Been thinking about all my projects and since I’ve been down with back surgery I have been trying to sort things out and get the parts I need to put them all together. I thought people here might be interested in the story of the Hurricanes.


There are actually 5 bikes now. I think I will only put 3 together, but maybe 4. To many this may seem like I’m out of control, but I am planning on retiring soon and will work on bikes as a side line because I really love bringing old iron back to life.


As many on here know the first Hurricane I acquired was essentially an accident. I wanted the motor for an ATV project, but when I got it running I felt it was ashame to strip it because it ran so well. This is Hurricane Number 1, which is the RR conversion bike. There is another thread with info about this bike and it will be the first one I complete as I have everything to put it together. It should be a really nice bike when completed and I have been working on some additional upgrades to it that I will keep secret until it’s done. Some tricks I figured out to make it more RR than other conversions out there.


Here is a picture of Hurricane Number 1 when I bought it 2 years ago for $300 US.





Here is a shot of the conversion just prior to tear down for paint.





Here’s a link to the conversion thread for those who are interested.


https://cbrforum.com/forum/cbr-600f-15/1987-hurricane-2003-cbr600rr-conversion-144072/

As I was working on this bike I felt like I needed some parts so I started looking for a parts bike. I found a guy who had 2 Hurricanes he was trying to get rid of and offered him $400 US for the pair. There was a complete parts bike that is in boxes with a clean title that was thrown in so there actually were 3 Hurricanes in that deal.

These are Hurricane 2, 3 and 4.


Hurricane 2 is complete with all the fairings and will be restored as an original Hurricane. I really would have done that with Hurricane 1 but it had no fairings so at the time it seemed to make more sense to do the RR conversion.





Hurricane 3 has no fairings.





Here is Hurricane 4







Plus a bunch of boxes of parts, a set of wheels and front forks...so most of the bike is there.


I also got seats and gas tanks in the 3 bike deal.





Then I found Hurricane 5 in a snow bank next to a garage. This bike I paid $300 US and had it running 15 minutes after I brought it home.




So now I had to figure out what to do with all these bikes. Hurricane 1 and 2 are sorted and I have all the parts to complete them.

Hurricane 3 and 4 are now going to be brought back to original Jelly Molds. I have been working hard to accumulate the fairings and other difficult parts I need to complete them. I’ve found most of the fairings to complete these bikes. I have 4 upper fairings that are all in good condition. I have side fairings for Hurricane 3 and all but the left side vent for Hurricane 4. I’ve bought right and today picked up a pair of side fairings for $50 US (the black ones in the pictures below). I have tail fairings for 3 of the bikes...4 seats...lots of other parts.







Finding parts is part of the fun…and finding them priced right is even more fun. So I really have the parts to finish all 4 bikes and put them back on the road. I hope to put together a thread for each one, although I may do 2 at a time in my new shop.


It will be fun bringing these bikes back to life and getting them back on the road.

Hope this was interesting to all you Hurricane guys and gals.

 

thats quite a collection, looking forward to the thread, best of luck with all the work, but as you say it is fun thing to do and you get that achievement feeling at the end when you look at the finished bike , although from some of my past rebuilds they have their moments of total frustration ,

 

I totally understand the frustration part. For me it has been getting my shop put together. There have been a number of set backs which have made the process much slower. I am hoping this spring that the shop will come together so I can start putting all the bikes in shape. I have another major project bike a 1975 Norton 850 that is just waiting too. I have done what I can to prepare the conversion bike and the Norton so they will come together fairly quickly once I get the space set up.

3 of the CBR's are in good running shape having been run and tested prior to tear down, so most of that is sorted. Paint and body work and enough space to work is the hold up. I tried to set up a portable paint booth in my basement but just couldn't get enough ventilation. It worked okay on small parts but the first large part I tried to paint made me ill afterwards. Not good.

 

That is really cool.. I share the same appreciation for vintage bikes in addition to cars/trucks as well. It makes me happy to see that you're restoring all of those Hurricanes back to running condition instead of stripping them down to parts and taking them off the road. I also like how each one has its own design in mind so that there will be 3-4 different variations of the same original model.

I would love to do the same thing, but don't have nearly enough time to get involved with more than 1 project at once Looking forward to seeing the progress on all of the bikes!

 

Tahoe,

I didn't intend to do them all originally. I have 3 titled bikes though and that is worth something, and I got three of them running...so. It will be a challenge to get them all done, but the red and white one is pretty clean so it won't need to be torn down completely. Just paint and tires and the odd bits. The third bike I am thinking about putting risers and upright bars on and keeping it as sort of a touring bike.

As far as doing so many at once there is actually an advantage since you always have a bike you can look at when you get stuck on something. The shop will have 3 build platforms so I can have multiple bikes going at the same time. Idea is when you are waiting for parts for one you can work on another...eventually I will have a lot of time on my hands.