Topic: hi from Belfast

[rip]

Hi folks

I am Robert from Northern Ireland, my previous rides where mostly sports bikes, I have always done most of the maintenance on these myself  and get a great deal of pleasure from footering about in the garage, I have always had a hankering to restore an old bike and having been bike less now for about 5 years I  recently acquired a 76 CB550f that the previous owner ratted , the bike is incomplete and has been severely molested and I think it would be quiet difficult and costly to try to restore to its former glory, so with this in mind I would like to go down the cafe racer route with the idea of turning it into a budget cafe racer, with the help and support of the kind members of this forum of course, have a look at my pic and tell me if I am to much of a dreamer, looking forward to chatting to you in the future.

[Stev-o]

Welcome from Texas.  Agree, not a good candidate for a restore and would make a good cafe. Is it a runner?  Have you checked parts availability??

[Terry in Australia]

Hey that's a great looking dirt bike mate, I didn't know Honda made an XL550F? Ha ha, welcome aboard, and have fun with your build! Cheers, Terry.

[calj737]

Welcome. I might start with a resto-mod on the blue ride in the background first....

Yikes! How much whiskey had the PO drunk when he undertook those mods? You can get new pods that are the proper height to avoid squashing them to fit in the frame for cylinders 1&4, that will help some with the running. Forks look to be 2" over, so new upper tubes are in your future, unless you replace  the top clamp, drop the bars, and care to use clip-ons above the triple? That could be slick and cheaper!

I'd be keen to remove the bolted on side cover and have the welds on that seat hoop inspected pretty thoroughly. Especially where the stock upper mounts for the shock attach. Vintage bikes are grand and quite easily worked on so you'll be well and good.

[rip]

Welcome from Texas.  Agree, not a good candidate for a restore and would make a good cafe. Is it a runner?  Have you checked parts availability??

Hi stev-o
It's not running at the minute and that will be my first priority then we will see what we are dealing with, , every time I look at it the shopping list keeps getting bigger, I have had a look at eBay and there seems to be a reasonable supply of bits depending on what you want to pay of course .

[rip]

Hey that's a great looking dirt bike mate, I didn't know Honda made an XL550F? Ha ha, welcome aboard, and have fun with your build! Cheers, Terry.

Thanks terry

Ha ha I suppose it wouldn't look out of place with a set of knobblies on it

[rip]

Welcome. I might start with a resto-mod on the blue ride in the background first....

Yikes! How much whiskey had the PO drunk when he undertook those mods? You can get new pods that are the proper height to avoid squashing them to fit in the frame for cylinders 1&4, that will help some with the running. Forks look to be 2" over, so new upper tubes are in your future, unless you replace  the top clamp, drop the bars, and care to use clip-ons above the triple? That could be slick and cheaper!

I'd be keen to remove the bolted on side cover and have the welds on that seat hoop inspected pretty thoroughly. Especially where the stock upper mounts for the shock attach. Vintage bikes are grand and quite easily worked on so you'll be well and good.

It was a combination of whiskey and drugs I think, that's an interesting thought about lowering the forks, but would you really need to replace the top tree, could you not use the original.
The seat rails are a mess, replaced with a length of angle iron, the idea was to cut out all the bodge from the rear of the tank back, retaining the shock mounts, and then fabricating a new seat rail, but as it turns out I have been offered an on molested frame that I going to see next week, that would save a lot of work.
Thanks for your comments I hope to start a thread on it as soon as I get familiar with this site.

[calj737]

If you drop the top triple onto the forks to shorten the length of the forks, you'll need clip ons or higher rise bar clamps. The forks extending thru the top will conflict the bars...

If you do push them down and go clips, you could mill off the stock risers for a cleaner look.

That's was point about the top clamp changes.

Delighted to hear you're onto the seat hoop 

[Terry in Australia]

Glad you found another Frame Rip, that will save you a heap of problems. If it was me I'd look for a seat off stock fork tubes too, depending on your budget. Cheers, Terry.