Staggerlee
Active Member
So after bombing around town all summer on the CL175 that I restored over the winter, I decided that what I really needed was something with a little more poop. The little fella is a blast, but I'd like to at least be able to keep pace with traffic on the open road.
So, after a week or so of scouring CL, I picked up a '76 550 to fiddle around with:
I paid a little more than I was hoping to, but it was in pretty good shape and looked to be pretty much unmolested. Plus, anything on CL around here with "Cafe Project" in the title seems to be commanding a premium these days.
First order of business was to box the tail section to make room to relocate all the electrical junk. I don's have a mandrel bender at my disposal so I improvised and chopped up a couple sets of bars to make a rear hoop:
Turns out that the 7/8" bars is a perfect fit for the frame tube ID. That pleased me greatly.
Wrapped the whole shebang in painter's tape & laid up a fiberglass seat
Didn't document much of that process; iphones & epoxy resin don't really play well together.
Getting there:
Clipons (thanks Champ!) & rearsets fitted, all the nasty little brackets for sidecovers & etc shaved off.
And closer yet:
Finally have the seat shape figured out although she still has a bit of a fat ass. Not much to do about that other than start all over. Also fitted up neat-o 4-2 Tri-Y header that I found on the interweb. It was in MUCH worse shape than described so I had to shitcan the mufflers and come up with an alternative.
The junk in her trunk:
As done as she's gonna get until winter gets here and I retreat to the garage for a full teardown/rebuild:
I do need to paw through the local wrecker's bins to try and find a longer replacement for the sidestand; with the CB900 shocks in the rear she's got a wicked lean to her. Other than that, she's tip-top.
So, after a week or so of scouring CL, I picked up a '76 550 to fiddle around with:
I paid a little more than I was hoping to, but it was in pretty good shape and looked to be pretty much unmolested. Plus, anything on CL around here with "Cafe Project" in the title seems to be commanding a premium these days.
First order of business was to box the tail section to make room to relocate all the electrical junk. I don's have a mandrel bender at my disposal so I improvised and chopped up a couple sets of bars to make a rear hoop:
Turns out that the 7/8" bars is a perfect fit for the frame tube ID. That pleased me greatly.
Wrapped the whole shebang in painter's tape & laid up a fiberglass seat
Didn't document much of that process; iphones & epoxy resin don't really play well together.
Getting there:
Clipons (thanks Champ!) & rearsets fitted, all the nasty little brackets for sidecovers & etc shaved off.
And closer yet:
Finally have the seat shape figured out although she still has a bit of a fat ass. Not much to do about that other than start all over. Also fitted up neat-o 4-2 Tri-Y header that I found on the interweb. It was in MUCH worse shape than described so I had to shitcan the mufflers and come up with an alternative.
The junk in her trunk:
As done as she's gonna get until winter gets here and I retreat to the garage for a full teardown/rebuild:
I do need to paw through the local wrecker's bins to try and find a longer replacement for the sidestand; with the CB900 shocks in the rear she's got a wicked lean to her. Other than that, she's tip-top.
