So when we last left off, I had outlined what my plans were for rebuilding my bike as a cafe racer. This past weekend I started making good on those plans.

First up, I picked up a Vance & Hines exhaust system from a guy who was going to tear down a Seca II he bought and convert it to an electric. Sold it to me for $100. It was covered in surface rust and missing a couple of the exhaust springs; the can was stained and oily and overall the whole thing was snotty, crusty, but entirely salvageable. I called up V&H to see how much it would cost to order new exhaust springs, and much to my surprise, they offered to just send me a bunch for free. Now THAT’s service. I broke out the 120 grit sandpaper, steel wool, rust remover, high temp black paint, my latex gloves and set about refurbishing it.

Day 1: Refurb the Exhaust.

Refuribing the old rusty exhaust took most of the day. I finished it up and left the bike for the night. The next day I picked it back up by removing all the leftover fairing mounts, disassembling and removal old speedo / tach, removing the old turn signals, cutting out the original light bulb based tail and replacing it with a LED tail light I hacked together from a truck trailer LED light, and taking off the old bent handlebars and replacing it with a brand new club man bar. Needless to say, it was a long day in the garage.

Day 2: Turning an old Japanese sport-tourer into a badass cafe racer: the beginning steps.

Next steps: Install the freshly rebuilt 7″ round headlight, install LED turn signals (front and back), rewire bike’s front end electrical system, and install & calibrate a new speedometer/tachometer. Plenty more to come.