Honda Shadow 750 Cafe Build

[makenzie71]

Meant to be posting this here as I was going and totally forgot...anyone who might want to see it from the beginning can click here to get caught up, it's not much: https://www.customfighters.com/threads/honda-shadow-750.138579/#post-3158474

I'm still going to have to get a stiffer spring but the shock works exactly as planned...still waiting for the new spring before I pull the arm back off and fully weld everything.

Youtube update as well for more angles of how shock and swingarm.

 

[makenzie71]

...and this is the final stance:

This bike has also been probably the luckiest fork swap in the world. Stem pressed out of the Honda triples and directly into the Triumph triples haha



Fork swap video (not live probably until about 6:45am CST)

My new tank, seat, bar controls, and a few other small bits should be here over the next week.

 

[dukey33]

Interesting build.
Just curious, what is your inspiration? (Maybe you had all the donor parts laying around)

 

[makenzie71]

Interesting build.
Just curious, what is your inspiration? (Maybe you had all the donor parts laying around)

I guess it started way back in the day building bikes out of leftovers, but I’ll do the leftovers but quite often now. I don’t seem to have played so many leftovers. I’ve always been fascinated by Café builds and I really like doing them. This bike is about Having always wanted to see what I could do with a dedicated cruiser. Because I really wanted to do one of the bigger bike something like an 1100 or a 1400 intruder but couldn’t find one in my budget. I think those giant vtwins are wasted on only long wheelbase cruisers lol

 

[makenzie71]

I want a VTX1800 in a bandit-esque chassis

 

[makenzie71]

Just a little mocking up, nothing is braced, going to try and find a way to get it a teeny bit lower. Seat height here is 32 inches, which is completely doable, but I'd like 30~31 more.

 

[makenzie71]

Tank mounts and seat rails in place. Still a long road but it's nice to see the seat line finalized. There will be an additional brace underneath curving away from the arch of frame's backbone but it won't disrupt that wheel-seat gap very much.

 

[makenzie71]

Tank mounts and seat rails in place. Still a long road but it's nice to see the seat line finalized. There will be an additional brace underneath curving away from the arch of frame's backbone but it won't disrupt that wheel-seat gap very much.

 

[makenzie71]

FINALLY got my R1 wheel! Much to my consternation, though, running a 190 is very tight in the swingarm. I have less than half an inch on either side...might be okay though...I'll get to play with it more after Christmas, I only had time to slap a makeshift "axle" through the thing to check it out. Still have to get a cush, carrier, and spacers to make sure it all fits between the spars. If it all lines up then it's custom axle time!

 

[makenzie71]

Okay so I finally had time to go and mess around with this and see how far off I'm going to be....and I hate it. That fat 190mm tire was exactly what I had in mind from the beginning, but getting it to line up and clear everything doesn't look like it's in the cards. I'm roughly 9±1 mm difference between the sprockets and even if I decided to go ham and just shift the wheel to the right to sort it out the tire hits the frame. A 180 on this 6" wheel would probably give me the clearance to run offset, but it's not "right".
Wheel centered...

Wheel pushed all the way right...

My options are:
1. Swap it out for a 5.0 or 5.5 rear wheel and run a 170 or 180. Both will look fine and honestly the 170 is a little more suited for the engine. So I will be on the prowl for an R6/FZ6 rear wheel assembly...or maybe even an Enkei/Honda 6-spoker from an F3 or a 900RR.
2. Offset front sprocket...if I can even find one. The retaining clip means I'll probably have to have a sprocket custom made...which I don't care much for. Sprockets are wear items and I want to be able to buy replacements. Not only that, but the way the shift shaft is positioned...which makes me think Honda really didn't have this kind of build in mind when they designed this bike...means that if I actually can find an offset sprocket it'll be very close to the shift assembly. I think the wheel is the better place to resolve the issue.

There is a crazy third option, though, that I picked up today...

Now, I am crazy partial to single side swingarms...and normally I'd be all over this idea...but I'm not 100% certain here that it's the best fit for my Shadow. First, I would either have to mill the middle out of the pivot tube on this one and get crazy with reinforcing itand who knows how the **** I'd get a shock on it (pro-link would not be an option unfortunately), or I would have to find a 650GT swingarm...which isn't impossible and would itself fit the project wonderfully AND it's shock mount would not only allow me to run a more conventional rear suspension..but it'd likely force me to do it.
I'm mulling this over for a while...I think the single side swingarm can solve some of my issues but introduces a few others and the added effort and expense probably means pushing the shadow back late spring and building my GL500 instead (which will be a more traditional build that will be sold). We'll see.
I do want to say, though, that this VFR is easily one of my favorite finds EVER. I go around and buy no title/no key/doesn't run beaters cheap because everyone thinks they're stolen...and I get a lot of interesting bikes and interesting stories. This one is literally at the top of my "nah it wasn't wrecked" list and comes with the explanation that it "only needs a battery and the carburetors cleaned" to run. Yeah you bet lol

...the adventure continues...

 

[makenzie71]

So I swapped the tire out for a 180 and made an incredible difference. It doesn't look as awesome with that fat tire back there but:

...the wheel now centers with the frame neatly...

...the sprockets now actually line up really nice. The driven is actually about 3mm outboard of the drive but I can have that milled off the carrier...

...there's now a HUGE amount of room to play with all around the brace...

...

...the tire still looks plenty fat but I can't believe there's that big a difference between a 180 and a 190! I absolutely cannot believe how much of a paint in the *** it was to remove the tire, though. I have been manually changing tires for 25 years and have never once had one be this hard to pull off the tire. We're talking even tires that have been on wheels out in the sun for 40 years have not fought me this much. And I can't believe how much difference the 180 made physically. Because...oh....

....ohhhhh....

 

[makenzie71]

Cut the ends off of my R1 axle and had my machinist push some bushings in to I could use it as a sleeve for the Shadow's axle.

A real hangup on this has been finding a left side axle spacer for the R1. The few I could find were being sold for the cost of a small child...I just couldn't bring myself to pay more than $10 for the part. Eventually my brain said "hey I bet Craftsman mades a spacer!" No way, I thought, but went over to check my supply of Craftsman spacers and sure enough I had one sitting right there.

A little cutting and a little trimming and the stock shadow spacer plus a couple 20mm washers on both sides and the wheel actually sits center. I'm pretty sure the chain is lined up good, too...I'll know for sure tomorrow when my sprocket gets here.

 

[makenzie71]

I feel like I've been looking at this bike for months without making much progress, and suddenly making up for it over a couple days haha.

I got the seat hoop done. It could be prettier but most of the "rough" is going to be hidden. There's a couple of braces that need to be added but I ran out of wire...will have to finish that stuff up in a couple weeks.

I got the rearsets set up as well...they'll look better when they're not blue. I really like the positioning but I don't think the shifter is going to work well. I'll have to tinker with that quite a bit.

I got my new sprocket in...I hope to get that on and a little of the wiring sorted out tomorrow then it'll be parked for a while as work interferes.

 

[Zonie]

And I thought my shop was messy! Looks like a cool build.

 

[makenzie71]

My shop is always a great example of how much of a disastion your shop COULD be

 

[Zonie]

My shop is always a great example of how much of a disastion your shop COULD be

Mines bad enough, thank you.

 

[makenzie71]

Why can't I get stuff done in a timely manner? Because of distractions. Today will be the last day I get to play in the shop for probably two weeks and I wanted to finish up the electronics tray and at least start on some wiring...but eight degrees outside and only a little warmer in the shop. I've always heated my shop with a waste oil burner and sometimes it works awesome but usually it makes a lot of smoke and not a lot of heat...so I spent most of my motorcycle time converting it to a wood stove :/...less time for motorcycles, but my shop was toasty.

Electronics tray is set up....I wanted to have had the harness unraveled and some of it tidied up but oh well.

Without much time to actually do any real work I decided to take stuff off I don't need. There's SO many hoses and unused brackets now...all emissions stuff.

One of the things that's baffled me about this engine since starting this project is that it's a 750 but it looks HUGE. It dawned on me while stripping off emmisisons hoses and brackets that this water cooled bike has air cooling fins on it...why? For looks. I'm not sure if I'll leave them off, though...the fins on the bottom are cast into the jug so they're there permanently and it looks a little goofy with half the fins. I'll decide later. The top end looks considerably cleaner, though, without the 500 tubes running around.

 

[bwdmax]

Don’t forget to update us in a few weeks once you get back to it.

 

[dukey33]

Yep. Honda puts fins on a water-cooled bike so it looks like a traditional air-cooled v-twin.
You could grind/cut off the lower fins. I don't think anything attaches to them. It will be hardly recognizable then.

 

[makenzie71]

Hey my new battery came in!

 

[makenzie71]

Hey my new exhaust arrived today!

 

[dukey33]

Either this is going to end up a Boss Hoss conversion or we're about to see some boss-level snake splicing.....

 

[makenzie71]

So this is my idea with the exhaust at present:

I'm looking at getting some short reverse cone mufflers...I think...I may use these tatty old things in the picture if I can get them to look right and shove some kind of muffler guts into them (these were off an CX500 and someone long ago "modified" them). It's not exactly the look I had in mind but I don't dislike it, it lets me get a good length on the pipes, and it gives me an easy place to do a crossover at 18" if I decide not to keep it divorced.

I also got a bracket welded up to let me use shorter cables for the throttle. I'm using VFR750 cables and switchgear. Needs some tweaking, though, or my old cable here is buggered, because it hangs up in the sleeve. New cables are on order to see if I can get it better.

Also got a plate cut for mounting a light. I'm going to run the Shadow's factory 5.75" housing...I think it fits nicely. There's only one bolt hole under the Triumph triple, though, but a bore on the other side I can use. I'm going to have to make a spacer to let me line everything up and hold it steady, then round everything out and paint and seal. I like this one, it's going to be one of the easiest headlight setups I've done. I thought my CX500 setup was easy but it was still like six different pieces all welded together, this is just going to be a plate with a little spacer. LED light should make it plenty useable and light on the electrical system.

 

[makenzie71]

This was my other routing option keeping the mufflers in the same general place (which I like)

I like the simplicity of that one, but the longer primaries with crossing them will be better for this engine I think. Not 100% decided yet.

 

[notyou83]

Looks like a nice build so far. A question that comes to my mind is, "Why not have both exhaust pipes routed down?" Why have the exhaust split between the top and bottom? It looks interesting either way.