Ever since I attempted and failed at the 12 O’clock wheelie, my once brilliant ’07 CBR600RR has been as in the corner of my garage collecting dust.
A few times I’ve tried to get it road worthy again after buying an engine from a local salvage yard and getting the lads at Metric Method to switch the lumps and fire it back into life, but I’ve failed to get it any further myself.
Well by some stroke of luck my buddy Roland Sands has agreed to help me finally go the whole hog and get it ripping again, this time it ain’t just going to be a re-build, it’s going to be a Roland Sands Designed sick motorcycle and I’m going to be doing the work!!
Holy crap Batman, with me behind the wrenches it’s highly likely to fall apart but wow what a chance to turn this sorry looking dusty motorcycle into something totally unique and individual.
My aim is to make it lots of fun, a cross between a Flat-Track, SuperMoto, Supersport machine that’s comfy and I can also strap all my camera/camping gear to while still being able to enjoy the ride…. Roland, on the other hand, may have other ideas.
Anyway, the build starts today, I’ve already pulled off all the bodywork and will be taking the CBR over to RSD’s wonderful workshop this afternoon and the budget to get this badboy back on the road is $0 or as little as p0$$ible!
DAY 1: An email from Roland a few days before gave me clear instructions, basically strip off all the fairing, tail-section, plastics etc and bring it over, so I did just that. The poor and neglected CBR600RR was looking very sorry for its self in my garage as it was getting buried underneath an every increasing layer of dust, a bunch of its own crashed parts and 2 pool floaties.
After I’d dug it out and got it on the bench there wasn’t all the much work to do as I’d ripped the tail section off in my crash and the fairing was already stripped off. I did however removed the top fairing but left the air-intake and clocks. At the rear I just stripped it back to the sub frame, it was fairly easy and caused me no trouble. Soon the very naked CBR600RR was in the back of my van and on it’s way to Roland Sands Design and I was getting excited.
It turns out that my excitement would have to wait a few hours later than originally arranged due to the Pussy Wagon breaking down 3 times on the way to his shop. The first few times I managed to get it going again, then it died for good. The 3rd breakdown was less that 5 miles from the RSD HQ, so I called Roland and asked if he could come and tow me in, at least I’d be at RSD and could start work on the CBR.
Like a good fellow, he did just that and in no time I had Roland and Rodney at the side of the road with me. Rodney shook his head at me once again and said “So what’s up with it? What’s it doing?”, I then spluttered a load of words and tried my best to describe what has been happening and doing impressions of the pops and Kangaroo jumps I’d been doing down the road.”OK, fire it up, let’s hear it” said Rodney. I said “It won’t go, but I’ll turn it over anyway” and turned the well worn ’75 van key.
Like a well maintained and reliable vehicle my van somehow sprung into life and as I gassed it hard the powerful V8 climbed the revs and sounded awesome, no problems at all. Of course I was happy it was going again but felt like a total d*ck as Roland and Rodney were looking at me with that WTF look.
Once at RSD Roland wasted no time in pulling my CBR600RR out of my van and wheeling it in to his workshop where he instantly went to work on taking more things off the already naked CBR.
First to go was the front air-intake, soon followed by the rear sub-frame, I was starting to feel a little apprehensive about what I was seeing, Roland and his team were starting to get excited, I felt that was a bad sign.
Before cutting it up or taking it further Roland went into his office large stylish office and started putting his skilled hands on paper, with-in an hour I had 2 concepts in my hands and we were both in favor of the minimal Mad Max looking CBR.
It was already getting late, RSD was closing down for the night but before he left to go home, Roland couldn’t help himself and cut up the sub-frame. Now the re-build had gone past a point of no return, it was now never going to be a standard CBR600RR again.
And as RSD closed up and everyone went home for the night Charlie and I jumped in my van and hoped for a hassle free journey home. Instead we got pops and splutters, black smoke and a distinct smell of fuel, my van was not well. After talking to it, making mini prayers, all while wearing the battery down with each failed starting attempt, I finally admitted defeat and called the Missus for a ride home.
It had been quite a day, thrilled to finally get the CBR to a point of no return and I now have total belief that it will be recreated and I’ll hopefully soon be riding it again, and then despair at my van, unfortunately this time it’s going to take some professionals to nurse the Pussy Wagon back into life, I pray soon and for the right price.
Right now Charlie and I are trying to keep warm in the dark van, Charlie’s thoughts are of warm-doggy-dinner while my head is full of ‘Project CBR’ and I’m already excited about coming back to RSD tomorrow and doing more to the project….if I don’t get picked up soon I’ll be camping outside…
Day 2: Yes I did get home but it was late and didn’t didn’t seem long before I was back at RSD HQ, this time it was Saturday lunch-time and the place was very quiet. This time I turned up with some of the parts I’d stripped off, like the tank cover and seat plus a few stunt parts that would transform the riding position.
The boys at Freestyle Ingenuity make crashing a motorbike look easy and affordable, their cages and risers transform any Supersport machine into an indestructible stunt machine in just a few easy to install items, I got hold of some of their instant risers which work on your stock triple-clamps, too easy.
Well it sounds it, but lining them up, marking it out (thanks Roland!) and then working out where your holes are going and then having the balls to stick by your doubtful hole punched marks and drill through your own triple-clamp isn’t that easy, Anyway. I did just that and once you have 4 holes in your tripe-clamp it’s a bit to late to worry and I just hoped the risers would line up and all would be OK.
One side was perfect, the other side was about 1mm out so Roland milled it out Ghetto-Style and soon my handle-bar position had gone from clip-ons to up-right in one move. Roland then started to look through his spare handle-bar collection and found some sweet flat-track style bars which just looked awesome and I could instantly see the design sketch and my CBR coming closer together.
Roland went back and forth, placing parts on the CBR600RR and then taking them off again before deciding on keeping the tank cover on the CBR , so it looks like I’ll be slightly modifying that before adding some paint and he even liked the standard riding seat, so I’ll be working with that and changing it up a bit.
I’m very happy to be keeping so many great parts of the CBR, parts that really work for me as a rider, like the chassis, the wheel base, seating and foot peg position, gas tank size and feel etc, the ergonomics of the CBR work for me and I am super happy although the machine is going to look very different, it still feels like a CBR.
During the rest of the day I started to take off even more protective rubbers and bits of plastic from the bike and seeing the sketch and real thing come closer together while Roland worked on his old Championship winning TZ250, the poor thing had once been immaculate but was now beat-up and was being turned back into an immaculate state once again, this time by the racer himself.
It was a good day of getting my hands dirty, ‘Project Budget CBR’ is looking good and once home I slept like a baby and dreamed of motorbikes again…zzz
Day 3: Today I first popped into my local motorcycle dealer Long Beach Motorsports to buy a battery for my CBR as the original one gave up a long time ago while being stood for so long in my garage. Instead of getting the big, heavy original one I went for a smaller/lighter battery that gave out the same power.
It was a smart purchase as now I can make area where the battery goes smaller and this will help me create a clean shape and much more compact sub-frame.
After Long Beach Motorsports it was then onto Metal Depot where Roland said I’d be able to buy all the metal I wanted and he wasn’t joking, this place had stacks and stacks of metal, all different sizes, shapes and grades. My job was to get some sheets of Aluminium (Aluminum) so I picked up 2 x 2ft sq sheets of 1.25mm and 0.95mm for the making of the brackets, mounts and other stuff.
Once back at RSD it was all about making templates out of card and then getting them the correct size/shape before transferring the shape to the sheets of aluminum. Once I had the template drawn on the alloy it was then a case of roughly cutting it out on a band-saw and then getting it closer and closer to the correct shape on the belt sander.
This whole process might sound easy but it was a bit more difficult than I expected, I’m not sure if it was difficult or it’s just because I’ve never done it before but after taking mm off at a time in the sander, going back to the bike, trying to make it fit, marking it where it doesn’t etc etc I finally made a sub-frame under plate, many hours after I’d started.
In a way taking my time definitely helped as the plate did fit well and gave me confidence to make other plates and brackets. The down side was it took me most part of the day so I was hardly making rapid progress. However I did go on to make a battery box and a rev-counter/clock bracket but the battery box was a bit wonky and I cut too much off the clock bracket so I’ll have to make another one of those another day.
The original exhaust is very heavy, quiet and ugly so I brought it along today to see if it could be modified in anyway, after a few discussion on what could be done from the guys at RSD, the silencer was chopped off and the rest of the pipe now comes out of the side. It looks awesome but also looks like it has the ability to make your ears bleed so we’ll see if that stays or goes later.
Towards the later part of the day I took off the tank, air-box etc as I want to re-locate some of the wiring harness and in doing so I just loved being able to see the steering damper and carbs…It made me think of exposing it somehow as I love being able to see mechanical/moving parts on a bike.
Now there isn’t a fairing on the bike I need to cleverly hide some of the wiring and plugs as modern bikes seem to have wires going everywhere and they look ugly and untidy.
Well, the CBR project is on and going in the right direction, it’s a bit slow but that’s because of me and my skill level… but I am so stoked that I am finally working on my own custom build, doing many things I’ve never done before and learning loads about my bike.
It’s also be invaluable to start this project at RSD and be able to turn and ask Roland, Rodney or Aaron if I should do this or how do I do that…It wasn’t supposed to be this way but as the Pussy Wagon broke down, my bike has been stranded and that gave me the chance to get a jump start on getting more advise as well as a few tricky things done. Anyway, my van is now ready for the road again (big cheers from all at RSD who will be glad to see me go!) and I’ll soon be cutting the RSD cord and taking my CBR home to continue the project.
TBC….
* Photo’s marked with * or just the good one’s – Taken by the very talented Kevin Warren at Digital Press Images – Who was in town and came with me to visit the awesome RSD Workshop
