The Old Koppa Kafe was a fun Custom to create in my Garage.

No idea where the time has gone to be honest, but I always loved creating this machine, just because it has so many great Original parts on it that really did make people turn heads.

So I started off with a bunch of parts and already had the idea of how I wanted this, as the KOPPA KART was a famous Barris Kustom Truck that I had loved as a teenager and wanted to have some Copper Influence on this Motorcycle, but I had to do a ton of preparation to the Honda Duplex cradle frame to make sure all looks good when painted.

 

There was a lot of hand sanding and grinding of old Factory welds to try and make this Chassis as smooth as I possibly could, but also, I cut the neck and added a couple more degree’s to the rake, not too noticeable but I didn’t want it too aggressive, and I think this came out perfect for what I was looking for.

Also made up a Hoop and welded that to the frame, nobody was doing this back then and wanted it to finish of the seat that I was going to fit to it, and welded a bracket at the rear so I could attach the seat cowl and make it sturdy. But the most work that really needed some attentions was how was I going to extend the stock gas tank 5 inches, as I wanted a much longer fuel tank and thought that I may as well use some of my old spare gas tanks to cut up and make the change.

This is no easy task but, I was fortunate to have a bunch of K series Petrol tanks laying about in my garage rafters and thought the best way was to keep the front end and extend the tank backwards using sections from a couple of old gas tanks.

You can see the section cut and of course had the gas tank media blasted to get all the paint off so at least there was clean metal to work with, this will also have hammered knee inserts to give it that touch of Nostalgia of TT racing days and I was glad that I did go this route in the end.

You may not notice the stretch but its way past the original mounting bracket on the frame, you may also notice that I cut the rear exhaust and passenger peg supports down, this was to clean the lines up and allow for the lower part to become a bracket that my Italian rear Sets could attach too, I also braces gusseted the frame under where the gas tank sits just to give the frame a little more rigidity.

Here is the cross bracing that I did and used the pieces I cut off the bike, so it all got re used into this creation and I had not seen anyone do this before too so another added attraction I guess?

 

Putting this machine together in the garage was pure fun, I really did love the way the old girl was being revamped and as you can see, I did a lot of detail as at the end of the day, I was building bikes for a living now and this would be a great business card bike. many cool Parts and I used a pair of 18 inch Aluminum rims that were for a CB750 Automatic, of course I used to rear rims and then polished them to a chrome finish to give it a little more Bling.

So many hours were put into this and it became quite a challenge at times, but kept pushing on, I had to retap most of the thread holes as metalflake gets everywhere when you paint it and not use a booth, but I kept being persistent and it paid off, I used stainless Allen head Bolts through out the bike too, not cheap at almost a dollar per piece but makes the bike for sure.

Hand polished all the Aluminum and it took me forever to find an intake Plenum, I had one but it just would not fit, found out it was a Suzuki one, so thought to my self, ” Where the hell am I going to locate one of these Plenums for a SOHC?”  Then I got an email from a guy in Sweden who had a Suzuki and was Supercharging his but, his Plenum didnt fit and he thought his may be for a Honda.  So we traded and sure enough, when I tried to fit the Swedish one, it fitted like a glove. What were the chances of finding another eh?

What a piece of art it is too, so happy to be able to fit this to the machine and another tick off the list of things that needed to be accomplished to get the bike to the standard that I was after.

Just look how cool this Copper Metalflake looks, we used 3 pounds of the stuff to get the required depth that i was thinking of and a ton of clear coat was used to smooth it all out, but that Polished Aluminum offsets the Copper really well , what do you think?

I really was happy at the way the bike sat and looked and bit by bit I would get things accomplished, then I would push it onto the driveway to see how it looked in natural light.

I had Machined the front Lower forks and rebuilt them with New uppers, springs and this was a neat and unusual look as I had never seen anyone machine lower forks on a 750 before.

When I had these on the bike at Shows, people would ask about the forks and send me theirs to rebuild and give it that Custom look, it sure added some Custom touches as I painted the grooves Copper to go with the rest of the bike.

Finding someone to drill the correct hole on the stator cover, turned out to be a pain in the arse, I had one so called shop in another state have a go and messed it all up, so I did it my self and under cut the hole then used a drum sander to keep adjusting until the oil seal fitted tightly, and there you go, job done.

I had an Old Drouin Supercharger that was once going to go in an old chopper/drag bike and after I got all the parts I knew what bike I was going to build.  Now, the Motor I had was a fully Blue Printed motor, costing 7000 Dollars many years ago and this was perfect for the bike and thats how this came about.

I had a local company water Jet a bracket out of 7075 Aluminum and gave them a paper template, this worked out and treat and bolted right up to the SOHC motor with exact clearances, I simply Polished the bracket once everything was test fitted and you can see the Crank Pulley at the bottom fitted perfectly too.

All fitted and this Mechanical Washing machine looked Bloody awesome all hanging out of the engine on the Left hand side, it is Belt driven too so pretty quiet to be honest with a neat Polished Aluminum Belt cover for added coolness.

Yeah, it was an intricate bit of Kit to begin with but loved looking at this Motorcycle I looked at it as a piece of art and used as many pieces from a 1969-1978 Honda as possible.

I hand Hammered the knee Inserts using a Tear Drop Hammer from Eastwood Supply and this came out so nice with the Copper paint and boy did it shine when the Sun hit it too.

There is a lot of work here and those who have tried to Polish their Hubs will know what I am talking about, I also added a Double Chain and Sprocket set up as there was a lot of Torque here in that engine, I couldn’t locate one for the longest, but Azusa Chain helped me as this was for an Old Lathe and converted it to the bike and worked really well, ran a slightly wider sprocket carrier for the offset to be right.

I also fitted an Old Lockart Oil Cooler to the bike as it will run 15% cooler with that fitted and as the Oil Filter Housing has some broken fins, I cut them off and polished the body and it looked pretty good to be honest. I ran Braided Aircraft lines to the cooler too some Dash 12’s.

That’s an Original Lockhart Cooling Radiator too, I made a thick Aluminum Bracket to mount it to the Horn bracket and then polished it to look like chrome, it worked really well too.

That tank turned out so well, I used Por15 to seal it before painting and then pressure tested it at a Radiator shop, C.F.R was for Cafe Racer but in the style of the old H.R.D Motorcycles of years gone by.

This was My first attempt at making a Fiberglass front fender, since then I have sold over 500 of these to Customers all over the world, its 22 inches and has a bead all the way around it.

Cant get enough at looking at that, even today, it was a tough Motorcycle with loads of interesting parts and so Glad that I jumped in and had a go at creating this machine, there wasn’t many Café bikes at all about, so many people used to comment on what sort of bike it was and I think i was lucky enough to inspire a few people to have a go their selves and create their own unique ride.

 

My First attempt at a Custom Gauge, using an original one, I wanted to put BOOM at 140 MPH, got many comments on that and it was a great discussion point at shows etc.

I fitted an Original Series One Yoshimura exhaust of which was the pattern for all the systems I make today, I used a CB750 Connecting Rod for the license Plate holder, I later swapped the plate to the other side as the exhaust gases would tarnish the chrome lol. They are New Old Stock FOX shocks too and they really did give the ride height that I wanted on 18 Inch rims.

 

Allen bolts all through out the build and I did my drilling style on the sprocket cover just the break up some of the glow of the polishing, I have made many of these covers and sold to customers too over the years.

Rear Hub gets the same treatment and that’s an Original Dresda Boxed Swing arm that I chromed and boy does it look sharp on the bike, it really does accent that rear end.

I used Cow Hyde to upholster the Custom seat and used Gel foam for a comfortable ride and its a nice riding position with that 5 inch stretched gas tank.

Everything I feel on this Motorcycle Flows well, its such a warm color too, I hope that you liked just some of it as I know that you understand how much effort goes into creating a machine such as this.

Time has moved on and this bike now resides somewhere in Australia and hope the owner is having fun with that Custom built CB750 HONDA.

I took this bike to many shows all over the USA and had many great conversations with like minded people.

I think this was Seattle show but ALL the shows were super fun and made so many friends and acquittances etc. it’s a healthy industry now and I am still making many parts for these super fun inline four motorcycles.

I used a headlight from an Old DeSoto Automobile as I think it fitted in between the fork ears really well, I hand drilled the front Rotor using my drill press, I even made the bike stand.

One of the last photos before the bike made her way to the other side of the world but am proud to say I created that Monolith of a Café Racer.

As you can see, on the Right side of the bike, I fitted an old 1974 ARD Magneto, that too is Belt driven and gave the bike its Status Quo, she sure does sit well on the Tarmac too.

I used a Pontiac Taillight for the rear on My Custom Rocket Four seat assembly and I still sell them to this day and send all over the Globe.

Thank you for reading my Blog today, I just wanted to show you a bike that I really did have fun creating and love seeing what you lot are putting together. Below is a before and after shot.

Have fun with what ever you are creating and if I can help, you can call, email or even text me, I am always here to advise Thanks again and keep on building and Riding.

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Insane Meat Slicer Turbo Visor from back in the day!

As a kid, I used to think that this was nuts even then and now, well how frigging crazy is this invention to see, I cannot imaging the distraction from the noise of this circular Buzz saw that screams around at the speed of sound to “Fling” off any H2O that maybe sitting on the visor.

So Today I thought that I would show some of these Crazy inventions and make you smile today, but- in all the many decades of riding I have done back home and all over Europe, I have never encountered one of these.

Were there ever any injury’s from this contraption at all I wonder?

Even the infamous Formula 1 race car driver Graham Hill tried this insane idea out.

 

So I wonder what happened to these things, as these were very antiquated inventions.

So I did a little research and bloody hell, they still frigging make them.

Some use them for Go karting and racing, how mad is that?

So . Pardon the Pun-it has actually come full circle?

 

So keep your eyes out for one of these, but I bet you hear it coming before you see it, it is sure to sound like an old Bi-Plane losing power.

So, what is there now that maybe knocks this into a cocked hat?

How about this then?

Now there cannot be anything more embarrassing than this contraption.

 

So, stick this on your Christmas list.

Triumph Slippery Sam looks great

 

“Slippery Sam” was one of three similar motorcycles initially built by Triumph built for the 1970 Isle of Man Production TT. The bike was created by the engine’s designer, Doug Hele, who joined with frame expert Rob North to produce the successful works Formula 750 race bikes. One of these was ridden by Malcolm Uphill, won the TT at 97.71 mph (157.25 km/h). Other riders included Mick Grant; and in 1971 Percy Tait and Ray Pickrell won the Bol d’Or 24-hour endurance race on a Triumph triple.[4] The motorcycles were prepared for races by Les Williams and his team. (Williams went on to develop the Triumph Legend 964cc). Bert Hopwood urged BSA‘s managers to make a production version of the racing triple, producing 84 bhp (63 kW) at 8,250 rpm – but this suggestion was ignored, partly due to financial concerns.

Further racing development in the USA was carried out at the Duarte, California, facility under Racing Manager Dan Macias. USA BSA/Triumph dealers had access to factory race parts, but due to difficulties in obtaining race frames from the UK, Macias built his own jig and the frames were manufactured by Wenco. The main differences from the factory North frames were TIG welding instead of brazed, flat plate rear engine mounts instead of built-up formed sheet and 4130 Cro-Mo steel material. Dick Mann‘s win at the 1971 Daytona 200 was on a US specification bike.

Many have been Replicated over the years, Love this Trident below as it is just amazing.

But Below is Germanys New answer to it and boy have they done a Bang up job and would love one.

 

This machine is totally awesome from every angle, I would love to get my leg over this machine and throw it in the corners.

The Avon style fairing is reminiscent of my days in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

 

 

Talk about looking down the Barrels of a 12 gauge Shot Gun, these are as nice as a Original Purdy side by side.

 

Everything Rocks about this bike right down to the front forks and Brembo double Bacon Slicers!

Yes, it says it all right there on the Petrol tank for all to see and Bow too!

 

Nice styling of the race seat to cover the tail pipes and the stainless exhaust is tighter than a New Shoe!

 

I would love this in my shop right now!

 

Just pure class and lovely finishing, makes me envious but in a good way!

 

Would Love to hear this thing on a cold Morning!      Love the PVM Rims!

 

Looking forward to adding some Video of this machine so you can all see and hear this awesome Café Racer .

One of these days I hope to change mine to this set up.

That Bird is so Lucky to be able to blap that through the twisties in Germany!

 

 

CM450 CAFE RACER AT THE SHOP

 

 

We get bikes in to work on quite a lot and we have a Cm450 that I have worked on before, but this time he wanted a new battery and some electrical done.

This bike was built by a good friend of mine that recently passed away, so it was kind of a happy and sad time all at once.

The bike is a little 1984 CM450 and is a great little Cafe Racer machine, the small gas tank look really cool, but you pay the price for coolness, as there is not much gas inside to go too far, but in contradiction, the chap has just ridden back from Baja on it.

This really is a fun and compact machine that will give you hours of fun that’s for sure.

Steel gas tank and a steel seat pan with nicely made side covers, give this machine a sleeker look and even though its small in stature- it has heaps of power for the little 450 frame.

Yeah- It still needs work, but that is the fun about building your own machine and if you don’t have the time, or the budget, this progressive build is a fun time all the way along the build, as sometimes this may be your only mode of transportation and cannot have the bike down for long.

 

 Another Customer and happy on on his way for some fun in the Sun!


The Cyclone CAFE RACER

 

Here is a cool ride that I created from a old 1969 bike and now is living in Long Horn country and enjoying some Texas tea I am sure.

 I spent many hours taking this bike down to a skeleton and then smoothing all the welds in the chassis and finally high fill primer, block sanding and then House of kolor flake and then clear, to make sure this thing sparkled in the sun. The motor was banged out to 836cc using Wiseco pistons and Genuine Honda gaskets etc as well as many many hours of cleaning and polishing the aluminum to look like chrome.

I hand hammered the gas tank and pounded the knee inserts in as I do on many of the mach9nes I have put together, this was going to get all the best treatment I could muster and boy did she turn out a belter of a machine, and I am so happy that the owner digs this Cafe Racer.

 

 I fitted Stainless steel Allen head socket bolts through out this motorcycle and the bolts are over a buck fifty a piece, this stuff soon adds up.

It was time to add my special 4 into 1 exhaust system that is so similar to my Original Yoshi system I have had for Donkeys years, and I ceramic coated it and then added the badge.  I also fitted some Tarozzi rear sets to give it a little more aggressiveness.

This bike is an early KO model and I bought it from a local guy who had it many many moons and it was time to let it go to a new home, so I bought it and then took it down to the frame and began to build this for a customer who wanted something tough but also have a bit of Zazzle to it.

 

 

 

 I hand drilled the front Brake rotor and there are 140 holes in that puppy but I enjoy doing this on the drill press in the shop, I also completly stripped the front brake assembly and honed the carcass out, made a New stainless steel piston and fitted New O ring and brake pads, I also polished the caliper to a chrome finish as in a stick guise they are an anodized Black color.

 

 New rebuilt forks with brand new tubes and seals and of course, polished lowers with a $360 New front fender, sets this off, but I had to paint the fender and make sure no scratches got in as this is a 4 stage set up to get the custom lines in etc. I then fitted the good old Bridgestone tires that I really like the feel of on the road.

 

 

 I always name the bikes I build as I can then remember them, so this one I aptly names the Cyclone as they get many in Texas and this bike will indeed go like the proverbail wind.

Check out the custom Oil filter I had machined for this set up,

 

 

I tore down the old ripped seat base and powder coated that Gloss black and made the Guilerri style seat for the bike as I liked these back in the 70’s.

Polished triple and new bars with brand new switches that I polished and a New harness, made sure this thing is a keeper, new chrome turn signals add to the classic lines and then I made some cool Gauge faces to embellish this KO motorcycle.

Gloss black, with Silver Flake and Grey pin lines make the fender flow and I hope I really blew the guys mind when this came out of the trailer and into the Texas Sun when he received it.

Hand drilled the rear brake hub and fitted my Custom swing arm to really make this bike stand out from the crowd, with brand new shocks with adjustable alloy lowers and a wider Bridgestone tire just adds more neck breaking looks.

I searched for some time and found Original metal flake material from the late 1960’s, so bought the entire roll and upholstered it in the traditional style called Tuck n Roll.

Master cylinder I polished to like a chrome finish with new cables and new levers, just to make sure this looked like a brand new bike was inportant to me.  I also hunted down a 1973 Oil Pressure gauge assembly that was off a Drag bike and thought that this would make all the theme flow. I machined the oil tank cap and the finned them does go through out the bike.

 

All the brakes are brand new, the actuator, the brake rod and spring, all new and this is a tight looking machine.

Plenty of silver metal flake to catch your attention, as well as new chrome everywhere too.