Topic: My $500 Purchase

[CafeWild34]

I just bought this motorcycle this weekend for 500. The guy said it was a 1974 CB550 but I found some papers under the seat that says it is a 75 so either way. It runs and I drove it home from the guys house. He has some crazy homemade pods on it so that is the first thing I ordered. It has a leaky petcock also so I will either be ordering a repair kit or a new petcock. That's all I'm gonna do till I ride her a couple hundred miles. He cleaned the carb twice and changed the oil and coils so I'm not gonna mess with it for now. The papers I found under the seat were from 1985 and the milage on the paper is 14196 and now the bike only has 14478 so it has barely been ridden in the last 25 years. I plan on turning it into a cafe racer after a couple weeks of riding and reading this forum to see what all I should do. Any suggestions are welcome and very appreciated. I am a noob when it comes to this stuff. I will start by making sure it runs as good as I can get it to then start a body transformation.

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

Nice bike. My advice is for when you do start to pull off parts to replace to make the bike cooler....save everything. You will be able to sell stuff like those headlight ears, seat, exhaust...blinkers, but just hold on to them. I would also suggest that you try to track down a stock airbox and filter setup just in case the pods that you put on require too much tuning. You want to ride the bike for the summer and tear it apart in the winter. 


if you want to sell the seat let me know. lol.


good luck and read up. There are alot of smart buggers in this forum.

[seanbarney41]

Good score!  Try to remember that cafe racing is more about performance improvements than looks...it just so happens that sometimes better performance has a certain look to it

[Holden]

Wow.  Sounds like a great deal.  Enjoy.

[CafeWild34]

Here is a short video of it running. It runs good the only problem I am having is it is having a sluggish start in first gear but only for a second then it jumps on it pretty good. I am thinking it is running too rich but I could be wrong I will do some more investigating. Let me know if you hear anything off. Thanks

[KingCustomCycles.com]

Those hillbilly "pods" really make me wonder about whats inside the carbs.  If it runs to suit you, don't bother removing and inspecting/cleaning them but I sure would go there first if some running issue crops up.  Nice find and a fair price.  It is good to see these are still available.  By the way, my daily driver is about as hillbilly as it gets and I use the term descriptively and not in a derogatory fashion.  Built in 74 titled and imported in 75 is common. :-)

[74cb750]

Nice find.
Good luck with the rebuild to cafe.
There's lots of info and helpful people here.

[Stev-o]

Nice solid bike at a great price!

I'd put a cheap seat cover on it ($50 on eBay, easy to install) and some side covers, (check the for sale section of this forum) it will really improve the look. You can always sell them later when you mod it.

Have fun!

[OldSchool_IsCool]

Yea!! Another cafe!!

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz........

[Holden]

Yea!! Another cafe!!

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz........

There's true to stock and then there's cafe, which includes many variations.  I guess cafe style is in now, just as the chopper/Harley style was in in the 70's.  This might be a dumb question, but what other styles are good to explore?

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

I will trade you a new set of sidecovers for the complete seat assy. That way you will have more money in your pocket for a cafe seat.

[Stev-o]

I will trade you a new set of sidecovers for the complete seat assy. That way you will have more money in your pocket for a cafe seat.

That won't look good on the frankenbike!

[Bankerdanny]

I have been a loud supporter of keeping original survivors original. But to me this seems like a fine candidate for a hybrid cafe conversion. Torn seat, no sidecovers, missing 4-4 exhaust. Nice original tank and good chrome, but not complete enough to worry over cosmetic changes.

Clubmans, rear sets, Vietnamese cafe seatcover. Trim down the rear fender (I perfer a fender to fenderless, even on the hardcore bikes), smaller tail light and directionals. If the paint is in decent shape I would leave that alone, that is a fabulous color.