Author Topic: CB550 Cafe (Read 15651 times)

syverter · « **on:** July 15, 2010, 08:22:16 PM »

Hello,
I've been doing a lot of research on the forums checking out previous projects so I thought that I might as well post some progress of my own bike. Last year I picked up a stock 1971 CB350 in rough shape and modified it to be a cafe. I made the 350 on an extremely tight budget and used quite a few unconventional "parts". For example the bike was painted with brush on tractor paint, the rear seat cowl was made by cutting up an old helmet and upholstering it, the front fork gaitors are actually just sump pump hose found on a boulevard during clean up week, the "rearsets" are pegs from a bicycle with a dirtbike shift lever flipped backwards, the batterybox sidecovers are from a cut up old street sign. The bike was fun to fool around with and its great for cruising around town, (except for the rear brake lever which i havent quite figured out yet). However I decided I wanted to be able to cruise a little faster and build a bike that actually has some more reliable parts. So a few weeks ago I picked up a 1975 CB550 that I'm starting to work on.

Here is a pic of the CB350

Here is the "new" CB550 after I unloaded it from the truck.

So far I have the bike stripped down to the frame and motor and I've been cutting/grinding off brackets and getting a few basics sorted out. I'm working on ideas to relocate the battery, I've replaced the airbox with pod filters, I just recieved my clip-ons in the mail, and I have placed an order for a fiberglass BCR combo. There are a bunch more things to cover, but I'll save that for a later post when I get a chance to take more pics.

traveler · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2010, 08:26:49 PM »

Welcome!

You really shot yourself in the foot getting rid of the stock airbox and pipes......now you will have all the tuning nightmares the rest of us have had, and continue to go through.

~Joe

lowflyingdutchman · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2010, 08:47:40 PM »

Quote from: traveler on July 15, 2010, 08:26:49 PM

Welcome!

You really shot yourself in the foot getting rid of the stock airbox and pipes......now you will have all the tuning nightmares the rest of us have had, and continue to go through.

~Joe

Hah! Joe's right. start reading those carbthreads..

Just finished mine. Battery is in the hump. Back end of a kawa enduro 125 tank. Electrics in the seatpan. All shaved except for the tabs holding the waterguard in place. Still playing with the idea of sticking the old rear fender in it somehow. If you want to save yourself a world of hassle, Keep the sidecovers. Seethru bike looks cool, but im pretty sure my next build will have sides on it

Cool 350. Like the yella fella too. Good luck. And definately ctrl/d this site. Helped me out of many a pickle.

syverter · « **Reply #3 on:** July 22, 2010, 08:27:16 PM »

Hey guys, thanks for the advice. Both of you have awesome bikes, you guys have set a high bar. Yeah, I've read a lot about replacing the air box with the filters and it sounds like I could be getting myself into some pretty serious messing around with jetting and tuning. I have a feeling I'll be going through a lot of threads about the topic in the near future. I have the bike stripped down and right now I've been trying to mock up my handlebars/controls.

So far I've mounted a pair of clip ons, and I have eliminated the stock hand controls. I'm getting rid of all of the electrics on the bars so I will just have a throttle housing, clutch, and the front brake. For the stock handlebar brackets I am taking off the top clamps and I will be fabricating a flat piece of aluminum that will sit on top of the clamps and bolt into the existing holes. I'm then going to be mounting a new starter button into the piece of aluminum. So instead of my starter button on my handlebars it will be right on top in the middle with a big red button.

I ran into a few problems when mounting up some of my controls. For example the front brake housing/reservoir fits up very tightly against the bars and there was no room to mount it on the outer edge of the bars because it would hit the billet clamps for the clip-ons. So instead I had to move the bars in to a more narrow position and mount the brake/clutch perches on the inside of the bars. This kept everything packed in pretty tight but feels comfortable and natural. The other thing I've been working out is mounting my tach. I am planning on eliminating my speedometer and just running the tachometer. I want to mount it right in the center, so I have to figure out a new bracket to mount it. I'm going to try to use the stock mount designed for both the tach and speedo and just cut it in half and off set it. The pic of the handlebars shows a mock up of this prior to cutting it. We'll see how it all looks tomorrow when I get a little time to work on it.

Aladinsane07 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 23, 2010, 12:08:04 AM »

Great start. I'll def be watching this.

My eyes may be fooling me (it's very late and I'm squinting to see on my phone) but is that a 993 Carrera behind your bike?

syverter · « **Reply #5 on:** July 23, 2010, 02:07:30 PM »

Quote

My eyes may be fooling me (it's very late and I'm squinting to see on my phone) but is that a 993 Carrera behind your bike?

good eyes! Yes, it is a 964 Carrera in the background. I'll try to get a pic of it up sometime soon.

I got some more work done on the bike today. I mounted up some of the hardware that I painted last night and I fabricated a steel plate with a starter button to sit on top of the old lower handlebar clamps. I also cut/reshaped/painted the old gauge bracket to hold just the tach right in the center.

Here is a pic of the progress from earlier this afternoon:

Godffery · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2010, 12:16:29 AM »

The tuning really isn't that bad if you use good filters; I will ONLY use K&N pod's. They cost more but have a lifttime warranty and perform fantastically when there kept cleaned & oiled.

As for jetting; just bump the main jets up to 115 or 120.

syverter · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2010, 02:20:06 PM »

anyone have a good source for an aftermarket stator cover and a points cover that doesn't have the honda logo? Mine are dented and scratched up pretty good from the previous owner.

also, after removing the stock headlight brackets on the bike there is now a gap between the rubber fork boots and the lower triple tree since the diameter of the boots is larger than the diameter of the lower triple tree. Does anyone know of a good fix for this or some sort of fork seal?

Godffery · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2010, 04:39:42 PM »

Contact Joseph Levesque mailto:zabueloz@hotmail.com AKA Franknbike on this list.

syverter · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2010, 07:06:35 PM »

Thanks Godffery

Aladinsane07 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 26, 2010, 10:39:02 AM »

Quote from: syverter on July 23, 2010, 02:07:30 PM

Quote
My eyes may be fooling me (it's very late and I'm squinting to see on my phone) but is that a 993 Carrera behind your bike?

good eyes! Yes, it is a 964 Carrera in the background. I'll try to get a pic of it up sometime soon.

Oh, I was close. Very cool car nonetheless.

How's the bike coming?

syverter · « **Reply #11 on:** July 30, 2010, 06:46:33 PM »

Its been a little while since my last update, but I've been pretty busy. I got the frame painted up in high gloss black, repainted the headlight bucket and my tach, put on my grips, disassembled my front brake to free up the stuck piston and stripped/shined them up. One of the other things I've been working on is starting to mount up all of my electrics. I am waiting for my tank/seat combo from Benjies Cafe Racer and I am planning on trying to mount the battery under the seat hump. I got all of my electrical components mounted up in a more discrete way already by finding a plastic container to mount them to....
After taking some measurements of the frame I went to target and found this box of plastic containers for about 5 dollars....

I took one of the plastic containers out, pulled off the little green handle, and spraypainted it black. Then I test fitted it by just setting it into the frame:

Next, I went to the hardware store to get some nuts and bolts and proceeded to mount all of the components. Then I used some heavy duty cable ties and mounted the box into the frame. it seems to hide everything pretty well:

Here is a pic of the bars with the grips and the painted tach and headlight bucket

here is a pic of the brakes after freeing up the piston and stripping the paint with some light polishing. I still need to clean and shine up my forks

and finally here is the bike as it sits right now with the repainted frame and all the other stuff:

syverter · « **Reply #12 on:** August 04, 2010, 05:43:05 PM »

I got my shocks in the mail today and I got them mounted....

I am still waiting on my BCR tank/seat to arrive as well as a few other items. When the bodywork gets here the next project will probably be figuring out how to mount up my battery.

syverter · « **Reply #13 on:** August 05, 2010, 07:56:11 PM »

anyone know of a source for a cheap short front fender?

Godffery · « **Reply #14 on:** August 05, 2010, 09:28:30 PM »

Sure; your old one + a hacksaw.

syverter · « **Reply #15 on:** August 06, 2010, 07:38:38 AM »

yeah, i would but the old one is in too rough of shape.

rickmoore24 · « **Reply #16 on:** August 06, 2010, 07:52:02 AM »

Cool project. For the fender you can chop it, media blast it and paint/Powder Coat it. Good as new, unless its all bent up and beat to crap.

Godffery · « **Reply #17 on:** August 06, 2010, 08:27:14 AM »

I have a shed full of fenders. If you would like, I could modify one for you and send it out. How nice would like it (still have good chrome or some thing to be painted) and what's your budget for it?

I do this type of work for a living:

Godffery's Garage
http://tinyurl.com/yfrw4fc
Ph# 262 210-9269 ( between 9;am & 9:pm)
8010 Gateway Drive, Burlington WI. 53105

HedNut · « **Reply #18 on:** August 06, 2010, 09:45:36 AM »

Cool Build indeed!! And genious ideas on the ol' 350! Love your style man...look forward to watching this come together!! Cheers!

syverter · « **Reply #19 on:** August 06, 2010, 12:00:41 PM »

thanks guys! I've decided to wait with deciding on a front fender a until my tank/seat arrive so that I can visualize it better. In the meen time I've been thinking about color schemes. So far I am leaning towards gold and black. Im thinking of a more subtle vintage gold rather than a blinding metalflake. I have also been working on making a tank badge in Adobe illustrator. My initials are EJS and I've been thinking about playing off the old logo on the old AJS cafes. I need some input..... Do you think it will look like a clever detail? Or will it look cheesy and like I'm trying to make it look like I have an AJS instead of just a honda?

Here is the original AJS logo:

Here is the logo I designed(the gold color inside would be goldleaf) :

rickmoore24 · « **Reply #20 on:** August 06, 2010, 04:06:28 PM »

Who cares what other folks think, besides it'll say EJS not AJS so I doubt people will think is an AJS, unless they cant read. I think it would look cool if done right. Good luck with it.

Aladinsane07 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 07, 2010, 01:30:49 PM »

I agree. If done right, it could be very cool indeed.

syverter · « **Reply #22 on:** August 13, 2010, 04:53:20 PM »

Made some more progress on the bike.... my stator and points cover were pretty banged up and I also didnt want the honda logo anywhere on the bike so I ordered new covers from someone here on the sohc forum. They are good quality and look good mounted up. In general the motor was in pretty good shape cosmetically, but it had a few imperfections that I was able to fix by just taping off areas of the bike so I could repaint areas of the motor while it was still in the frame. Here is a pic of the cleaned up and repainted motor with the new sidecovers installed:

On another note I just got back from the sturgis motorcycle rally with my cb350 cafe and I have a few pics to share that might serve as some inspiration for others:

And here is a shot of my 350 out in the badlands:

Aladinsane07 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 14, 2010, 11:55:21 AM »

Awesome shot of your bike. I'd love to ride through the Badlands.

HedNut · « **Reply #24 on:** August 16, 2010, 07:48:59 AM »

The 350 looks great! And your 550 engine is looking slick man! I hope I get to make it out to sturgis someday sooner than later. (it'd be a great ride from Sudbury on the CB if I can get it reliable!)

And some of those bikes you took pics of are just CRAZY! Wow... Love em!

News:

Author Topic: CB550 Cafe (Read 15651 times)

traveler