Topic: My 76 550 Cafe project

[Mighty550]

Welp, I have been moving too slow on my project so im gonna post it up and hopefully gain some momentum. So here it is, my 76 cb550f that I bought last spring. The guy I bought it from said "it runs great!"  Well, i found out it was only running on 3 cylinders, it was poorly maintained, and there were acorns in the exhaust!  So, as i dove into it, i found more problems and i decided  to just start from scratch. My ideas keep changing, but its gonna be a cafe racer, nothing crazy, just a fun little bike to dive into the corners with. So far i have almost the entire front end cleaned, repainted, and rebuilt with some fun new levers, controls, bars and grips. 

Here is how it looked when i brought it home, minus a huge stupid fairing:


Here is how she sits as of now

[Damage Inc]

G'day Mighty, I like the progress so far. Good luck with the momentum, I know it can be a challenge keeping things moving along at times. At my current work rate I estimate a completion date of my project, approximately 2016. I see some similarities in your build so far, ie front forks and rim being painted black. My front end isn't done yet, but that what I'm thinking. As far as "ideas changing", I'm hearing you. I don't know how many times I've gone through the pods vs airbox idea, currently I don't want to sacrifice performance for cosmetics. I'll be watching your build with interest, so plenty of photos pls.

Damage Inc

[Mighty550]

Got the front caliper redone and back on. Headlight bucket is repainted and front turns are on there way. All i have to do is install them and rebuild the master cylinder and the front end is done, besides wiring and cables of course...

[Stev-o]

Did you check/upgrade the head bearings?

[Mighty550]

I checked the bearing, they looked good so i just cleaned them up and re-greased em.

[Mighty550]

its been a bit, but i finally got some work done.  I got my new tail light and built the tail light/license plate bracket that will mount on the right side of the rear tire and tuck in real nice.  Also started to attack the wiring.  I built two pans under the seat to house the battery and all the electronics.  Got a regulator/rectifier combo from ricks to switch out the old stuff.  Still trying to finalize my wiring diagram to remove all the stuff I want to take off.  This is the first time I am completely re-wiring a bike so its a pretty daunting task.