San Diego custom shop Cerberus Motorcycles is a partnership between biking veterans David Hargreaves and Erik Borowitz; two cool guys with a few stories to tell (which you can read HERE). This is their latest custom cafe/brat, based on a 1973 CL350. They picked the bike up from Craigslist in crates to rebuild and sell according to their own ideas, but three quarters of the way through the build a customer turned up so the bike started to change shape according to his wishes. The CL is a pretty sweet bike to start with, once you throw away all the heavy and ugly stuff, and the guys wanted to make it a simple build utilising as many stock parts as possible. They also decided to make it black, or at least various shades of black and off-black finishes, including Matt Black Hot Rod paint mixed with a little graphite - although the new owner did ask for a few chrome details and switched the original high pipes to low items.

The bike was fully stripped and rebuilt, while the frame was reworked to suit the cafe/Brat style and delugged where parts like the sidepanels were ditched before being powdercoated in high gloss black. The engine was ok, but as it needed new gaskets, seals and paint it was also rebuilt, adding high compression pistons and a megacycle cam, and the ports were polished to improve gasflow.

The Carbs are 32mm Mikunis with pod style air filters pulling air in from the cleared-out rear sub frame. The Exhaust had to be modified to clear the rear sets, and the customer requested 'shaker' mufflers.

The brakes are the stock drums which have been completely rebuilt. The controls are all new, the headlight is a chrome CEV unit with an H-3 bulb and there's a 60mm speedo mounted tight behind it. The classic 70s tank is from a Honda CB. 11” chrome shocks from Cycle X suspend the rear of the bike while the seat was made in-house by Cerberus' seamstress, Jenifer. The wheels have been completely rebuilt and powder coated with stainless spokes from Buchannan and they wear fat Kenda Challenger tyres, wedged-in tight.

The guys are really pleased with the end result (although they preferred the high pipes). She sits low but rides superbly and really smooth, geared for city use, which is where the new owner will be doing most of his riding.

See more from Cerberus Motorcycles and take a take a little time to read about David and Erik on their Website and Facebook pages. We hope to see more of their builds on The Bike Shed soon.