swap meet **** rat bike of the day | adam’s 1980 cb250 bobber

and now for something completely different.

adam cockburn is an aussie bikerMetric reader and bM fakebook member, i mean poser, who sent in his honda cb250 rat bobber. the following is adam’s take on the build he calls “the ugly bob:”

I bought this bike as an ugly, rough and dorky 1980 CB250 that was painted yellow with a white frame with a huge, freshly covered seat and leaky pipes. I considered buying a cafe racer seat and tank setup from the States but thought “what the ****, I have always wanted to build a bobber,” so I went for it with minimal tools and skills.

I’m and IT Systems Admin and the bike is a work in progress. It’s being built in my back shed using basic tools and a borrowed MIG welder. I started by chopping the frame at the rear just behind the shock mounts and wasn’t happy with the square look it left, so I cut more and welded until I got a shape that I could live with, whilst not removing all of the shock mounts. The “oil tank” is a petrol tank from a stationary motor that I have split down the middle to make a battery box and to hold some electrical stuff like the starter solenoid. I built the struts using the clevis from the original shocks. The forward controls (unfinished mock-ups here) will use the standard pegs. I’ll use the old brake pedal and might end up with a jockey shifter mounted to the clutch.

The idea behind the Ugly Bob was to spend as little as time and money as possible while re-using as much as I could as long as it fit the theme. I made two other rear fenders trying the tuck-and-shrink method before I decided to add steel from an old shop shelf to the original and reuse it. The seat is made from an old road sign and I have 3″ barrel springs waiting to pop underneath.

The exhaust is the standard unit with about 300mm cut off the mufflers. The collector box was removed and the holes in the headers are welded up with steel from the shop shelf which was also added to the rusty sections. Air filters are eBay Taiwan units. The headlight is from eBay as well, and the tail light will either be the Model A Ford stop light that I have, or a $10 round trailer light because the Ford stop light looks a little big. I have bullet indicators for it and flat drag bars are on the way from the States as well as heat wrap for the headers, and muffler packing for the mufflers.

There were more than a few cans of Jim Beam and cola consumed during the build and it was mostly done after work, in the dark, on weekends. Inspiration came from bikerMetric and Google images.

inspiration: honda cl360 bobber | motorcycle photo of the day

My lady Megan has supported this project and all my other toys, including helping make the dream of owning my Harley a reality as well as being cool with me owning three cars, three bikes, and having various other expensive hobbies. I’m trying to use the “thought not bought” mentality and am not taking the build too seriously. I’m not Jesse James and I’m cool with that.

Thanks for thinking it worthy of your site, Trent, even as a readers ride. It means the world to me that people like what they see and/or call me a sick ****. The maiden voyage will be this weekend methinks and Ugly Bob will keep evolving until the ecilop [editor’s note: slang for “police”] detect it. Then it will be turned into a spare frame and converted to a bush hack for me to ride with my son.

Oh, and I can’t wait to start on the next one!

right on, adam. thanks for sending info and pix about your crappy swap meet poser rat bike. have megan or your son take pix of you getting a ticket from the pigs. and get a life. my website sucks!
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