There's nothing worse than building a nice set of custom headers, that I'll add just came back from chrome plating, than finding out that they won't clear the kick-start.. What a bummer!

No worries though! We have the technology to rebuild her gentlemen. The kickstart that is.. There's way to many hours of sanding into those headers to tear 'em apart again!

The solution: simple, pull a late model CB450 kicker off the used parts shelf and combine it with some steel rod and perform a little geometry to get everything positioned just right!

[here's the late model kicker before getting chopped]

 

 

 

[here she is with the initial piece of steel rod after being cut]

 

 

 

[here she is after some initial TIG welds and notching for strength]

 

The clocks tickin' and wrenches are a turning at Dime City folks..  Despite Herm's frustration with my constant antics and artistic woes we're making fine progress. The Brass Cafe is coming along great! Ahh the life!

In an effort to expand Michaels skill-set we put him on the task of developing a swing-arm brace for this little road rumbler. With some general direction from our good friend PJ, Michael had the basic idea down...

After a couple of hours of cutting, grinding and shaping he produced this fantastic tri-fecta of support that would ensure stability whilst piloting The Brass Cafe to the Ton. Great job Michael! I don't care what your friends say about you. Your alright man..

So sorry for the gap in BLOG posts everyone! I actually got a chance to get out of town for a few days and took advantage of it! 

That said...back your regularly scheduled broadcast!

Making some good progress on The Brass Cafe, here's some shots of the front drum hub we modified with an intake vent. Go go cafe racer!

Working on the drum vents..  Brass mesh behind polished aluminum.  Swanky!

Just let it all out man...it'll all be over soon enough!

Another one of Herms' great ideas. He's the thinker for sure.

He's so cool.. Man.

What you see in the picture isn't what you think it is. Can you figure it out?

Started making some good progress on the fuel tank.. Sides and top were removed in favor of some in-house hand-tooled sheet metal. Thanks for the use of the dolly Greg!

Keep an eye out for the finished product, the fuel filler cap is gonna be the bees knees!

Well, after finally coaxing the engine apart The Dime City Crew was met with a nice little surprise..  Good thing we were wearing board-shorts!

From here we continued to break down the engine only to find (to our surprise) that despite the initial findings, that it was in fantastic shape! Like we said, Diamond in the Rough!

She's gonna get 4x bore pistons, a hopped up CAM, some porting as well as electronic ignition and some other goodies.  Should make for a run at the ton!

To our fellow ton’rs,

There's nothing quite like the feeling of welcoming a new project bike into the stable. The mix of emotions fills your heart and mind and leaves you, in some case, breathless. Heart pounding, mind running and soul singing…it’s something we have all felt. Especially, when you have meticulously and painstakingly, nay- almost diabolically, mapped that special build for the specific project with the hopes that you can exercise your creativity in a way that will leave you fulfilled at the culmination while at the same time, inspiring others along the way.

This my friends, is what the Dime City Cycles crew lives, breathes and will eventually, die for.  The pursuit of happiness found in wielding wrenches, shaping raw elements and resurrecting these old forgotten gems for all to enjoy. What a gift it truly is..

And with that, we give you the first glimpse of The Dime City “Brass Café”, a weathered and worn, but not wasted 1968 Honda CB450. We were fortunate to find her completely intact all but for a few items. The two wheeled gods of mayhem were smiling upon us as we spent hours searching in the infamous Florida heat and humidity.. Hidden amongst an array unique machines, a Triumph 500 single, a Zuki done up and used for the Wall of Death in some long since forgotten Circus show and a plethora of machines just begging for salvation we came across her, resting quietly just waiting to be delivered.

Over the next few months you can expect to see more of a journal rather than a traditional step by step build you are used to, as The DCC Crew peals away the layers toiling into the night with exacting precision to reveal this honest to God, diamond in the rough.  To get the full scoop you’ll have to tune into Café Racer TV debuting on Discovery Channel HD Theater on October 1st where they will be covering not only The Brass Café, but a handful of other fantastic builds by our peers all over the US.  In addition to Café Racer TV, you will also be able to plug into the DCC Blog for the detailed build process beginning on Oct 1st.

Thank you for all the support we have received from everyone thus far, you know who you are.  We could not do this and wouldn’t be here were it not for your help and investments of time and energy. We will be forever indebted to you.

The DCC Crew