Jaybob's 1975 550 Cafe Build

water cooled · Post by **water cooled** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:59 am

Looks great jason...keep up the good work.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:27 am

Fender shot as promised

Also I got a spare head and had it skimmed .020.

chainsaw · Post by **chainsaw** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 12:06 pm

jaybob,

what is that fender off of?

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 12:13 pm

It is a home made hand laid fiberglass fender mounted to my original stock fender mount bracket.

I ground through the spot welds holding the fender to the bracket. Then I had to re-locate the mount holes higher in order to lower the bracket and clear the fork brace. Then I drilled some new holes in the bracket and fender and bolted them together.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:30 am

Update photos

tz375 · Post by **tz375** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:44 pm

Jason,

Nice sissy bar arrangement

Looking good. I really like that front fender. Are you planning to make a few more for your friends and admirers?

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:56 pm

Or ejection seat as Zook-e astutely pointed out....

Anyway I wish I had made the fender but alas my wallet procured it for me: http://www.roccitycafe.com/fender.htm

I said it was home made, and it is, just not by me....

It costs a little too much for what it is but I ordered it at the same time as my seat base, and as you noted It looks good. Plus the guy making them is a square shooter and I didn't mind giving him the price he is asking.

water cooled · Post by **water cooled** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:25 pm

Jason,

Very nice "trick" seat. That bike looks sharp...I thought you had some nice pipes somewhere. Stick those on and lets see what the whole thing looks like all done up.

Keep posting pics. They're great!

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:51 pm

Patience now faithfull viewers. I'm not gonna post any pics with pipes until I get the bodywork into a suitable color. Also for some reason I can't bring myself to put the pipes on until I can light the fire. And I can't light the fire until i've done a few more things. I've thought of doing it many times but I want that day to be special.

Kind of particular maybe but this will be my first and best custom effort so far and it means something.......to me.

Funny thing is my wife has professional camera gear and I've kind of purposely been taking pictures with an old 2 mp sony. When it is presentable I'll dig out the 10 megapixel Nikon and strobe set up and get some SHARP images.

Thanks!!! a ton for the encouragement. Believe me I've got some drive to get it done. Just not as much time as I wish.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:34 pm

A view you don't see every day...Chopping the center stand mounts.

Cleaned up the battery box. they are always rusty.

Custom chain guard.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Fri May 01, 2009 2:24 pm

Some folks were wondering how I was going to mount the tail light. Here are some shots.

rngdng · Post by **rngdng** » Fri May 01, 2009 7:19 pm

Nice work. Taillight mounting was a big issue on Blueboy. It dictated a lot of the things done to the rear.

Lane

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:46 pm

Hmmmm....I wonder what frequency that taillight will vibrate at ???
Engine speed ?? Half engine speed ?? One third engine speed ??
The world wants to know.....

C'mon all you physics majors.....let's have some WAG's on this burning question.

jaybob · Post by **jaybob** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:16 pm

That will be fun to see. Will it last.... or will it break. But it looks good for now. I'll always try to ride at the speed where it doesen't vibrate too much.

Actually I have high hopes for it. I was a little suprised how rigid the whole thing was after getting it all zapped together.

I've had lots of learning experiences so far on this bike. Its making me a better hack than I was.

I'm getting a little ansy to do some testing. It's hard sometimes to go slow and do things right and think them through thoroughly when you want to hurry up and get done.

water cooled · Post by **water cooled** » Sat May 02, 2009 5:22 am

Jason, your bike looks great. The nice thing about custom work is that you get to do it your way... Later on, if you dont like it or, if its not panning out for some reason, you can always change it...keep on posting your progress. Its great to see.

Kevin