My GT550 cafe

durgam · Post by **durgam** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:31 pm

Many handcrafted billet goodies. (its nice being A CNC machinist)

water cooled · Post by **water cooled** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:17 pm

WOW....

That bike is a stunner! Nice one. I'll be spending a bit more time looking this one over.

rngdng · Post by **rngdng** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:37 am

Very nice. I like it......and wish I had a CNC shop.

Lane

durgam · Post by **durgam** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:21 am

Thanks guys. The shop isn't mine but they let me make what I want on my own time of course.

bighole · Post by **bighole** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:47 am

It looks even better in person, and a blast to ride!

-John

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:25 pm

I'd pay you to duplicate a set of rear sets for my 550...

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:26 pm

I'd pay you to duplicate a set of rear sets for my 550...

durgam · Post by **durgam** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:31 pm

Im in the process of finalizing the design and planning on making a few sets. Ive got a couple others interested also.

water cooled · Post by **water cooled** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:05 pm

Jason, where have you been. Its like you fell off the face of the earth. How is your project coming along.

Fill us in.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:34 am

Hi Kevin,

Been lurking mostly. Had a friend have a bad wreck on a bike and that scared me for a little while. Also been having issues trying to get my allis chalmers fixed, and then hunting season is coming.....lots of things been going on.

I've been following your racing. Sounds like you are having a really good time.

Bike has been running all summer. Looks pretty good too. It is going to get a tear down this next spring and come back with new paint, new clutch basket and starter clutch. Also need to do a few seals and make one or two more jetting adjustments.

Don't worry I'm not gone. Just spread thin.

I really do want a pair of those rear sets to add on my 550. They are very nice and will suit my bike well, maybe even help elevate it into the next level of quality.

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:41 am

At first I thought that you had a series of holes in that rear seat frame and now I look again and it looks like a row of LEDs in there. Is that the indicators wired into teh frame tubes or are my eyes leading me astray again.

durgam · Post by **durgam** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:04 pm

Nice catch. I have a strip of LED's in each side for turn signals. The tube has bungs with thru hole for wireing and in case they go bad, i can still replace them. I made a 'die' out of aluminum of the contour i liked and bent a tube around it. Im making some tchanges to the gages and headlight this winter and doing a complete re-wire job to it to clean it up further.

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:55 pm

Good one. If you really want to tidy up the gauges you could consider a Vapor from Trail Tech. That would allow you to dump the big gauge cluster and the mechanical tacho drive.

Of if you prefer the ton up cafe look, perhaps you could lifet teh gauges so they dominate the front like a Goldie or T120.

When you are looking at fine details, see if you can find a microswitch to replace the rear brake switch. That would hide the switch and wiring.

That battery is quite large and it's possible to get a thinner sealed unit that can lay on its side like an R1. A smaller battery might slide in under the seat hump or maybe into the electrics tray you fabricated.

And if you wanted repeater front indicators, there are some neat short strips at www.cosmicleds.com or

http://www.customdynamics.com/Light_bars.htm

A short strip would work well on the fork leg or maybe on the head ram air shield or the front face of the bars to improve visibility from the front. It might even be possible to french in a strip of 3 LEDs into the front edge of the bars if you have enough exposed length. That would look wicked.

http://www.customdynamics.com/stingerz_ ... z%E2%84%A2

Custom bikes are such a great canvas on which to create something new and interesting.

durgam · Post by **durgam** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:23 pm

I made headlight ears from billet and made some spacers to lower the gages to get the profile i wanted. now i just want them gone.

Actually, im gonna run an older headlight nacell with a mini speedo in the bucket. I think that combination is an awesome look and very functional. Im losing the bar switches as well, by movint them to the new bucket i get, with micro toggles on the plate i machine for my mini speedo.

The battery is a new seal unit that i planned on laying flat to lower5 the COG, but i ran out of room with the moto GP style fender on the swingarm. All nice ideas though from ya TZ. I like where your heads at....

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:42 pm

I'm told that it's usually up my a$$........ :lol

Just kidding. There's lots of good ideas around. I find Streetfighters magazine to be a good source. Most US magazines are all bling and 10k paint jobs that make your eyes bleed - not my style. In Streetfighters mag, you have to study the pictures really closely to pick up clues as to what they did and work out how to adapt the ideas.

On the Phat Trakka, I fed the wires through the bars to clean things up, but hidden switches or push buttons operating relays would be even cleaner.

Don't worry too much about a low CofG. If possible get all the heavy stuff centralized. We used to mount batteries on Tritons down behind the gearbox where there's usually a space. Oops, now I gave the game away. I've been building cafe racers and other custom bikes since the sixties.: