First off, THANKS to everyone who has helped me out the past 2+ years in the inspiration, the knowledge base, those who helped me find parts and led me to those who can provide cool and unique parts. And a big thanks to those who nominated my bike!
A little background, I bought my '78 CB550 (first bike) back in April of 2013. I knew some ideas of what bikes I liked, but had no idea on the direction I wanted to go. It has sort of spiraled to where it ended up this past month! Here's a teaser shot of the day I bought it and a little over a year later, last summer. This is the stage where it was nominated for BOTM, but it was a little too early for that and the bike wasn't "complete" yet.
Fast forward to the summer after I bought it, started making some typical newb cafe racer changes. Upswept seat, F style side covers and clear ignition cover from a forum member and some bar end mirrors. During this time I worked diligently to get the bike running better. Given my background in 3D CAD, I designed and had 3D printed a filter adapter that mounted to the rear portion of the stock airbox, and used a 3" K&N cone filter, and bumped the main jets up to 105. Gave the PD46C's my first carb sync and it ran way smoother, I was hooked.
The winter before last, she was running well enough that I wanted to start cleaning it up and the bike went under the covers for a makeover. Most small and large engine covers, caps, brackets etc were sent off to powdercoat. I picked up a spare set of wheels to paint black, and I dropped off my tank, side covers and ignition cover to the local painter for a shot of Orange Burst Metallic from a 2012 Honda Fit (kept true with an original Honda color
!!) Also during this time I dropped a payment down for Chris' MotoGPWerks 4-1 stainless pipe. Some more CAD bits came off the waterjet at work and I had custom Honda wing passenger peg mounts made, an ignition switch relocation bracket, and a different gauge plate.
I rode her around mostly to work and putting around with my wife the rest of the summer, somewhat content with how she looked and rode. The thing that was bugging me the most about it was that it would leak about a nickel of oil after a ride, and it smoked like a freight train when coming to a stop. This spring I knew I had to tear into her to get the rings and seals freshened up. The top end came off, I gapped new piston rings, gave the jugs a fresh hone, and replaced all of the gaskets from the base gasket up. Along with those, I installed a CB650 cam, Viton valve stem seals and racing valve springs from Dynoman. These parts, along with freshly lapped valves, helped the top end breathe a little more fresh (less oily) air.
If you were anywhere in the midwest, June through mid-July was nothing but rain. So once I finished the top end and had everything back together, I decided to clean up the wiring. It started out as just cleaning up some things I added here and there, but I ended up building a completely custom wiring harness using Weatherpack connectors, all new wiring, Rick's R/R, and a few more LEDs. The GM Delphi Weatherpack crimper is a godsend, and made this job a lot more simple. I no longer have wires in the headlight bucket, everything is labeled, with correct color wiring (except for brown/white, which is now gray
). What. A. Task. I was way in over my head but I was too far in to back out, so now every piece of electrical anything can be removed with a simple plug from the main harness. Every connector is labeled and I'm working on getting all of my chickenscratch notes and pictures into a digital wiring diagram in Photoshop.
FINALLY, with all of that completed (and the addition of Chris' MotoGPWerks aluminum swingarm), I installed the new 5-3/4" headlight, ASV C5 levers mounted to a CBR250R clutch perch and Yamaha R1 (14mm) brake master cylinder, all new clutch/choke/throttle cables. And then it was time to ride... This led to the pictures I took last weekend, I still want to add more outside shots but haven't had a chance yet. Sorry for the long-winded story, but I love detailing out all of the changes my first bike has taken! I was honored to have a picture of it shared by CafeRacersofInstagram which received over 10,000+ likes, it really made me feel like I built something special.
Anyway, on with the pics. Enjoy!
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