1974 Norton Commando Cafe Racer completion.

Norton Commandos are a beautiful piece of engineering in stock form. Hopefully, the additions compliment the original bike.

Finally wheeling this beauty out into the light on Easter Sunday. Looks like an Easter egg.

The entire seat assembly is hand-made, including the tail light. There are LED’s used for the tail light and license plate light.

The Norman Hyde fork brace was added to the Don Pender dual-disc front brake set-up. The fender is made from aluminum.

When building a bike, I can’t help but look at the project with a mental list of the steps needed to finish. As it gets closer to the end, there is almost a disbelief that all the steps are done, surely, there must be something left to do. In the case of this bike, there are a couple small details still left, but they are cosmetic.

The 1972 Z50 Cafe Racer nears completion: new windshield, belly pan, and more.

The neon yellow windshield is gone. Originally, I was looking for a green one, but could not find the right shade. Yellow was a second choice, but once again, finding the right shade was the key.

A cover was made for the oil cooler from .050 aluminum, and the belly pan was made from .090 . There is brass mesh under the cooler guard.

The belly pan is a requirement for most vintage racers, and must have the capacity to hold all the oil in the engine. Looking at picture of the bike before the pan and fender were made now look unbalanced.

Engine oil has to be able to find its way into the belly pan, hence the dimple-die holes under the cylinder..

The bike also got safety wire or cotters on the footpegs, handlebars, axles, shocks, and other parts.

A quick release mechanism uses a single red bolt in front and a quarter turn clip in back to secure the pan.

Some of the safety wiring can be seen on the handlebars and fork bolts.

The oil cooler cover is secured with safety wire and brass brackets. The side profile of the bike shows how the muffler is tucked in tight around the rear shock.

Sunset in Texas.

Front Fender for the 1972 Honda Z50 Cafe Racer, 1974 Norton Commando license plate mount.

Just finished this alloy front fender for the 1972 Z50 Cafe Racer. The mount for the fender act as a fork brace and the lower mounts for the coming fork dampers. The wheel spacers needed to adapt a CRF50 wheel to the Z50 forks are part of the mount, making wheel removal and install easier. The mount is kept from rotating by brackets that lock into the flat lower portion of the fork legs, and the brake stay, which passes through the mount.

Because the Z50 uses what are referred to as “upside-down forks,” any fender stay either has to be from the axle or suspended high above the tire to account for suspension travel.

People will sometimes ask if there are any in-process pictures of metal forming, but I usually forget to. This is the result of several rounds of pounding and annealing. Starting with a flat sheet, pounded on a shot bag in the center and strategically shrunck around the edges to get the desired shape.

Part way through the build, there is a lot of fitting and checking to get the shapes and alignment right.

Once fitted, the fork brace all but disappears. The mounts for the external fork damper are on both sides, but still not sure there will be more than one used.

The fender stripes were scaled down slightly to match the dimensions.

A license plate bracket was added to the 1974 Norton Commando. An LED light sits at the top. There is very little left to do on this bike as far as building.