Hey Guys,
My buddy and I picked up the below 1974 CB550 for $800 from a guy in New Jersey a few weeks back. 12k Miles, she runs well. Forks seem mushy, gas tank has a little dent in it, the rest of the bike looks pretty clean.
He also threw in a parts bike which I completely disassembled in the first day or two (great learning experience for the project bike)
The Parts Bike - as it should be, in parts.
Motor - Pretty clean already...not too much work to be done there
Like I said, the forks seem pretty mushy, they don't rebound very well at all. We'll be pulling these, polishing up the bottoms, replacing the seals etc. Also plan on rebuilding the caliper, cutting down/painting/chopping the fender. We'll see on that...
First night of work, trying to get the left hand controls off, the PO ran the wires through the bars, however as you can see below, decided to lengthen the wires himself with a bunch soldering, shrink wrap and red wires. So two problems here, first, I can't get the wires back through the bars without cutting them or cutting open the bars. I decided to try the latter...which much to my surprise worked out pretty well. Second, I no longer have the wire color codes in play at the ends...which is great...
And the obligatory angle grinder sparky picture
This looks OEM all the way...
So that's how the bike sits now. More work to come this weekend.
I'm really excited about this project, but am very new to these bikes. I have spent hours studying this forum and there is a wealth of knowledge here. Any bits of knowledge that you guys are willing to impart will be greatly appreciated.
-Jim
