75 CB550 AKA "Big Red Rocket of Love"

[jrval240]

So the bike is mostly torn apart and now its time for painful but fun part, spending money in salvage yards looking for cool parts!

I was at my local yard to pick up a motor for the bike and was hoping to find a set of carbs as well. Motor was really easy, go to the counter "looking for CB550 motor" the kid points to aisle and there a few motors and fifteen minutes later I find the right motor. then I ask for carbs, he points to the same aisle, but now there are bins of carbs, some marked but most not. The only set that even came close was from a CB650 SC. So after that long winded story my question is what years and models have carbs that will work on my bike? FYI I'm planning on hot roding the engine (need some advise there too).

Still at the yard I was looking for wheels and my head nearly exploded in exictment, so many cool Honda alloy wheels. Now I need some ideas which will fit, once again looking for some advice.

Final question for the day, I promise. How do I make it faster? I am planing on doing a complete rebuild on the motor myself so high performance internals are an option.

Oh and I promise to post some pics soon and any other advice is welcome beyond the topics above.

 

[DBC]

I'm no expert in the performance department, but as far as the wheels go, It really depends on the look you are after. You can make just about anything work with a bit of creativity, $$, and a welder .

 

[jrval240]

I made the decision that I was gonna build a kick start only bike to save weight. Now I'm starting to source parts and was looking into electronic ignition systems and I'm not sure if there's any complications that could arise from running a high performance Elec. ing. in a kick start only bike. Also, i want to rebuild the front forks with really high quality/performance internals.

anyone have a similar set up and can offer some advice?

Also, since electrics are my weak point is there a good source for wiring diagrams for this kind of set up, I can follow directions but don't tell my girl friend I admitted it.

THX

 

[Tim]

Getting rid of the electric starter will have no impact on the ignition system. Just means you won't be taxing the battery as much and can probably get away with a smaller unit.

For the forks, get cartridge emulators from RaceTech if you want the best upgrade for the stock forks, or consider swapping out the entire front end. Progressive springs too of course.

You can spend $1000's on the engine alone if you want high performance. Make sure you join up at forums.sohc4.net as they're the authorities on these bikes. There's a guy there who does head porting who will be happy to make your cylinder head the cat's ass. You can also get big-bore 650cc kits, hot cams... you name it you can do it.

 

[jrval240]

THX Tim for the info. I though about going to a modern front end on the bike but im trying to keep the this project somewhat within a budget since its my first build and I plan on doing a CB750 or Z1r after this and going nuts. I will check out the RaceTech items and have already source the rear suspension.

I'm on SOHC4.net but the expirenece hasn't been great. I've PMed the guy that does the head work and am also contacting a local shop in San Francisco (O'Hanlon Motorcycles) to to the machine work and i'll do the assembly.

I'll be off to the MC savage yard this weekend for more parts. Its time for wheels, gauges and rears for the mock up.

 

[jrval240]

I started fitting bits and pieces on the bike and ran into a little snag. I started to fit my trick new rear shocks and the eye hole is smaller than the mounting bolt/shim. Not sure if I'm going to just cut the section of the frame and rebuild or cut off the mount and drill out the welds and redo it with a bolt/shim that will fit the shock.

I was going to try to cut it out first and if it turned into a huge pain in the arse I was going to cut off the rear section. I'm leaning towards just cutting and rebuilding since I was going to cut a part of it for the cafe seat and mounting the electrics under the seat but the mounting bolt is further forward than I was planing on cutting.

Anyone had a similar issue?

Valentino

 

[Big R]

Hold on, the upper hole in the shock is too small? There should be a rubber sleeve in there.

Pics of the problem?

 

[jrval240]

Hold on, the upper hole in the shock is too small? There should be a rubber sleeve in there.

Pics of the problem?

There is a shim and a rubber sleeve i'm just not sure if I increase the size of the shim on the shock the rubber will be large enough to do its job and protect the casting from damage. It looks like the original shock has a 12mm eye hole and the new ones I sourced are 10mm. I attached some pictures, let me know what you think.

 

[Big R]

I would say modifying the rubber bushing or the sleeve surrounding it would be safer / easier than modding the frame.

 

[dcmspikes]

if you are comfortable modding a structural part of the frame, by all means, go ahead. seems like replacing with a smaller bushing might be easier, cheaper, and faster. youre in SF? where is this salvage yard?

 

[jrval240]

Thanks for the input guys, I looked at the parts a little more closely and did some searching and i'm going to try to modify the eye hole.

dcmspikes:

I'm in the Sonoma Co. area about 1 hr north of SF. The Salvage yard i go to is in Santa Rosa, CA and is called Bryce Rocket Cycles. They have a good stock of Japanese salvage/used parts but aren't very organized and its a pull it yourself yard. There's also one in the Sacramento area but I've never been.

www.brycerocketcycles.com

Once again thanks for the input and I'll keep you guys posted on the outcome.
Valentino