CB900F MVP Build: Engine on Wheels to Street Legal

When I bought the CB900F, it had no brakes, everything was just loosely attached, and I had to trailer it home. It did come with a CBR1000RR front end already swapped in (04-05 forks, triple tree, wheel, and brakes), which was a nice surprise. The plan from the start was to get it on the road as fast as possible and sort out the rest later. This is the story of that build.

The Tank

The original tank had to go before anything else. It was so far gone that when I set a Phillips on the outside and gave it a light tap, it punched straight through. Rust had eaten it from the inside out. Tanks for these bikes are hard to come by, so I got really lucky finding a beautiful one in great condition on eBay. It has a few scratches and dents, but that just adds character.

Carb Tuning

The bike came with GSX1100F Katana carbs (BST34SS) already swapped in. Pulled all four apart and cleaned out the gunk. The hoses connecting them together were leaking fuel pretty badly so those got replaced too. Then came the long part: synchronizing them. When I got the bike, it barely wanted to run on one of the cylinders because the sync was so far off. After a lot of fiddling, it runs pretty dang good now. There are still a few issues that will probably need re-jetting to sort out, but that’s a project for another day.

Cockpit

The stock GSX clip-ons weren’t long enough to fit all the controls, so I swapped them for a longer set off Amazon. Picked up a set of modern-looking hand controls from Amazon while I was at it. I originally had my eye on a nicer set from REM Motorcycles, but with the title situation up in the air, I didn’t want to throw a lot of money at the bike until I had the title in my hand. Most of the parts on this build came from Amazon for exactly that reason. Hence the MVP.

The previous owner left the stock CB900 throttle on it and it was all janky. The cable wasn’t even screwed into the housing and couldn’t be. Replaced it with a Domino single pull throttle controller, which was the only decent option I could find, and made a cable for it using a Venhill kit. Finding single pull throttle components is oddly difficult. Venhill lists the kit on their website, but you can’t actually buy it from any distributor except on eBay. It’s almost like they make it hard on purpose for safety reasons. Hard to argue with that once you’ve used one. Only about 25 degrees between fully closed and wide open. Feels really nice and smooth, but you need some self-control with the throttle hand. If you’re not careful that thing is going whether you like it or not.

Wiring

The original harness was a total hack job. The previous owner had ripped out almost every wire and spliced things back together just enough to get it to run. It was pretty much unusable as a starting point. Picked up a used CB900C harness off eBay for cheap and used that as the base instead.

From there, I modified and adapted it to fit, integrated all the new components, and replaced almost every stock connector with Deutsch DT connectors. DT connectors are weatherproof, high quality, and keyed so you can’t mix them up. Also swapped the original glass tube fuse box for a modern blade fuse box while I was at it.

Tires

The rear tire looked like someone had put a front tire on it. Way too round. Turns out that’s just how tires fit on that wheel. The front and rear were also two completely different tires, so new rubber was overdue. Went with Bridgestone Battlax BT46s. They feel really good, nice and sticky. Haven’t had them slip on me once.

First Ride

Got the temp tags and decided to make a day of it. I had originally taken the day off for “Motorcycle Monday,” but ended up going into the office anyway. Guess it was just somewhere to ride. After lunch, I called it and headed out.

Started in Boulder and took 36 up toward Estes, stopping along the way for photos. Filled up in Estes, then headed down the canyon, turned off at the school and made my way toward Masonville. Stopped at Masonville Mercantile for a rest and some more photos, hung out for a bit, then continued down Horsetooth into Fort Collins.

Swung by my old job to say hi to whoever was still there, and also to ask if they could do a bike appraisal since I was going to need one for the title situation. They pointed me to Tri-City Cycle, so I rode over and got it taken care of. After that, I headed down to Berthoud for dinner at my dad’s, then back up to Fort Collins in the evening to say hi to an old roommate. Ended up putting about 300 miles in that day.

CycleGear Bike Night

Got lucky and managed to finish the bike just in time for CycleGear’s inaugural 2026 Bike Night. It was a really cool experience and a ton of fun to watch the events. Already planning to participate in the Slow Race at the next one. Shoutout to @darkroom.drive on Instagram for the rollers.

The Title

After I bought the bike and trailered it home, I was looking everything over more closely and noticed the VIN on the title and frame didn’t match. Not exactly what you want to find out after already handing over the cash. Someone had fat-fingered the beginning of the VIN, title said JH15L instead of JH1SC. Until that was sorted out, I didn’t technically own the bike.

I started setting up VIN Verification appointments, which turned into a whole thing. The wait lists were long and at one point, I almost had to ride it all the way down to Pueblo just to get seen. On top of that, I would have needed a records search at a separate office, and I was looking at potentially needing a bonded title, which is why I stopped by Tri-City Cycle on the first ride to get an appraisal.

At the last minute, the Adams County wait list came through. Went in for the appointment and got really lucky. The State Trooper was super nice, and instead of making me go through the full correction process, he did a VIN/Title Correction on the spot. Got the title in the mail last Friday. Project officially done, for now. Full cafe racer build is next.

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The Bike

Year	1982
Make	Honda
Model	CB900F Super Sport (Bol d’Or)
Engine	Inline-four, DOHC, air-cooled
Displacement	901cc stock. Previous owner claimed it’s been bored to ~1000cc. No way to verify, but the engine has clearly been apart at some point.

Parts List