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My Virago Cafe Build

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GST with PSI

DSM Wiseman
2,728
1,503
Jul 27, 2005
San Diego, California
After putting some miles on the bike and ensuring it was mechanically sound, it was time to tackle the cosmetics. I picked up some paint, and went to work.
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After the color coats:
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After clear:
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Also painted the wheels:
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Paint done:
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I gave the paint a few weeks to breathe, and then wet sanded the tank, finishing up with a cut and buff.
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Finally, added some small finishing touches. Chalking this build up as done!
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Dang Brett..you always make everything so damn nice, most of the rest of our stuff pales in comparison haha. The bike looks excellent, very well done!

Thanks, man!

Anyone can build nice stuff as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort. That's really all it takes. Well that, and money, which in my case there never seems to be an ample supply of.

Hopefully with this project wrapped up, I can get a bit of wrenching in on the Galant.
 
Man Brett you've done an amazing job! Im picky when it comes to cafe racers but you totally nailed it in my eyes.
Ive wanted to build my own cafe racer for soo long already....instead I just keep picking up and flipping bikes. Last summer I had 13 bikes in my garage, thankfully im down to 6 now.
I should totally ship my 75 kawasaki h1 to you, I couldn't believe it had a rare tank on it worth $1k+ and i got the bike for under $500 haha.

Good to know theres fellow bikers on tuners here, i couldn't live with out a bike in my life.
 
looks good man. Did you dyno after changing the jetting? I bet it picked up quite a bit.

Not yet, but that's the plan. Butt dyno says it moves a bit better.

I've had a few people tell me CV carbs are superior to the round slide Mikunis, but the Keihin CVs I have on my CX500 suck ass in comparison. I tried to run a pair of velocity stacks on the Keihins, but without the stock air box, I couldn't even generate enough vacuum to get the slide up. I put some tape over 3/4 of the velocity stack inlet just to see what happened, and suddenly the bike ran great ROFL
 
Not yet, but that's the plan. Butt dyno says it moves a bit better.

I've had a few people tell me CV carbs are superior to the round slide Mikunis, but the Keihin CVs I have on my CX500 suck ass in comparison. I tried to run a pair of velocity stacks on the Keihins, but without the stock air box, I couldn't even generate enough vacuum to get the slide up. I put some tape over 3/4 of the velocity stack inlet just to see what happened, and suddenly the bike ran great ROFL

Thats correct, you need to understand how cv carburetors work first. The Keihin on the CX500 sucks because they are ancient and the CX500 itself sucks, terrible design that Honda tried for years to salvage with increased displacement and turbos etc to gimmick it up, needless to say it didn't work and was finally put out of Honda's misery, you will find out in the future why the cv is superior on the engine you have, you will have inconsistent jetting anytime the temperature or altitude changes by any decent amount, but if you like it this way, more power to you, if cv carburetors weren't superior the manufacturers wouldn't be using them for decades, why would they want to put their product at a disadvantage? (insert conspiracy theories here about government emissions etc).
 
Dont be afraid to wetsand and buff the next day. I actually prefer to get any dust nibs out as soon after as I reasonably can as the clear continues to harden up making the job just a bit more work. 3000 on a DA as a final abrasive before the buff speeds things up in a major way too.

Finish looks great! Nicely done!
 
Thats correct, you need to understand how cv carburetors work first.

I understand the concept perfectly fine. I was simply stating my experience with that particular CV carb.



you will find out in the future why the cv is superior on the engine you have, you will have inconsistent jetting anytime the temperature or altitude changes by any decent amount

Well, luckily for me, I live in San Diego where it's a cool 70 degrees nearly year round.



if cv carburetors weren't superior the manufacturers wouldn't be using them for decades, why would they want to put their product at a disadvantage?

I see what you're getting at, but that's not a very strong argument. You could just as easily say round slide carbs like the Mikuni VMs are superior because they are still widely sold today as performance upgrades, so why would that be the case of it weren't true. However, I wouldn't say that, because it a weak argument.

The biggest problem with CV carbs is that the carb design limits what you can do with it performance wise. The velocity stack limiting vacuum is a perfect example of this. Sure, there are better CV carbs than the Keihin stockers that come on the CX500, but you still have to optimize the intake side of the CV carb to get throttle response and performance that's worth a damn. The round slide carb gives basically zero f***s about that, which means your primary focus can revolve around getting as much air channeled through the throat of the carb as possible. And, if you reverse that theory over on the exhaust side, you're on track to making some jam. As I'm sure you know, there's no perfect carb solution, it's always a tradeoff...Hence, the move to fuel injection.

All that being said, I'm extremely happy with the performance and reliability of the Mikuni VMs I'm running. The bike starts on the first kick, and runs flawlessly. Their flat slide carbs were an attractive option as well, but bang for buck, the Mikuni VMs are awesome in my opinion.
 
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