lately ive really been looking into getting an older bike to tinker with, any of you guys have some older stuff you made into a cafe racer? If so pictures please, and what are some good base models to do it with?

I think old Honda CB125/350/400/750/900s are pretty common for that. I've seen some nice Yamaha XS650's too 

Ooh, and of course there's this guy... http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=55996.0

I bought a 68 Honda CL175 and it went from this:


to this:


Current project is a GR650:


Still needs a good bit of work to finish up:


And I actually bought this bike earlier this week. 1977 Honda CB400F

wow rich i love that last one, how much did you pay for it and how many miles?

What, the CB400f? It was $400 w/title and 16,000 miles. The rest of the bike came in 2 boxes - including a tank from a 75 model. The 77 models are actually very rare (little over 5000 made) so I jumped on it when I had the chance.

those are incredible big rich!

hoping to find an old honda to start my cafe project on. although Jared said he had a 81 GS850, which got me thinking. did a quick search, but didn't score much.. anyone seen any cafe builds out of these?

Here's a early version of my cb350f;





I can't find any more of my cb400f 

Steezin- the old GS's are great........after you rework the electrical system and rebuild the carbs. Is the 850 a shaft drive? Chain drive models make generally make better cafes.

Century- love the 350's too. A buddy of mine is working on one now.

Damn 400 wheres my deal like that haha

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/mcy/2348022815.html

How this look will a 350 hit 70? What's the specs on this bad boy?

Ha! Yeah, $400 sounds like a good deal but the cases need split due to a seized cam chain tensioner.

That's actually a cb360 (totally different than a cb350) but yes it will hit 70. I think they are rated for a 98mph top speed (or similar). Biggest problem with the 360's is the poor top end oiling. At highway speeds, they dry up an burn the cam.

IMHO, the best bike to learn to "cafe" is a CB or CL 350. There were hundreds of thousands sold and Honda actually designed the frame with racing in mind.

Building a CB450K7 Cafe at the mo,most of my insperation has came from the US(in the UK a cafe racer would be Norm` Norton,BSA etc)Its a US import came to England via Ireland its 1974 last version of the blackbomber,Honda`s biggest bike at the time.Same BHP as the GS5,30 odd years on.Judging on whats available in the US i`d say CB450/CL450,CB750,XS650,Some nice examples on Pipeburn.

Yamaha SR400/SR500's make very nice cafe style racers and there is a sh*t load of aftermarket parts for them as these are what the Japanese make into the cafe racers. They're only a single thumper though so don't expect to be doing 100mph.

CenturyGhost and Big Rich have some gorgeous bikes!  

Here's a '78 GS750 for reference, in its temporarily stripped down state. There's a bit of potential! Some of the parts will be familiar from working on our 500s, just the carbs are pretty finicky without the stock breadbox. Yes, you can find the 750s and 850s for cheeeeeaaaap (mine was $50 with decent compression, and that was before I managed to make it look like crap), but I think it would be a bit more fun to tinker with something smaller. The small CLs and CBs are just damn sexy. I'd trade my basket case for a smaller basket any day of the week and twice on Sunday.