Gack! I swore to myself I was not going to do this until the CBR was finished! But my son has been jonesing for a cafe racer project, I saw it on CL and it was cheap, it was about 1/2 mile from my house and the seller threw in two extra engines along with the original. Besides I felt I needed to be a good Samaritan and help him make more room for his other five bikes and the Unimog. 1962 CB77.



Must finish CBR first, must finish CBR first. Caliper rebuilds are next on the list.

 

Doc,


The CB77 Superhawk is a sought after bike. If you have most of the parts I would think twice about making a Café out of it.

 

It's a pretty rough basket case that came in lots of boxes. My son and I will inventory parts this weekend and decide which way to take it.

Back on topic, the steering damper mounting setup I cooked up for the CBR looks like it ought to work. Ended up buying some M8 wheel spacers for an ATV to use as beefy struts between the damper's M8 mounting screws and the mounting points to raise it up high enough that it will clear the top of the gas tank. I got a mount from ebay that clamps on the fork tube for one end and I have to enlarge the front gas tank mounting screw hole from M6 to M8 to make the other end of the mount work. The chuck on my old NiCd drill is shot and I'm on my way out the door to splurge on a lithium powered replacement. Doesn't it make you crazy how those power tools wear out after only 15 or 20 years worth of abuse?

If it works out I'll post a pic or two.

 

I test fitted the GSXR electronic steering damper today. The mounts made from wheel spacers are a bit ghetto, but very stout.



In a photo like this my eye is instantly drawn to all the little touch ups I am going to need to do when I am finished wedging in all these silly mods.

 

Those dampers are difficult to fit. Looks good. Maybe a piece of steel pipe would be a better spacer.

 

Yeah pipe might work for the tank mount since the mounting screw just slips out of the Heim joint. Unfortunately the screw in the end of the rod is captive, which started me on the search for threaded standoffs, since the damper has to sit way up high to clear the top of the tank at full swing. Couldn't find what I had in mind and then I spotted these wheel spacers. I think I'll live with them for a while and see if I have an inspiration for a better looking setup. Functionally it worked out quite well.

 

When you said "spacers" I thought it was a through bolt. Aluminum rod stock drilled and tapped might work. Might even be able to find hex stock on Ebay.

 

Yeah, what we call a standoff in the electronics industry (my gig) the wheel guys call a spacer. They are well machined steel and made a very rigid mount once I removed the rubber from the front tank mounting tab and replace it with some steel washers. Just not as pretty as the fancy machined and anodized aluminum mounts.

CBR is in limbo for a bit waiting for brake rebuild parts. The weekend has been scheduled for sorting through the boxes of parts for the Superhawk project to see what we're missing and what extras we can ebay.

 

Front fairing close-up

 

Looks great! Not much to report CBR-wise here, except that I got my used Corbin seat. It looks great but rather surprised that it's more firm than the stock one even though it seems thicker. Does seem pretty comfortable in spite of being pretty hard.