Topic: CB400F bars and rear-sets on my CB500. A "how-to", of sorts....

[Scott S]

 Behold! A rare, 1971 Japanese market prototype CB500 Super Sport, resplendent in the JDM CB750 Silver/Blue paint scheme!




 Nah...not really. It's my CB500 with CB400F bars and pegs on it. What follows is not really a "how-to" so mauch as a "How I did it". Your experience may differ.

[Scott S]

 I wanted to keep the bike on the road while I gathered parts and made preparations. I bought a set of controls and, using the guide on this site, rebuilt them. It's not as hard as you would think. Just tedious and time consuming. Lots of little parts. To be honest, the LH control was harder than the RH, mostly because of the turn signal switch.
 It helps to take your time, work slow and clean and, at a couple of points, have a third or fourth hand.

 Anyway, here are the controls and bars after I finished them:

[Scott S]

 I also gathered the parts to do the 400F "rear sets". Here's everything you'll need to do the swap. Notice the CB550F kick pedal, too.



 This is the 550F kicker. It's not the bend you need as much as it is the extended arm that goes on the splined shaft.

[Scott S]

 The RH peg has some extra meat on it. I'm not really sure what it's for, but it's not needed in this application, so we cut it off and dressed up the peg.

 Stock on the left, modified on the right.

[Scott S]

 Disassembled everything and prepped it for paint.

[Scott S]

 Painted, so time to reassemble....

[Scott S]

 Viola!...Just like they came from the factory....

[Scott S]

 The brake pedal, if left stock, will stick WAY out to the side of the bike. Luckily, a forum member has done this conversion before me and he graciously bent my pedal to match.
 You can see a stock 400F brake pedal on the right and the modified pedal on the left.

[Scott S]

 Using the 400F brake pedal presents another small problem...
 The rear brake light switch/spring on the CB500 is on the outside of the frame. The CB400F has the switch/spring on the inside. When swapping them, there is no longer a way to hook up the rear brake switch.

 Some people have relocated the mounting tab for the switch to a place on the rear/inside of the frame down tube.
 I decided to go this route instead in case I ever wanted to go back to stock.
 I made a tab that's the same shape/size as the one on the CB500 pedal....



  And welded it onto the modified 400F pedal....




 I got lucky and was able to sand/polish the pedal and get the heat marks out. I then sprayed it with rust converter and clear coat. Good enough for me and matches the patina on the rest of the bike. For concourse stuff, you may want it chromed or powder coated.

[Scott S]

 Here's the shifter and LH peg installed on the bike.



 Despite what some other threads have said, this ain't a simple bolt on job. The shifter would foul the linkage unless we adjusted it out. Then, it would foul the kickstand.
 The solution was to put a slight S bend in the shifter. This gave us the clearance we needed at the top, around the shift shaft and heim joints.

[Scott S]

 For the kick stand, we simply sawed off the little ball on the end of the foot. I'll dress this up later and repaint it.

[Scott S]

 Here's the RH side.



 Again, it wasn't a simple bolt on deal. We had to disassemble the rear brake arm on the drum and reposition it. It also took us about four tries to get the pivot point (at the front of the brake arm) correct.

  We also had to bend this guard that is on the 400F pedal. Again, I'm not sure what purpose it serves and, if I had to do it all over, I'd just cut it off and dress up the welds. This looks a little hinky to me, but , oh well. If not bent, the kicker contacts it when you kick start the bike.



 Oh, and the kicker MUST go on before the brake pedal. Don't ask me how I know. Also, the kicker is OH SO CLOSE the side cover. Only the rubber part and it will only hit it if you aren't careful when letting it return. Still, the possibility of a cracked side cover is there, so....be careful.

[Scott S]

 Here are the bars on the bike. This part was way more difficult than the pegs.



 As many of you know, there is precious little room for the master cylinder. I had to re-route my brake hose which, in my case, meant unhooking it and bleeding the brakes again.
 You must also remove the throttle cable(s) from the carbs AND the throttle. The clutch cable also has to come loose at the lever.
 
 In my case, I had to completely adjust the clutch from scratch. This MAY have been because I had the sprocket cover off the other day to replace the oil pressure switch. Or, maybe it was because of the new set-up. Either way, I didn't get lucky and get all the adjustment from the upper end.

[Scott S]

 Here's a before and after.

 I also have a pic with a rider on it, but I'm waiting on my model to come home so I can get the "after" pic with a rider.

BEFORE:
 Bone stock CB500 bars and pegs.



 AFTER:
 CB400F bars and pegs/shifter/brake lever.

[Scott S]

 Like I said, if anyone tells you "Oh, yeah those bars/pegs just bolt right on", don't believe it. This took us a good six hours, even after everything was prepped and ready to go on the bike.
 Then I STILL had to make throttle and clutch adjustments.

 First impressions are good. I swear I can lean the bike over WAY more with the 400F bars. I'l be getting rid of some chicken strips now.

 Also, the throttle seems softer, but that may be more because of the grips I used. While I had the GT style grips before, the were firm. These are the same style but had a "waffle" pattern and are much softer. I think the grip may be giving a little under my throttle hand whereas it was more direct before. Nothing that I can't get used to.

 The rear brake is WAY different, too. At first, I thought it was still out of adjustment, but, the fact is you have a much shorter arm and you simply don't have the leverage you had before with the CB500 pedal. It took me about ten minutes to get used to it and now it's not an issue.

 Shifting is smooth and easy with no issues that weren't there before....just your normal CB500 transmission stuff. My bike has a rebuilt transmission and I still get a false neutral from time to time if I'm not careful. Every so often I find it hard to get first gear but, again, that happened before with the stock shifter and usually because I was careless. when down shifting/coming to a complete stop. It's inherent to the bike and CB550 owners may not experience this.

 Hope this helps someone some day! Now, I'm off to go riding!

 

[apex_seeking]

Thanks for the write up. Great info and great pics. Thanks Scott!

I'm waiting for the 400 foot controls to arrive so I can get started and this will take some of the mystery out of the whole process.

Could the extra metal there on the brake lever be a foot guard to keep you from scratching those pretty covers? I agree that they look out of sorts. I'll remove mine. Thanks again!

[pilotguy1050]

What an AMAZING transformation.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE those handlebars...    GREAT WRITEUP.

[Kevin400F]

Scott, to re-gain the proper power and feel for the rear brake, drill a new hole in the brake actuating arm, closer to the pivot point, where the brake rod connects.

See picture below of the conversion I did on my '76 CB550K.  (Pardon the grunge, its a rider, not a show queen.)

[Kevin400F]

Another thing you may want to consider is disassembling the Heim joint from the shift lever and moving it around to the outside.  This gives the rod a more efficient, straighter push on the transmission shift rod link. 

Substituting a slightly longer threaded rod lets you keep everything parallel for better efficiency and good range of adjustment.

[Scott S]

 Kevin...I have a 400F brake pivot. I'll have to look again and see how it compares to the CB500 pivot. I wonder if swapping them out would work. But...like I said...I quickly got used to the new pedal effort. I will take a look at your conversion, though.

 On the heim joint: How do you disassemble it? I'd be willing to try that, but I'm not sure how to take it apart. That said, it really shifts fine like it is. BUT....it does look more "natural" the way you have it.

[Kevin400F]

On the Heim joint, I used a Dremel to grind away the "peened" material of the joint stud on the back side of the shift lever, then used a punch to drive the Heim joint out of the lever.  I put a little bevel around the lever hole (side closest to bike) to give me a place to stake the Heim joint stud when inserted the opposite way.   I pressed it all back together in the new orientation and staked the Heim stud in place (a spot weld would work also).

Kevin

[isred09]

Thanks for such a great post. I went to a salvage yard today an bought most of the peaces. They did not have the kick start so what year 550f is yours. I saw two 76 ones on e bay and I need the left peg. Had the shift linkage but nothing to mount it on. Anyways thanx for the great ideas. Brent

[Scott S]

 Brent, I'm not sure what year my kicker came from. The important part is the extended piece that goes on the splined shaft. Take a look at your stock shifter vs. the one pictured and you should see what I mean.

 I had to buy the 400F pegs in bits and pieces to get everything I want and I have enough to do another conversion (not counting the 550F kick pedal). I'd rather not separate it though. I'll clean it up soon and list it in the "for sale" section soon.

[apex_seeking]

What did you use to heat up and bend the brake lever?

[Deltarider]

Compliments. Well done.