As many have already heard, one of the most popular pastimes of the MOD Squad (me and Scott) is motorcycle mechanics. This past spring I sold my old 1984 Honda Ascot and purchased Koos’ 1973 Honda CB750K3. The bike was largely in pieces after Torin left for school and the opportunity was ripe for me to jump feet-first into the fire and learn how to (re)build motorcycles. Last summer Scott had bought a later-vintage model of the same bike and converted it to a cafe racer, a style of motorcycle popularized in mid-’60s England as retro-fitted race bikes for riders with small wallets. You can Google “cafe racer” and there are countless websites and photo albums of some amazing work; people make boatloads of money as professional builders, taking old Japanese and British bikes and doing these conversions into stream-lined jockey rockets.
Anyway, with a HUGE amount of tutoring and oversight from Scott, I managed to get a handle on electrical work and wiring; aluminum cutting and parts fabrication; TIG welding; engine maintenance and diagnosis; bodywork and painting; and learning from many, many mistakes. Alongside my efforts Scott managed to reconstruct and make road worthy two additional bikes to go along with his own CB750: a ’70s model Triumph Tiger 750 and a Norton Commando 750. Needless to say we’ve both huffed some gas fumes this summer…
Anyway, as promised; the finished bike photos.
