My bike was purchased last fall, and the build commenced in Late December 2009. It is a 1977 Honda CB550K. I got Sean at Roc City Cafe to build me a replica CR750 race tank, but would fit a CB550 frame.....Then I additionally had him fabricate the seat to work with it, while mounting up to all stock locations.....the tank strap is actually a part of the seat pan, and everything works just great!
I then decided to clear out the "triangle" area, and place tha battery and whatever electrics would fit under the bumstop. I went through Orient Express and bought a 120Ampere A123 cell battery due to it's small size and lightness...basically it is easy to hide. After many trials with the stock electrics, I scrapped them and reused only the voltage regulator and rectifier, along with the stock solenoid. Everything else was rewired by myself using a custom made panel mounted on the right side of the bike with 3 toggle switches, that being start, lights on/off and hi/low beam for the headlight. The entire electric system functions on one 30A fuse on the start circuit. Every effort has been made within reason to keep weight LOW. No horn, no blinkers....just simple and bare bones.
I installed CB900 14.5 long rear shocks which raised the tail and made the steering sharper and then followed that up wuith a steering damper with a XS650 fork tube mount to go along with it.
Pod filters on the carbs are EMGO 35mm units, exhaust is a mac 4-2 system. I then hammered down the gauge bracket to have the gauges sit flat, in the style of old english bikes, and then fitted some clubman bars with all new cables.
I found some Lester CB750 wheels, notable is that the rear wheel is 18" versus the more common 16" rear wheel. I then sanded them down and painted them with flat aluminum colored engine block paint, and hand polished the lips of the wheels with steel wool.....at this time I also installed All Balls Wheel Bearings, and a Sprocket Specialists aluminum 37 tooth rear sprocket, which matches the nickel plated 530 chain and 2 tooth smaller sprocket (15 tooth)
I went to the effort to sand down the engine and leave it bare aluminum, with a semi gloss/matte finish by way of steel wool, followed by a fine white scrub pad with WD-40 used to add the sheen I was looking for. This same look is found on the front fork sliders and the rear brake plate which I tried to accent with 9 holes. The sprocket engine cover has also received this treatment.
RAASK rearsets were also added, along with a lucas style side mount license plate tailight setup.
Here are some more pics.
thanks for the nomination and your consideration.
~Joe
Poll