My last job for now was to sort out a new fuel tank, the original tank from this CB550 was shot to pieces and I do mean shot.  I looked as though somebody had shot it with a shot gun it had that many holes in it.

So I started looking around for another tank to suit my vision.  What I came up with was a tank from a 1975 Honda CB500T.  Initially it looked like it should fit, but I would probably have to move the petcock bung.  What I found was a job that was surprisingly simple to enable fitment on the bike.

Firstly I had to trim down the rubber pucks and mounting poles that sit on the frame as the CB500 tank is slightly bigger in the tunnel area, I trimmed each side about 1cm each side, this enabled fitment to the frame.  Next problem was the petcock, the problem I had was the petcock when fitted in its original position was hitting the number 1 carb.  I thought that I would have to blank the original bung and install a new one, however what I did instead was to raise the rear of the tank about 4cm using a piece of rubber and then turned the petcock about 1/4 of a turn to the rear.  What this did was raise the petcock high enough to miss the carbs and then the turn made the downward facing petcock nipples so that they sat in between the carb hardware.

I really love the look of the CB500 tank, I think the knee dents are subtle and nice looking.

Finally I couldn't wait to see how the seat unit looked on the bike so I threw it on along with the exhaust headers so the engine was sealed to the elements.

The strip down and refurbishment complete - time to build her back up.

I have now gotten to the point that the bike needs to be built up again.  Today my aim was to get it to a rolling chassis so a big day ahead.

Time to put out the pieces and work out where the hell they came from, luckily Frodo has decided to help me so all should be good.  I have a feeling I look very confused at this point.

As you can see this build is being done by one person, in their back garden.

So after a number of hours I the frame, forks, engine, swingarm and wheels are reunited but looking rather better. 

I have painted the engine in gloss black and polished up some of the engine covers.

As you can see, a few new items have found their way onto the bike, a nice set of clip-on bars and new rear shock absorbers.  I know that the top triple tree needs some cleanup work now that I have the clip-on's but that is a job for another day.

Now to put on some colour which will lead to the end design, I do love the colour orange and this you will see in the future.

So I am looking around trying to find the seat unit that I have pictured and I just couldn't find one, so after after looking at numerous posts on countless websites on how to make your own, that is the route I took.  I made a plug from wood, then covered it in black gel coat and fibreglass and out it came.

Looking back at the above paragraph I make it sound so easy, it wasn't.  Not to say it was a very hard job, more to say that my initial skills in this department were lacking (i.e. none at all) and my 1st couple of attempts were woeful.

So the rims came back from the powdercoaters, coated in a nice gloss black and looking very nice indeed.  I have polished the hubs and respoked the wheels using stainless spokes and nipples.  I have built hundreds of bicycle wheels so decided that I should be able to build motorcycle wheels also.  They took a while to do as I wanted to make sure they were done correctly.

The frame has also returned from the powdercoaters (again in gloss black), after having the unwanted frame tabs removed and smooted and after a friend of mine welded in the frame hoop.  This was the first and last welding that somebody else did to the bike after this I purchased a welder, took a course and did all the welding myself from this point on.

So continuing stripping the bike down, concentrating on getting the engine and wheels out.

Wheels finally out of the bike, now to strip them down, fit new stainless spokes and nipples, polish the hubs and powdercoat the rims.  Oh yeah, need to get some new rubber also.

Result, the engine is now out, time to rebulid that sucker.

Isn't that bare, naked frame looking sad and lonely now?

So next step was to start stripping down the bike to its components and starting to get rid of those pesky and un-needed frame tabs and any other bits I didn't want or need.

So here I start at the beginning of my journey into the world of motorcycle building, more correctly into the Cafe Racer scene.

Cafe Racers have always been a part of my life, my Father owned BSA's, Norton's, Triumph's etc as well as some Japanese machinery.  So growing up I was used to the whole Rocker lifestyle.

So fast forward many years and I decided after years on Sportbike and Supermoto bikes that I would now build the Cafe Racer that I have dreamed about.

My starting point was a 1978 Honda CB550K3 that I picked up on Ebay for the princely sum of £400 a trip upto Manchester from Bristol was undertaken and said bike was coming back to live with me.  It wasn't a bad base bike, although some shortcuts had been taken with the bike and it came with a hell of a lot of it in boxes, however this was not going to be a problem as the bike and engine would be stripped, modified and rebuilt.

So here are some pictures of the bike just back from its trip to its new home as you can see Frodo our Dog is helping with the build.