Chicago cafe racing

Last week I took a trip out to Chicago to visit my good friend Ryan. We’ve rode bmx for years and on one of our last bmx adventures around the southwest riding some of the best cement parks (chandler park, Phoenix AZ) I got him psyched on finding an old Honda …

A few months later he found a 1971 CB500 in decent condition.

Luckily Ryan has a big 2 car garage which made it easy to get some work done on one of the rainy days.

We spent a solid day giving the bike a full tune up. Cam chain, valve clearance, points, timing, carb clean, and a general cleaning. The head gasket was leaking slightly so we decided to re-torqued the head by cracking each bolt and then torquing it to the highest spec (~18ft lbs). Heard some mixed feeling on this but thought it was worth a try.

I traveled out to Chicago with my lady who was very patient with the wrenching so once we got it fired up we took the cycle out all around the city.

We hit up a bunch of places including Intelligensia coffee house which is a well known spot. They individually brew each cup of coffee. It was awesome.

We parked next to a burly CB750 while eating lunch at the Chicago Diner. Best seitan ruben sandwhich I’ve ever had.