1976 CB550, The Brother Build

cb360j

Been Around the Block
I happened to be talking to my boss at work about my current CB360 build, and one of the engineers that I haven't talked to much popped his head in and mentioned how he had two CB550's. I asked more, and he said one was currently running and he rode it, but the other was a titled parts bike.
As a glutton for punishment I inquired more, then he told me if I came to get it, I could have it for free. He said he just wanted it out of his garage after 15 years, that he wanted the garage space back.

So last weekend I went and picked it up. Under the dust, the frame is actually still glossy and nice. The engine covers are fairly shiny, which means they will clean up super nicely. Inside of the tank is pristine, and the patina is utter perfection. It even has the original Honda key which I am super excited to see.
The plan is to get it up and running, no full restoration, definitely new wiring harness from Sparck Moto for sure, lots of elbow grease and cleaning and let it be an extra bike that one of my brothers can ride whenever they want. I get lonely riding by myself.


He said the parts that are taken, other than the obvious,that the carbs were swapped for a set off of a cb500. Does anyone know how I can tell if these will work for a cb550, or to ensure if they are in fact cb500 carbs?
 

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Nice. I just finished wiring up this CB550. I definitely want one of my own one of these days.
 

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I will wash it this weekend to show just how nice everything is. I am pretty lucky on this one.
The one thing that worries me, is that pushing down on the kickstart by hand is way to easy, and it has spark plugs in it. Easier than the cb550 I have owned previously. It would be nice to not have to take the top end apart and replace rings, or have to hone the cylinders or anything, but won't know till I put a compression tester on it. I guess the positive of that, is everything is free and able to move
 
Finally got myself in gear and started taking this apart to make a list of things I will need to work on, vs things I will need to purchase. I am starting to get together a nice area to work on bikes, before I have been having to move it between a garage and another garage where we keep a welder and the other is my personal area to work and store things, but now I am utilizing this small 12x12 timber frame cabin my brothers and I built.

I wiped the frame down just to show you guys how clean this thing actually is, if more original parts were on it, it would be difficult to not 100% restore. Also cleaned the tank, it looks so good.
 

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Seeing I have one I am working on, I am excited to see someone else tearing into one. I have lots of extra crap if you need anything. Let me know.Subscribed!
 
Never say never. Just prolonged.

The 550 right beside the one I am currently working on, is one I sold my best friend (a year ago). Then one day a coil went bad, and he tried to replace them with those accel yellow coils... well he murdered the wiring on it, used ALL BLACK WIRE like an idiot, and he asked me to fix all his mistakes so I am going through the wiring harness on it now, and I am going to rebuild the carbs for him try to get it to run right on pod filters. If only he had never touched the harness. I say all this because he didn't think he would ever fix it haha
 
Got some more parts off this thing, the swing arm has a little rust so I think I will repaint it, but leave everything else alone. If I were to have someone paint it, what type of paint would be best? My buddy has a booth and said he would be willing to do it for me as long as I bought the paint.
 
Tire sizes:

I know what the stock tire sizes were for a cb550, but I wanted to ask what everyone else ran.
Any recommendations?
 
I'm running 17's front and back and I think it at least looks the part. Granted, mine is not on the road yet, so one could easily question what it's like to handle, but there are plenty of sport bikes that show a decent picture.
 
I WERA road raced a CB 500 with 18" wheels front and rear. It had 2.15 aluminum rims laced with stainless spokes to the stock hubs. The bike handled extremely wll and was one of my favorite race bikes. I'm going to estimate it would be around $800 to duplicate those wheels with current prices.
 
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