Anyone interested?? How to build a Café seat from stocker

[2stroker_4_life]

Hey all, I was just wondering whether anyone would be interested in me putting up a thread about how to make your stock step seat into a cool, flat, café seat for next to nothing? I've been building a bike on a really limited budget, but I needed to turn a boring '81 cb750k into a cool as f@$k café racer, so if anyone would like to know or add in how to make a seat, or any other café part for cheap or free, comment on this, drop me a line, and maybe we can be some help to somebody/you.

[Piute]

http://honda-cb750-s.456789.n3.nabble.com/Tricks-of-the-trade-Fiberglass-can-make-about-anything-td3237592.html

[TOOLS1]

I don't think anybody here would be interested in any Cafe stuff.
TOOLS

[alehman]

Definitely interested.

[2stroker_4_life]

Alright man, ill post pictures and descriptions as I go in here! I'm already started so I can post a lot tonight, then I will probably post every couple days as I get farther.

[shinyribs]

Cool man. Lots of interest in Cafe stuff around here lately. Fresh ideas and ways of doing things is always good. Showing off is pretty much the norm ,too Pics!

[2stroker_4_life]

Alright boys, cafe seat. So you get your dicked stocker  and tear the cover off it. You won't be needing it, since it won't fit the cafe seat anyways. Now, if your seat pan is rusted to shit like mine was  with all the mounting tabs rotted off and no solid metal, scrap 'er and find yourself a better one. Same with the foam. Next, cut the hump out of the foam flat with the front part back another 6 inches or so, until about that bulge in the back of the pan. Be careful you don't nail the pan, because sitting on metal sucks. It should look like this:    Cut away the bulge on the side of the seat if it bothers you, I dicked 'er and took a nice chunk out of it. Hacksaws seem to work well for cutting foam, better than any knife or recip. saw I tried. I don't think it needs to be perfect, the cover will cover it up to some extent. 

On 2013-01-23, at 12:55 AM, "shinyribs [via Honda CB750'S]" <[hidden email]> wrote:

Cool man. Lots of interest in Cafe stuff around here lately. Fresh ideas and ways of doing things is always good. Showing off is pretty much the norm ,too Pics!

---

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://honda-cb750-s.456789.n3.nabble.com/Anyone-interested-How-to-build-a-Cafe-seat-from-stocker-tp4035552p4035595.html

To unsubscribe from Anyone interested?? How to build a Café seat from stocker, click here.
NAML

[2stroker_4_life]

Alright, so once you get it all cut nice and flat, you gotta figure out the size and shape of the rear hump you want. I used plumber strapping with nails pushed into the foam to get the right shape I was looking for.
  I also cut out a section from the back because I wanted to mount the stock tail light flush inside it to get rid if the rear fender all together. Next, I took some cardboard and cut out the shape for the sides, top, and back, then glued it all together.
  You want to take some time here and get it pretty square and straight, because you're going to fiberglass over this and don't want to have a dicked seat. As you can see it still needs a bit of work around the tail light so it isn't so square. This shows you exactly what it's going to look like once you fiberglass it, and you can even keep it as a mould if you plan on doing more.
Now, I should mention that once I was done all this, the guy I'm building it for didn't like the height, so I ended up cutting it down another 2 inches in the front and tapering it down to the top of the tail light, which looks better I think. Also, the lump of foam at the back of the seat for the 2 up needs to be cut out to make the rear that low, but it needs to be cut down anyways. If you want to put the tail light in it, it requires cutting the seat pan and all the foam around it out, so just something to think about. You'll also need to weld a bracket to the seat pan to bolt the tail light to. Ill put up more pictures when I go to fiberglass it!!

[SoyBoySigh]

A budget build doesn't have to suck, just so long as you're willing to throw some DIY at it.

I've scored some really decent alloy rims for this model, 2.50x18" from a Harley XLH rear wheel for up front, & 3.50x18" SUPER-AKRONT (read: gorgeous period-correct go-fast rim with beautiful high-domed drop-center and lighter than practically any comparative rim even narrower rims for that matter...) - for as little as $40 & $50 each - then new spokes if you need 'em, will set you back another $100-$125 per wheel. That's an AWESOME price on such nice alloy wheels as I'm talking about here!

Of course, for some folks, a budget build might mean not even replacing rock-hard expired TIRES that are on the bike, let alone rims! Ha-ha. I've been there myself. Eat some noodles for a while, drink tap-water or powdered drinks etc - QUIT SMOKING for Kripe's sake. If I'VE managed to scrape together a budget on a fixed disability income, for TWO concurrent builds - albeit, over the long haul ... Well then YOU can find time for this stuff too.

I think the point I'd wanna make, is that all of the stuff with powder-coating on crusty old parts? THAT'S where a lot of "budget-build" guys seem to waste the most of their budget. Paint and chrome etc. With respect to wheels in particular, don't bother replacing or re-finishing even, a pair of rotted out old steel rims. Just dig around the forums and eBay especially, use your imagination in terms of what models of bike you get 'em off of ! If you want NEW rims, not NOS stuff? Not a bad idea, if you can get some older STYLE rims but with the bead-retention-ridge inherent to tubeless wheels (if you've got Comstars, take a look inside) THEN you can seal 'em up tube-less with aquarium silicone. There's an outfit "Mike's XS650" that sells some really affordable rims for the XS which should lace up no problem to 36-spoke hubs, so if you can fit some other rotors onto a CB350F/CB400F front hub, or a 36-spoke DRUM front hub for that matter, Suzuki makes some decent 36-spoke rear drums which have a cush-drive where the Yamaha XS drum doesn't - I found the XS pattern rims are a great fit for the GT750J/GT550J 4LS drum for my Ex-Daughter's "KZ440LOL" - not that I'd wanna use that on a DOHC 750 - Heck I've got a spare, and the first one's fitted to a 39mm CB900F fork which is to say it would work GREAT on a CB750 of any type - if it weren't for the fact it's a puny 200mm drum. A 4LS drum on a DOHC 750, I'd maybe try a Fontana 250mm which is ridiculously expensive. Or better still, if it's the look you're after, try a "Faux-Leading-Shoe" of some type - there are hydraulic versions from "Dromo" in Italy, there's the CBX550F hub, and I'm trying to figure out a way to use the PC800 Pacific Coast hub, which should work with a GL1500 fork or even some VF type stuff if that's what you want, given that they've all got the 286mm rotors. As opposed to the 276mm discs on DOHC CB750F, CB900F, GL1000 etc - or the 296mm of the CB1100R, pro-link CBX, GL1100A Aspencade & most GL1200's - and my "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" of course. If it's about the LOOK - I'd try and not sacrifice the performance.

Of course, if that's what you're about, a cheap rim isn't so much of a concern. Ha-ha. But there ARE some very decent prices to be had on alloy rims if you spend the time & effort looking for 'em! And a hell of a lot of weight to be saved especially if you can seal 'em up as tubeless with the aquarium silicone trick. G.E. 1200 Construction Grade Clear - I've built a lot of very huge aquariums in my time. I've also heard a lot of good said about "Shoe Goo".... But yeah - a light alloy rim, a light-weight TIRE as well, no inner-tube, not too too heavy of a spoke gauge though you want a good stiff wheel so maybe splurge on some extra weight in this one aspect of the wheel - AND a lighter drum or a lighter disc-brake set-up? This could make one hell of a difference.

Just don't believe all of the hype about cast/mag wheels. Or all of the crap people talk about COMSTARS for that matter. Comstars are uber cool, and there are ways of rebuilding 'em, widening 'em, fitting up alternative rims such as the Akront "NERVI" rims - there are versions of Comstars with smaller rear hubs in 'em (!!!) so you CAN have a very cool and light-weight set of Comstar wheels on a Honda. As for the cast/mag wheels, there are maybe a handful of types which I'd consider. Such as DYMAG rims - but all of the seven-spoke aftermarket Aluminum rims are heavy as a boat anchor, and usually very skinny besides. Don't get conned into using that stuff.

As for three-spoke mag wheels in SEVENTEEN inch, from modern crotch-rocket bikes? With wave or petal rotors, and USD forks and mono-shock conversions and crap like that? UGH - I don't wanna look at it. Sure, if it works for you, go ahead and enjoy yourself with it. Just don't trundle out the pics and pollute the CLASSIC SUPERBIKE PORN stream with pics of that Oreo-Cookie (cream's in the middle, ie between the USD fork and the 2009+ CBR swing-arm you've fudged into place) I simply don't want to LOOK at it!!!

There were some very good magazine articles back in the day, about how much better of a wheel you can have, from swapping out a wire-spoke steel rim for a wire-spoke alloy rim, as opposed to an entirely Aluminum cast/mag wheel. On both a cost analysis AND a benefit analysis. And that was even before they knew about the silicone trick. Mostly because those older rims didn't have the bead retention ridges.

So yeah, don't bother doing ANYTHING else with your rims, except for maybe some fine-grade steel-wool and wax etc, until you can throw some proper alloy rims at 'em. And ideally, some new stainless spokes while you're at it.

As for all of that stuff with the crusty powder-coat you wanna strip off? Strip it off and don't replace it. Or at the most, a bit of clear-coat. Caliper paint is pretty resistant to chemicals.

ANYWAY - as for the seat pan thing, here's a place where you can really get some good benefit from DIY - BONDO fibreglass resin and matt/cloth - it'll set you back maybe $20 for a new seat-pan. And if you're willing to study up on it, you can probably get a good CR750 style dome cowl on the ass end, while you're at it. Though IMHO, since we're talking DOHC here, the box type cowl on the RCB or RS1000 is waaaaay more classy than that. Especially if you've got some cool early type silver Comstar wheels - Now THAT'S a good basis for a DOHC café racer!

As for making stuff out of STEEL??? Bah! There's maybe one place where I can think that it's warranted. In bracing the frame itself. Welding in a few extra cross-tubes here & there, a bit of plate over the vertices etc. But a steel SEAT PAN??? Or FENDER??? Bah! If you can get away with fibreglass, by all means use that. If that's not gonna be strong enough, use ALUMINUM. Anywhere & everywhere, except for maybe BOLTS of course ha-ha. In which case you wanna shoot for the STAINLESS stuff. But wheel spacers and stuff like that, those can be replaced with alloy too.

I can dig a good drum hub, I'm thinking I'd like to try out a CB750 rear drum on my "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" at some point. But IMHO if you're gonna go to the trouble of rebuilding wheels for the DOHC 750, it's worth using a trick the SOHC guys use and fit up a smaller drum from the CB500 or CB550 - they're a lot lighter and they're adequate for the 750 - there's a trick as to fitting that to the 10mm wider chain-line of the DOHC model as well as '78 SOHC models - if you can find such a wheel which was fitted to the '78 SOHC then it should work alright. But IMHO it's also worth getting that extra bit of chain-line off-set from a CBX '81-'82 (pro-link aka mono-shock) or the RC30 or even FZ750, IIRC the CBX version gives an extra 4.5mm or 5mm off-set. But there are sprocket spacers from Cognito Moto (which a well equipped customizer could whip up for her/him-self) AND there are "dished" off-set sprockets from Cycle-X aka Cycle-Exchange. And it's entirely possible to get the spokes "dished" as well, especially with a rear drum brake. Provided the torque-arm bends around the tire, reaches the anchor point. On a disc wheel, it can create even further clearance problems between spoke and rotor, where the caliper won't squeeze in anymore. Might even wanna dish it the other way. But yeah, there are ways to make all of that rear hub stuff work just fine. So consider the benefits to a lighter rear drum hub, lighter rear DISC hub for that matter. Such as a front hub with a bolt-up cush-drive in place of the enormous SOHC CB750F1 rear disc hub.

I guess that goes a long way beyond the "Budget Build" concept, but I think if follows a very important axiom which is "If it's worth DOING, it's worth doing RIGHT!"

Though I'd emphasize that this rear drum vs rear disc thing has been waaaay over-hyped. As has the front drum vs disc, on the smaller bikes at least. So too, the 2LS vs 4LS drum hub thing.

I'm not suggesting spending a huge amount of cash on the wheel set. To the contrary, I'm simply saying that if you're gonna throw a lot of the budget at re-lacing the wheels, then while you're at it you might as well dig around for a cheap CB550 drum (slightly lighter than the CB500 - but then maybe on the DOHC 750, perhaps you'd want the thicker casting around the bearing cups?) seeing as you're gonna skim out the drum surface, bead-blast and powder-coat (caliper-paint!) etc, get new shoes, etc etc - Why not do all of that stuff on a cheap locally sourced CB500 drum and farm out your big 190mm drum to an open-minded CB900F guy? I don't think there are that many of us, but once I've put together some stats on the weights of all these different possible hubs, I suspect more people might consider 'em. Especially if it's possible to skim 'em out to a larger diameter for a thinner lighter drum lining. The 200mm drums can be skimmed to 203mm aka 8" for US/British shoes etc. I dunno about the 190mm Honda stuff. But maybe there's a way to do it, even if it involves re-lining shoes with thicker friction material or something - 'cause the Iron liner is a huge part of the hub's weight.

I wanna work on a much lighter DISC type hub. But at the same time, a rear drum on the 900 is very intriguing.....

The point of all this though, is that the main thing to do with these bikes is to shed weight. And to add some beef in a few areas but only in those few areas and only where it's warranted due to pushing the limits dragging a knee etc. Which is to say - Lower weight wherever you can do it, that's gonna help the bike's handling at ANY speed. Whereas a thicker fork tube or heavier swing-arm is only gonna help when you're pushing the bike through some serious "Canyon-Carving", track days, etc. If you intend to push the bike pretty hard, or if you want the handling to track very true, if you wanna eliminate any possibility of a SPEED WOBBLE, if your commute involves any aggressive lane-splitting or quick acceleration quick stopping etc, then you wanna beef up the fork and the swing-arm. But if you're just putting around really lazy, riding past the hang-outs really slow so the other hipsters/scene-kids can get a good LOOK at you, then don't bother with any of that stuff. But shed the weight all the same. It's worth doing no matter how lame of a rider you are. 'Cause weight especially un-sprung weight and rotating mass/inertia - this stuff affects low-speed handling AND high-speed handling.

Besides I think of how much more of a hassle it is, to build certain parts out of metal, vs making 'em out of FIBREGLASS or even plastic, heck even the expense of the materials and the additional tooling involved, it just ain't WORTH it.

Heck if you're willing to expend a little extra material on making a mould from the original, then cast a part from that mould, well you could make a replica from the OEM fender or seat-pan or what-have-you, from fiberglass. Myself, I'd love to get into some really big pattern making. Using some huge foam blocks or better still - for a bubble fairing or even better still, a DUST-BIN, I'd love to try a paper Mache mould off of a weather balloon. It's worth trying, when the materials are so much cheaper than the SHIPPING on big-ticket items. Let alone other people's labour. Just gotta get my hands on some better RESIN - not the Bondo stuff I've used for seat-pans & dents/repairs etc, but a proper LOW-VOC fume-less resin that you could use INDOORS. Yeah if I can score a good volume of that stuff I think my whole living-room would be full of fibreglass projects.....

The one place where I see needing a welder is for making a fairing BRACKET. But again, I'm thinking Aluminum. Proper old-school "AEROBRAZE" rods and a Mapp-Gas Oxygen twin-bottle MINI-TORCH type of welding project.

Beyond that, yeah I want a braced 750 frame for my 985 motor, and I want some custom lugs for mounting fairing brackets and rear-sets etc, however IMHO this type of stuff should be done by a proper qualified professional. I don't want to stand up on my pegs going over a railroad crossing, and have the pegs give out from under me. Especially the passenger pegs.

Of course at the same time, I'm frustrated with the standard rear-sets from the DOHC Honda series. The alloy plates that go over the swing-arm pivots. This stuff is a hassle. So I want the type from Ron Haslam's CB1100R racer. With triangular alloy plates mounted to the rear of the frame rails. Bolted onto lugs though, so they can still be adjustable without looking like crap.

Strangely enough, the passenger peg brackets on the DOHC CB900F/CB750F etc, weight a whole huge pile more than the tubular steel triangular passenger peg mounts from the early SOHC 750's - I scored a set from a guy's hard-tail project. And I'd like to weld 'em onto my CB900F frame, or better still a braced up 750 version which would give the hard-mount engine bolts and a lighter frame (probably the same weight once it's braced to equivalent strength though) AND cheaper insurance when it's registered according to the frame's serial number. They might get wise and register it off the engine's serial but there's an even better way around that if you've got $$$ coming out your arse 'cause the 750 cases make the best donor/basis for a rebuilt 1123cc engine. Which is to say, the best possible monster utilizing an original Honda frame - as opposed to an EGLI chassis or Moto Martin, Bimota HB2/HB3 etc - should have 750 serial numbers on the frame AND the engine. Of course, this isn't the BUDGET BUILD method ha-ha.

Then again - look into what you'd save on insurance! Over five or ten years, a bike like that could PAY for itself ha-ha. Over a restored CB1100F that is. Possibly even a CB900F.....

But of course, the hard engine mounting is the best performance-oriented reason for using the 750 frame. Perhaps even reason enough to convince the cops you didn't deceive your insurance provider DELIBERATELY ha-ha. As for the DOHC CB750C or CB750K models, the rear-sets are a damn good reason to use either of those frames. Just the FRAME mind you. Though the drum brake type swing-arm can also be used for an under-slung caliper on a disc-brake. But yeah - if there's an insurance company that charges less for the 'C or 'K series 750 than the 'F type Super-Sport 750, then I wanna hear about THAT too! That would kick ass.

One thing I think we should all start doing, is rather than snapping so many pics - well this is good of course, pics are great - We should start taking notes on WEIGHTS of everything. Wheels and forks especially, but also the complete bike. A couple of decent digital bathroom scales can give you the front-to-rear BIAS and the total weight at the same time. Doesn't have to be a hassle. Sometimes bathroom scales don't work on a small item, but they work perfectly fine when you add that to a bigger item. A bit of subtraction and you've got your figures. Though I'd love to have an expensive dope-dealer's scale for the smaller parts, we're really not talking about the minutiae it's more about the major components. Rims vs replacement rims, forks vs replacement forks, brakes vs replacement brakes, etc. 'Cause so far as I know, even the most popular performance rims don't have stats like these, ANYWHERE on the 'net. And being that there are so many different CB750 sites out there, this means that the first site to come up with a definitive table of component weights both OEM and aftermarket, WINS!!!

I'm keeping track of stuff for my own build-thread. A Coil-Back Note-Book is very helpful, as is a permanent file on one's PC - but I've lost all of that in a house-fire, not to mention additional computer crashes etc. But some pics of bathroom scales with wheels on 'em has stayed on my Photobucket for several years now. Which is all well and good, but I still wanna set up a "Sticky" type thread, where folks can cut-&-paste a table of figures, and add in additional values, such that a collective effort could great an up-to-date table of comparisons with all past and current projects - It would be even better if the "Before & After" pics people put up of their bikes, could include data like that. And then the subsequent break-down pics could include noted on weights for major components as they come off the bike. Shouldn't take too long to collect stats on all of the original bikes. Same deal with the aftermarket stuff. I suppose the alternate parts, the USD forks, three-spoke 17" rims all of that stuff people substitute, well that part would drag on and on and on, until there aren't any new ideas anymore. But hey - as soon as we've got an idea how heavy all of that crap is, maybe people would stop doing it? One can only hope!

-Sigh.

[surfish95747]

I kind of like Oreo's. Especially dipped in milk. Yum.

[shinyribs]

surfish95747 wrote

I kind of like Oreo's. Especially dipped in milk. Yum.

[SoyBoySigh]

Ha-ha. Yeah, dip 'em in milk! I think that's a very good idea for these fugly friggin' ruined-Superbike projects. Dip 'em in milk. I thought up an even worse nick-name for 'em the other day and now I forget wtf it was. Something like ... Starbucks-Racers, or words to that effect.

No - seriously though. DO you like "Oreos"? Like, you read the classic bike rags and you think "if only there were some more Ducati Diavel energy mixed in with all of those SOHC-4 & DOHC-4 "UJM" classics"??? And would you then soak up pages like "Bike-Burn"/"Pipe-Wrap" or "Return of the Starbucks Racers", as though it's high art slash grade-A hardcore bike-porn wank material?

I'm just curious. I'd like to play a card game of a sort, where pics are flipped up from all of these common Starbucks-Racer builds, and then I'll dig up a "PROPER" interpretation of the same model of bike, with comparable chassis upgrades & bodywork re-design etc. And we ask any onlookers to vote on which was functionally useless, "rolling-art" sculpted in staggeringly poor taste, & all around just a waste of a good donor bike. I dunno if it would all work as quick as the game "WAR" or "SNAP" - but that's about how quick the mental images come to mind. And I've got something like 17,500 bike-porn images down-loaded - that's how obsessed I am with the bike-porn collecting. Just sayin' - it's not one of those "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" type of things. I really feel there are legit reasons why a lot of the "Starbucks Racer" Superbike DE-builds, um ... SUCK. Most of all, 'cause the same amount of time energy & $$$, could've gone into a really GOOD project.

SO YEAH - if that does indeed describe you, that you "like Oreos" etc. Please explain it to me like I have no idea wtf it's about. 'Cause maybe it's a hipster generation-gap thing or something.

Am I alone on this one? Does anybody agree with me that a lot of these bikes really just look like ass?

I mean, if it actually RUNS well, good for you.  But there ought to be a pass-fail test on all motorcycle customization, which would flat-out destroy the Cruiser/Chopper thing or at least cut out the hard-tail mods once & for all - at least, on everything but the Hardlyablesons which have horrendously over-weight frames in original bone-stock form.

I say, if you can get a neutral party to run your bike around a very taxing race track, and get some lap times? Then have 'em run lap times on a bone-stock original donor specimen. If the bike hasn't improved in real-world terms, then that's a "fail"! Perhaps some basic measurements such as WEIGHT and weight-BIAS front-to-rear etc, would be a good place to start.

Then at least we'd see less of the fat 17" 3-spoke mag wheels on the classic light-weight twins etc.?

(Parked outside of Starbucks!)

-Sigh.

[Re-run]

Well here is the fact. A bike is an extension of the person that owns it, not the person criticizing it. Not only that, but everyone has to start somewhere on learning how to customize. Sometimes the results are not that great to others, but makes the creator happy. And whos happiness is more important, some chud on the street, or the person riding it?

As for hipster, what a stupid word to bandy about. If I took a 50s car and rodded it, just because I wasn't a kid then, does that make me a hipster? No, it means I like that style and I am trying to recreate it. Will my first attempt be spot-on? Probably not, but rarely are changes made that can't be undone. I have seen excellent CAFE bikes, I have seen bad ones. I have seen bad ones get redone when the builder has more experience and look amazing.

I have seen the same with choppers, real chops, not the "custom" bikes that get called choppers.

Who cares if you don't like it, it isn't being done to please you. Pretty sure you have modded something and someone out there didn't like it and wanted to show you a "proper" build.

I think you have lost sight of what a bike means.

[TOOLS1]

I wish we had a "LIKE" button.
TOOLS

Re-run wrote

Well here is the fact. A bike is an extension of the person that owns it, not the person criticizing it. Not only that, but everyone has to start somewhere on learning how to customize. Sometimes the results are not that great to others, but makes the creator happy. And whos happiness is more important, some chud on the street, or the person riding it?

As for hipster, what a stupid word to bandy about. If I took a 50s car and rodded it, just because I wasn't a kid then, does that make me a hipster? No, it means I like that style and I am trying to recreate it. Will my first attempt be spot-on? Probably not, but rarely are changes made that can't be undone. I have seen excellent CAFE bikes, I have seen bad ones. I have seen bad ones get redone when the builder has more experience and look amazing.

I have seen the same with choppers, real chops, not the "custom" bikes that get called choppers.

Who cares if you don't like it, it isn't being done to please you. Pretty sure you have modded something and someone out there didn't like it and wanted to show you a "proper" build.

I think you have lost sight of what a bike means.

[18Bravo]

It must be a pretty slow day over at caferacer.net...

I'm 53. I didn't know I still qualified as a hipster,  but I'll take it as a compliment. When I fiddle around with any of my three CB's, I shamelessly attempt to make them look cool in the way I want them to look. I really don't care what others think either. You see, therapists would call what you're doing "projecting," so obviously, whether you care to admit it or not, this does seem to be important to you. 
Even though most of what I do (on the Hondas, at any rate) is pretty cosmetic, I would challenge you to prove to me that a significantly lighter bike (think Buchanans here) with not just less weight, but less rotational mass farther from the hub, does not have better acceleration, handling, and braking, some of the necessary mantra words bandied about over at caferacer.net. A  900 dollar exhaust on a 300 bike doesn't hurt either.
Now suppose I did want people to look at my bike as I cruised lazily past the local hipster hang out -  (not sure if Loco Coyote qualifies as that, but I picture it in my mind as I type this)  I would probably drive loudly by running straight pipes, thus attracting even more attention to myself, on the chopper I built from scratch.
Or let's further suppose I do want to race around town like an idiot, where the sped limit in town never exceeds 45 mph. I'm sure my clunky old cafe'd Sportser would do just fine.
And finally, why would I care to build an old 70's bike into something worthy (perhaps in your eyes) of the track. That's what I have a Daytona 675R for, and I can take it to the track any Saturday I like, leaving me six days I the weeks to work on my poseur bikes.
By the way, if you want to browbeat someone with your techno know how, how about joining the 21st century and suggest using carbon fiber. Fiberglass is so, I don't know... last century.

[Truck]

To each his own. Personally I think all those OCC style choppers are the ugliest, most impractical things on the road. However I can look at them and appreciate the work and imagination that goes into them. If that is someone's style more power to the them, ride away and be happy! If you customize or have a custom bike built it is for you, no one else. I personally don't like chrome, and my new bike will have 0 of the shiny stuff on it, but if you like it chrome the whole bike!

You seem to be missing the point of the chopper/bobber/custom world, to take something and make it yours. If you are building your bike to appeal to someone else your way off base.