CB550 Bobber Project

[Wulfie]

Afternoon,
Posted this before, but now I appear to have started the job, a little late but nevermind hopefuly you guys will be able to steer me through what's coming...

This is what I started with, 1977 CB550 lump and a lot of other miscellaneous bits



Stripped the Carbs and re-jetted, etc



Now they look like this




I have started work on the frame, it was a right mess, full of filler and silly panels



Now it looks like this..



So I am making some progress, I have had to junk the forks because the previous owner super glued the seals in, effective if nothing else I went for a set of Suzuki GS 450 forks which are a tad slimmer than the originals so the yolks need a bit of fabrication which shouldn't be too much of an issue, anyway the plan is if it doesn't make it Go....or Stop we don't need it, so daylight MOT only, currently going for conventional riding position for the legs with Hi bars , not sure how high yet, happy to take a bit of advice.....cut back rear mudguard, no front mudguard, keep the straight through headers, Powder coat the frame and wheels black, and maybe Candy Apple Red tank and rear muddy, everything else shiny, Hope you guys like what's gone on so far, could be a bloody long haul

Run into a slight issue with the rear wheel but I'll post that up in a bit,

Cheers Chris

[Wulfie]

So here's the issue with the wheel..
I was lead to believe that the wheels were from an XS650 circa early 80's, anyway I suspect that this is not true, I need to replace the rear cush drives as they are terminally shagged, but all the XS650 ones I can find have a metal sleeve around the rubber, the originals do not, so I need to try and accurately ID which bike the wheels are off if possible, I don't know if the new drives are an upgrade but I can't find any dimensional info on the parts so can't measure anything, anyway here's some pictures if anyone can give me a steer,

[EVILBLACKSABRE]

My suggestion would be to start a thread in the Main forum entitled something like "Can anyone ID this wheel", and post a full shot of the wheel along with the detailed pics you posted above.

More people are likely to see that thread and that increases the chances of someone recognizing the wheel. Good luck.

[Wulfie]

OK , here's a bit of an update, it's taken an age but at last it's coming together.

The frame is all finished tidied up and powder coated with the yolks etc, looks quite nice



Wheels are also sorted, new bearings , cush drives etc disc and sprocket also fitted now



and I've given the engine a bit of a tickle up, but there's a lot more work to do yet



Expecting everything but the fork stanchions back from the Chrome plate shop today, so should be able to get things on a stage further soon

[Wulfie]

Well, finally got all the bits back and managed to get the rolling chassis back in one piece, refinished the machined edges on the wheels, still working on the polished bits of the engine, hoping to spend a weekend at it this weekend.

[forty4ma9]

Looking like a really nice update. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Wulfie]

Thanks Forty, Being the first ever project for me it's taken too long if I'm honest, but the experience has been great so far, getting motivated for the final push is proving difficult, especially now the weather has broken here in the UK, target road date is March / April next year.

[Wulfie]

Well, managed to get the engine back into it, need to do a bit more polishing on the rocker cover and some other stuff, but it's coming on, still thinking candy apple red unless anyone has a better plan.

[Arsenal]

Looks a lot better than the hack shit you started with.

[Wulfie]

Thanks, that's good to know, there's still a lot of work to do, but I'm getting there. Being the first ever project I have done it's been a learning curve, I've made a few mistakes as expected, but it looks like it should be right in the end.

[Wulfie]

Got a bit more done last week, it's starting to look like a bike, things left to do

New Control Cables
Source and fit Front brake Caliper, Master Cylinder and lines.
Relocate Electrics
Re fit Carbs
New Number Plate
Mount Rear Mudguard
Re fit Chain
Paint
Tune

Got a couple of sticky valves any advice would be good, I just lobbed some oil down the tappit cover and turned it over by hand , but that didn't seem to help much

[OleDirtyDoc]

looking good