Topic: Danielle CB550K Build - Toyon Moto Club #5

[Blackfin5]

Discovered the reason for the 2.9mm gap.  The new Ikon shocks do not fit perfectly inline between mounts.  When installed on top mounts, the shocks are each about 3/16" offset to the outside of lower mounting hole, which is no big deal; but, with no rear wheel mounted and torqued, the shocks exert enough of a force to spread apart the back ends of the swingarm by 2.0mm.  With no shocks mounted there is no gap.  Now I need to find a way to align the shock mounts vertically without messing up the frame.

Brent, I discussed this gap issue with Denis and sent him the stock 550 spacers.  He is making me new ones out of aluminum.

[bwaller]

Sounds good.

[Blackfin5]

 I ordered my Koso LCD digital gauges directly from Koso N.A.  The gauges arrived promptly and I can't wait to light up these bad boys.

[Blackfin5]

I like these Koso gauges, just not quite sure if I like them more than a single, multi-function analog gauge like a motogadget.  But I will stick with them until the build is finished and I have a chance to play with them.  Although the viewing angle of the gauges when mounted is perfect, the mount to the upper tree was not. The supplied mounting bracket is a few millimeters to short, so the gauges cannot be properly aligned.  As you can see, they have a slight inside tilt.  I can't rotate them to the outside in order to align them horizontally because the housing hits the upper.  At least the brackets will make a good template to fab up something a bit longer.  Another 5mm will do nicely.

[Blackfin5]

As to the front fender, I was unable to fit a fender to the underside of the fork brace.  Not as much clearance as I need.  With the tire mounted, there is only 1/4" between the top of the tire and the underside of the fork brace.  Remember, I have 500 tubes, and have come to like the look on the 550.  So I decided to fit a fender over the top of the brace instead. Of the 2 pre-fab fiberglass fenders I had to work with, one (Dime City - can't remember) matched the tire radius very well but I didn't like its flatness on top (like a squared off tire).  As for the other one (Benjie's), it had a very nice round shape side to side, but its radius was too large and it did not look right at each of its ends.  So I decided to make my own laminate fender using light weight e-glass cloth for smoothness (top surface) over 7.4oz uni-directional carbon (bottom surface) laid up in 3 layers, each layer at 90 degrees.  Then using hi-density adhesive filler (bomb proof), I epoxied in a 3mm strip of aluminum to the underside of the fender with which to mount to the top piece of the brace.  I haven't drilled and tapped mounting holes yet.  Low profile pan bolts will go through the brace from the underside into the aluminun strap.

I am very happy with the side-to-side profile and it has a radius matching the 100/90 front tire.  Still some fitment trimming and sanding before it goes to paint - gloss black with 3 coats of polished clear.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I had the same issues with my front fender and fork brace (Tarozzi).  Mounting underneath the fork brace does not appear to have adequate clearance. 

Feel like making an extra fender???

[Blackfin5]

Cal.  Thanks for the suggestion, but the brackets are a symetrical "Y".  The mounting hole in the bottom of the "Y" bolts into a treaded 6M hole in the underside of the upper tree.

CB.  You have the shorter 500 fork cases?  I'm the type of guy that can't say no even though that fender was a royal pain in the ass.  What size front tire is yours?

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Cal.  Thanks for the suggestion, but the brackets are a symetrical "Y".  The mounting hole in the bottom of the "Y" bolts into a treaded 6M hole in the underside of the upper tree.

CB.  You have the shorter 500 fork cases?  I'm the type of guy that can't say no even though that fender was a royal pain in the ass.  What size front tire is yours?

Yes, I have the shorter fork legs.  I'm not sure when Honda switched over.  If I could find a clean pair of lowers, I might just swap all of my other components over to the longer fork legs and be able to run both a fork brace and fender!

[Bankerdanny]

I like these Koso gauges, just not quite sure if I like them more than a single, multi-function analog gauge like a motogadget.  But I will stick with them until the build is finished and I have a chance to play with them.  Although the viewing angle of the gauges when mounted is perfect, the mount to the upper tree was not. The supplied mounting bracket is a few millimeters to short, so the gauges cannot be properly aligned.  As you can see, they have a slight inside tilt.  I can't rotate them to the outside in order to align them horizontally because the housing hits the upper.  At least the brackets will make a good template to fab up something a bit longer.  Another 5mm will do nicely.

I'm glad you are going to fix that, those cocked gauges would drive me insane.

[Blackfin5]

They ARE really bugging me but fairly low on the to do list.....

[Blackfin5]

Not really into naming bikes, but since I never did go with the Gulfstream aqua, and since this little 550 is really growing on me, I think she is a keeper.  Hence, "Danielle."

[Blackfin5]

The crank came in from APE, as well as the new components for the ignition system.  The stator and field coil were rebuilt by Rick's.  The m-unit also arrived from Cognito.  Thanks, Devin.

[FunJimmy]

Fantastic looking build. Lots to catch up on.
Like Brent said, an 11mm master offers excellent feel and modulation, but you're past that now.

[Blackfin5]

Thx, Jimmy.  Gentleman provided a lot of inspiration.  The 14mm will likely end up on the Blaster 750 after going to a 2nd front disc; and a 12mm here.

[Blackfin5]

Just some bling to show.  Since I am wiring this bike up from scratch, I decided to go the m-unit route with keyless start and electronic ignition.  The remaining parts arrived today so the wiring can commence.  Thanks to CognitioMoto for handling the order.  These were all a bit pricey compared to the conventional parts, but as said, Danielle is a keeper.

Got the new coils bolted up, but not wired.  Have new suppression spark plug wires from Buzz.



Truck LED headlight in new metal bucket I powder coated black - rim too.  It protrudes a little from the bucket, but I like the look.  This thing is heavy and takes up a lot of room in the bucket.  Glad I have the m-unit to minimize the wires in the bucket.



I opted for Motogadget push buttons (5 in all - start/stop, left turn, rt turn, hi/low beam, and horn) in lieu of traditional handlebar controls.  I splurged for Motogadget's Ice turn signals too.  They are bright amber when lit up and can be seen 360 degrees.  A bit ultra-modern for a vintage 550, except I like the mix of new technology while retaining an vintage feel to the bike.  I think these turnsignals will go nicely with the blue LCD digital Koso gauges.  The wires feeding the turn signals are a miniscule AWG/mm gauge - similar to what RC guys use.









I was going to drill into the top surface of the upper tree to mount LED idiot lights until I came across this mini unit in polished aluminum.  Also a Motogadget product.



The m-unit and electronic ignition will go under the seat on a flat base attached to the rear hoop.  I am retaining the battery and electronics box on the sides, behind the side covers.  The electronics box will house the regulator/rectifier, the starter solenoid, main 15A circuit breaker and negative bus bar for wiring convenience.  The m-lock location is a secret.

Cheers.

[Blackfin5]

Trying to take advantage of the long weekend to reassemply the cases.  I received 10 NOS crank bearings and the necessary 8 rod bearings.  Like others, I'll be using new F2 rod bolts/nuts.  The old bearings were A or Black, so that's what I ordered as a starting point since the journals and old bearings were in very good shape - much better than expected. 

Using green Plastigage, I checked the crank journals first.  After torqueing the cases bolts to 17 ft.lbs., the result on the Plastigage scale was a bit less than .0015 inch (.038mm).  This was the result for each of the 5 journals and bearings - no noticable variation.

[bwaller]

Are you rubbing your hands together in anticipation yet? 

[Blackfin5]

Ha!  There's a joke in there, but I can't wait.  Especially seeing my buddies' 550s coming together so quickly. 

Denis made me new 6061-T6 axle spacers.  He guarantee lap times 1 second faster with these. 

[Blackfin5]

Installed the m-unit and Dyna 2000 and started with the wiring today.  There are rubber "feet" (1" faucet washers) between the seat plate and the units in an attempt to minimize some vibration.  Tomorrow will install the battery box and electrics plate, and then wire up the starter solenoid, regulator/rectifier, coils, and m-lock.  I went with the Dyna over the Pamco despite some problems identified on the forum because I wanted the programable features.  I discussed the issues experienced here with Buzz and he is confident that the new units are solid and reliable if configured correctly with coils and suppression plug wires.  Time will tell.





Cheers!

[Trad]

Damn, that wiring to the M unit looks so damn clean. Makes me want one. 

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Ha!  There's a joke in there, but I can't wait.  Especially seeing my buddies' 550s coming together so quickly. 

Denis made me new 6061-T6 axle spacers.  He guarantee lap times 1 second faster with these. 

Denis and the CMR crew make amazing race bike porn.

[Blackfin5]

Yes, top shelf work and people.

The one thing I noticed with the wheels is that the rear tire is perfectly centered in the swingarm; but when fabing up the custom fit front fender is that the front tire is not perfectly centered in the middle of the forks.  I am using the stock axle and spacers.  The only non-stock piece is a machined spacer to replace the stock speedo drive.  I have spec-ed the drive and the replacement spacer and they have identical lengths.  The front tire is off center by about 5/32 in.  I measured both sides from the inside edge of each Tarozzi mounts on each fork to the rim edge and compared the measurements.  The Taro mounts may be off a bit.  This was a quick look. I will try to take a truer measurement tonight.  If still off, I will have to machine new spacers to center the wheel.

[Blackfin5]

I am pretty confident the axle is installed in correct orientation but I will check.  Thx.

[Blackfin5]

Accurately measured tonight with bike standing upright.  From inside of fork to rim, there is a difference between left and right side of 0.08 inch.  I spun wheel 180° and measured again - same. The Tarozzi fork mounts accounted for a bit of the difference I measured previously due to poor castings.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Is the stock front 550 wheel trued 3-4 mm off-set toward the left side, like the K1-K6 750, to accommodate a second disc?  I don't think this would create any spacing issues since this is simply lacing and not the hub being off from true center.