74' CB550 Project Whistle Pig

Well here goes, another cb550. Just picked up the bike a few minutes ago and the wheels are already turning in my head. I teach an adult education welding program at the local vocational school in the evenings, and one of my students asked if i would be interested in an ol 74 cb550, the answer to which was yes of course. Just traded a crisp $350.00 bill for a bike and a title. i hope to get pix of it up here soon, and hopefully the project will keep rolling. Please be patient with me though, progress may be slow. I usually pull outta my drive at 6:30 am and get back home at 9:30 pm, so that leaves weekends and only the most ambitious evenings for progress Through the course of this project i am sure i will be asking plenty of questions, and will probably make myself look like an idiot at times. I am a CNC programmer and machinist by day, as well as an AWS Certified welder, so the fabrication and so on will not be a problem. Heres the kicker, Me doing electrical work is about like a blind guy givin a tattoo, just dont work out to well. Luckily for me the old man has a background in electrical engineering the plans for the bike are simple though. maybe not in this specific order but anywho.

1. Make er make noise again. make sure the ol girl still has soul

2. Cut off all the crap, ya know all the stuff you dont need to go fast.

3. start makin the billet, (custom triple trees, rear sets, and maybe even clip ons if i get motivated enough ect.)

4. make er run good ( port heads, get rid of the bathtub airbox and open up the exhaust)

5. make er pretty. (powder coat wheels, frame, paint tank, make cafe seat, and if im feeling adventurous, pound some knee dents into the gas tank. im a little nervous about that one)

6. stand, stare, think, imagine, do, undo, redo, rinse and repeat.

I know those are all totally original thoughts *sarcasm* but any imput along the way will be appreciated. i am a two stroke guy, snowmobiles are my thing, so this four stroker will be a challenge im sure so if you guys see something im doin really wrong, just say "hey stupid, thats stupid"

Im looking foward to this project and happy building and riding!

heres to project Whistle Pig!

I'll be following your progress. If ya want to practice making Alu triples... 8) Hit me up if there's anything I can do for you, I'm right down the road.

bump. How's the 550?

Sorry guys. i am not a very tec savy guy and i am having a hard time getting pictures uploaded on here! i have messed around at work making fixtures to do my triple trees and drawing up rearsets. i need to keep working on getting the bike running. i think the guys kid who i bought it from pulled every possible wire loose on the darn thing, so i am having troubles with that. i hope to have pics up soon!

so here goes nothin. big thanks to ridesolo for walking me through gettin pictures on here. i am quite the tec idiot.
Here is the bike pretty much as i got it. gotta love the good ol king queen seat haha




and here are a couple just pulling the seat and bars off and putting a set of clubmans on (clubmans arents staying)



and here is just a pic of the computer screen while i was drawing up a set of clip on clamps on auto cad. should start machining on stuff soon

thats all i have for now sorry but hopefully ill have more soon!

I would say I have taken to long to update oh here considering it asked me "are you sure you don't want to start a new thread". Oh well. Havent gotten a bunch done on the bike, but i did get it to run. I have machined some custom parts on and off for the bike after work and some other odds and ends. I have a long ways to go, but i am glad i have taken a while to REALLY figure out what I want to do. Over the last year the idea has changed from full on cafe, to tracker, to bobber (even have a weld in hardtail sitting in the shop now for it) and now im 99% sure it is going to be a mix of all but closer to a bratstyle ish thing.

The first things I made were a set of exhaust clamps (i think thats what they are called) I started with a block of 1018 lcs and started whittling. Well my CNC mill started whittling. I made an extra set of 4 so if anyone has a cb550 and is interested hit me up. i may eventually make a set out of aluminum and see if they hold up.

Here it is actually on the last operation, bolted to my fixture to machine the final profile. I omitted some pictures of all the different operations

Here it is after final machining sitting next to an original one

Here it in on the bike. mind you it is just sitting there, not bolted in, so nothing looks centered or right... man that engine is dirty. also not pictured, i did pick up a used set of 4 into 1 550f headers =)

Next i got tired of working on the ol girl on the floor, so i built a table. i would say that it is the best thing ive made for the bike yet!

I am still far from convinced on my tail section. I started hacking on an old GT 250 suzuki tank and put it on there, but i dont really like it. i will probably just end up with a dime city cycles "wrapped cafe" seat. love the looks of those.

bookmarked!

The only Harley Davidson part that I plan on putting on this bike is a headlight. i dont particularly care for the big jap headlights. i made a mount first that mounted to the gauge mounts on my top triple tree, and mounted the headlight upside down off of it, only to realize that it looks about as stupid as you could possibly make a headlight look on a motorcycle lol





after some more thinking i just decided to mount it off of a bar that clamps to my fork tubes, much happier with how this looks. (I engraved the front of the bar with "CB550 WP" wp standing for whistle pig lol)

Looking good man... those 1 off parts are killer and will set your bike off from all the others.

If you ever decide to start making fork braces... let me know!

Much better. Looks great.

Thanks guys. i always tell people that i make up for my lack of skill with CNC equipment haha i dont know if i will make fork braces or not... actually still not quite sure that it wont end up with a inverted tube front end... but if i do make some fork braces ill for sure let you know.

hurco550 said:

I am still far from convinced on my tail section. I started hacking on an old GT 250 suzuki tank and put it on there, but i dont really like it. i will probably just end up with a dime city cycles "wrapped cafe" seat. love the looks of those.

Click to expand...

Wait... tail section? You mean you're ditching the K&Q seat?

But on the more serious side, what shape is that stock exhaust in, and are you getting rid of it?

exhaust clamps look killer, btw, and these are fun bikes.

haha it was a hard choice to get rid of the K&Q seat for sure... if I didn't care how it looked, I would keep it lol its actually more comfortable than I thought it would be!

And the stock exhaust is in so so condition. not perfect by any means but diffidently still usable. may be a few dings if i remember right, but i will have to go out and look. they are for sale. I have no idea on value though, but whoever buys them may just get the awesome K&Q seat thrown in on the deal =P I also made an extra set of 4 exhaust flanges while i was setup, and those are also for sale if interested. they are just bare steel at this point, so they will need plated or painted. Thanks for the compliments!

that king and queen seat is hysterical. how much would you sell that monstrosity for?

I like watching 550 builds. I think builds for these are unlimited.

Hopefully I'll find one soon to build.

As above that seat is wicked.

MikeRenz: its pretty majestic isnt it. i would sell it for a fair offer... plus shipping lol to me its another "wall hanger", if you want it, there is a good chance we can make it yours. in all honesty its in good shape. dont think there are any tears on it, but i will double check if it does

budlite282: i have gotten alot of inspiration from quite a few guys on here building cb550s. i just hope it turns out half as nice as theirs! just keep an eye out, around here they arent all that hard to find for pretty cheap..

Hahah it's goofy seeing such clean, freshly machined parts on such a dirty bike. I like it

haha it may be that way when its done too. i kinda like the look of chrome and dirt