Duke Blackwood

Hey Team, If you have your own GB feel free to posts pics in this thread, we'd love to see 'em! Punkposta, There's a guy who I think operates in Hamilton (?) that will make a single seat from your dual seat pan and get this, he will hand craft the seat to a mould of your arse! apparently they are the most comfy seats ever and he'll do it for under $500 I was told. Kimber Charmans Motor Trimmers 06 843 6969 and Butch, I love your plan with the tank, that sounds awesome, although I dunno about white... Also i've been told (By a mechanic with a few GB race bikes) that the standard carb will not tune to a pod filter so you might have to re-think that one. How much will it cost to relace the spoked wheels? My Spokes are painted chrome, yucky. It's a shame none of you buggers are in New Plymouth. My project update: paint's drying on my front brake caliper and soon it will be treated to a complete rebuild with every pad, disc, seal, bolt and piston replaced. It should stop like a new one. That's one of the last big jobs before it becomes road legal, expect quick progress then!

So, I haven't been keeping this thread up to date, but I have been quietly beavering away at the bike and saving for parts. The first major hurdle is getting it vinned, so I'm ticking off the list of small jobs before making my modifications. That is the drive gear and behind it you can see a new wire running to the Neutral indicator light. It is perilously close to the gear, which makes it pretty obvious what happened to the original wiring. Sorting this out took bloody ages, but now all my dash lights work, including the four backlighting lamps which had all blown. The rogue indicator behaviour turned out to be due to the fact that the bike actually has running lights housed inside the giant amber indicators. So with new lamps these functioned ligitimately also. I have aquired a Mikuni Flatslide carburretor which I have reconditioned, ready to install after vinning, along with a new plug and air filter. Here we have a brand new rear drive sprocket, brand new aftermarket brake disc ($300 worth!) and some awful cheap handgrips which I will not be using. The rear hub looks to be just within it's maximum runout tollerance so that's good. It has new shoes waiting to be installed. It's always the little jobs that prove to be big hold ups and the obscure clutch lever mounting screw which my bike is missing proves to be no exception. It will take three weeks to arrive from Japan. Other jobs before vinning include a new rear tyre (Standard size Metzeller $180), new battery and maybe fixing the speedo. That's assuming I don't need to fix the electric starter. I've tried another second hand starter which works in the vice but not in the bike so I don't know what the problem is.

Man the bike is looking awesome, well done Jeff. I particularly like the new headlight and the tail, does the tail have any padding or are you just riding it hard arsed? Are you planning to fit a rear mudguard or just leave as is? Did you have any trouble with the sideways plate and the warrant man?. It'd be a shame to sell this after all the work you've put into it, especially unfinished... but that other bike you're loooking at is pretty awesome!

That looks awesome. Like a true shed job haha. What's your plan from there bro, to get it smooth and purty?

Image Motorcycles in New Plymouth sell them for $80 each, all shiney new chrome. They have two on the shelf, saw 'em yesterday. They also do a mini megaphone for $120 which i'll be getting for my GB.

That's very cool jeff, well done. Do your mufflers match? In one of your pics it looks like the tips are different diameters?

Toucan: I'd rather a twin too, for more character and more power, but so far I haven't even spent $1,000 and you can't argue with that! Smaller indicators are on the way but i'm still not sure about that guard... some people like the girders, theyre rustic. Kirk: Thanks, i'll bet you have nice hair too, but i'm not painting my bike grey haha Rookie: Lowering and Clip ons are a definite maybe, but as for rearsets I have had a brainwave. I have two seat pans, the one pictured but also a nasty thick flat one. I will have the flat one re-upholostered thinner with Banded leather strips, keeping the passenger footpegs, and that way I only need to do two bolts and I can take my partner (This is not a compromise, she doesn't even like the bike haha)

So I spent some time in the shed this avo with the goal of making the front brakes and starter motor work... One rooted screw in the master cylinder slowed me down, but I pressed on and bled the brakes... onlt to find that they still suck. The disk wont pass a VIN anyway so I'm up for a new one, pads too. From there I turned my attention to this Which came out of here... what a fiddly nightmare. The starter is different to the one detailed in my manual (GB500) so that was no use. The brushes and continuity looked good so I didn't know what else to check. The whole operation was overseen by this guy But he lost interest... So I rang Anglia4 who told me to test it in the vice with a jump starter pack. Sparks. It failed the test. So now i'm out for parts and in the mean time the bike looks like this. This page has had over 100 views but only one reply from someone who isn't related? Don't be shy, tell me what you think, sooner or later I'll have to paint this thing!

That graphic is really impressive, you've got skills man. It looks like a lot of work though just to mount some switches? You might have been better off just splashing out on a full set of more modern controls. I hope all that front end work is leading to a new master cylinder as well, the one on it is like an olympic pool. This was the inspiration I had in mind, it's not quite what you're doing but I thought you might like the tank? The exhaust is awesome too.

Maaaaaaann... It's awesome to see you making so much progress bro, but you're making me anxious about my own project. That new throttle assembly is realy slick and all that work you're putting into the dash should pay off big time. When do you plan to start painting...? Keep it up man. Is it bad manners to post 'inspiration' on someone elses build thread?

I know you aren't keen, but on another bike it would be cool to make the Cafe racer seat bubble tail from an old helmet. I've prepared an elaborate computer generated concept, pictured below. Badass.

I’m in the process of making a plan for my first Café racer build. This IS an appeal to the members of Oldschool, what are your thoughts… I want to do something that’s quite traditional, but with improved performance. I’m not interested in making too many compromises for ride-ability or practicality and I’m not too worried about chopping up an original bike. The 400 isn’t that collectible anyway and if me making it the way I like saves it from the wreckers than that’s got to be a good outcome. So… Confident future Mods: - Underbelly exhaust (Header wrapped, like the one picture below) - Aftermarket Seat Cowl (Purchased) - Pod Filter (like the one picture below) - New rear shocks - Rear mudguard removed - Engine painted black - Original seat, tank and bars Desired Mods: - An XR600 engine transplant (To give it more mumbo, although I am concerned about having to kick-start a 600 single… I’m a useless kick-starterer) - Fatter rubber…? Discussable Mods: - Paint scheme - Modern sport bike front end (Way down the track) - Dash cluster/headlight - Front mudguard? - Remove side panels? At this stage I’m tossing up between three paint options: Ron Burgundy – A dark, sparkly, burgundy tank and cowl, with the rest black. Red & Black – Left side black, right side red, separated by an off centre chequered stripe down the tank and cowl. The right side of the tank and cowl would have a racing number. Carbon Copy – A dark carbon fibre fluid coating on the tank, cowl and headlight, with gold stripes around the edges mimicking that new Norton Commando pictured above. http://www.fluidcoatings.co.nz/ I’m really keen to hear any suggestions for alternative styling themes, Mods or colours. Of course before touching any of this I need to restore the original tired components… - Electric starter repair - Sort out the wiring so that indicating right doesn’t result in every single light on the bike blinking - Make the brakes work, seriously, they don’t work - New battery - New Rubber That should see it rocking and rolling, legally.

This is my 1986 Honda GB400 Café Racer project bike. The GB is an ideal candidate for a Café Racer because it has the styling right from the factory. My GB features the distinctive raised leather bubble tail seat, kick-start, spoked 18” wheels, large individual headlight and two into one exhaust. The bike is riddled with character, from the megaphone style muffler to the dry sump and wire braided oil lines; all tacked onto the simple air cooled single cylinder engine. As it stands however my bike is a bit rough, and a lot illegal… So the plan is to get it cleaned up and road legal before transforming it into the penultimate, un-compromising Café Racer. As everyone knows, no bike project is ever ‘finished’. I’ve decided however to put a timeframe on the bulk of my modifications: the bike has to be ready by February next year in time for the ‘Bikes, Blues & Hot Cars’ show in New Plymouth. This event will serve as the showdown between my GB and my brother, anglia4s’ CB650. He has had a major head start, so expect to see developments rolling out of the Blackwood shed in the near future.

Good work Mr 4, that tail is looking awesome, way better than Mark I. Going narrower with the seat will make a big difference too; the standard width rivals most Waka's. Steel will be way better than fibreglass aswell (If you can make it work) mine's fibreglass and it's gay... Keep up the good work but don't get your hopes up about that trophy, it's mine. I'll try to start a post of your competition soon...