Seven Fifty cafe-racer. “Enchanted” parts.

There were a few parts in this CB750 cafe-racer project which I couldn’t buy for quite a long time. Every time I found satisfying part something had happened. Part itself suddenly became out of stock or seller didn’t answer , or I had answer and was ready for deal but there was no further progress because seller disappeared. And so on and so forth.

In fact there were three positions in the list I called enchanted: rear brake disc, gear shift lever and fuel tank cap lock.

So I was forced to concern my efforts in achieving this little goals. This concentration gave results so here they are:

New Braking rear brake rotor.

And gear shift lever from Kawasaki ZZR600. Nothing special, just accurate aluminum lever in condition close to new.

But there was another story with fuel cap lock. Turned out that not every Honda CX500 had tanks equipped with proper locks but only those of them which were called “Deluxe” edition. All other models were equipped with cap covers which may be opened by any key, screwdriver or even ice cream stick. This small fact caused rarity of CX500 fuel cap locks. So that one could barely find it in stock or in backorder of any Honda dealership all over the World. There is some ebay offers available, but the price is high due to the part rarity.

But of course, this is no reason to leave to situation as it is. So I firstly worked out theoretical solution, then went to local scooter shop and bought there a set of locks for some Honda 50ccm scooter. The set consists of ignition switch and couple of locks, but in fact I was interested only in the shortest of them. Then I had to make some modification.

Here is those Honda “any key” pin which lock CX500 tank cap cover.

I cut off its holder from cap cover.

And slightly modified lock hole. I made it wider for another half of millimeter to fit new lock body, shortened the heights of cylinder in which lock will sit and formed groove for lock guide ledge.

Then I made a new locking unit. Later it’ll be zinc anodized, of course. The threaded pins which lay aside have only 3mm in diameter

Here is lock itself. Typical Honda short lock which is used in many two wheelers, as I learned. I removed standard locking unit from it and prepared it to a new unit installation.

That’s how it works.

Lock installed into the cap cover:

I also modified a tank lock plate. Just cut off small ledges it had and widened hole a bit.

I didn’t remove blue film cover from lock just in case to prevent undesirable scratches, that might be caused in process of lock system designing and making.