Hey guys, I've been lurking around on the forums for a long time, since I had my first CX years ago. I finally picked up another one a few weeks ago, and I've been going to town on it with whatever spare time I get at work.
First I was going to go with what I like to call a "Half-Caf" (Light Cafe mods, keeping the double seat and drag bars rather than clubman, things like that.) I went this route with my last bike and was pretty happy with how it rode being mostly stock. Here's a picture of that one:
And here's the bike I picked up for $400 on craigslist recently:
Obviously it needed a lot of work, but working in a shop and having access to all the tools I'd need makes it a bit less intimidating. After cleaning the carbs and doing some basic maintenance at home, I was riding it around the block (barely) within a weekend. It still needed a lot done, but I got it to the point where I could ride it the 20ish miles to work so I could really dig into it. I'll skip over most of the boring mechanical stuff unless someone wants to hear about it, but I figure there are 500 other threads that talk about the same thing already.
Cosmetically, first on my list was replacing the custom style tank. I don't know what it is about it, but I can't stand it compared to the deluxe tank. Little did I know at the time, deluxe/standard tanks go for *almost* as much as I paid for the bike, if you can find one at all. Hm. Then, while doing my daily craigslist search for a deluxe tank or someone parting a bike out, I come across someone selling a Triumph Daytona tank. I hadn't seen one in person to gauge the size, but for $60 I figured it was worth taking a chance. Here's an example of one for those who haven't seen the tank by itself:
Let me tell you, it was bigger than I even expected it to be. And the weird thing on the underside is where the fuel pump usually goes. I was hoping that it was a bolt-on type thing, but nope, it's all solid fiberglass. Gonna have to do some cutting.
So I brought it into work and chopped off the bottom with a cut-off wheel, and this was the result:
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Who would've thought?
Next I wanted to move onto the suspension, because I had visions of a mono-shock stuck in my head. A quick mock-up resulted in. . . something unique, I think:
Dual "mono-style" suspension. Whatever you would call that. I'll more than likely have to swap out the stock shocks for something else, but I'm going to try running them for experimentation's sake.
Also, I obviously skipped over some other cosmetic steps, like modifying the front fender, swapping the rear out for whatever that one came off of (CB?), swapping handlebars for now, and starting to trim the seat/pan. I can post more pics of that stuff also if anyone wants.
Moving onwards to where it's at currently. . . I was playing with different suspension mock-ups and landed here:
I'm not sure what it is, but that ride height seems to really lend itself to the CX frame/Triumph tank combo. I would have to get some beefier tires obviously, but what do you guys think? Open to all criticism and suggestions.
First I was going to go with what I like to call a "Half-Caf" (Light Cafe mods, keeping the double seat and drag bars rather than clubman, things like that.) I went this route with my last bike and was pretty happy with how it rode being mostly stock. Here's a picture of that one:
And here's the bike I picked up for $400 on craigslist recently:
Obviously it needed a lot of work, but working in a shop and having access to all the tools I'd need makes it a bit less intimidating. After cleaning the carbs and doing some basic maintenance at home, I was riding it around the block (barely) within a weekend. It still needed a lot done, but I got it to the point where I could ride it the 20ish miles to work so I could really dig into it. I'll skip over most of the boring mechanical stuff unless someone wants to hear about it, but I figure there are 500 other threads that talk about the same thing already.
Cosmetically, first on my list was replacing the custom style tank. I don't know what it is about it, but I can't stand it compared to the deluxe tank. Little did I know at the time, deluxe/standard tanks go for *almost* as much as I paid for the bike, if you can find one at all. Hm. Then, while doing my daily craigslist search for a deluxe tank or someone parting a bike out, I come across someone selling a Triumph Daytona tank. I hadn't seen one in person to gauge the size, but for $60 I figured it was worth taking a chance. Here's an example of one for those who haven't seen the tank by itself:
Let me tell you, it was bigger than I even expected it to be. And the weird thing on the underside is where the fuel pump usually goes. I was hoping that it was a bolt-on type thing, but nope, it's all solid fiberglass. Gonna have to do some cutting.
So I brought it into work and chopped off the bottom with a cut-off wheel, and this was the result:
Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Who would've thought?
Next I wanted to move onto the suspension, because I had visions of a mono-shock stuck in my head. A quick mock-up resulted in. . . something unique, I think:
Dual "mono-style" suspension. Whatever you would call that. I'll more than likely have to swap out the stock shocks for something else, but I'm going to try running them for experimentation's sake.
Also, I obviously skipped over some other cosmetic steps, like modifying the front fender, swapping the rear out for whatever that one came off of (CB?), swapping handlebars for now, and starting to trim the seat/pan. I can post more pics of that stuff also if anyone wants.
Moving onwards to where it's at currently. . . I was playing with different suspension mock-ups and landed here:
I'm not sure what it is, but that ride height seems to really lend itself to the CX frame/Triumph tank combo. I would have to get some beefier tires obviously, but what do you guys think? Open to all criticism and suggestions.