Riding My Honda CB750 Cafe Racer Project Didn't Go To Plan! | Custom Motorcycle First Ride | 32
In this video I finally get to ride my project cafe racer CB750, typically initial shake down rides do throw up issues. Could be worse.
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It has felt like a long time coming for me to ride my CB750 Cafe Racer. To be honest the Winter did cool the ambition to get out on it quite a bit. That and I kept finding other things to do 🙂
This bike has a number of custom features that I knew may throw up some problems. But you never seem to get the problems you expect, instead you get a couple of unexpected issues to look at.
It was with a little trepidation that I prepared for the first ride. With the changed riding position where every point of contact was different, handlebars, seat and footrests, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t fit into the shape required to ride safely, or comfortably. Overall though this wasn’t a problem, although the ease with which the footrests fold up needs to be taken into account.
I knew that the gear change wouldn’t be the best. The whole linkage just seems set up to cause a problem. But I was more surprised by the driveline grinding noise. On my initial ride out it was so bad I aborted after a few hundred yards.
Once I started to look at the driveline issue it became very obvious that the chain was hitting the aluminium plate in front of the rear wheel. You could see witness marks where it had removed metal. I hadn’t made this cut out, but I really should have checked it, however whenever I was working in that area I was on my own so I couldn’t sit on the bike and get somebody to look. As it had been cut out initially I really didn’t give it any attention assuming that it would probably be alright.
I cut the plate and more than doubled the room that the chain had, having seen the witness marks I thought that would be enough. However on the second trip out it was still catching the plate, nowhere near as much but I will have to remove more before the next trip out.
I have a plan for the gear change that should work well, and I am going to put a lot more effort into getting the engine to tick over right. I think with these sorted it should become a usable bike. I noticed that I still have an issue with the tank. Although one side has welding and all of the links have been fixed, I now notice some fuel seeping through parts of the weld on the other side, not a lot but it is noticeable. Either more welding or a liner is definitely needed.
On the plus side once underway the bike did seem to respond to the throttle well, and even before the cosmetics are done it does look a great shape. The riding position didn't seem to be a big issue, but I think the rearsets are a little too rearward!
Overall I think it is all going to work out OK :) I just need some consistently good weather. After making these initial rides, it started raining again, and it is forecast to be wet for another couple of weeks!
I knew the gear change was an issue. It was very difficult to get the lever at an angle that suited my foot on the footrest, and at the same time didn’t catch on the bar that connected to the mechanism on the engine. Initially I thought I had something that would work, but during the ride I realised that it didn’t, but it was made much more of a problem due to the tick over being inconsistent and too high. I spent a lot of time trying to improve it but I still don’t think it is right.
The biggest problem though was the tick over and the fact that engine took too long for the tickover to settle. It made selecting neutral impossible, which was compounded by the omission of a neutral light. This made the gear change problem seem much worse. I am not sure at this point if it is an air leak, just needs setting properly, jetting or because of the pod filters and freeflow exhaust.
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22 авг 2024