[Jrobinson17]

Hello all, I am new to the forum but have been viewing it for the past few weeks. I have just purchased a beautiful 1980 CM400T which I intend to turn into a cafe racer (more for the style than the performance). My intended modifications are: Drag handlebars, pods (I know they don't offer this bike any performance value but the airbox won't work with the look I'm going for.), A cafe seat that I'll make, I intend to use the stock frame and seat mountings as the natural hump in the seat makes an excellent place to put the hump (not sure the word for it) on the back of the seat. Also plan on getting spoke wheels (18" front and back, new rear suspension to raise back 1-2" giving it a leaned forward aggressive appearance.) Might look into a redesigned gas tank although I'm not sure how much modification that would take. New exhaust, (What to you all think about running both pipes out on the same side, probably stacked vertically?) I have seen exhausts that look like hoses or heavy fabric/rubber on some builds, not exactly sure what they are but I love the look. Going to remove rear fender and paint front fender in coordination with whatever color scheme I choose. Pictures to come of my bike before and with each step of the way. I hope you all will enjoy watching the progress of my project and also consider yourselves a part of it as I will without fail have questions throughout the process and hope you will help. Please don't hesitate with thoughts, criticism, ideas, and perspectives as they are valuable to the creation of my piece of art.

 

[dtsmjr8dan]

Welcome to the forum. Great to see another 400 series here. Got any pics of the beast before you start changing everything?

 

[longdistancerider]

This should be good to watch.
Exhaust? are you thinking something like the CL 350/450 type up high or running lower?

 

[Jrobinson17]

Here's the only pic I have right now but there will be plenty of before pictures to come in the next week or so as it works itself down to being just a frame.

For the exhaust I really like the way it looks on the CL's but being so high into your body seems like an accident waiting to happen. Not sure how much exhaust wraps would help with that though. That's a bridge I will probably be crossing a bit further down the road.

Right now I'm working on finding a place to work (i.e. renting a garage but my hopes are that deconstruction can begin in just a few days.) Thanks for the interest ya'll I'm excited to get working on it.

 

[dtsmjr8dan]

Really really nice looking bike you have there.
It's your bike and you can do what your want to it, but I would just like to know why all the pretty bikes get altered to cafe or bobber........LOL