Into the workshop and down to business. The first couple of visits to the workshop were to familiarise myself with the bike and to work out if there were any major issues with it. Devin(one of the owners) and Neil(resident mechanic) were there to lend a hand and offer guidance.
Fortunately there seemed to be only running issues. It had been standing for some years(according to the previous owner)so the timing was out, value clearance needed to be looked at, carbs needed cleaning and the oil needed to be changed. Brakes seemed ok, but they were looked at further down the line.
The plan from the start was to customise the bike, so I had gathered a lot of reference of Honda's that had cafe racer or brat style modifications. What I've landed up with is something in that space. Step one was remove the back end and chop the end of the frame to make space for a tail loop.
From there I fabricated a fibre glass base, which would become the seat pan. I created a rise at the front of the seat pan, so that it would clear the end of the petrol tank. Then mocked up the cropped rear mudguard and additional tabs that need to be attached to mount both the mudguard and seat.
Bolts were mounted to the top of the seat pan which will attach to the frame after that I used a layer of chipped foam for the main body of the seat and topped it off with some high density foam(grey in colour).
A new, wider front tire was fitted which meant I had to remove the existing front mudguard. When I got the bike it only had one side cover, so I decided to make 2 new ones which kept a similar shape to old ones. Once the bike was mocked up with all the modifications added, it was time to strip down, clean, paint and reassemble.
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