Topic: Reviving the Old 550

[revive_the_550]

Well. I bought this bike back in 2009. I spent a 100 bucks on her, and was ready to turn it into a sweet cafe racer.

So in 2009 this is how I picked it up


Looks pretty good. But not my style and it didn't run.

I worked on it a bit, new battery, rebuilt the carbs, took some stuff off and BAM now it looked like this:





and then. the summer of 2010 comes and I hit a deer doing about 65mpg. and this happened to me:



and the bike looked like this:






I never had a lot of money being in college and what not so it took a ton of time, but I started building it back up. I got a new gas tank, which was SUPER ugly and I sanded it down to raw metalbuilt a new seat and called it good for the time being.

Now fast forward a couple years. I moved from Chicago with my now wife to Colorado. Rode it around but never really changed anything because I was too broke from continuing college and having a wife. Then, I found out she was pregnant so I went into "holy crap I need to get a job and get money" mode. So I went to sell the bike...but no one wanted it. Everyone wanted to buy it for 300-400 dollars. It is running and riding. I couldn't sell it so I didn't. I kept it and then found a job in California. We moved and got free rent, and a sweet job. So basically I had a surplus of income. So I bought a crap ton of parts and fixed up the bike, of course. So this is the transformation.






























Now, it's not perfect. But it's working. riding. and better than ever. I kept it raw, yet functional. I like it a lot thus far. And here are all the parts I bought

Brake lever
Clute Lever
Turn Signal Relay
Vertical License Plate
Spark Plug Wires
Cafe Racer Seat/Pan/Kit
Front Fork Springs
Headlight Assembly
Controls for both right and left
Clip-ons
Pod Filters
Throttle Cables/Throttle
Wiring harness/loom
Fork Seals
Starter Relay
LED Turn Signals
LED Tail Light
Rear Shocks
Regulator/Rectifier
Wiring Harness/Loom

Lot's more parts that I need to get to finish her off for good. Ha. but it's a work in progress. It's only been 5 years!

[rb550four]

Hello and welcome. It's a special bond that can develop between 550 and rider when the project never gets quite where you want it, especially when you both survive a near tragic event such as the deer incident.
 Yours is a story worthy of telling and I enjoyed it. Thank you. Keep the pictures of your progress coming.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

That looked like a painful off - skinwise. Glad you stuck with the bike long term. What's the story with the strapped on LEDs on the rear cowl - just brake or turn signals too?

[flatlander]

wow that's quite a story. good for you for hanging in there and using it as an opportunity to take things further with the bike.

[revive_the_550]

That looked like a painful off - skinwise. Glad you stuck with the bike long term. What's the story with the strapped on LEDs on the rear cowl - just brake or turn signals too?

Just stop light/running light. I'm going for a rat bike look, with a little bit more reliability when it comes to riding. The LED's are pretty awesome. I like them a lot. And I have turn signals under the seat on the right and left.

[revive_the_550]

Well working on the bike this past week. It's been having "charging" issues ever since the accident in 2010. I had been trying to figuring out what was up. I just recently bought a new reg/rec from Dime City Cycles and I tested the stator so that was good. Everything was totally fine, but when I started the bike up, it only read 12v. It would NEVER go over 12v. I put a voltmeter on my bike, because I had been stranded a few times from my battery dying. I wish I could say I was an electrical genius, but more or less I'm just stupid. I had the rectifier plugged into turn signal output. Basically I just found this out on a whim, and BOOM charging problem solved.  I also changed my fork seals and changed the oil this weekend. Put a new oil filter on, new oil in the forks and man it rides like never before. Feels like a brand new bike! I'm still deciding on the height of the clip-ons. I can't decide if I like them this low, although the riding position is pretty nice. We will see. I just bought a new speedometer/tachometer w/ cables so those will come in this week. and I'll have them on by this weekend.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

My wrists get numb just looking at that picture.  I'm not sure that mounting them so low provides any performance advantage, since you are doing more reaching to grab the bars and are less able to push (counter steer) while keeping a stable riding position.  Of course, you may have MUCH longer arms than I, so I could be completely wrong. 

I ride with clip ons but I don't lay on the top of the tank.  I've only gotten down that low on track riding my GSXR on the straights -- and even then, my clip-ons were not that low.

[revive_the_550]

My wrists get numb just looking at that picture.  I'm not sure that mounting them so low provides any performance advantage, since you are doing more reaching to grab the bars and are less able to push (counter steer) while keeping a stable riding position.  Of course, you may have MUCH longer arms than I, so I could be completely wrong. 

I ride with clip ons but I don't lay on the top of the tank.  I've only gotten down that low on track riding my GSXR on the straights -- and even then, my clip-ons were not that low.

Honestly, the riding position isn't too bad. I'm not very tall, but have lanky arms. It looks really dramatic in the pictures...I'll try and post a photo of me on it here soon. And it's a pretty small bike.

Here's a picture w/ the tank off and the bars in the same place as they are right now.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

That's not bad at all.  You were right.  You do have long arms -- kinda like Kraut Koffin (he's about 6' 6").

[revive_the_550]

So I thought I fixed my charging issue, but ran into another one.  . I'm overcharging now. Riding the bike last night, lights on and I'm idling at around 12.5v. When I'm up somewhere around 5k(I don't have a tachometer yet it comes Monday the 20th with my Speedometer) it hits 17v.

I found this flow chart ==>  https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

and I'm planing on doing some testing this afternoon. I live in Southern California and it's pretty warm in the sun still. I'll wait until around 5:30 tonight when it gets a little cooler. I'll update you all after I do the testing. And I'll post some pictures, because who doesn't like pictures?

[calj737]

Sounds like you do not have the Reg/Rec wired to monitor the state of the battery while running. There is usually a BLACK wire that needs to have a path to battery POS.

Regarding your clip-ons; stop following about and just mount them on the axles and be done with it! CBCRF is right, in that position, handling and steering input is compromised. Better to bend the elbow than to be over-extended for handling.

[revive_the_550]

So I tested a bunch of stuff with my bike. I followed these instructions =>

https://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

and what I came out to be is a “Bad connection from the battery(+) throughout the ignition switch to the switched +12V supply-input on the RR.” it goes on to say that the RR thinks that the voltage is too low, even if it is correct or high. It states, once you fix the issue go back to the start and see if there is still an issue.

Basically, I am disconnecting everything, cleaning all the connections and reconnecting. It states that it's the hardest fault to find and to possibly just replace the keyed ignition. Which is pretty cheap and the only thing I haven't replaced on the entire wiring harness. So I'm purchasing a new ignition switch right now, I mean why not it's only 13 bucks, it couldn't hurt right?

I made sure the reg/rec was connected to everything correctly before I tested. I did this about three times to make sure I was connecting the multimeter up to the correct terminals and making sure I was following the instructions.

With the Clip-On. IMO performance isn't really an issue. I'm not going to the track with this bike, and I'm not really riding it trying to drag my knees. It's just a fun bike to ride. All I'm deciding is if I like the riding position or not. So far, I haven't put too many miles on it, because of the charging issue. But the miles I have put on it have been comfortable.

More updates to come. And pictures if I can remember to take them.


**********EDIT***********

I also checked the voltage output with the regulator disconnected, voltage output was 11.9~12.0v. Once I reconnected the regulator it jumps up to 12.0~12.8v at idle. The issue I'm having with the regulator is my regulator came with a green wire and a brown wire. So I was left guessing does the green go to the white wire, or black? I went with brown to black and green to white. I also emailed Dime City Cycles(where I bought the reg/rec from) and asked them to clarify for me. They haven't gotten back to me, but I imagine they will soon.

[revive_the_550]

Well, been working a bit on the bike. New tach/speedo/voltmeter. I solved the over charging issue by cleaning the connection to the ground wires of the ignition. The voltmeter reads 12.3v almost always but won't go over 14.5 even at 8k rpms. It only drops below that when I press the starter button. I also threw in some new front brake pads, as well as a tarozzi back break connector for my rear sets. First time in probably 4 years I can use my rear brake confidently and know it works well. I also moved the headlight down/clip-ons up because I didn't like how the headlight looked at profile. It was odd. Lastly, I tossed up a vid of the exhaust. It's pretty throaty, but I think I still like it.

[revive_the_550]

Well, problem not actually solved. Blew a fuse this morning on the way to the gym, and my volts jumped back up to around 14.8-15v at maybe 4k RPMS. Pushed it back. Just bought a dyna electronic ignition from dime city cycles. That will be here by Friday, probably going to buy ignition coils in the next month or so from Dime City Cycles as well.

The front brake was doing some weird things as well. I'm going to take it apart this afternoon and re-bleed it. I'm also contemplating updating the fuse harness to a more modern fuse setup instead of the tube glass fuse setup that is in it right now. We will see what happens!

[Slinky]

hey man where did ya get that seat pan? And do you have your rearsets bolted to the passenger pegs??

[goldarrow]

The ignition module looks rather odd for a 550 bike

[FunJimmy]

The ignition module looks rather odd for a 550 bike

+1

Great story, great bike.

Cheers

[revive_the_550]

The ignition module looks rather odd for a 550 bike

+1

Great story, great bike.

Cheers

hey man where did ya get that seat pan? And do you have your rearsets bolted to the passenger pegs??

Ignition module pictured is for a 450F, from Dime City Cycles so it won't actually be exactly like that. My rearsets are bolted to my passenger pegs. AND I got the seat pan from http://www.dimecitycycles.com/ these guys are pretty incredible. You can email/call them with any questions about any of their products and they know their stuff really well. I've bought basically everything I've slapped onto this bike from them. They have great products, great customer service, and if you're buying enough a pretty good points rewards system. I can't say enough good stuff about them.

[Slinky]

I'm guessing you made the linkages? Or did ya purchase them somewhere?  How's the riding positon

[revive_the_550]

Actually I got them from cognito moto. The only issue I ran into was that the shifting linkage works best in a straight horizontal line. And it flipped my shifting upside down. Instead of down one up five it's up one down five. I finally got my brake linkage to actually function 100% as well, so that's cool.

The riding position isn't bad at all. It feels good, a little aggressive but overall pretty comfortable. I've ridden it like this for 4.5 years so I don't really know any different. I also have pretty short legs and longer arms, so it fits me well.

[Slinky]

Link? Or just order your length. I have tarozzi rearset but the mounts don't work on the F without cutting off the brake spline from frame. Something I didn't want to so

[calj737]

www.cognitomoto.com. Devin makes some awfully cool products and builds himself a few very nice bikes.

[revive_the_550]

Hmm that's interesting. I just ordered to length and got a specific piece that bumps the rear brake actuator to be offset. It offsets it just enough to work. I'll post a photo in a bit of the actual riding position as well.

[calj737]

Revive- if you rotate the thumb on the peg-end whe the shifter rod connects so that it is pointing up, your shift pattern will return to 1-down, 4-up. The orientation of that thumb and the shift spline matters. When they are opposed, it reverses your pattern. 

[Slinky]

Cognito is where I bought my mounts from too. Good guys