[/slider] We’ve been taking time and stripping the Virago of all the unnecessary parts we won’t be using for this Café racer build. At 1060 LBS, this bike carries almost twice as much weight as the average bike today! There’s a lot of horses under the seat but is unfortunately cursed with heavy, clunky technology from the 80’s. It’s not all that fast but we’re hoping that shedding some weight will help it move along much better and make it a bit more aerodynamic by removing all the bits and pieces like the back seat rest, massive handle bars and laptop sized dash board that cause some serious wind drag!
At this point in the build, we haven’t really experienced anything more than some very stubborn, very rusted nuts and bolts. We are however slowly uncovering the secrets this bike has been harboring for the last decade or more. A hacked up wiring harness, a leaky crank case, a ton of missing nuts and bolts, poor of attempts to make extra power by modifying factory parts and signs of previous drops are all hidden gems we’re uncovering! With a bike that’s over 30 years old with an owners list longer than a car rental from Hertz, what can you expect?
Here’s how the bike currently stands!
For the next phase of the build, we will continue to strip everything off, give the entire bike a really good cleaning, prep various parts and the engine block for paint and drain the fluids.