History of the '76 Cafe Racer

This bike came into my posession near the end of the summer out of frustration.. after working on the Custom all summer, i was ready to ride..

I pretty much stole it from a guy out in Ashtabula, jumped on and rode back to cleveland..
the bike has about 27,000 miles on it.. the first owner probably put on 25,000 of those, then sold it to the guy i bought it from after about 10 years. this guy owned a metal fab shop and made custom sheet metal for bikes,, tanks, fenders, etc.. he used this bike in his heated showroom for the last..eh.. 19 years?.. to display the custom metal they were making.. he said they'd take it out about once a month or so to keep it running, but otherwise, there it sat..begging to be ridden.
I havent done much to this bike as i bought it purely to ride the hell out of.. i just recently put the race fairing and way cool retro clubman bars on it.. and that's it.

..routing all the wires, cables and lines up front is the biggest bitch about switching bars,, everything changes.

but the result is well worth it.


check out these way cool clubman bars,, matthew picked them up for me at the rice paddy.
they are actually supposed to curve a little more downward, but because of clearance, had to be mounted this way,, and after i tried them out i was glad they sat a little higher.. they completely changed the way i sit on that bike.
it blows a "little" smoke once in a while because i think a valve or carb is stuck open and it floods at least one cylinder after riding long enough, but otherwise runs like a champ.