Topic: Green Hornet CB 550/650 # Some pics of my trip to Scotland with SOHC4 Honda

[Oette]

Hi guys ,

At first I would like to introduce myself:

I am a 20 year-old student from Germany, so please excuse my average skills in writing English .
Google brought me to your admirable forum so I decided to sign up here to present you my new and first bike project.

The Caferacer scene is not that much established in Germany yet, so I thought of starting a building diary in both German and English.
It would be delightful if some of you would comment and encourage my project here and on my blog documenting the state of building and my plans step by step.

http://cb550cafeit.blogspot.com/

I translated paragraph by paragraph into English to make it possible for you to follow it. Again excuse eventual mistakes in my English sentences, written in an italic way to differentiate it from the German text.


Also excuse the possible delay of an English translation, but I am workin' on it.

I would be glad if you would leave some comments here or under my blog and I will take all efforts on answering asked questions in time. If you have more questions,

email me:    cb550cafeit@gmx.de

Greets from the other side of the Atlantic

Oette

[Oette]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

With this Post I am starting my blog, which is actually a building diary about my Cafe Racer, based on a 1978 Honda CB 550 Four.

Some facts about me:
I am a 20-year-old student (studying Electrical Engineering) and at the same time a trainee for plant mechanics.
Well, enough of that. Here are some facts about my project.
After a short period of time i began to search for an old motorcycle which did not have to be comlete or running at all, because i was about to change it either way.

On Friday 18th March 2011 I inspected an old CB 550 Four about 25 miles from here.
You can't imagine just with words, so I uploaded some photos for you:




Well, it is not complete, but the most parts are convenient or perfectly o.k. Here are some detailed shots:









All in all:

-front wheel and rim are perfectly o.k. (chrome is shiny)
-rear wheel and rim are convenient (the chain added scratches to the rim's side)
-brakes are as good as new
-front and rear fenders are super
-fork o.k.
-tachometer o.k.
-swingarm super
-stands o.k.
-chainguard perfectly o.k.
-shock absorbers o.k
-frame o.k.
-wiring harness super

Fuel tank, tachometer and saddle will not be used, because they are going to be changed, too.

There was a Suzuki GS 550 E available for nearly 1000$ but in a quite bad condition.
Moreover, my family owns a nearly complete engine, another frame and many, in some cases new, spare parts.

Today i got an offer for an complete running engine for about 320$, but let's see what the next days will bring.

Greets Oette

[Oette]

Hi guys,

Last evening I brought the bike to my garage. After a distance of 50 miles "she" found her new home.

The inspection of the new engine will be on monday, but I have just begun to disassemble the bike. Of course I took some photos for my followers ;-).

Furthermore I checked if the fuel tank of an CX 500 D would fit on the frame and I am convinced that it would be looking great. With the notch for knees it really looks like a true Caferacer!



Unfortunately the tank lay a bit too high at its rear end and I forgot to took some new photos when it finally fitted.



Regrettably the hole for the screw holding the tank does not fit on the 550's frame. Because of this I have to think about a proper solution for this problem. Maybe I will get an aluminium tank, so the CX's tank may be just a temporary solution.

Meanwhile the tachometer, fenders, wire harness, brakes, handlebars and the chain are disassembled.



At the weekend I will go on disassembling the bike until the frame is naked. I will document the progress here.

Oette

[Oette]

Hi guys!

I went on disassembling the bike and finally finished it. Today I focused on polishing the rims and the other chromed parts.
As you can see, old and dirty changed into shiny chrome. As always I took some pictures so you can have a look on my work and the "before-after"-effect.



After quite much work an a pair of weakened arms it looked this way. Though it is not highly polished yet rust and dirt disappeared.



Unfortunately the scratches added by the chain are more visible now, but maybe I will find another rim to replace it in some time.





The worker's meal: Orange-juice! Who would waste time on eating some consistent food?



Halftime: There are still some things that have to be disassembled



Finally admiring the shining rims while the 550 lies completely disassembled in my garage. I wonder if I will do something tomorrow. With my sandblaster box I could release some parts from rust and dirt to conserve them for coating.

Have a nice weekend

Oette

[Oette]

Hello guys,

Today I have been motivated by the good weather and went to the garage. After disassembling the bike there is now enough time to think about colors and other plans.

Probably I will place the battery and the electrics with the fuse box under/in the seat to clean the triangle in the frame. I am not shure if I will place aluminium plates in the triangles from both sides to cover it, because the original side covers are missing.

In addition, I am thinking about a black painted frame and titanium painted tank, seat and headlight case or a dark red painted frame with equally painted headlight case and ivory-colored tank and seat (which will be actually saddled with black leather). The combination of a dark red frame and black parts would be lovely, too. Hard decision...

Right, the last posts are copied from my blog. I think its good to post my progress here,too.

Today I bought a good engine together with an old 4 in 4 exhaust system (which was for free). I think the mufflers are useless so I am going to cut them off to use the exhaust headers for an rebuild.

Here are some pics of the engine for you:












In the lower picture you can see the CX's tank lying correctly on the frame. The cord marks the original tank's lower line. As you can see the CX's tank lies about 3cm higher than the original one, but I think that will have no negative effects on the looks.
The screw, which fixates the tank on the frame does not fit here, so there is some work to do to make it fitting by adding a selfmade plate out of aluminium or sth else.





Greets Oette

[Oette]

Hi,

today I asked myself if a CB 650's dip pipe would fit into the fork of an 550? My pipes are quite rusty so i thought auf the 650's dip pipe as an alternative (higher availability of spare parts), but I am not shure if the threads for the brakes are at the same place. Is here anyone who knows better?

Oette

[Bankerdanny]

Your project seems to be coming along nicely. Keep the updates coming.

[Oette]

Thanks .

I am thinking of what I am going to do next, cause I am not shure if I should beginn with bodywork or technical work.
All in all I want to have the work finished excluding engine work until autumn, because I have the possibility to disassemble and rebuild the engine in our cellar.


Greets

[Bankerdanny]

I would be surprised if the fork tubes from a 650 fit your bike. Maybe you could import replacement forks from the UK for a reasonable cost.

[theofam]

Oette, nice progress so far!  Keep the updates coming. And your English is great - no need to apologize.

[Oette]

Hi Guys,

Yesterday I thougt about a solution for the mounting of the CX 500's tank on my frame. My first approach to a solution was to use the old holes for the original tank and to manufacture an adapter which will provide the new hole for mounting the CX's tank.
For this I used a 4mm thick aluminium sheet and the result makes me quite confident. As usual, I took some photos for you:















Ok, I had no milling machine so I used the good old drill press and file. There are still vibration-reducing rubbers missing, so it will look quite good, when its finished. Finally I am going to have the adapter plastic-coated, so it won't attract much attention with the plastic-coated frame.

Nice Sunday,
Oette 

[theofam]

Nice adapter plate for the tank.  Does it change the tank's angle on the frame?

[Oette]

No, it fits perfectly.
Before I manufactured the plate I tried out and searched for the best position. As you can see page up, the tank has a different height from the lower frame end than the original one, that is the only thing which changed.
Now  adapting the tank is nearly done with, but I am waiting for a friend of mine who borrowed my welder so I can change the front mounting of the tank in some time.

Greets

[Oette]

Hello guys,

I noticed rust on the upper ends of the dip pipes already when I disassembled the bike. After questioning myself how I would get rid of it I used steel wool and wire brush to remove as much as possible from the upper ends, where the chrome had its best time a lifetime ago.
The result didn't make me confident so I am thinking about coating the upper ends just to the maximum dip length. I know this is not a good solution, but I will purchase a 'new' pair of dip pipes in time when the main work is done.

Photo:



Furthermore, I devoted myself to the tank again and thought about a possible solution for the front mounting with the tank-rubbers on the frame. They have to be relocated to guarantee a good placement on the frame. For you I outlined a first draft in Paint.

The marked sleeves have to be set back about 4-5 cm and enlarged about 3 cm to the tank's middle axis. Again I will manufacture an adapter out of a half pipe steel profile and place an end stop for the tank rubbers on the frame.





As visible on the photo, the sleeves are to short and have to be enlarged to the frame.



By the way: Anyone here who had ever coated the ends of the dip pipes as I thought about?

Greets
Oette

[theofam]

In the States we call your "dip pipes" "fork tubes."  You might be able to search the forum on that term and get some results.  Personally, I've not heard of anyone coating them, unless by "coating" you mean stripping and re-chroming.  In that case, I'd bet folks have done it.  It seems they're often replaced when they get that bad.  People seem to go to Forks by Frank or CycleX for the replacements.

[Oette]

Thanks for the correction and I got an answer on my question in a german Honda board, too. There he posted a pic of his coated fork tubes (  ):



The pic is quite small but he states that he turned the pipe on his lathe and took off just the rusty layer. Then he coated it in black.

Greets Oette

[Oette]

Hello,

Yesterday I thought about all the positive memories connected to bike tours with 2 persons, so I decided to try out something "new". I will combine a seat offering space for two persons which is changeable to a single person's seat.
The seat of the new Moto Guzzi V11 served as my inspiration for this build.

I took my pencil and made some quick drafts, explainations will follow:



As you can see on the picture, the style of an hump seat will be assumed. Instead of using sheet I will try to manufacture it out of GRP and cut it nearly in the middle. The cut off piece now makes the difference between a single and two person's seat (orange). It will be fastened by flat screws and offers still enough place for the LiFePo4 accumulator, the fuse box and the rest of the smart electronics.



Greets, Oette

[articblue]

Wow, this is looking great.
I really like the seat design idea.

You're really cranking through the disassemble / clean part of the build.
Keep up the great work.

[Flying J]

I will follow along. looks interesting.

[Oette]

Thank you. I am about to develop this idea a bit more, but first the tank work has to be finished. The first important measure was to note this idea before I might forget it.

Greets

[Oette]

Today I ordered some tank sealing, so I can put the tank, wrapped into an old blanket, into the concrete mixing drum for sealing. I thought it would be better to do this before removing the old paint. Let's see what the next days will bring...

Greets

[Oette]

Hello guys,

After a short pause I am back again with some news:

-the tank sealing has arrived

-my thoughts about the mounting of the speedo and tacho led to a result

-the fork brace is bare now

-I purchased carbs which are as good as new

I took some pictures again, so here they are with fitting comments:







These are the new carbs with some chrome, which is actually not really my taste, so I think of changing this. In some time I will clean them in my ultrasonic bath to make them shine like new carbs.



With my CAD program I printed a pattern for the mounting of the instruments. I used 3mm aluminium for this.









After some drilling and filing the mounting was finished, it just needs some surface treatment now.
In fact, I am not sure if this one will look good enough in the end, but I'll judge about this later.
When there is a bigger budget available I may be able to get something better looking.

These days I will hopefully finish the adaption of the tank, then seal and undercoat it.

Oette

[Oette]

Of course the control lights are missing, but I will think about that later. Today I thought about placing the ignition lock under the tank's lower left side. Anyone who did this?

Greets

[Oette]

Hello mates,

Last week I managed to proceed though I had not much time to spend. There are a few things that have been finished now:


-I overhauled the shocks, they look like new ones now
-The adapters for the CX's tank are finished
-I prepared the tank for welding


As usual I took some photos for you:



The shocks before


 The springs after removing the paint


After pre-coating




After coating, now assembled with new shocks




The tank with cut off mountings


The new mounting which will be welded within the next days

Ok, enough for today.

Greets from sunny Germany,
Oette

[sinister902]

I'm liking your problem solving techniques for fitting the CX500 tank!