My Project - 1982 Honda CBX550

[Trace]

Hi all,
I introduced myself back in January when I first brought home my "shed find". I didn't start a project thread at the time as I wasn't sure which direction I was going to take with her: restoration or cafe. To be honest at this point, I'm still not sure. I want to ride her for a bit before I commit in a particular direction, but I'm leaning more towards some cafe inspired changes.
This is when I first picked her up.





Since then I've slowly been making slow progress; new tyres, sprocket, chain, tank clean, gaskets and carbs worked on. She's now running quite smoothly mechanically. So much so that I got a bit ahead of myself and took her a little spin around the back yard. Still no brakes and no fork oil, so just a little putt around. The huge hole in the rusted out headers make her sound more like a tractor than a Honda, but the little ride was enough to make me a bit excited about how much I may enjoy her.



Now to start on the brakes, forks and exhaust so I can get her roadworthy.

This will be a slow moving thread. My initial goal is to get her roadworthy and ride a bit before I start on any design elements.

[stroker crazy]

I want to ride her for a bit before I commit in a particular direction …

Good thinking!

Looking forward to seeing which way it goes.

Crazy

[CrabsAndCylinders]

I have one of these, I will be watching too.

[julian.allard66]

Great looking bike as it is, if it were mine I'd fit a modern front end, a matching rear wheel and then you'd have conventional brakes, but it's your bike so do what you want to

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[Alex jb]

Nice work so far.
I think they are a great looking modern classic, the brakes are a real feature so I'd keep em, but I run cable drums so what do I know about stopping power?!


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[allanscaferacer]

Lovely looking bike, i have just bought a 1983 myself and i am going down the same route with a cafe racer, what modern front ends will fit straight in to the existing fork clamps though?


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[allanscaferacer]

this how mine is looking at the minute but new bars and led tail will be fitted in the next week


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[CrabsAndCylinders]

Your bike looks great!

[CrabsAndCylinders]

Is that sidecover chromed or polished, I can't tell in the pic but it looks a lot nicer than the factory finish.

[crazypj]

One thing I know about the CBX550, NEVER fit an over width front tyre. It makes bike incredibly unstable even at low speed.
At 35 mph it's almost unrideable, even I didn't try to go any faster