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With the front end and brakes all sorted out, it’s time to finish up mounting the headlight and get started on a fender.
Hey here’s an interesting trick! The Buell M2 headlight mounting brackets were the only 43mm brackets that I could find at the time, but they never really looked right so I found these really cool T-bolt stainless steel clamps and fabed up some custom headlight mounts.
These where so easy to make that you can easily play around with angles and dimensions till you get the right setup for you. The T-bolt clamps also come in many sizes so this should work for any fork diameter.
Before I get dirty making fenders and a seat, I wanted to finish up all the chassis/suspension work first.
You’re gonna love the rear setup on this bike! I found this amazing and very rare Genuine Dresda swingarm. Unfortunately all I could get my hands on was the swingarm and axle adjusters, so once I sourced precision sealed bearings that pressed right in I machined up the pivot shaft and spacers.
With the front and rear suspension mostly sorted (except rear shocks) it was on to the foot controls.
Making rear-set controls for my recent CB550 Interceptor project was one of the most difficult tasks to date. These old pull rod drum brake bikes pose the unique problem of transferring the brake pedal leverage to the drum brake arm. I’ve seen several approaches from using a brake cable to the more common attempt of integrating the stock pivot shaft and pull rod with various linkages.
Neither approach seemed like the right one to me. I wanted to remove all the stock brake actuation hardware so I could locate the rear-sets wherever I wanted, without the restrictions the factory brake pivot imposed. A flexible brake cable would certainly offer the flexibility I was looking for but they are difficult to integrate into the design and require a custom cable and adjusters at both the rear-sets and the brake drum.
Once I cut the passenger foot peg mounts and ALL the brake hardware off my frame, I could start figuring out the layout for the rear-sets.
A method of mounting was the first task and for that I made 9-way adjustable aluminum plates that mount to the frame using the swingarm pivot bolt and the lower engine mounting bolt. Aluminum is excellent for making rear-sets from because it is so easy to work with. All the flat aluminum parts are cut and shaped using a band saw, drill press and draw files.
It took many more cocktail napkins to work out all the linkage logistics than first thought. The most challenging aspect of the design was transferring the brake pedal motion to the rear brake drum without a loss of efficiency and feel as there is so much offset between the two levers. Every way I looked at this problem flex and distortion was the biggest concern, but I finally designed a system that worked.
I just have to spend a little time turning down the foot pegs and knurling them for traction before the anodizer colors them black.
The only issue that I’m not happy with is the interference with the kick starter.
If I can work out a folding foot peg that would be great, but for now I’ll just use the electric starter.
When I set out on the mission to build rear sets for my Café Project bike I didn’t think that it would be as much work or as rewarding as it’s been. At the onset, the goal was just to build a nice set of controls fabricated from any number of parts sourced from wreckers or ebay and modified using the occasional part made from scrap aluminum. Only when I started making parts did the focus change to a complete custom set designed and built to the best of my abilities and to function as well as they can. It’s been the biggest single task of the project and I’m very proud of the outcome.
Here they are straight from the anodized and ready to be installed.
those are some nice rear sets. I would like to make some fit on my xj750. thinking it could work using the existing holes from where the extentions for the passenger pegs are, but that's a later project.
Now with most of the hard bits done the real fun begins. Styling and body work!
For me, styling and visual appeal are one of the toughest elements to pull off well. I’ve followed many bike builds over the years and I’m always amazed at the vision many of you have regarding design, proportions, balance and colour.
Thankfully, for me what defines the CB550F Super Sport is the tank, side panels and the frame, so all of these elements will stay predominantly stock. That only leaves the seat, fenders and paint to chance.
Considering this bike will occasionally be ridden in our wet Vancouver climate, full fenders are a must.
I really like the early Suzuki GS750 fenders. The front has very classic smooth lines and a snug fit, but it’s too narrow for the larger front tire on this project so I’ll have to make a copy and widen it to fit the tire.
Making composite parts isn’t particularly difficult, but there are a lot steps to doing it well.
All composite pieces will be made in molds cast from actual plugs, and that means making a finish grade plug first.
It might have been easier to split the GS750 front fender down the centre and widen it to make the front fender plug from, but it’s steel and difficult for me to cut, so I chose to make a fiberglass copy from the original.
From the initial front fender mold I made a quick fiberglass copy of the chrome GS750 fender.
This fiberglass copy was easy to split down the middle, widen 10mm and fill with bondo to achieve a finished plug.
Fender mold after making carbon fender.
Here’s the finished carbon fiber fender ready for prep and paint.
The rear fender is from a Suzuki GS550. It’s a little smoother and rounder than the CB550 fender and should complement the front fender nicely.
To make it fit the CB550 I cut the front mount off my CB fender and bonded it to the GS fender with a little fiberglass and bondo.
Bondo is an excellent adhesive and with some more filling and sanding I’ll have all the holes filled and the CB mount blended in prior to making a production mold.
Once the production molds where finished I tried my hand at making carbon fiber fenders.
Here you’ll see the rear fender is all laid up and vacuum bagged to press the laminate and squeeze out the excess resin.
This will make a lighter and stronger finished part.
Close inspection will reveal that this is paint grade carbon and not the show piece that the pros make, but it’s incredibly light and strong.
With a little prep and paint I think it will be a perfect fender for the project.
Although many café style seats are available commercially, I couldn’t find any that where made specifically for a CB550 and I wanted a café seat that looked good on an unmodified stock frame.
My first attempt was made using a stock steel seat pan, but the proportions where all wrong, so I started from scratch.
The first step was making a seat pan from ABS plastic. ABS plastic is cheap, easy to shape (with the help of a heat gun) and can be glued or filled with bondo.
To get the basic shape of the hump, I used urethane foam available from commercial plastics suppliers.
You could also use the urethane foam insulation found at most Home Depot outlets.
When cured, urethane foam is rigid, easy to shape, sand and fill with Bondo.
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