74' CB550 Project Whistle Pig

I had to raise mine about 2" front,used CB750 springs and fork tubes plus spacers and fitted CB750 rear shocks to raise rear. Still dragged stuff on the floor
 
I am planning on leaving the rear the stock ride height and lowered the front 2". I know that will make the steering a little quicker, but many people have done it without adverse effect. I am also not much of one to slide my knee in every corner lol Its fun now and again though right! the bad part is just looking at it, when I get the rear sets mounted, the engine cases look like they will be the first thing to hit if I get down a little to far in a corner.... I guess we will see. I had even contemplated trying a gl1000 front end swap so i would have dual front discs... I don't know if I will though... So many choices, so little cash...
 
I did get a set of CB500 forks....just haven't installed them yet.

I'm putting them on my 750.
 
Not for sure but aren't 500/550 forks already shorter than 750 forks?
 
hurco550 said:
Not for sure but aren't 500/550 forks already shorter than 750 forks?

Yep....that's the reason for getting them.....I wanted the easier way to lower my 750.

Just a little leery of putting 500 forks on a 750. Hope they are strong enough.
 
I am no master of suspension by any means, but you may want to see how it sits with just the 500 forks before lowering it farther. Or you could just lower the 750 front end and keep the stock setup instead of swapping the tubes. I just think by doing both you could end up being 3 or 4 inches lower in the front and that could cause some real issues, or so I have read. Just a thought
 
500/550 forks will be way too soft for a 750, probably bottomed out as soon as bike is on it's wheels ;D
 
For some reason the way the bike is sitting now with that tank and those particular 4 into 1 pipes reminds me of a cb400f four. Does anyone else see it? 8)







For some reason the way the bike is sitting now with that tank and those particular 4 into 1 pipes reminds me of a cb400f four. Does anyone else see it? 8)
 
Yep. I see what you are seeing. I was going to say to try to pull the rear of the tank up a little and see how that looks. Although...fuel likes to go to the lowest point and that might make you "lose" some mileage :)
 
MotorbikeBruno said:
Yep. I see what you are seeing. I was going to say to try to pull the rear of the tank up a little and see how that looks. Although...fuel likes to go to the lowest point and that might make you "lose" some mileage :)

Yeah the rear of the tank will end up sitting up maybe another 3/4" up in the back. I just sat it on there to stare at it for a minute and snap a few pictures lol its not a direct mount up from the cb550 tank to the cb500t tank, but they are fairly close. I have to move the petcock up a few inches and make a tank mount for the back that will bring it up. I am kinda digging the look though :) And with clip ons and rearsets, I don't know that I will be to worried about "losing" a few miles of gas haha I will probably be begging for the bike to hit reserve
 
I posted these pics up over in the lounge but figured I'd show em off here too. Found a guy advertising a CB500T on CL. It was all taken apart and about an hour and a half from home. Was it ever worth the drive and 75 bucks. Truly a "barn find". It was the guys sons bike and it had gotten torn apart years ago and just left, but wiped the dust off of the tank and was very pleased with what was underneath. I havent found a single ding on it.



The paint and "pin striping" is probably a 7.5 or 8 out of 10



the only real somewhat rough spot is where the seat rubbed the paint at the bottom, but not even close to rusted though.



I opened the cap and could hardly believe it. There are a very few minor specs of surface rust that wipe of with your finger, but otherwise the inside looks like shiny brand new metal. (sorry its hard getting a good pic inside the tank).



The rest of the bike under the dirt isnt so bad, the side covers are just as nice as the tank. The forks are rusted, but i now have another caliper and rotor for my dual disc front end conversion on my cb 550. The seat is a little hard, but free of any tears so i may be able to clean it up and use some treatment. Its a shame the bike sat as it wasn't beat up at all, it just sat in a barn for years. The clock only had 10,000 miles on it. Good score and Ill have some parts up for sale when I get it taken apart. I think Im going to keep this tank for my cb550 and sell the cb500t tank that is on my cb550 now.
 
I was pretty excited! I got to looking last night in the two buckets of parts that some of the bike was in (the cb500t) and someone had started restoring it. Brand new coils, brand new engine gasket set... mirrors are almost perfect. There were also a bunch of parts re painted and wrapped up in news paper. Its like someone went in on it full bore and then just gave up.... (none of us here would ever do anything like that right?) ;)
 
hurco550 said:
I was pretty excited! I got to looking last night in the two buckets of parts that some of the bike was in (the cb500t) and someone had started restoring it. Brand new coils, brand new engine gasket set... mirrors are almost perfect. There were also a bunch of parts re painted and wrapped up in news paper. Its like someone went in on it full bore and then just gave up.... (none of us here would ever do anything like that right?) ;)

Lookin' great, buddy!
 
sweet result mate time to buy a lottery ticket me thinks haha :p ya got a great start there keep it goin fella ;)
 
hurco550 said:
I was pretty excited! I got to looking last night in the two buckets of parts that some of the bike was in (the cb500t) and someone had started restoring it. Brand new coils, brand new engine gasket set... mirrors are almost perfect. There were also a bunch of parts re painted and wrapped up in news paper. Its like someone went in on it full bore and then just gave up.... (none of us here would ever do anything like that right?) ;)

Never, just put it away for a couple of years ;)
 
yorkie350 said:
sweet result mate time to buy a lottery ticket me thinks haha :p ya got a great start there keep it goin fella ;)

Haha i may just need to go do that. But I only get luck like this every few years and I may have used it up eh?
 
crazypj said:
Never, just put it away for a couple of years ;)

Reminds me of a quote I saw a while back... "Attention women, if us guys say we will do something, we will do it. No need to keep reminding us every 6 months"
 
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