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ISSUE 412 AUG 2018

£4.20

UK OFFSALE DATE: 02/08/18

WORDS: LIN JEFFORD PICS: NIK

AUGUST 2018

BASED ON CONVERSATIONS THAT WE HAD AT THE STUDIO ON THE DAY THESE PICS WERE TAKEN, I SUSPECT I’M GOING TO KILL NIK FOR THE HEADLINE HE’S PUT ON THIS ARTICLE… AND I HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN IT YET.

e’d had this rolling chassis, based on a ’98 Sportster, hanging around for quite some time now; the frame’d been hardtailed and then put to one side. We hadn’t exactly forgotten about it, but we never seemed to have a definite plan for it either. Fast forward seven years (!), and a trip to Newark autojumble unearthed a rather nice Ironhead motor missing its transmission. It’s always a gamble when you buy a second-hand engine, but this one was very pleasing aesthetically so I decided to buy it. The missing ’box

wasn’t a problem as Vic was going to ‘Shortster’ it – in other words, chop it off anyway and fit a Big Twin gearbox behind it. The trouble was, the more we looked at it, the more it seemed a shame to butcher it when it was in such good condition. It’s not often you find an old engine without fins missing, and with no other obvious defects. So we decided to keep it whole and the project started. First job was stripping the motor to see if the inside AUGUST 2018

I REALLY WANTED THE CHALLENGE OF BUILDING AN ORIGINAL STYLE CAFE RACER

wo years ago I’d researched parts for cafe racers, and looked at a few already built bikes, but realised they were far too expensive to buy already done (and that kinda defeated the point of building one myself). I really wanted the challenge (and it definitely was a challenge!) of building an original style cafe racer. So, having gained this inspiration, I started to look through websites to find a CX500 to act as a donor bike, and managed to find one for £850 which I thought was very reasonable for my purposes. This is where my adventure began. Within a week of it being delivered I had it all stripped, and new monoshock linkages and a

AUGUST 2018

new seat subframe made and welded in. After five weeks I purchased a Yamaha R1 front end including blue spot brakes, and I had a headstock shaft machined to take the R1 yokes. This gave me a rolling chassis, but one that wasn’t ideal – the front wheel was wider than the rear! After more internet research for ideas to achieve a wider rear wheel, I drew a blank until I contacted Cafe Racer Kits (www.caferacerkits. co.uk) on the Isle of Wight who machined me some hub discs to adapt the stock CX hub to fit an early VF750 wheel rim. That allowed me to fit an 150/18 tyre, but it’s such a tight fit that you have to unbolt the driveshaft to get the back wheel out. The next stage of the build was to totally baremetal the complete engine so that I could etch

prime and paint it in two-pack satin black. It was a massive task, but well worth it in the end as the result’s fantastic. This was then wrapped up, and put to one side. As a dry build is certainly the only way to a successful build that’s what I decided to do so the huge task began. Firstly, I had to hand-fabricate the front and rear mudguards from marine grade 4mm aluminium with stainless support brackets, then the rearset back-plates were all fabricated from 4mm stainless steel. All the linkages were made from stainless with aluminium link rods (and a whole load of man hours) and, after three attempts at angles and lengths of rods, I

managed to achieve successful gear-changing. The swingarm had to be strengthened because of the angle of the rear shock mechanism. As everything was going so well, it gave me the inspiration to see the project through at a high standard – I’m aware that many of these projects get abandoned or sold as unfinished and, I think, the key is to do each stage of the build with time, effort and professionalism as this will stimulate you to continue… or it did for me anyway. So now I had a dry-built chassis with the suspension in place, and the rearsets up and together, and I was really excited. The next step was to start on the bodywork, starting with the fuel tank. The stock tank was AUGUST 2018

WE’VE ALL DONE IT, HAVEN’T WE? WANDERED AROUND A RALLY SITE AND FOUND A LITTLE GEM THAT PUTS A SMILE ON YOUR FACE, SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU CALL OVER TO YOUR MATES, SOMETHING THAT YOU TALK ABOUT LATER IN THE BEER TENT…

AUGUST 2018

WORDS & PICS: IAN SHIPLEY

AUGUST 2018

ENGINE: 1985 Honda VT500, uprated carbs, home-made wrapped exhausts, home-made radiator cover FRAME: 1985 Honda VT500, home-made forwards, homemade sidecar chassis FRONT END: Stock 18” wheel, home-made solid bar springers, home-made ’bars, modified original controls/ switchgear, home-made mirror, aftermarket grips REAR END: Stock swingarm/16” wheel/brake/ driveshaft, home-made sissybar/mudguard struts BODYWORK: Modified custom tank, Badass Creations leather seat, modified unknown rear mudguard, home-made side-panels, unknown leather bags, home-made sidecar with lawnmower seat & H-D backrest

When it came to the sidecar, it was a simple case ELECTRICS: Modified stock of finding two large oil drums and welding them loom, ‘aged’ custom headlight, together. Okay, so it was slightly more involved than home-made rear light/sidethat – Dawid had to make the chassis to take the body car light, home-made LED indicators/running lights he was going to create, and then modify the drums to PAINT: No, rust give enough room for his son to sit inside them. For ENGINEERING: Owner comfort a lawnmower seat on a couple of springs was THANKS TO: “My wonderful fitted, and an unknown, but possibly Harley, backrest too. Once the seat’d been sorted out, he then set about wife Karolina for her patience & allowing me the indulgence giving the chair its suitably ‘rat’ decorations – the to spend so much time in the garage...” fins and the propeller at the rear, the skull bursting through the front cowl, the machine gun and bullet feed, and the circular saw blade in the wheel hub. Similarly cool is the modified custom tank with its obvious and very to-the-point fuel gauge; no one can misunderstand when it simply says ‘5 litres’ or ‘F**K!’, can they? Finally, I did say I’d tell you how he achieved the ‘aged’ look, didn’t I? To get this effect, first drink many cans of beer then, with the metal out in the garden, go out and pee on it. Drink more beer, repeat, then leave to stand for around 12 hours (outside, of course) – it’ll look like it’s been outside for years. Okay, so your neighbours’ll think you’ve finally (finally?) lost the plot (or that you’re finally

AUGUST 2018

admitting to being the animal they always thought you were), but it’ll be worth it. You’ll have amazingly rustylooking parts, and you’ll also get a good laugh into the process – next time you’re at a show and people’re running their hands over the rusted metalwork, you can tell them how it was achieved, and enjoy the looks of horror as they frantically remove their hands from said metal and wipe them on their jeans. As Dawid says “the look on their faces when they hear the truth is priceless…”

AUGUST 2018