CB550 Bobber-Junkyard Dog

Re: CB550 Bobber

Since I can't work on the bike at the moment and I've got WAY too much time on my hands I thought I'd add in some details about what I've done so far. I didn't take a lot of pictures and my phone took a dump last week so I don't have any more, you'll just have to rely on your reading skills.

The original builder installed a small vertical plate on the bottom of the frame rails in the seat area which faces forward. It has several holes already which were used for switch mounting. I decided to hold onto that design element. I went with three switches. One is an small airplane landing gear switch, it has a decent current rating so we used it as the master. It's got a threaded end on the toggle so I need to find something cool to drill a hole in and thread for the end. There is also a momentary toggle for the starter and an on off for the lights. My previous 550 was wired with an off for the lights so that they didn't rob the ignition system of juice, I like this idea so I stuck with it. Since I don't plan on doing a lot of late night riding and the small headlights aren't very bright anyway I just wired the bright side of the headlight. Head and tail go through the switch, turning it off kills the lights.

The three fuses are mounted on a plate I cut to go right under the seat. The R/R and ignition unit are mounted to the bottom of this plate. The space was a bit tight so I had to get a little creative with mounting the ignition unit. It has threaded mount holes in it and two of the four were in a good spot so we used some aluminum standoffs. The other two were not in such a good place so I had to make an aluminum bracket with one nut plate in it to get one hole in the right spot.

Funny note: I cut the little bracket out of stainless but had to do a good bit of shaping to so it would fit in between some frame pieces. I trimmed it and was over smoothing it out on the spindle shaper. All of a sudden it caught, snatched it out of my finger, dragged it through the guard and fired it across the shop. I thought it took my finger off and Matt was one step from catching it in the head. We had a chuckle over that one. Ten minutes later I burned the shit out of my finger with it. I definitely bled for that little thing.
 
Re: CB550 Bobber

Well, I’m still stalled due to the broken leg. A friend did send me a seat he had left over from a project. Hand tooled leather. I like this thing a lot.


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Re: CB550 Bobber

Slowly starting to do some more work now that I can walk again. Finished wiring the ignition system this week and even got it to fire off some starting fluid. More to come.


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Re: CB550 Bobber

Exciting news. Hope you are healing well mate.

The lower tank would be a cool to use as the virago 1100 does. Sub tank for reserve, has a thermistor in the main tank to indicate when it is empty. They just use a low pressure 12v pump to fill the carb.
 
Re: CB550 Bobber

Thanks for the kind words fellas. I really dig this seat too. Especially since it was a gift from an old army buddy. I just spend all my motorcycle money on getting my daily ride back on the road so it may be a while before any more significant progress occurs.


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Re: CB550 Bobber

What on earth is this top clamp from? Clearly this one has been shaved down with the P.O. using clip on bars. I want one with risers for handlebars. I thought this was the front end from a CM400 but I’ve tried a CM400 and a CX500 top clamp and they don’t fit. It’s 33mm fork legs.


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Re: CB550 Bobber

I think that might be GS, or possibly KZ. But I think it's most likely GS450 or GS400.
 
Re: CB550 Bobber

Tried to get the thing to start yesterday and couldn't figure out why it only seemed to firing on one or two cylinders. Came home today and realized that I'd never run power to the other coil. Once fixed that it fired up like this engine hadn't been sitting for like two years. Took a little video but it won't upload. Wrong file type or some shit.

Noticed that there was a whole lot of play in the rear sprocket. Took it apart and it looks like the cush drive rubbers are shot. For some reason those seem to be hard to find a new set of.
 
If I remember right someone had cast new cush drive rubbers for their bike out of polyurethane. Think it might have been Irk but my memory isn't good.
 
Brodie said:
If I remember right someone had cast new cush drive rubbers for their bike out of polyurethane. Think it might have been Irk but my memory isn't good.
Yessir, that was me. I've cast from an original, and I've cast them into the hub to convert a non-cush hub to cush. I can make a mold for you, John. Or I can cast you a set. I used 70A urethane, but I imagine 90A would work too.
 
What would you need to cast me a set Irk? The only once’s I have at the moment are the worn out one so dimensions are shot.


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john83 said:
What would you need to cast me a set Irk? The only once’s I have at the moment are the worn out one so dimensions are shot.


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Easiest thing would be a set of OG. Usually they're 5 or 6 identical units, so just one if that is the case. Having the sprocket carrier will help to test fitment. The whole wheel would be great, but I think the carrier should do. I can make a good set from a bad set by casting the OG pieces in wax and sculpting them back to the right shape and dimension.
 
I saw a used set for cheap on fleabay so I snatched them up. We will see what kind of shape they are in when they get here. Hopefully good enough for now and I’ll get the old ones down to you.


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Well with a mix of the two sets of Cush drive rubbers most of the slop disappeared. That’ll be good enough for the moment. Got the headlight on. Bout to order some more parts.


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Work has been taking it out of me lately so I haven’t done much work on the bike. Seeing Irk finish his awesome chop and Kanticoy start on his inspires me to get moving on this again though.

I sought outside help on the front end. Mr. E came over Sunday and took a look at things for me. We came up with a plan that I think will work and he is kindly doing a little machine work for me. Hopefully this will get me moving on it again.


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So Mr. E took my steering stem nut and a CX500 triple tree and modified them to fit. I started putting the front end back together and noticed what you see in the picture. The nut actually runs out of threads before it can tighten on the bearing races. Someone was riding it around with the front end all sloppy like that. So next up is that E is gonna turn me a spacer to take up that gap.


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