years on a bike that has a slow speedo so I was speeding everywhere until I took a GPS for a ride with me. My bikes get used for road tests 4-6 times a year so they should have something to track speed still.

Anyone have a set of club man bars lying around I could borrow for an evening?

[Dennis]

Anyone have a set of club man bars lying around I could borrow for an evening?

I'll check.  I think I do actually.  I took them off the bike I used for flat tracking so I'm pretty sure they are kicking around the garage.  Call me at home after work at (250) 562-1590.

Peace & Grease, Dennis

[Hortons Heroes]

I'll give you a shout early next week, I am working through the weekend.

EDIT-i put in some more images of ideas that I like and are going to steal for this build. Interesting to see on the 3rd one that they don't shorten the clutch cable but just run it over the front head light.
what is going on with the almost figure 8 fuel line on the top pic?

[Rusty Bucket]

Hmm;  looked for a set of clubman bars at XSdirect and they are only showing the sleazy pinched kind - the price is where it should be at $35, but I agree with everyone else who doesn't like these - they seem less than ideal.  I have an MCD catalogue at the shop - I will check and see what they are showing (my catalogue is getting pretty out of date now, and as Fast1 says - slow, but still., we'll see...) for racier handlebars.

[Hortons Heroes]

I appreciate you looking around.

$40ish bucks shipped for clip ons
http://www.ebay.com/itm/33mm-Fork-Clip-On-Handle-Bars-1-pair-Silver-color-/261104644467?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3ccb0cb173&vxp=mtr

$60 shipped for clubmans
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cafe-Racer-Ace-Clubman-Handlebar-bars-7-8-CB500-CB650-CB750-KZ650-KZ550-/380470737412?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5895d2ba04&vxp=mtr

$50 shipped for drag bar...word is all the real cafe guys run these. haha
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRAG-BARS-7-8-CHROME-HANDLEBARS-7-8-INCH-HANDLE-BAR-CHOPPER-CUSTOM-BOBBER-RAT-/180883854294?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a1d8493d6&vxp=mtr

[Rusty Bucket]

Well, I looked at the usual Cdn and semi-Cdn places like Vintage CB750, Parts n' More and XSdirect and they all show the sleazy clubman bars - but they all have cheaper $25 -30 drag bars (even that seems a bit high to me - but then again, I'm old and bought these for $15 in the day).  The clubmans are a good choice for you, though, because they will use up some of that otherwise useless length you have accumulated  , and if $60 is what it takes to get that job done, I would not argue, I guess, though a careful check of the arrangements required by the master cylinder, and possibly the clutch cable, would pay dividends before you lay out the cash.  The clip-ons are well-priced, and the adjustable ones that interest me are more in the $150-250 range, so the steel ones look like a relative bargain.  Clip-ons need even more thought about the master cylinder , hose, and clutch cable routing, though.
  Think about fabbing your own if there's not some reason it cannot be done (like the need for a good solid chrome finish).

edit:  I just followed your links and the shipping is in on your prices, so that puts them more in line with my expectations - and the clip-ons in your link actually look pretty nice at that price - much nicer than the ones I was picturing. 
 

[Dennis]

Here is a link to Speedmotoco's online catalogue of cafe racer parts.  They have tons of other parts available also.

http://www.speedmotoco.com/cafer-racer-parts-s/25.htm

They also have an Ebay store, which I where I first found them.

These guys at Dime City Cyles have lots of stuff for bobbers and cafe racers.  I purchased by fiberglass seat bulb from them.

http://www.dimecitycycles.com/

They even have some cool tech videos like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/AT6P7qaUPLw?feature=player_embedded

Peace & Grease, Dennis

[Rusty Bucket]

MCD has the pinched clubmans - the same as all those other companies (the other ones are all linked together, but MCD is at least independent of that group) so the bars will have to come from somebody more specialized - I see Omar's has the 'normal' style clubmans.
  Terry Miller brought me a copy of Cafe Racer that Dennis Kirk threw in to his order - I see Dime City has brought out urethane seat foams to match their seats now - though they are expensive at $275.  They look really good.  Is Dime City the same as Roc City?  I thought that was where you bought the 650 seat from?