RobbieRobot Cafe Racer Project in pictures

That's very kind of you. I would strongly recommend visiting in late spring or summer. The areas photographed are bleak in the winter months.

 

Cheers Greenbike
The wiring is all hidden now. The reason I changed the rear light is because most of the LEDs had gone out on the first one. That reflector is actually a second light/brake light.

I'm entering the bike at the Lotherton Hall All Japanese bike show on 27th July. I have the entry form to fill in and I intend riding it there and back. It's just near to where my eldest daughter lives in Leeds. About 50 miles south of where I live on Teesside.

 

The ap 50 had 5 gears and cci, so no premix. It was reckoned to be slightly faster but then I had a college mate with a fantic cabelero which was supposed to do over 60!

By the time I was 18 I hat a gt550 2 stroke ( photo on here somewhere) god, I wish I still owned it!

 

In the early nineties I was competing in 'Moped Mayhem' which was six hour endurance racing for strictly 50cc machines. I was in a team with two other guys for three or four seasons. We called ourselves 'Team Luck Dip', a tongue-in-cheek reference to 'Team Lucky Strike' for whom a certain Kevin Schwantz won the 1993 world 500cc championship.

Anyway, my mate and his Dad were absolute wizards at tuning 2-strokes and had a machine shop at the time. The Kawasaki AR 50 that we raced could easily reach 70mph once tuned.

Our local Gazette got wind that we were winning races and took some photos for an article (see below). It was absolutely brilliant fun and we shared the riding between the three of us, pitting for fuel about every 30 mins throughout the six hour races.
We were one point behind the leaders going into the final round at our home circuit at the time the pics were taken but we went on to win the final by about seven laps from our nearest rival and actually won the championship. YaY.

 

It's not my style, but damned if I wouldn't be proud to ride it anyway.

Awesome bike, sir.

 

Thank you sir.

 

I just read all 28 pages in one sitting.
Wow.
Very nice job sir!
Nicely documented and executed.

 

That must have been an epic sitting. Glad you like it. Cheers!

 

I entered my Café Racer at the Lotherton Hall Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club show yesterday and I was surprised to find there were no examples of any of the Yamaha XJ models. There were however, some beautifully restored bikes on show and my Café Racer was much admired and photographed. I found this footage of the event on YouTube if anyone is interested. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_-rBdcSVh0

 

wow.....that is deffinately the cleanest and most brilliant customizing of one of these machines that ive seen yet....BRAVO SIR !!

 

Like the tank badge Robbie.

 

Thanks Santos. Glad you like it.

 

Cheers Orange-n-Black. I quite like it myself.

 

Wow! Great job. I started reading and couldn't stop! Beautiful job. I have an XJ750 in the tear down stages right now. I have read a lot of the horror stories you mention about using pods. I have been contemplating what I will do. I will be leaving original carb jetting and trying the rubber-to-pod hook up you mention. Again, thanks for sharing. It was great to see the transformation!

 

Thanks jdp.
My Café Racer has now covered 4,400 miles and I can honestly say she starts and runs fine, she idles and revs fine, there is no bogging off idle and she pulls cleanly all the way to the red line in each gear in various weather conditions including torrential rain. I haven't tested a well tuned standard XJ 650 but I have no complaints about the performance of my Café Racer fitted with cheap pods in the configuration that I settled on (ie, retaining the standard rubbers between the carbs and pods) with standard jetting and a road legal Motad 4 into 1 exhaust. I have to say that I fully expected to be experimenting at length with jetting when I read the horror stories regarding pods. In reality I am very pleased to say this just wasn't necessary. I should also add that the bike definitely didn't run sweet with the same pods attached directly to the carbs. So, although they may not look quite as good, I would definitely agree with your decision to go with the standard rubbers between the carbs and pods. The only maintenance the cheap pods have needed to date was due to the mesh going rusty on the two outer pods. This was remedied by spraying them with the same trusty silver paint as used on everything else on the bike. Good luck with your project and keep us posted especially with pics.

 

A Stablemate for my Cafe Racer.

 

Someone spelled Yamaha wrong....

 

As you stated earlier you "sand blasted" head and cylinders. Many years ago we had a race engine go BANG and was sand in pockets of head. we switched to walnut shells with better results

 

Yes you need something to stop you mashing you Junk on the tank

 

Due to the PB images not available here are 'Before and After' images of my Café Racer


View attachment 28696