Casey's Bike Habit

I don't know what it is about picking up project bikes for cheap (or in this case free ), then bringing them back to life, that gives me so much more satisfaction than just going out and buying a bike that's ready to go, but it does. I also have a thing for UJMs in particular...

It all began with my first bike 14 years ago, a Suzuki GS650G that I picked up for $50 in boxes. I was in college and knew absolutely nothing about bikes and doubted it would ever actually see the road (I didn't even know if the bike was complete), but figured it would be worth $50 to have something new to tinker with. Well, for the cost of some tires, a battery, a few cans of paint and carb cleaner and a little time, it did see the road, and even became my primary transportation for the next couple of years, with me puting nearly 20k abusive, but trouble free miles on the UJM. I finally sold it when a friend of mine went down on his bike incurring a few medical bills, but for a sweet $900 profit.

Since then I've been through a few similar "project bikes", including a KZ400, a Yammi XV250 (for GF at the time, and now wife), a KLR600, a GL1100 Aspencade (abandoned this one when I got it running and discovered it had tranny problems, but still fixed it up and turned it for a profit), an NX650, and a wrecked Triumph Daytona 955i. There were other bikes that probably qualified as 'projects' in others' eyes, but these were the ones that began as bikes that otherwise were headed for salvage yards.

I've always had a soft spot for UJMs, and have been wanting to build a bobber-ish custom... but, being as broke as I am, it wasn't going to happen anytime soon...

Enter my dad's friend, Kyle. Kyle has a few bikes, most in his friend Terry's garage, among them a CB750C. Kyle decided to liquidate his bikes (with a little prodding from Terry's wife), and so in return for helping him sell a few of them, let me have the CB (which supposedly runs good) for free. The tank, key, and seat weren't convenient at the time, so I'll pick them up over Thanksgiving holidays when I'm in Houston again.

Okay, enough set-up. Here's the bottom line... there's a lot of work to do to create my vision, and no money, so I'll have to be creative. The CB is a porker, much more so than my GS was, so it's going on a major diet. Items such as the gauges/instruments, factory lighting, fenders, bars, mirrors, exhaust, airbox, badging, excess wiring, stock seat and anything else I deem unnecessary or replaceable-with-something-better will go on ebay, which will help fund things like a 4-1 header, pod filters and other replacement odds-and-ends as I discover them... I'm also debating swapping the 'Comstar' wheels for a spoked variety, but that might come later. I still haven't settled on a paint scheme yet, but there's still time for that...