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Canadian CX500 Cafe Racer Conversion

437K views 996 replies 87 participants last post by  2ndCXowner 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone,

As with many members on here, I figure I should document my (slow) cafe racer build and maybe get your guys opinion along the way on a few things. I love getting inspiration from others builds and a lot of the things that I do to my bike come from other great members out there.

First a little back story: For as long as I can remember I've always wanted a motorcycle, but never had the money to get one. Last year I was searching the web when this 1980 cx500 custom caught my eye. What a cool looking bike I thought. Long story short I went and picked up my first ever bike and I was so happy. Got it for $250, and knew I had lots to do, starting off with replacing the stator. (Also the PO did not have the ownership and it was an american bike....that took a while to get worked out lol) Fixed it up and it ran great after a little tuning. At that point in time i just wanted to have a bike to ride so I didn't do much to make it look pretty, but now that i have a bit of extra cash (I don't really lol) I want to get it running better and looking fantastic.


Index

Page 1: Background, front fork rebuild, front fender chop, clip-on handlebars, new exhaust wrap and mufflers, new headlight and front signals.
Page 2: New engine new temperature gauge.
Page 3: Painted engine tags and clutch cover.
Page 4: New temperature sending unit.
Page 5: Radiator guard design.
Page 6: Engine paint prep, gauge design and radiator guard fabrication.
Page 7: Dummy lights and gauge redesign
Page 8: Muffler repacking, new tachometer and speedometer, engine painting, engine guards and shock painting, frame touch-up and engine mounting.
Page 9: E-fan mounting and wiring.
Page 10: Redesigned e-fan mounting and steering limits.
Page 11: Gauge and dummy lights wiring and gauge mounting brackets fabrication.
Page 12: Gauge brackets redesign and fabrication.
Page 13: Gauge brackets painting, dummy lights mounting, gauge mounting, lights testing and carb cleaning.
Page 14: Bike startup and oil leak.
Page 15: Cylinder cover painting and test drive.
Page 17: Rim tape installation.
Page 18: Bike drawing start, LED strip testing and tank designs.
Page 19: Rear fender and licence plate holder design.
Page 20: Tank designs, rear fender redesign, bike disassembly and tire hugger design.
Page 21: Tire hugger design and brake light switch bracket fabrication.
Page 22: Battery box design and fabrication.
Page 23: Battery box fabrication and painting and rear fender support tubes fabrication.
Page 25: Rear fender support tubes and rear fender fabrication.
Page 26: Rear fender fabrication.
Page 27: Rear fender mounting bracket fabrication and start of rear fender assembly.
Page 28: Rear fender assembly, test fit and more fabrication.
Page 29: Licence plate bracket design and fabrication, final rear fender assembly, turn signal testing/concept and rear frame modifications.
Page 30: More rear light ideas.
Page 31: Rear hoop and signal mounts fabrication.
Page 32: Rear hoop fabrication continued, new shocks and signal test fit.
Page 34: Rear hoop mock-up, shock limiters, rear hoop modification, rear fender mounting bracket clean up, front electronic pan fabrication.
Page 35: Rear electrical pan fabrication, license plate bracket fabrication and rear fender test fit.
Page 36: Licence plate lights, regulator and starter solenoid mounting and wiring and rear tire hugger fabrication.
Page 39: Rear brake pad replacement, rear hub painting, frame clean up and welding in rear hoop.
Page 40: Priming and painting frame.
Page 41: Getting tire hugger and rear fender ready for painting.
Page 42: Rear fender inside coating.
Page 43: Rear fender and license plate painting, new shock spring coating, shock assemble and install and rear fender, tire hugger and turn signal mounting.
Page 45: 12 Volt time delay modules.
Page 46: Wiring and painting of rear tire hugger and electrical pans.
Page 47: Mounting tire hugger and electrical pans and wiring battery and starter solenoid.
Page 48: Cleaning up electronics and wiring rear turn signals.
Page 49: Pod filters.
Page 50: Header breather tubes and front fork stiffness modifications.
Page 51: New LED brake and running light.
Page 52: Brake flasher module.
Page 53: Brake light mounting and electronic testing.
Page 55: Tire choices.
Page 57: Disc lock.
Page 58: Final Tank designs.
Page 60: Seat pan mock up and fabrication.
Page 62: Changing tires and paint supplies.
Page 63: Tank stripping and seat upholstered.
Page 64: Priming gas tank and new ignition switch.
Page 65: Painting gas tank.
Page 67: Wet sanding tank.
Page 68: Fixing tank mistake, building ignition switch, final 2K clear coat on tank and buffing/polishing tank.
Page 69: Bike pictures and tire hugger mounting clarification.
Page 70: More bike pictures.


Anyways, here are some pictures from before:

How it looked when I bought it:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Motor vehicle Automotive tire

Land vehicle Motorcycle Vehicle Motor vehicle Automotive tire


First time taking the engine out:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Motor vehicle Automotive tire

Engine Auto part Automotive engine part Vehicle Machine


Repainting the tank (temporary):

Fuel tank Bag Vehicle Baggage Rolling

Sculpture Auto part Fender


Redone seat cover (temporary):

Vehicle Fuel tank Motorcycle Motorcycle accessories Auto part


The bike as it stood last year before any serious mods:

Land vehicle Motorcycle Vehicle Car Headlamp
 
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#988 · (Edited)
I can't even think of a response to that haha:p




So back to the gauges, here is the mount after a bit of cleanup:

Auto part


I did have to make a few trims here and there to get it to fit nicely, but a file and soldering iron made it pretty simple. It now fits nicely and fills the space very well:

Motor vehicle Vehicle Auto part Automotive lighting Motorcycle


However, after mounting it and standing back, I disliked how much of an opening there was between the front fairing and the forks. This meant you could see a lot of the wiring and really made the bike look incomplete. It is hard to see from this angle, but this is the area I am talking about:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Automotive lighting Headlamp


So, I made more work for myself, and decided to add an extension onto the side of the fairing. This meant scraping away the black paint, attaching in the new sides and repainting. I found a soldering iron worked really well to fuse the new sides to the original fairing, and after some sanding and paint it was unnoticeable.

Headgear Helmet Fender Personal protective equipment


And finally, after many many many iterations of the gauges......

Bicycle part Auto part


I have something that I love and think really completes the look of the bike! I am very happy with how it turned out, it is sleek and simple, yet has all the information anyone could ever want. The Motoscope Mini shows the speed and engine RPM, as well as trip, odometer, timer and other useful info. You can cycle through the various functions by the small push button located just above the gauge. The temperature gauge shows the temperature (duh) and the indicator lights show all the functions of the bike, and are tucked away nicely above the ignition switch. When riding the bike they are perfectly in the line of sight and are bright enough to see even on a sunny day. After many countless tries and hours, here are the gauges:

Motorcycle accessories Vehicle Helmet Motorcycle Auto part


Vehicle Motorcycle accessories Motor vehicle Motorcycle Fuel tank
 
#992 ·
Thanks for the support and kind words guys!! :)




Another small update that I did on the bike was cleaning up the rear wiring some more (a never ending project it seems). I wanted to keep the sequential turn signals, but the delay circuits were pretty large and the wiring was a mess of splitters and different connectors.
So the first step was to find smaller delay circuits. A quick search pulled up some really nice microprocessor units similar to my flashing brake light unit that I had bought a while back. Then it was time to wire everything together into a nice little package that will keep everything neat and in line. The two black units are the turn signal delay units, and the clear one is the brake flasher:

Electrical wiring Wire Electronics Electrical network Electrical connector


Then it was just a matter of spending hours trying to figure out the best way to put them all together, wire them all together into a neat package, and make it reliable! I decided to go with screw terminals because it makes connecting and routing the wires a lot easier and neat. Each unit has a push button to control the functions and get the timing right. Here it is all ready to go:

Vehicle Scale model


But I couldn't very well put that on the bike just like that, so I designed and 3D printed a little housing for it. The lid is removable to get easy access to the screw terminals, and the difference colors are to help with wiring it up correctly:

Electronics Technology Electronic device


All together its a nice little package and really helps to clean up all the wiring on the bike!
 
#995 ·
3D printers shine for the small projects when you want to make a cover or box or something small and simple that you can't seem to find elsewhere. Everyone needs to get one!!! It brings world peace apparently :p
 
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#996 ·
So recently Cambridge had a street art festival where artists from around the world came and made amazing chalk and graffiti art pieces around main street. Unfortunately I missed out on the chalk ones as it rained a couple days after the event and they all got washed away, but luckily I was able to scope out some of the walls that had been painted. These artists are super talented and it always amazes me when they create such beautiful masterpieces in such a short amount of time!!! Some of the walls were really tricky to find, with some being down back alleys and hidden parking lots. I figure I would share some of the cool shots I took when I was riding my bike around trying to get the pictures of the graffiti and my bike.

This one was tucked away in the back lot of some shops and buildings:

Street art Graffiti Art Mural Wall


This breathtaking piece was alongside a small road by a bank:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Motor vehicle Car


This one was against the building next to an open parking lot:

Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Motor vehicle Mode of transport


Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Motor vehicle Mode of transport


And this final one was tucked away in the smallest parking lot that I never knew existed. There is only one entrance/exit that is literally passing through two buildings and I missed it many times before I caught a glimpse of the art piece:

Land vehicle Motorcycle Vehicle Motorcycling Stunt performer


Motorcycle Vehicle Sky Art Illustration


Safe riding! :)
 
#997 ·
Nice pics of your bike and the chalk art in Cambridge Motomicah. I used to live in Cambridge as well but have since moved to Listowel. Seeing your photos gave me ideas for my CX500 as well. Did you do all the painting of the tank, valve covers and forks yourself? I want to do my forks in Gloss Black and heads in either red of burnt orange. I also want to have my exhaust painted gloss black.
 
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