Topic: 76 cb 550 rebuilt and done

[noose74]

so i finally got my bike done..ive been working on it for about 5 months since i decided to strip it down to frame only. my concept for the bike was to make a cafe/dirttracker/ducati monster ish kinda bike...

it started out as a really nice bike i got for a thousand bucks from a good friend..but icouldnt just leave well enough alone...heres some before and after picts. i will post all the inbetweens hen i get some more time.

the major items i went with are BCR dolphin tank and rear 2 seater with removable cowl so my wife can ride with me as this is our first and only bike ( for now) i also added mac exaust, renthal lo rise bars, blinkers, etc, etc, etc...everything is either new, painted or polished. rebuilt the wheels, new suspension , pod filters, etc, etc,etc.

thanks for everyones help here getting her going and helping me trouble shoot some problems..

[noose74]

heres the before

[noose74]

and after..

[TE 450 Pilot]

Looks sweeet 

I need to read your build and find out how you did some of that stuff. I love the paint and front forks.

Randy

[DollarBill]

MORE PICS!!!  That looks f'ing sweet!  I would especially like to see more pics of the handle bars and that engine case.  Way to go!

[78CB750CAFE]

LOVELY bike.

PLEASE pics/details on that front fork and tripple tree set up.

Well done

[noose74]

im kinda working backwards here but heres where i first started taking her apart..she had been powder coated by the previuos owner in a 'hammered' texture blue...might look nice in the photos but i didnt like it at all...

[noose74]

next came the motor...i had some pieces powder coated black, and some little pieces powdered red to give it that moto guzi/ducati look and to add some pop and interest around the head...i polished the valve cover with a dremel and painted the block with high heat paint in a magnesium color ( also to add to the ducati look)

[noose74]

i got the frame back from powdered after welding the round bar on the back to match the contor of the rear seat..i finally had everything to start putting her back together...i went with a BCR dolphin tank in carbon to add to my modern ducati theme and to trick it out...then had benjie add the honda with wings decal under the clear as well as black rally stripe to go back to the vintage  look..added low rise renthall bars in gold to give a nod to that era of cool gold tidbits, added proressive rear shocks and front springs and changed the oil in the front springs..the fork stancion covers are also fro BCR..i wanted the front end to look big and mean and those tiny stancions werent doing it for me. got rid of the indicator lights and am just running led's in the top triple clamp where the speedo /tach bracket goes. im not going to run the stock speedo or tach. instead i have a wireless digital bicycle speedo that can be calibrated to work with my wheel rollout that i will mount. i liked the look of the super motos and motocros bikes and the way the bike looks like a motorcycle without the big tach and speedo so this is why i when this direction.. i have a tribar headlight i have to get a new bucket for ( the previous owner had gotten a different headlight and trim ring that is actually a bit smaller than stock  so the headlight wont fit, ..i found this out after i had it painted) but thats for later down the road..

[inline4]

and after..

Well there is my new pc wallpaper!
Outstanding work my friend, OUTSTANDING work!

[noose74]

thanks inline 4..i cant take all the credit thuogh...my good friend brett helped me with everything so ill throw him a bone...next was the wheels...i originally was just going to powder the whole wheel, spokes, nipples hubs all at once...but i got talked out of it by a friend who knows hoe to lace wheels and said he would do it for me...done deal..stripped the wheels apart, ordered stainless spokes and nipples, polished the hubs, powdered the stock rims gloss black and rebuilt them, trued them and the had cygle gear mount and balance the metzler lazertecs tires that came on the bike...so glad i went this route...next was making the tailight, blinker assembly...BCR had made one for me but i modified it to add on the super micro turhsignals...i went with the mirrored yellow looking turn signals cuz they looked really modern to me..kinda had that piaa driving light look to them...the bolts that hold on the license plate are also led's so that way the palte actually has light on it at night... i also painted the rotor and caliper the same magnesium color as the block to make them look more brembo-ish..i thought about doing it the bright gold brembo color but i didnt want to introduce a third gold color into the palatte ..and i have sen brembos this color so i figured it was a win win situation...i had a friend who was going to drill them out for me but he hasnt gott around to it yet..thats one of the items still to do. i have since this picture upgraded to stainless lines though.. thats about it for now...ill post some more picts tomorrow abut the wiring of the electricals under the rear seat and some other shots...

[greenjeans]

Man, that sure did turn out great.   Love the subtle stripes & Honda on the tank.
Everything looks soooo clean.   Very nice job.

[jbot]

Congrats on a gorgeous finish.  That bike is absolutely beautiful.  Great job to all who had a hand in that. 

[XN]

Very Nice 

[brady0706]

Looks good in a familiar kind of way.

[FunJimmy]

Very nice. Especially like the forks.

FJ

[rookieridercb550]

Great looking bike, you can really see the hard work and eye for detail! (while cliche, also true) Was your exhaust all one piece, I just bought a mac head and was looking for a chrome pipe similar to that.

[noose74]

the exhaust is a mac 4 into 1 with the stock mac tip that came with it....

[cafeconleche]

are you running the stock oil tank or something custom?

[seaweb11]

Gentlemen, and women the bar has just been raised

F*ck that is beautiful, love the tank ..........and forks too

[Xterrain]

Ive been trying to contact Benjie to get my build kit put together for 3 days now with now response. I am on the fence about my tank, whether Im going to go the carbon route or the solid painted route. If I go carbon, Im going platinum carbon with british racing green stripe (similar to TVR's) and my businesses logo on the sides (advertisment = no tax paid ;-). Do you have a better way of contacting Benjie aside from email???

[noose74]

thanks for everyones kind words..i love this bike..its so much fun...well its been a while and im going to answer everyones questions but i just took some more picts today...luckily california has good weather so i had some blue bird skies... i have some more detailed picst of forks and with the rear cowl off...till then heres this batch...

[noose74]

a few more...

[noose74]

as long as i got em...

[noose74]

some more