I just got my Yamaha XJ750 TODAY I want to turn it into a cafe racer and your videos help me so much, i dont have idea what to do this is my first moto ever, so, thank you so much.
Irak Marin, This is amazing and I love to here this, thank you for your kind words. You are going to love what I’m working on right now, PM me on my FB page ‘Cafe Racer Garage’ with your best email and I will let you know as soon as it’s going to be ready. Dan
Hey mate. A Kiwi here in upstate NY. I'm working on a 79 cm 400t which is now a cafe brat tracker sort of thing. Any way, I wanted to go with matching seat, grips, side tank pads. Other than the expense of a seat recover, I was also worried about a close enough match in colour of the grips and tank pads. After some research I came across, vinyl and leather spray. Like in a rattle can. Now even thought it was like $38.00 ,for a standard can I thought if it worked then I've saved a lot on the seat at least. I first sprayed some scrap leather I had from a previous project, being extremely careful to follow instructions to the letter. It worked amazingly well. So went ahead and did the seat, 😂. Only problem was, I was having a hard time getting a close enough match with the grips and tank pads. Then I had the idea of trying the leather coat on the rubber grips. Yes! After leaving at least 30 mins between each coat, it worked great.
Just fitted these same grips to my bike yesterday.. I took a dremel to the plastic end which goes into the stock throttle block. After a little test-fitting, good to go. Just saying that for those without a decent factory throttle grip to start with.. it CAN be done.
Hey mate, just started watching your build and absolutely loving your work! I’m also in Australia (Sydney) and currently doing a similar project on a Yamaha virago. Do you have a link to where you got the hand grips and levers? Cheers, Matt
MOR093 hi mate, I got them from eBay, they were only cheap. I don’t have a link sorry. Virago’s are awesome bikes to build bro, glad my videos are helpful for you :)
Loving the videos. Just one small criticism, any chance you could rename them with episode numbers and make the playlist play them in the correct order. I keep watching them out of order which is quite confusing sometimes. Apologies if it is just my computer doing it.
Paul Vince Hi Paul this is a good point but it’s hard for me to explain why I name the videos the way and why my playlists do that in a short comment but may I suggest going to my youTube home page and hit the videos tab, that way you can see all my videos on one page and you can open them in a new tab if that helps. All my images will have the episode number on them and the latest ones are BLUE for CB750 YELLOW for Scrambler.. hope that helps brother. Never be afraid to give feedback it helps me grow and make better videos for you :) any questions just ask
Thanks for the tips. Only just started watching playlists recently when I started my first project, café GPZ305. Think it might be called an EX305 down under. Enjoying my first build and videos like yours are a great help. Keep it up.
Gotta be honest man, I really like the way the stock control hubs look with those bars. Beefy and rough looking sort of fits this beast you are working on. Instead of changing them, consider taking a couple different grits of sandpaper to them. Start coarse and rub off any major scratches and then run down the grits until you reach the finish you like. That plastic is pretty hard and dense, I’d imagine you could get a nearly mirror shine. Only tedious part is making sure that as you run down the grits that you remove all of the marks from the previous grit before moving on. Lets say you go from 150 to 220 to 300 to 600, (these are arbitrary, a six hundred grit finish is bright but nowhere near mirror yet) you have to make sure to get all the 150 marks out and have a nice even 220 finish before you move on to the three and then repeat your way to the final finish. I have a 1980 xs1100 I am working on. She’s getting an R1 front end and clip on bars. I am doing the polish finish on the original control hubs, taking them as close to a mirror polish as I can. They won’t look stock after that, and they’ll be easier to clean and really eyecatching. Riding it all the time I’ll be the one looking at them and it’ll feel nice knowing I saved some cash and really gave my baby some serious time and care. Plus it gives me something for my paws to do while I watch your channel.
Holy crap Stille :) you won the longest comment on my channel comp lol great idea and I will definitely look at trying this. cant help but wonder what a Dremel can do for us here to save our hand lol there are Finishing Abrasive buffs you can get for the Dremel, look up Dremel 511E on google or ebay and let me know your thoughts, it would need to be on low speed and not staying in one area to long so you dont melt the plastic but this could do some of the hard work and then finish off by hand with fine sand paper :) If you don't have a Dremel, this one its cordless and I highly recomend it amzn.to/2GVxRnl Have you seen Cheifpeps Channel? he is also working on a Xs Yamaha :) cool guy to :)
Remember: for next time, use your aircompressor en place it between your grip and the handle. Try to close the gap a bit with your hand or some cloth. This way you kind of create a balloon effect and your grip comes off like that. Btw, you've seen my link to your channel in my last Q&A vid? ;) Including a preview of your video 'n all!
Hey Brother, Thank you for the tip I will try that next time, always love getting your comments by the way. I just watched your Q&A video and left you a comment ;) A Big Thank you! I haven't watched all your videos yet but I've seen enough to know you have a lot of talent and an eye for detail. Keep the amazing vids coming. I think you are on to something by helping each other grow our channels, You have me thinking of ideas now :)
Looking good. Just a quick pass along from a friend in the UK on YT “Delboy”- shoot some hairspray inside the new grips to slide them in place and when dry adds a bit of glue factor. FWIW.
Dam I hope your wrong about those barends indicators because I have honestly just bought some today from eBay .but it's not going on the bars it's going on the back but at the sides as extras to my built in LED hoop loop tail lights /indicators
Nice vid, glad to see you managed to drag yourself back from cruising the globe.... I wanted to yell out mateeeee get the air gun on the grip.... Next minute your using it in high speed. Heads up on using any LED lights (that's if they are LED) you will need to fluff around to get them to work on the bike as standard. I did it on a dirt bike and they flash fast which wasn't an issue for me... I just wanted to look legal when crossing roads around the forestry her on the magical Sunny Coast. Nice choice in grips, she's coming together and looking better and better mate.
Paul Bull Thank you Paul, ;) I love to travel and so you will see many more places I go in my videos. Iv seen the pine tree forest up you way and I'd love to sneak into it one day and go camping, it looks magical. Thanx for the tip. I think I know what you are talking about because I've been playing with the CX front blinkers and it has some issues. Good to hear from you mate 👍 and thank you for the complements :)
Take ABow I didn't think you were being mean, feedback is always good it's only the delivery that can hurt sometimes 😁 I think the bike will get finished faster if I don't overwhelm myself by doing to much to soon if you know what I mean, I can always play with new ideas and parts later. Thank you for your comments, I enjoy reading and replying to them :)
ALL Parts - www.amazon.com/shop/caferacergarage
My 1982 xv750 cafe racer clip ons are hitting my OEM tank. Front end is a zx6R. The turn radius seems really minimal. Any suggestions?
I just got my Yamaha XJ750 TODAY I want to turn it into a cafe racer and your videos help me so much, i dont have idea what to do this is my first moto ever, so, thank you so much.
Irak Marin, This is amazing and I love to here this, thank you for your kind words.
You are going to love what I’m working on right now, PM me on my FB page ‘Cafe Racer Garage’ with your best email and I will let you know as soon as it’s going to be ready.
Dan
Hey mate. A Kiwi here in upstate NY.
I'm working on a 79 cm 400t which is now a cafe brat tracker sort of thing. Any way, I wanted to go with matching seat, grips, side tank pads.
Other than the expense of a seat recover, I was also worried about a close enough match in colour of the grips and tank pads. After some research I came across, vinyl and leather spray. Like in a rattle can.
Now even thought it was like $38.00 ,for a standard can I thought if it worked then I've saved a lot on the seat at least. I first sprayed some scrap leather I had from a previous project, being extremely careful to follow instructions to the letter.
It worked amazingly well. So went ahead and did the seat, 😂. Only problem was, I was having a hard time getting a close enough match with the grips and tank pads. Then I had the idea of trying the leather coat on the rubber grips. Yes! After leaving at least 30 mins between each coat, it worked great.
Wow that's awesome mate
You Rock my friend. All your tops n advice are spot on
Im getting a Honda cm200t on the 23rd of this month turning it into a bobber
Just fitted these same grips to my bike yesterday.. I took a dremel to the plastic end which goes into the stock throttle block. After a little test-fitting, good to go. Just saying that for those without a decent factory throttle grip to start with.. it CAN be done.
skaaltel very cool brother 👍
Hey mate, just started watching your build and absolutely loving your work! I’m also in Australia (Sydney) and currently doing a similar project on a Yamaha virago. Do you have a link to where you got the hand grips and levers?
Cheers, Matt
MOR093 hi mate, I got them from eBay, they were only cheap. I don’t have a link sorry.
Virago’s are awesome bikes to build bro, glad my videos are helpful for you :)
What brake and master cylinder and clutch lever assembly do you have
Loving the videos. Just one small criticism, any chance you could rename them with episode numbers and make the playlist play them in the correct order. I keep watching them out of order which is quite confusing sometimes. Apologies if it is just my computer doing it.
Paul Vince Hi Paul this is a good point but it’s hard for me to explain why I name the videos the way and why my playlists do that in a short comment but may I suggest going to my youTube home page and hit the videos tab, that way you can see all my videos on one page and you can open them in a new tab if that helps. All my images will have the episode number on them and the latest ones are BLUE for CB750 YELLOW for Scrambler.. hope that helps brother. Never be afraid to give feedback it helps me grow and make better videos for you :) any questions just ask
Thanks for the tips. Only just started watching playlists recently when I started my first project, café GPZ305. Think it might be called an EX305 down under. Enjoying my first build and videos like yours are a great help. Keep it up.
I just bought this set for my 78 GS550 but in black. Hopefully they work. Lol.
Gotta be honest man, I really like the way the stock control hubs look with those bars. Beefy and rough looking sort of fits this beast you are working on. Instead of changing them, consider taking a couple different grits of sandpaper to them. Start coarse and rub off any major scratches and then run down the grits until you reach the finish you like. That plastic is pretty hard and dense, I’d imagine you could get a nearly mirror shine. Only tedious part is making sure that as you run down the grits that you remove all of the marks from the previous grit before moving on. Lets say you go from 150 to 220 to 300 to 600, (these are arbitrary, a six hundred grit finish is bright but nowhere near mirror yet) you have to make sure to get all the 150 marks out and have a nice even 220 finish before you move on to the three and then repeat your way to the final finish. I have a 1980 xs1100 I am working on. She’s getting an R1 front end and clip on bars. I am doing the polish finish on the original control hubs, taking them as close to a mirror polish as I can. They won’t look stock after that, and they’ll be easier to clean and really eyecatching. Riding it all the time I’ll be the one looking at them and it’ll feel nice knowing I saved some cash and really gave my baby some serious time and care. Plus it gives me something for my paws to do while I watch your channel.
Holy crap Stille :) you won the longest comment on my channel comp lol great idea and I will definitely look at trying this. cant help but wonder what a Dremel can do for us here to save our hand lol there are Finishing Abrasive buffs you can get for the Dremel, look up Dremel 511E on google or ebay and let me know your thoughts, it would need to be on low speed and not staying in one area to long so you dont melt the plastic but this could do some of the hard work and then finish off by hand with fine sand paper :) If you don't have a Dremel, this one its cordless and I highly recomend it amzn.to/2GVxRnl Have you seen Cheifpeps Channel? he is also working on a Xs Yamaha :) cool guy to :)
Remember: for next time, use your aircompressor en place it between your grip and the handle. Try to close the gap a bit with your hand or some cloth. This way you kind of create a balloon effect and your grip comes off like that. Btw, you've seen my link to your channel in my last Q&A vid? ;) Including a preview of your video 'n all!
Hey Brother, Thank you for the tip I will try that next time, always love getting your comments by the way. I just watched your Q&A video and left you a comment ;) A Big Thank you! I haven't watched all your videos yet but I've seen enough to know you have a lot of talent and an eye for detail. Keep the amazing vids coming. I think you are on to something by helping each other grow our channels, You have me thinking of ideas now :)
Looking good. Just a quick pass along from a friend in the UK on YT “Delboy”- shoot some hairspray inside the new grips to slide them in place and when dry adds a bit of glue factor. FWIW.
Gary A thank you for the tip 😁
Cafe Racer Garage welcome...she’s looking mighty fine!
Hey,
Does anybody have a link to the levers used on this build?
Cant find them in his part list.
Dam I hope your wrong about those barends indicators because I have honestly just bought some today from eBay .but it's not going on the bars it's going on the back but at the sides as extras to my built in LED hoop loop tail lights /indicators
Nice vid, glad to see you managed to drag yourself back from cruising the globe....
I wanted to yell out mateeeee get the air gun on the grip.... Next minute your using it in high speed.
Heads up on using any LED lights (that's if they are LED) you will need to fluff around to get them to work on the bike as standard. I did it on a dirt bike and they flash fast which wasn't an issue for me... I just wanted to look legal when crossing roads around the forestry her on the magical Sunny Coast.
Nice choice in grips, she's coming together and looking better and better mate.
Paul Bull Thank you Paul, ;)
I love to travel and so you will see many more places I go in my videos.
Iv seen the pine tree forest up you way and I'd love to sneak into it one day and go camping, it looks magical.
Thanx for the tip. I think I know what you are talking about because I've been playing with the CX front blinkers and it has some issues.
Good to hear from you mate 👍 and thank you for the complements :)
Why not just get the Biltwell grips alone and put them on your controls? Not sure where you got these grips with the throttle tube preinstalled.
Paul Hinman great thought Paul. I will look into them. I plan to try a few different types so that is a good idea of yours, thank you 😊
Did the same on mines lol
Unless your going with very high end controls like Mgadget I would stick with those OEM controls, you won't find better!
Psycrow11 I think you are 100% right.
Its worth paying the extra to get the good stuff. :)
ou man : ( i am so jealos of you :( hello from georgia (i mean Saqartvelo) :D
little disappointed to see you used those old ugly plastic control switches. Those are the ones you are gonna see all the time while riding.
Take ABow I'm planning on changing them out later when I find some nice looking ones.
Thank you for the comment tho :)
nice job on the rest of the bike tho! Looks awesome. Didn't want to be mean
Take ABow I didn't think you were being mean, feedback is always good it's only the delivery that can hurt sometimes 😁
I think the bike will get finished faster if I don't overwhelm myself by doing to much to soon if you know what I mean, I can always play with new ideas and parts later. Thank you for your comments, I enjoy reading and replying to them :)