74' CB550 Project Whistle Pig

suspension conversion

So i helped a DTT friend of mine ridesolo. He is putting a monoshock swingarm off of an EX500 ninja on his honda 360. (gonna be a sweet little ride!!!) Since seeing his project I decided that I just may want to go the same route on my 550. Next thing i know he sends me a craigslist lead on a 1987 Ninja 1000 chassis. (your the man Cory) I made the deal and it came home with me. the plan is to use the front forks, juice brakes, wheels and swingarm.

Kinda a funny story, i talked to the guy who had the chassis on and off for a week or so. Heck of a nice guy and he definitely had the two wheel fever like the rest of us. He went on and on about how the bike (the ninja 1000) had a straight frame, never wrecked this and that. He said the Motor blew up, and he just lost interest in the bike. He is located about 2 hours south of me, and we made plans to meet up on my way home from a separate trip. I stopped in and we made a deal. Problem was i was in my little chevy HHR and didnt feel like making another trip to his place. Long story short i ended up asking the guy to cut his straight "just needs a motor" bike in half so it would fit in my car. Kinda felt bad, but hey it saved me a trip in the truck and a tank of gas =)

Here is is stuffed in the back of the HHR


and here are the two big pieces




and here is the swing arm with all the other junk removed


and here my bike is with the rear end just sitting behing it. now its not gonna be that long i have not narrowed the swing arm pivot tube yet, so it is sitting about 3 inches back from where it will end up



I was excited to get the whole frame rather than just the swinger and front end, as i will be able to measure and copy the mounting locations for the swing arm and cantilever shock mount. Along with the bike i got another box of "goodies" (headers, radiator, headlight, this, that, and the other ect) if any of you guys also have a 1987 or close ninja 1000 and need a part that i have and i am not going to use, PM me and i will make you guys a fair deal.

so now comes a few questions to all of you cycle gurus. I will not know how much my sprockets will be offset for sure until i actually get the swingarm mounted. i am going to have to shave close to 3/8 of an inch off of each end of the tube to get it to fit in the stock location. I am not worried about that part, but its looking like i may have a tick over an inch that i will have to move the sprockets to line them up. so my question is how much of an offset can you get out of a sprocket on the output shaft on a cb550. i have heard that they are out there, but first hand experience would be greatly appreciated! Also my plan at this point on the front end is to make my own billet triples. what i plan on doing is using the hole location geometry from the 1000 front end, with the steering stem hole sizes from the 550 triples to mount my front end. That way i can just get the tapered bearings for the 550 and is should all bolt up. Do any of you guys see a problem with this plan? Any advice would be greatly appreciated !!

The triple tree plan sounds good, however, you need to make sure with the 1000's geometry, your steering stops will work and bars/clipons won't hit the tank. As far as sprocket offset, can't be of much help on that.

I experienced the same situation... I swapped in an 08 gsxr swingarm on my 78 cb750... I wasnt able to offset the output sprocket but so much because it would come in contact with the case. So I left the front sprocket alone and had new bushings machined to help with centering up the rear where one side has a thicker flange than the other. The sprockets are still slightly out of alignment, but it looks like by maybe 1/2" to 1/4". I have put the new chain on and bike in neutral. It doesnt appear to have any binding. You should be able to knock out some bushing to take care of most of your alignment issue.

swingarm machined!

alright i know this project is dragging on, but i have been busy working 2 jobs again lately. 5 days a week i pull out of the drive at 6:30 in the morning and get back home at 9:30 pm. i did however find a little bit of ambition this past Saturday and got some machining done on the ninja swing arm.

I used the handy solvent tank at work to clean most of the years of gunk off the aluminum, then set it up on the mill. I ended up making "plugs" that slip fit into the holes where the needle bearings were pressed in in order to properly indicate it in straight. the holes were not in fact bored in the center line of the tubing. for what it is it may have been close enough, but the tool and die maker side of me almost couldnt stand for it to me more than a few thousandths out haha







i still need to make the bushings for the swing arm that will adapt it to go from the inside diameter of the pivot tube in the ninja swingarm to the inside diameter to accept the pivot axle of the cb550. just to get it mocked up i drilled a hole in my "setup plugs" and bolted it together. Please do not get your panties in a bind, i am not leaving it steel on steel, it was just a quick way to get it on the bike to do some measuring.



and a view of how wide the tire actually is on this old honda

So it has been a hot minute since ive had a chance to post anything on here. got a little progress done, but not a whole lot. Just finished up teaching night classes last week, so i am hoping to have more time to dedicate to the ol girl!

pulled the front end off to do a little mockup using the ninja 1000 front end. (i am thinking if i keep that big of a sprocket on the rear end, i probably wont even need a front end haha)



Next step is making my triple trees to adapt from the cb550 "steering tube" if thats what its called, to the ninja forks. i am also going to have to make a new stem, but that is nothing a little time on the mazak lathe cant fix =) i took the top tree off and indicated it in. I used a Co Axial Indicator to swing all the holes for their locations. (Side Note: to any machinist who have to pick up on round stuff in a mill, Co Ax Indicators are worth their weight in gold!!)




spent a little time using my limited knowledge on auto cad to draw up a few triple tree designs. i think i know which one I'm going to go with.



this is sorta where it sits at the moment. Got me seat in from dime city cycles, front end mocked up in place, and bare metal ish tank. i am diggin the bare metal and think that may be how it stays. the rear sub frame will be getting cut off soon, and i have an idea on a fairly unique way to make the new one!


Again if anyone is actually watching this build, sorry for the long gaps of time in between updates. hopefully things will pick up on the ol whistle pig soon enough

It's looking great!

So. Much. Aluminum. Love it. Keep it up! Glad you pointed me to this thread 8)

Anything done in the last year?

crazypj: I have gotten some odds and ends done. I just moved, got married and started a new job, all within the last 5-6 months. The place I moved to just has a single car garage that I am trying to move all my motorcycle stuff into. Since changing jobs, I do not do the CNC programming every day like I used to, and also don't have access to the mill for my custom little parts. I didnt get my billet triple tree converson made before I left, so I recently rebuilt the stock front end (new seals, clean up and paint) as well as internally lowered them 2". I also scored a fairly nice cb500t tank that I am planning on running. I just havent posted any pictures lately. I may get ambitious and load some this afternoon of what I've done since my last update. My ol laptop from circa 1947 (lol) take FOREVER to download pics, but ill see what I can do. I go through spells of motivation on working on the bike, then I get overwhelmed and run out of money so it sits for a few months at a time.

hurco550 said:

I go through spells of motivation on working on the bike, then I get overwhelmed and run out of money so it sits for a few months at a time.

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Been there, do that daily......

Sounds familiar, I haven't done much of anything since I finished the first of (supposedly) three CB360's. Done little odds and ends, managed to build a pair of wheels with modded/polished hubs and WM3 blue anodized rims. Got the tyres on and fitted to bike then completely stalled out.
I'm going to use my bad back as excuse (see avatar) I can't actually do more than about 2~3 hrs at a time since surgery (and that is after taking a bunch of painkillers)
Nice to know you still have it though and are still doing things as and when 8)

crazypj said:

Nice to know you still have it though and are still doing things as and when 8)

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I agree. Life gets in the way of bike building sometimes Moving makes a project take even longer since you swore you knew where all those parts were BEFORE you packed everything up Hopefully you can get her on the road and then slowly do things as you go to make it the way you want to.

74' CB550 Project Whistle Pig looking different

Aint that the truth my friends. I often wonder when the millionaire is gonna come by and tell me that he just wants me to quit my job and build bikes and awesome stuff full time. Guess Ill just have to keep waiting. Got my bike put back together today. It is at my fathers shop and I have things pretty ready to bring the bike over here to the new place. Like i said in the last post, i am going from a pretty good sized shop to a one car garage. A one car garage that at least during the winter will have a car in it (gotta love Ohio winters). I am just happy that even though its small, i have a place to tinker with things. I have re thought using the Ninja suspension. The forks were just to long, and they were the fancy adjustable air type that I couldn't figure out a way to lower them internally, so I'm back to the stock honda suspenson. I am still planning on doing a monoshock conversion though. The rear end off of the Ninja would have also needed some extensive maching done to align the sprockets, and now that I do not work for the same company anymore, I will not have access to all the great equipment that I did. Anyways here is a few pics of how it sits now.

Here is my new little man cave. I had to hang some lights and shelves, get an air compressor, workbench and a good sturdy place to hold a can of beer:


Took the front end apart to replace the seals and paint. The top of the fork tubes look like crap, but the gators did their job on the travel section, and they look pretty nice:


I wanted to bring the front end down about 2 inches without just putting the tubes up through the trees so I internally lowered them. Cut 2 inches off the springs:


Made 2 inch spacers to put over the dampers:


Painted, replaced seals, mounted clip ons, put in new tapered bearings from all balls, and re assembled the front end:


I scored a descent little cb500t tank to put on the bike. Got it from a salvage yard about 35min from my place. I traded all the extra parts from the ninja 1000 for the tank. Win win... I got extra room on my garage and the tank by getting rid of parts that I had no use for. The tank has a few dings and scratches, but the inside is pristine! I may leave the paint alone, I don't know if that is the original paint, but it gives it a neat "been around a while" look:


Put stuff back together where it will roll and sat the tank and seat on it. Here is how she is at the moment:

Re: 74' CB550 Project Whistle Pig looking different

hurco550 said:

Here is my new little man cave. I had to hang some lights and shelves, get an air compressor, workbench and a good sturdy place to hold a can of beer:


Took the front end apart to replace the seals and paint. The top of the fork tubes look like crap, but the gators did their job on the travel section, and they look pretty nice:


I wanted to bring the front end down about 2 inches without just putting the tubes up through the trees so I internally lowered them. Cut 2 inches off the springs:


Made 2 inch spacers to put over the dampers:

Click to expand...

What from and how did you make the spacers?

I just made them out of 1018 Mild Steel and turned them on the lathe. Nothing fancy, but need a lathe to make them like that. I have heard of people Just using pvc pipe for them, and they claim that it is plenty strong enough, but I would rather use steel if I can instead of plastic pipe. I have also heard of people just using black pipe, but you would have to make sure that the i.d. and o.d. are ok to clear the damper rod as well as the inside of the fork tube.

Thanks bro...............I want to lower mine somehow....just looking for the easiest way.

No problem man. It really isn't all that tough to do all things considered. It may not be the easiest way per say, but imho it looks so much better than having your tubes stick up past the top clamp.