54 year old male residing in Sebring, Florida, no criminal record (luck), unmarried, 2 Great Danes, which at the moment are asleep on my chest crushing my ribs. Live next to small lake with so many alligators could walk across it. Sebring is a blue collar/agriculture town that would not be on the map if it weren't for the raceway.
I have built only one basket of parts into a working motorcycle- a 66 Triumph that I did not want to give to my girlfriend when I finished building it for her. When you've spent ten hours repainting an old Smith's speedo dial, thing is yours by God's decree, right? She still rides it a lot, and in 25 years it's only needed a tire change, new points and had the valves ground. I'm proud of that, but a 66 Triumph is no more complicated than a lawnmower.
I had a bike too at the time, a CB 550. I had built the triumph mainly because I was sick of carrying her around on the back. Her bike was cool old brit stuff, but I far preferred my 550, because a) it was much louder and faster b) it had much lower handlebars. I loved it so much that I kept it on my living room for several years after I totaled it.
That is all dull history stuff. 25 years have passed, I am a very different man, but I still have a CB550 in my living room, this one still running very well and complete down to having the vinyl tool kit and owners manual under the seat. It has 6000 miles on it and has been well maintained. In photos it looks new, but there is plenty of rust underneath all the stuff that the seller spraypainted over. I am about to tear it apart into molecules.
I have very few things, so each one I own is precious to me, and most bear signs of being handmade. It is likely that this will be the only motorcycle I have, so I'll end up giving heart and soul to it, drag everything I can from other disciplines I have practical experience in. Two motorcycles would overwhelm the system.
Am artist by vocation, with some work experience in medicine and psych, vast experience in building road-race bicycles. I like things that are pretty. I can do minor cosmetic dentistry with a dremel. I once got 18 hp out of a 5hp Briggs flathead. I have a few other skills. But in the kind of work facing me with this bike, I'm as clueless as it gets, full retard.
Thank for giving me a place to document the project now underway. Setting up an e-camp in the middle of a field of experts seems like a wise move.
The project thread will be called "The Five Rules"- referring to self-imposed limits I will have to follow in order to get the result that I want.
I'll close this with the question that has been bugging me for weeks: What if Honda had offered a GT version of their biggest streetbkies in 1975? What would the 550 look like? What specific decisions might their engineers make? Though the result would not be as attention grabbing as many of the eye-popping custom cafe and brat bikes I've seen, might it not be pretty in it's own quiet way?
That is where we will begin.
I am now taking the dogs to walk. When I get back, after doing a photoshopped version of what this might look like, I'm going to start tearing this thing to pieces.
-Sssg
