76 CB200 CafeRacer

[N8.]

HI, my name is Nate and this is my cafe project......
I Bought a 1976 CB200T last August cost me $300 about $250 more than I should have paid!!
Love the look of this bike though, perfect to cafe and the same age as me. I couldn’t let it go even if it was overpriced, not running, not licensed, in pieces and all round rather sad!!
Before.
The Dream: Turn this sad specimen into a road carving cafe racer that hopefully has enough guts to DO THE TON. Get it registered and use it to get my licence! Yes. I like to dream big and unrealistically. That’s why it’s called a dream. Right!?
Now

I'll put up a bit more info.This is my first build,first bike,first thread for that matter so i look forward to your feedback.Thanks for looking!

[Rex Havoc]

^good work Nate. You've got the lines right!

[ordercameras]

N8, You've done it now, we're all watching. Looking good so far.

[N8.]

The build so far!
After freaking out about the pile of scrap metal I actually paid money for sitting in my carport and a couple of uninspiring pep talks (or wake up calls) from friends and family. I decided to just block out everything that was wrong with the bike and all the things that need to be done and focus on one thing at a time as to not end up a miserable mess rocking myself to sleep at night!

The motor was already in pieces so I degreased, polished, blasted, painted and prepped the parts. A friend really came through and asked his mate to rebuild the engine for the small price of a couple bottles of wine. Something that would have taken me month(seriously), took him about week .My mate also had the cylinders re-bored for new .25 over pistons and rings.

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With the motor looked after I started trimming the fat from the rest of the bike. All useless tabs where cut off and rearsets fitted. The tank was missing it’s chrome trim so I got rid of the faux snake skin strip which left a cool channel .I followed the channel through the seat and tried to make the bumstop a squished replica of the tank. It could have been a bit longer but for my first seat I was stoked it worked at all!

The rims where powder coated gloss black and the hubs bead blasted with the insides sprayed gloss black and to set it off cadmium spokes and gold nipples(oh yeah)!



What’s left?
The electrics, the battery will be moved under the bump ,LED lights fitted and a new loom.

The front end is a headache the forks that came with the bike are bent and pitted. Replacing them with nos parts doesn’t seem to be an option and secondhand 30+ year old forks aren’t worth paying the crazy shipping prices.
So figured i will replace them with forks from something newer. They are 31mm forks and i think a cbr125r has the same size forks plus a nice hydraulic disk instead of the not so flashy mechanical disk on the cb200.
If anyone knows of another bike that would work or has a cbr125r front end they would love to get rid of let me know!

[Redders]

N8, jeez it looks good so far!
your wheels look particularly splendid.

I will dig out the clip ons and bring them round as soon as i can.
but, for now, keep up the good work,


big push for the finish line now.

go N8 GO!

[Tbird tracker]

Nice job so far N8, I can't see most of the pics (Damn work firewall) but the motor looks great. If your looking at replacement fork tubes and you cant find them you should consider swapping the whole front end (price permitting), you'll need to get the measurements of the stearing head stem (shaft) but I'm sure there will be some later model Honda front ends that will just slip in, with thicker (more rigid) forks and a disk, if not you can allways find a nice front end and get the head stem machined to fit (more expence but it worked for me, I grafter a Honda CB550 front end onto my Triumph and used a Honda TLS drum up front). Anyway keep up the good work

[lit]

Awesome build you got here mate. Just a heads up, I have been told the DPI or what ever they are called now don't like LED indicators or tail lights.

[N8.]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

^Tbird.. thanks for the info. It would be nice to beef up the front end so will look into swapping it. Is there any chance of a list with steering stem measurements somewhere or should i just take the measurements down to the wreckers and start searchin'?

^lit... I was already pushing it with the indicators, they are only the size of the tip of your thumb!! Aren't most manufactures moving toward LED lights though?

[Tbird tracker]

Most of the people I have heard of that have done complete front end swaps end up having to get the stearing stem machined up to fit the frame neck or have had to rethink stearing stops and other details, but there are a few on here that have done straight swaps, best bet is to measure the stem or take it (the whole triple clamp) with you to the wreckers and see if you can get maybe a late 70 or early 80 Honda front end with the same stem dimensions most likely around 34/35 mm fork legs, even the later Honda CB250's (90's) should have better (thicker) forks and at least a single disk and some may slot in. Ask the wrecker if he has any ideas of suitable models before you go searching.
I still have to sort out the stearing stops on mine yet, I got the stem machined to fit the new tapered roller bearing in the Triumph neck and then had the stem pressed and bolted in to the bottom Honda triple clamp but the Honda stops dont work with the Triumph frame so I still have to get longer bolts to screw in to the frame just behind the neck to use as stops, I currently have about 45 to 50 degrees lock each side, instead of about 60 to 70 degrees total. Good luck hunting.

[unit]

ohiocaferacers.com has a list of stem sizes of most jap bikes.

good luck with the project mate.

[vbroom]

awesome!
really cool how you took the dip in the tank through the seat!
you have the same rearsets as we do as well
got a bigger pic of the rim? i'd like to see how the gold nipples look.

nice work man. glad theres another little 200 here. hopefully we can get tips of each other :thumbups:

[lit]

^lit... I was already pushing it with the indicators, they are only the size of the tip of your thumb!! Aren't most manufactures moving toward LED lights though?

I do not know of any LED lights that are ADR approved. When getting it over the pits just see if you can borrow indicators/mirrors. I will be getting my bike over the pits in a month so I have had to deal with all this shit.

Search the Department of Transport and Industry website for vehicle standards. Headlights, tail lights, indicators and mirrors have to be ADR approved which can now be e-marked stuff.

[N8.]

Great info Tbird! Pretty much a full project of it's own to swap out the forks. I think for the effort i'd want some high tech upside down forks but will still look into it.

Vbroom Here is the rim.It was a bit hard to photo, the gold is the same as on a high tensile bolt.


I got the fold up rearsets so the kicker would clear them. It doesn't! It hits the lever peg dead on. I think you said you might ditch the starter and just have kickstart? You'll have to get creative to get it to work,maybe just cut the lever down.I don't think it would need much leverage to turn it over.
When will the motor be revealed? Any special mods?
Mine is stock with stock carbs but will put on pod filters instead of the boxes and i'm pretty keen to get a 2 into 1 exhaust made. If you need any carb parts or valves i have stacks.

[olyflyer]

N8 freaking awesome project M8

I'm sure my G650X Challenge had an LED tail and brake light stock

[N8.]

so now i've got the bike looking the way i want, it's time to screw it up in the name of adr's and put a rear fender on!

Does anyone know if the number plate is considered part of the fender?

I'm thinking of running a fairly straight fender with the plate hanging under it to make it cover the 45 degree thing.

Hey oly that cb400 is the tits! You probably don't remember, but about a month ago you would have been sitting at a set of lights with that uncomfortable feeling someone was staring at you, that was me!

[vbroom]

make something temporary up to get it through the pits

its super hard to get a fender to look good on a cafe...if it's your daily ride then maybe you might have to consider having one permenantly, otherwise i'd fk the fender right off once its passed pits!

[olyflyer]

If you need to borrow the tail light (original Lucus and indicators off of my bike to get it licensed you're more than welcome, I'm down in Margs till Friday though, and back down in Busso all next week so either this w/e or next I can help out



I have bit the bullet and ordered a heap of parts for the big 400 including LED tail and indicators and should be here either this week or next and I had the front fairing off this weekend past redoing the fork oil and seals and damn they look sexy without one, and they would have to be faster too due to weight loss and more aerodynamic
Shout out next time you see me so I can flip you the bird

[Rex Havoc]

I've got a box full of CB350 (and CB750) parts (fenders, lights etc) I took off the Brat that I'm about to put on fleaBay. I'll keep them in case I get stickered but you're welcome to them in the meantime

[Tbird tracker]

Hey N8, if your willing to keep the stock tail light setup you can swap in a LED bulb for about $30, I just got one from Auto One here in Syd cause I want to keep the original tail light. A tip though, it has to be a white light not a red one because of the clear panel to illuminate the licence plate. You can use a red bulb if you have seperate illumination for the number plate, red bulbs are said to give a better light through a red lense but I think the white I got will do just fine.
As far as indicators go you can get all sorts on E marked ones off the net for cheep, I got my Hammer ones from S 3 performance, a but expensive (about $130.00 delivered for the 4) but it's the look I wanted, chrome and only 20 mm round. Good luck S3performance.com.au

[N8.]

Wow,thanks for the offers!
I've been looking at my LED lights and they are all E4 marked so i guess they are fine.I'll just make sure the indicators are spaced apart properly.is it 300mm apart?

Even though i would love to leave the fender off,i would have no where to fit the number plate with out one.If i just attach it to the seat it will have to point straight up or hit the wheel.

Oly i'll be sure to use sign language next time!