chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
MY stock front fender is perfect so rather than cut it up, I bought a dinged up fender which I will cut down which will incorporate your suggestion.
Found a $300 CB550
- Thread starter chesterburnet
- Start date
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
The motor is unofficially complete. I have 1 thread that is stripped on the case which I'm waiting on the helicoil I ordered. That should be here in another day or 2 and than this motor is officially done, gets wrapped in plastic and stuck in the back of the garage. I put the carburetors on, mostly for the satisfaction of seeing how they look and to get them put away. Besides the performance increase, they look wicked cool. They will have to come off when I put the motor in the frame. Now I can start doing a few things to the frame. I also got all of the parts in to build a modern set of forks that still look stock.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
Helicoil is installed and alternator cover is on which completes the motor rebuild and refinish. I may run a 20 amp service out to the garage this weekend....or not because it requires digging and I hate any job that requires a shovel. I have 15 amp out there now and if I run an electric heater over the winter, that won't cut it.
Since I am running pods instead of an airbox now, I had to get a breather filter. I got one from JP Cycles which has a mounting bracket. It's basically a Harley part. I swear this thing weighs about 5 Lbs. I guess weight savings on Harleys isn't a consideration.
My rear set came in yesterday from Cognito. .....another $500. I needed them as I have to do a slight frame modification for them along with a few other things. I'm looking forward to moving on to another part of this build.
BTW....I bought a rearset form Slipstream Cycle. They install on the rear passenger peg mount with no modifications needed. Unused. I had a knee replacement and can't bend my knee that much so I am selling them for $150. These are really cool looking and well built. I was very much hoping they would work for me.
Since I am running pods instead of an airbox now, I had to get a breather filter. I got one from JP Cycles which has a mounting bracket. It's basically a Harley part. I swear this thing weighs about 5 Lbs. I guess weight savings on Harleys isn't a consideration.
My rear set came in yesterday from Cognito. .....another $500. I needed them as I have to do a slight frame modification for them along with a few other things. I'm looking forward to moving on to another part of this build.
BTW....I bought a rearset form Slipstream Cycle. They install on the rear passenger peg mount with no modifications needed. Unused. I had a knee replacement and can't bend my knee that much so I am selling them for $150. These are really cool looking and well built. I was very much hoping they would work for me.
pidjones
Over 1,000 Posts
Although the larger oval-shaped Pods might be better, be prepared for jetting fun. Everything that I've read over the last couple decades indicates that they give headaches. Certainly at a minimum you should carve away any pieces that may restrict airflow to ports in the inlet to the carbs. Air boxes may not be pretty or cool looking, but were engineered in because they worked.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
I have read repeatedly that pods on Keihin is extremely hard to make work. Mikunis on the other hand play well with pods. Those are Murray's Carbs set up designed for a CB550. Set up, jetted, synced and tested before they go out. They are 34MM Mikuni carbs and the pods come with the carbs, manifolds and throttle cable. They have an inpecable reputation of working right out of the box plus give a big boost in torque and look badass as hell. Murray knows his shit. In fact he is adamant in his instructions that if they don't run perfect, don't do anything, call him and he will walk you through it. He also reccomends changing clutch springs as old springs will probably slip. I did plates and heay duty springs when I rebuilt it. Everybody that has done these carbs has congratulated me. I'm very confident that I won't have any problems with these. I've also changed the ignition to electronic.
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chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
I did plates and springs. Not difficult or expensive and especially on a 45 year old motorcycle it just makes sense anyway.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
Today I was rearranging my garage to pack the finished motor away and get room to do the frame. Afterwards I was sitting there planning out my next steps and figuring out how to make Cognito rearsets which are designed for a 550K work on a 550F. It's a little bit of work but not bad. As I was sitting there I looked over at my other bike and was thinking that it's a pretty cool motorcycle.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
As the weather in Massachusetts is getting colder, I have to run an electric heater in my garage. That's not a problem but as I only have a 15 amp service out there, I can't run any tools without tripping a circuit breaker. So today, I have to dig a trench for the house to the garage and put a 20 amp line out to the garage. Just one of those pain in the ass things we have to endure so that we can play with our motorcycles. It's relatively warm out today so I might squeeze in a short ride on my MT 10.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
I finished the motor over a year ago, wrapped it up in plastic and took a break as I had so many house projects that needed to be done or completed. I also finally got a 20 Amp service run out to the garage. Now I got a heater and am able to run heavy tools without blowing a breaker. I got back to working on it in November.
The guy I bought this from started this project and had done the back hoop with a cafe racer seat pan. It was pretty ragged so I wanted to fix that up and clean the frame to remove the passenger peg mounts and all of the unused tabs and brackets. I'm 67 and always have been a bit concerned about the riding position on a cafe racer. So between the ragged frame mods and the riding position I decided to cut off the hoop and change the build to a tracker style which requires the original rear frame section and fortunately, I had the original and it mates up perfectly. I bought a new seat pan from a British company and it will be here in a few days. I hadn't bought bars yet so everything else remains the same. Honestly, I'm really psyched to be back working on it. I love working on motorcycles.
The guy I bought this from started this project and had done the back hoop with a cafe racer seat pan. It was pretty ragged so I wanted to fix that up and clean the frame to remove the passenger peg mounts and all of the unused tabs and brackets. I'm 67 and always have been a bit concerned about the riding position on a cafe racer. So between the ragged frame mods and the riding position I decided to cut off the hoop and change the build to a tracker style which requires the original rear frame section and fortunately, I had the original and it mates up perfectly. I bought a new seat pan from a British company and it will be here in a few days. I hadn't bought bars yet so everything else remains the same. Honestly, I'm really psyched to be back working on it. I love working on motorcycles.
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chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
I decided to attack what I consider to be the worst next part which I consider polishing out the rear hub. This motorcycle came to me un-assembled but in great condition. The hub kind of gets sand blasted on the road and it is a major undertaking to clean one up and polish it out. So now I have a solid 30 hours invested in sanding and have gotten through the 1st stage of polishing. It's a lot of work but worth it if you because it's a detail that really makes it pop. When you see people paint them black, that's why. A little bit of sanding and spray it but it seems like 95% of these custom builds end up being black now.
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
Thanks
crazypj
Split personality, I fake being smart
It's only the CV Kei-Hin that make life difficult, particularly the 'three jet' from 1960's into 90's but from 1978 on they were just about impossible to get running properly without stock air box
I put K&N filters on my 77 CB550F1 and got 41mpg instead of the 26mpg I had been getting. (at speeds around 100mph or more)
Fitted heavy duty clutch springs as clutch slip was a real problem over 90mph when wind resistance was higher, that was a year old bike and they don't improve with age.
Before anyone decides there was something wrong with it, no, it was set up 100% properly
I worked at Honda Dealers so knew everything was 'right' and had it on the SUN tester to make sure even dwell angle on points was perfect plus all the sine waves matched up.
I built my engine to look like that but kept stock carbs, it was a very long time ago (probably 1979)
Never saw the point of removing 4 carbs to fit 2, you still have to sync them.
Guess I'm lucky as I got genuine Honda vacuum gauge set not too long after getting bike, 'industrial' quality still work as well as they didb45 years ago (only been calibrated once)
Modern ones are not the same quality even though they work fine
chesterburnet
Been Around the Block
You don't have to sync them. It is done by Murry and he is very explicit about that. The point is that the 2 Mikuni set up makes more power and torque.
crazypj
Split personality, I fake being smart
Use the stock plastic piece, it fits and looks better. Otherwise, pretty sure you'll have to modify something designed for a wider tyre unless one of the modern 250/300 bikes have one?
Pretty out of touch with most things bike since around 2012..
Electronic ignition is probably the best thing you can do on any of the old (1970's) fours.
Mine would rev to 13,500 (102mph in second), they didn't come with rev limiters way back when.
If you haven't started on frame yet, they flex quite badly where 'seat tubes' meet top frame pressing, the tube is crimped to make assembly cheaper, the paint falls off where it flexes, no real solution without going mono shock or finding a Dresda frame for 500f
I fitted CB750 fork tubes and springs plus CB750 rear shocks, there wasn't much alternative back then (still too low and scraped bottom curve on brake pedal, was almost always 'two up' so couldn't fit rear-sets)
The original carbs were a bit small but I never could justify the price of smooth-bore carbs
A single 32mm Mikuni will 'support 50bhp' so dual's should make quite a difference, pretty sure no one made this type of kit in 70's/80's?
I think one was available for CB750 though?
Oval K&N filters are so superior to cheap pods most people fit it isn't even funny, deleted 1200 posts when I first joined DTT as I was getting too much hate from stating facts people didn't want to hear.
BTW, with dual cables, eventually they will need to be synced.
The original CB750 with 1:4 cables was a right PITA
