Topic: Hi, meet the 550F you built.

[Noco]

I just wanted to say hello, and THANKS for all the help. I lived on this forum last year, and I would not have made it without your passion and patience. This is my 1976 550F. I was a super-newb last spring when I bought her in Vermont, and had I known about P.O.'s from hell, gypsie curses, sleaze-bay, etc., I might have walked away from one of the best things I ever did.
I apologize in advance for being a forum newb as well, I'll try to get a little better everyday.
Here is a flickr set with a bunch of before and after pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28345502@N02/sets/72157606037638221

thanks again,
Noco

[BARDAR]

Lookin good!

[rhos1355]

LOvely Jubbly, I like your fully air conditioned workshop. It seems that as you flip through the pics you're actually building the workshop around the bike and vice-versa!

[SteveD CB500F]

Did you have a different Username back then?

[Noco]

Did you have a different Username back then?

No i just registered for the first time. I kept meaning to join last year, but for some reason i was waiting until i got the bike running. I knew zero about riding and wrenching, and a lot of times it seemed that the bike would never be done, and I wasn't sure I would stick with it. Now i know it's in my blood, and I'll be around for a while

Did the forums just start requiring you to register inorder to search for threads?

[Noco]

LOvely Jubbly, I like your fully air conditioned workshop. It seems that as you flip through the pics you're actually building the workshop around the bike and vice-versa!

Some of the most fun was building the shop around the needs of the bike, rigging stands and cradles,
and making tools, I'm most proud of the bearing retainer remover made from an old wheelbarrow handle.
That's the genius of this forum, you can always find someone's story of how they got it done without a proper shop.

[SteveD CB500F]

You can read the forums as a guest but have to register to contribute.

Your first post made it sound as if you'd been in some discussion.

[rhos1355]

Noco,
Any chance you could post a picture of the bearing retainer ( I assume that'e the hub bearing) that you fashioned out of a wheel-barrow?
I used the usual sawn off screwdriver and buggered them up completely. I actually managed to strip the thread on the rear hub in the process. Duh!


Have wheel barrow, will tool up.

[Noco]

I'm away from my bike until next week, so I can't post a pic until then.

I had a handle from an old wheelbarrow, I think it worked well because it is hardwood and could be torqued without cracking. One end is square, where it was attached to the barrow, the other is tapered and smooth where you would grab it. I lay the square end on the retainer ring, and marked the position of the indented round holes, then I drilled it out on those marks and inserted stove bolts that were the proper diameter and length for the retainer ring holes. I bolted the stove bolts onto the wheel barrow handle and viola...sorta. I had to work pretty slowly. That retaining ring was really frozen in there, and I think I remember using a cut-off screwdriver, and liquid wrench, to help get the whole process started. Hope that is some help.