Topic: 1978 CB550K4 Project

[Stev-o]

Do you always wax your bikes before you pull the motor?
Does that ease the task??
HA!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Do you always wax your bikes before you pull the motor?
Does that ease the task??
HA!

Yes, and I put the motor in and pull it out repetitively just for giggles, too.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Getting sick of waiting for the DMV to tell me whether I can title the 550K4!  If no, then all these go fast parts will find a home on my 550K1. 

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Well, the title journey has finally ended.  It turns out that the registered owner reported it stolen six months after I purchased the bike.  The owner's story was fishy, since he reported it last seen six months after I bought it and it had been out of his hands for years before then.  I gave the police all of my information (bill of sale, seller's info, vehicle registration report) and they really helped me.  When the police asked the registered owner if he wanted to pay impound and recovery fees to have his bike returned two counties away ($500-$600), he declined and released his interest in the bike to me.

So, now I have a clean title to the bike and have to decide what to do with it.

My nephew never took the MSF Course, so he gets passed over, unless he shows some interest right quick.

My tentative plan is to use the adapted 750F tank, GSXR front with Cognitomoto trees (custom 45mm offset), TTR400 swingarm, and the engine will either be the 550 with my parts from Jordan (550 ported head, cruzinimage 600 kit) or my 650 motor with a 674 kit.  My main focus is on my drastic 750 restomod (Bionic Mongrel) bike so this one can marinate more while I decide and source parts.

[Tews19]

Good for you! Sounds like maybe a coo was planned to get the bike back once all the work was completed?  Some crazy #$%* happens I tell ya when you buy stuff from people and not a dealer.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Good for you! Sounds like maybe a coo was planned to get the bike back once all the work was completed?  Some crazy #$%* happens I tell ya when you buy stuff from people and not a dealer.

It took 5 months from the time I applied for a new title to resolve this.  The police were extremely helpful.  I think it helped that I fully cooperated in providing them every bit of information, documents and investigation results I had.  They took the laboring oar in sorting it out in my favor and getting the release. 

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I'm going to be following DaveBarbier's new round of engine improvements (650 with 674 big bore) with interest.  If it goes smoothly, I will likely follow.

[Restoration Fan]

Whew!   I came home to a titled 550K4 Frame on my doorstep, carefully packaged up by Justin aka justfours.   

Cool.  Don't know how I missed this post but Justin is the guy I bought the 500 and 550 engine plus parts from.  Drove down to Florida to get them.  He's a cool guy.

I would bet that the 550 engine I purchased was once in that frame, Don. 

Also, for the record...I make one hell of a nephew if you still wanna give that bike to your nephew! 

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Hahaha.  . Unfortunately that twist was pretty significant. What a pity - I could have built another one!

[riverfever]

I don't know how I missed this either. On the edge of my beanbag.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

This one's the sleeper, backburner project. 

[riverfever]

Whew!   I came home to a titled 550K4 Frame on my doorstep, carefully packaged up by Justin aka justfours.   

Cool.  Don't know how I missed this post but Justin is the guy I bought the 500 and 550 engine plus parts from.  Drove down to Florida to get them.  He's a cool guy.

I would bet that the 550 engine I purchased was once in that frame, Don. 

Also, for the record...I make one hell of a nephew if you still wanna give that bike to your nephew!

Yeah no sh!t. I can call and badger you once in a while. Ask Cal for references.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Unfortunately, this will not likely go to Nephew #1 (18 yrs old).  Try as I may, he has ZERO interest in 2-wheel motorized vehicles.  Heck, he waited a year to get his license for 4 wheels.  Kids these days!

There may be hope for the younger one, now 14.  Since this is a backburner project, I am slowly building this one to my taste and trying to not go overboard with pricey mods (although it contemplates a rebuilt big bore engine and modern front, but I have most of these parts already).  If Nephew #2 is not a candidate, I have a friend interested.   OR I might just ride the piss out of it first, before selling it or I could keep it as a "rat."  I have PLENTY of time to decide.  Plus having this one on the backburner helps a little with keeping me from buying more projects (or at least that's what I tell myself!).

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Whew!   I came home to a titled 550K4 Frame on my doorstep, carefully packaged up by Justin aka justfours.   

Cool.  Don't know how I missed this post but Justin is the guy I bought the 500 and 550 engine plus parts from.  Drove down to Florida to get them.  He's a cool guy.

I would bet that the 550 engine I purchased was once in that frame, Don. 

Also, for the record...I make one hell of a nephew if you still wanna give that bike to your nephew!

Yeah no sh!t. I can call and badger you once in a while. Ask Cal for references.

When it comes to motorcycles, I want to be my nephew!  The first bike I road on was on the back of my godmother's 70's CB550K that she bought for her niece.  I loved that bike.  It was the "spark" for me with motorcycles.  Many years later, when I was in college, my godmother asked my mother if she could give it to me.  I never knew.  My mother, of course, said NO, and the bike went to a charity.  When I finished my 750 and showed it to my godmother, she had a big smile.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Having decided to go shoe-horn a 650 engine into a 550 frame, I have decided to sell this bike complete and instead use a titled donor CB550 donor frame/roller.  There are so many things I will not use on the existing bike, I was able to find a suitable rolling chassis donor cheap and I'm in the process of getting it titled.  I can get more selling the complete CB550K4 complete, running and titled even if it is not pretty.  This will preserve a survivor 550 and allow me to save a roller from lingering.

The "new" bike will use the donor frame and incorporate many/most of the mods in this thread:
Braced, detabbed and hooped frame
GSXR forks, brakes
Cognitomoto custom offset triple trees and hub
TTR400 Swingarm (sourced from a forum member)
Modified 750F gas tank
Custom Ian Halcott seat (to be designed)
Motogadget M-Unit and M-Button wiring
1982 CB650 motor with ported head and 674cc Dynoman kit
Harisuluv rebuilt stock carbs (possible upgrade much later to 750 carbs or CRs)
New CDI Box and Reg/Rec from Rick's
New mini-coils from Dyna

Depending on how this evolves, the bike may either take a stylistic direction of a retromod café or tracker. 

All that said, I will probably retire this thread and start a new one soon.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

You might give the C5 ignition a look before the CDI/Dyna combo.

I did but it's my understanding that the 650 uses its own CDI box (which Rick's repops/upgrades).  Dyna does not make a compatible electronic ignition for the 650 engine -- only the coils (which I already sourced for this project long ago).  Their engineers said that the other aftermarket electronic ignition manufacturers are not compatible either.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

So I sold this bike to my buddy Ian Halcott so he can do a quick build and flip.

I spent yesterday with him tearing it down and doing some frame mods. 

Starting with this:



Removing this:



Detabbing the frame



Replacing the top frame rails so they are flat across:

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

The motor was in exceptionally good shape for one sitting so long.  135-140 lbs. in each cylinder.  Just needs gasket replacement and valves lapped and back into the frame it goes!

And yes, the teardown was quick.  Approx. 80 minutes because one of the engine mount bolts was seized.

[Stev-o]

Hey Don....if it's just a quick flip, why go though a [possible] expensive cafe[?] build?

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

This is no longer my build but now belongs to Ian. He can turn this bike into a nice spec built cafe in about a month.

His shop Twinline built the Goldhead and Thorn bikes.

[Stev-o]

This is no longer my build but now belongs to Ian. He can turn this bike into a nice spec built cafe in about a month.

His shop Twinline built the Goldhead and Thorn bikes.

Is the Goldhead an RD350?

http://www.twinlinemotorcycles.com/?p=1592

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Think so

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

The Thorn is pretty special. 550 frame with a Ninja 500ex engine bored out to 600cc and a cam. Super light and super narrow. And the Boz Brothers rode it like a raped ape.

[Bigsam302]

Thorn is definitely one of my favorite bikes. I've watched that video over and over again.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Thorn is definitely one of my favorite bikes. I've watched that video over and over again.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

I got to throw a leg over it a couple of years ago. It's amazingly light.

Ian is planning to bring it to Los Angeles to sell.