Topic: Adapting early cb400 rear sets and cb650 rear wheel on a cb550

[physician]

i did those installations on last winter and forgot to share informations...
i sold the bike and build a gsxr streetfighter and a vtr1000 well..

in order to have a better rear tire on my 78 CB550k, i instaleld a 81 cb650 rear wheel and swing arm i had layin around.
the only difference is that i had a custom bushing machine to go into the larger 650 swing arm pivot and around the 550 bolt.


once i had the bushing, i had to lenghten the chain by 4-5 links to compensate for the around 1 inch longer swing arm...
voila! a nice 140 tire installed in less than an hour....


after
(with cb400 rear sets)

after that, i adapted early CB400ss rear sets i bought from ebay. reason to go that way was for the bike to appear original. judge by your self from the pictures...

stock right

modified right
http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/physician0/?action=view&current=cbrearseetgsxrtail008.jpg&newest=1
stock left

modified left


on both sides, CB400ss foot pegs needs to have the guide hole inlarge to fit the 550 spigot. they will bolt in place perfectly without anymore problems

for the brake lever, i didnt have the cb400 one so i dont know if it will fit. i modified a stock 550 arm
by cutting it in 3 place and rewelding it in the correct orientation in order to clear everything
The OEM arm is made out of around 3/8 think steel.. so with good welds, it wont have any long term problems
modified arm on top, oem on bottom

the first cut on the left is to pivot the spline end 180 degree and allow the arm to go down from there instead of going front
the second cut ( on the right) is to put the feet plate in the correct orientation

on the shifter side, i simply bend the transmission lever a bit so it will clear the transmission cover because i did not want to cut them for clearance
i reverse some parts as you can see.
and voila
with some grinding and fresh sylver paint it look close to stock enough for me

Hope it will help some builders here.

and here is the current bike being redone again this winter with vrod headlight and twin carbon mufflers mount on seat sides...

a 98 honda vtr1000f superhawk
at some point, it had the cb550 mirrors

[von_Wanderlust]

Hey, thanks for this thread on the CB400 rearsets, it looks great.

Here's another thread that discusses and has pics on this mod: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=36602.0

[bill440cars]

 Always looking for neat ideas on how to do different things on these Hondas AND I am never disappointed, because you all come up with such clever ideas AND aren't afraid to share.