Topic: 76 CB550 Cafe build

[tshrey]

Everything is great. From an engineering standpoint I wish he would flatten out the angle from the carb, at idle the center two cylinders get a lot more fuel and the exhaust is almost 100 degrees cooler. I get why he does it, it is just a little extreme. Part of it is also packaging, has to make the carbs fit between the frame, but with these new manifolds there is more room.

So much quicker than stock carbs (assuming the stockers are jetted properly).

[tshrey]

New peg mounts done.  Same location as the stock pegs, just a little bit higher to allow for all the bolt and nut installation clearances.  Kick start even works.  Basically keeps all the load now off my wrists even with the clipons.

Ran it into work and 3d scanned it and then ran it through FEA and the most stress is where my welds are so we will see how good I am at welding

[tshrey]

So this is a no-go.  Right side peg is too far away from the bike (although that must be pretty close to stock) for my liking and both sides are just too far forward.  Also, kickstand winds up under the shift lever so you can't kick it out with your foot.  I can say that it took all the load off my wrists though.

I'm going to make a hybrid of the cognito set that just puts the peg in the opening where the stock footpeg mount runs.  Splits the difference in height and forward/backward and keeps them tucked in like the cognito set.

[tshrey]

Raw fabrication done, I'll make them prettier later.  Location is perfect.  Had to make new brake linkage and exhaust hanger but I'm getting pretty good with the stainless welding so that went quick.  Going to be 70 and sunny today, looking forward to a nice ride.





In another development, I got a new toy delivered today 

[grcamna2]

Good work on that fabrication and Nice Lathe !
I'm concerned that your rear brake pedal sits so low.. it looks in an awkward position to apply any force to the pedal.

[tshrey]

That's all parallax from the photo. I already dialed everything in, shifter and brake pedal are right where they should be.

Edit: I did have the tip a little low, I turned the adjuster back two turns to bring it up.  I do ride pretty 'toes down' though so I guess it could look funny.  Other thing to remember is while not as far back as the Cognito mounts these pegs are still about 6 inches back from the stock location, so your foot is definitely pointed down more than stock.

[tshrey]

After the change to the new intakes that bolt directly to the head the bike is a different creature.  But there are still occasionally weird behaviors and if there is a scab I pick at it.  Went for a ride, pulled up and shut off the bike and then pulled the #4 spark plug.  Perfect color.  Started the bike up and it would barely run.  Then I realized I left the plug wire disconnected.  Plug it back in and everything back to normal.  Repeating now for 1, 2 and 3.  Same behavior for 1 (at idle the bike runs cylinder 2&3 very rich, so most of the work is done by 1&4).  Pull 2 and it is noticeably rougher but will still run.  Pull 3 and the same BUT the motogadget tach, which is getting its signal from the coil for 2&3 now reads a bouncing 3k rpm.

I can't think of anything that would explain the tach double counting when one of the plugs are disconnected.  Thoughts?

[Alan F.]

In another development, I got a new toy delivered today 

New Lathe Day! Wooooo!
Congrats, enjoy setting that up and exploring what it can do.

[tshrey]

Cleaned up the new mounts and powder coated them hot rod texture to match the cases.  Very happy with the peg location now.

[tshrey]

Stupidly warm day for November, went for a nice ride.  Is there a consensus on how long it takes these motors to break in?  I'm at about 750 miles now and this thing just keeps feeling and sounding better and better. @Hondaman, @Godffery?

Also, I normally just run around with the petcock set to Reserve and make sure I fill up at 100 miles.  Today I actually had it set to On and it stalled at a light before I set it to Reserve.  Filled up five miles down the road and it only took 2.3 gallons?  I would think I should clip a cm or so off the top of the inlet pipe, no?

Couple nice new snaps...

[wolf550]

hey tshrey what did you do with your old set of rearset brackets?

[tshrey]

Going to sell them.  I was thinking of making it a kit with a 550F kickstart lever since I flattened the hump off the kickstart side and that is the only way of getting a full kick.

[wolf550]

sounds good Ill be keeping watch since it was what I did with some makeshift rearsets for mine.

[Shtonecb500]

looks really good.

[tshrey]

Here endeth the saga, bike sold on black Friday.  Thanks to everyone for coming along for the ride and all the help I got along the way.

[moto3208]

Here endeth the saga, bike sold on black Friday.  Thanks to everyone for coming along for the ride and all the help I got along the way.

I've been following this thread for a while...exciting to see it end!

Did you ever sell the rearsets you wound up not using? I am also doing a 550 build and sort of torn on the Cognito set up but may be up for giving them a try.

Thanks!
MS