Topic: CB550 Cafe Interceptor - Gentleman's Roadster

[FunJimmy]

It's OK to admit that you broke that guard yourself in a rage over all of the people making their own knock-offs.
Amazing work as always.  You are one of a few builders who make me look at and think about every piece, wire, and fastener on my bike.  There's a guy on the CBX forum who calls me Dr. Detail, and I'm like "you have no idea."    Builds like this are why I'm changing my rear master cylinder to something that looks better, why I went with all A/N fittings for my oil cooler and t-stat, applying anti-reflective coating to my gauge glass, and going to an Al throttle tube with roller bearings.  etc. etc. etc.  Plus of course the blatant rip-off of your chainguard design.

You always have such kind things to say Syscruch. Thank you.
The resin wasn't the problem with my prototype chain guard. It was impatience and the use of an external heat source to accelerate the cure. I used polyester and the second copy turned out fine.

Are you going to give us some more sound bites of that Hindle? That teaser clip gave me blue balls!!!

Great idea Joey. I'll dust off the GoPro and start putting something together.

I'll second that--great piece of road! I'm just a few hours east in the north Okanagan. A few nice ones out here, too.

You certainly do! The BEST roads are in and around the Okanagan/Kootneys. I typically go the Sea to Sky & Duffey Lake Road as an access road to the Okanagan.

Is that the 12"?

Yup

That would be an epic road trip.

Mooshie did it on her CB550, Dash. You're not gonna let a girl beat you.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

That would be an epic road trip.

Mooshie did it on her CB550, Dash. You're not gonna let a girl beat you.

I take my hat off to Mooshie.  She gets the Iron Butt award!

[RAFster122s]

Better watch yourself there cb750 CafeRacer, talking about Mooshie's butt is liable to get you in trouble.

Jimmy, I think that Kemp would put that sound/video clip on his website.
whether not it would net you a discount is up to you and Kemp...

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Better watch yourself there cb750 CafeRacer, talking about Mooshie's butt is liable to get you in trouble.

Hey, I just said she got the award -- nothing about her butt! 

[Syscrush]

It's been a year since the last ride report on this bike. Have you started the 2017 riding season yet? My CBX was out of commission for the entirety of the 2016 season, and might get a late start for 2017 - engine rebuild is (finally) done, but now that it's almost spring I don't know how long I'm gonna have to wait to get my turn for the dyno tuning (which it sorely needs).

As I've said before, I've tried to approach my maintenance and mods like you have - trying to get stuff done right and paying attention to every little thing, one at a time. When I've been doing this, I've been telling myself that the goal is to have a bike that I can get right and then enjoy for as long as I'm able to ride (aiming for another 20 years). But now that the list of things I want to improve or tweak is down under 10 items long, I find that I start to think about selling it and starting fresh with something different. Desire and pride are fickle things!

What's your plan for this bike? Is there further work you wanna do? Is it something you want to hold on to indefinitely? Do you have other projects on the go?

[754]

He has to get it ready in a while for the reunion...in Dolores..

  JIMMY ALERT.... Nice Windjammer for a 550 in for sale...   .......   ....>>>>>>>>>>> running away >>>>>>>>>>>>>

[FunJimmy]

It's been a year since the last ride report on this bike. Have you started the 2017 riding season yet? My CBX was out of commission for the entirety of the 2016 season, and might get a late start for 2017 - engine rebuild is (finally) done, but now that it's almost spring I don't know how long I'm gonna have to wait to get my turn for the dyno tuning (which it sorely needs).

As I've said before, I've tried to approach my maintenance and mods like you have - trying to get stuff done right and paying attention to every little thing, one at a time. When I've been doing this, I've been telling myself that the goal is to have a bike that I can get right and then enjoy for as long as I'm able to ride (aiming for another 20 years). But now that the list of things I want to improve or tweak is down under 10 items long, I find that I start to think about selling it and starting fresh with something different. Desire and pride are fickle things!

What's your plan for this bike? Is there further work you wanna do? Is it something you want to hold on to indefinitely? Do you have other projects on the go?

This has been the worst winter/spring ever! Was the coldest and snowiest winter in 31 years followed by March rainfall that broke a 61 year record!
This may seem a little bit whiny but we had snow for the whole month of December. They're even calling for snow on mountain passes tonight. How are we to ever have hopes of riding our prized bikes? 

I know how you feel about selling and starting another project. I just can't do it though. I love this little bike. Perfect for goofing around town and pretty much finished.
This year I'm working on swapping to my (ultra low mileage) secondary engine with SE (special edition) High Comp 60mm Wiesco forged slugs.
Should be able to beat Frank to Colorado with this one.
 

[flatlander]

jimmy, what's the deal with those pistons? i thought wiseco only made the 59mm 10:1 for the 550?

[RAFster122s]

Flatlander,
Apparently, Not any more...

More motor porn...I presume it will be breathed on by JMR?

David

[Camrector]

Ah the Bwaller concept pistons! Almost went that direction myself.

[RAFster122s]

What is a "Bwaller concept piston"?

[RAFster122s]

Jimmy, they have these trucks that can haul your bikes or fly your bikes just about anywhere in the world you can fly on commercial flights.  So, you get the bike to that shippers agent and then when it is time you go to the airport and hope a jet to Southern AZ, Texas, Nevada, California, Georgia, South Carolina, etc and then you ride it until you have your fix before flying home. One just needs to be wealthy to do that.
Haul Bikes and several other good shipping companies, as you have shipped a bike in your day, what company did you use? We should really have a thread in the open forum ir somewhere else that captures experiences when using different shipping companies or  individuals who operate a bike transport company.

David

[Camrector]

RAF. These were pistons that Brent Waller had custom made for his race bike.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Ah the Bwaller concept pistons! Almost went that direction myself.

shhhhhhhhh!!  That's secret squirrel stuff!

[Camrector]

Ah the Bwaller concept pistons! Almost went that direction myself.

shhhhhhhhh!!  That's secret squirrel stuff!

Free the Squirrels!!!

[754]

Beat Frank to Colorado ? We should have some fun rollons..
I should be running high compression 736, 315 cam and Webers..... Should be a fun ride..

[riverfever]

Ah the Bwaller concept pistons! Almost went that direction myself.

shhhhhhhhh!!  That's secret squirrel stuff!

Free the Squirrels!!!

Be quiet. Both of you need to stop talking about squirrels. I'm twitching.

[FunJimmy]

Until next time.

Cheers
FJ

[Syscrush]

I know how you feel about selling and starting another project. I just can't do it though. I love this little bike. Perfect for goofing around town and pretty much finished.
This year I'm working on swapping to my (ultra low mileage) secondary engine with SE (special edition) High Comp 60mm Wiesco forged slugs.

Looks great! Is the engine all back together? It looks like those pistons have some kind of dry film lubricant on the skirts - to me that seems like cheap insurance and something that should be done as a matter of course. For my CBX rebuild, I also had the piston crowns and the combustion chambers & valves hit with a ceramic thermal barrier coating. I don't expect it to make more power or make the bike impervious to abuse, but I do feel like it can only help to give an old air-cooled I6 better odds of survival in bad circumstances like summer stop & go. Something to think about if the engine isn't closed back up yet.

[RAFster122s]

Looks like a nice build is happening FJ.  So, you took the route of rebuilding a spare motor.  Putting the twist on the bit of old advice to have two bikes if you are going to ride an old bike.  You have three and you have two motors for the one. Having a spare motor for the Duc would be costly, but what is not on those high strung Italian ladies.  I can't imagine riding something like it, probably never will.
What is your hp & torque target sfor the dyno on the rebuild?

Sorry about the off-topic on your thread, deleted it.

Hope the business is going well to help finance the FJ Laboratory and Reunion trip

[RAFster122s]

Send that to Kemp and he will link to it on his Ripple Rock Racers site.  He was looking for an audio of the exhaust in action after a thread which brought the exhaust to the forefront here on SOHC4s.

Will this be the 3rd or fourth iteration on the bike?  1st was  in blue,  second with CI paint and more motor work, third had exhaust mirrors new fender paint, and different top end?

Weather is getting better.
Looking forward to some Hindle thunder.

<a href="Not a valid vimeo URL">Hindle Exhaust - CB550[/url]

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Send that to Kemp and he will link to it on his Ripple Rock Racers site.  He was looking for an audio of the exhaust in action after a thread which brought the exhaust to the forefront here on SOHC4s.

Will this be the 3rd or fourth iteration on the bike?  1st was  in blue,  second with CI paint and more motor work, third had exhaust mirrors new fender paint, and different top end?

Weather is getting better.
Looking forward to some Hindle thunder.

<a href="Not a valid vimeo URL">Hindle Exhaust - CB550[/url]

Nicely produced video, Jim.

[Syscrush]

It was suggested on the “High Performance & Racing Forum” that straight runners from the carbs to the intake valves is a lot more efficient than having bends in the intake tract. 
With that in mind, I ordered the CR26 carbs spaced to match the intake ports on the head.
That meant I needed to make intake manifolds to mount them.
Not having a welder or experience using one, I decided to bolt an adapter to the head and then use rubber intake manifolds from a Kawasaki KZ550.

FYI, every few months I come back and look at this - it's so nice. I am shocked to come and see that this work was done almost 8 years ago!

[RAFster122s]

Jimmy may not have paved new ground doing some of the stuff with the build when he did this but he did combine some excellent things and did a couple handfuls of things I hadn't seen before. He created a timeless restomod cafe design.
I picked up a FZ6/R6 front fork to follow suit with the front end mods he did using his work as a pattern (how to) for how to implement that front end on a cb550.

I agree with you that it is amazing that it was 8 years ago.  I understand the cafe interceptor is under the knife again for some motor improvements and to address an oil (smoke?) issue.

SysCrush, you have a Birthday coming up early next month (Jan 7th)...in case I forget to wish you a Happy Birthday closer to the day, Happy Birthday!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Jimmy may not have paved new ground doing some of the stuff with the build when he did this but he did combine some excellent things and did a couple handfuls of things I hadn't seen before. He created a timeless restomod cafe design.
I picked up a FZ6/R6 front fork to follow suit with the front end mods he did using his work as a pattern (how to) for how to implement that front end on a cb550.

I agree with you that it is amazing that it was 8 years ago.  I understand the cafe interceptor is under the knife again for some motor improvements and to address an oil (smoke?) issue.

SysCrush, you have a Birthday coming up early next month (Jan 7th)...in case I forget to wish you a Happy Birthday closer to the day, Happy Birthday!

Dave Barbier did the same front end swap.  I have a spare in my garage (ready to bolt on) for a future project.