Topic: CB550 bobber..rebuild

[Enginetiks]

A little over a year ago I picked up this hard tailed CB550 off craigslist.  The bike ran pretty well, but alot of the work was a little half assed.  So I stripped it down and am in the process of fixing some of the things I wasn't happy with and changing the look of the bike a little.
This is the bike the way I picked it up



I really wasn't a fan of the mini apes...so I picked up some trackers.  I also hated the peanut tank...doesn't sit right on the 550 stamped backbone.  I saw a xs that garage co. built using a cb160 tank and I really liked the look so I picked one up off ebay




The frame was pretty hacked.....I wasn't feeling too safe with the welds on the hardtail conversion and the over generous usage of grey spraypaint, so I tore the whole bike down.

By the way...It's kind of hard to lift the engine out of the frame by yourself....just sayin

While the bike was apart I fixed all the welding on the hardtail and I decided to reinfoce the hard tail a bit.


I also had to fill the original front mounting hole for the tank...a wyoming quater came in handy.

The cover for the electrical box was originally fastened with self tapping screws...I wasn't digging that mounting solution.  I picked up some round stock and drilled it out on the lathe and welded in new inserts so I could tap them to 1/4 20 and use som buttonhead allen bolts.


I built some new mounting points for the cb160 tank..I welded in some round bar for the forward mount to allow the factory tank mount slots to be utilized and shaped a piece of sheetmetal to box up where the original rear tank mounts were located and I welded a mounting bung on the frame for the rear.


I did some body work on the frame, fender and tank and had them sprayed battleship grey and black.



The current task is tearing down the engine to replace all the leaking gaskets and repaint it(some body went a little crazy painting the engine silver with out pulling the engine out of the frame.)



I got a chance to soda blast the engine....what a mess


After it was cleaned up I painted it black and my new gaskets came in, so it's reassembly time.


....and my tires showed up

The motor is back together and installed in the frame


I've been trying to figure out the previous owners wiring and make it right...I also installed my Hondaman transistorized ignition module.


The new rollers

My improvised bike lift

Built a new battery tray out of some aluminum I had laying around





My -3 fork tubes showed up so I was able to get the bike back on the ground and rolling




My dyna coils showed up and I built a bracket to mount them.

Gave a them a little paint and double checked the tank clearance.

I also got my primo kick pedal(thanks to dimecity for all the parts) welded to my kicker arm

I also got a chance to roll it outside with the tank and fender on to see how it looks in the sunlight




Hopefully I will beable to get some more work done this week.

[Statenheimer]

Looks awesome    Nice work, and great pics/documentation.

I would love to do a hardtail with one of my 550's.  Just have to finish the resto and the cafe first... haha.

[Enginetiks]

We had a little car show at my work last weekend.....so I rolled the bike out.
It's getting down to the final details...