Now I will warn those of you who read this and are not into motorcycles, I have a feeling that most of my posts for a while will revolve around the rebuilding of my CB550.
First, some background on the project… I have always done my own preventative maintenance on my bikes. However, I have never taken a bike apart to any real extent and put it back together. I have always wanted to build a bike. But I told my wife that I had to start with something basic, and cheap. Basic, because I am not real knowledgeable about motorcycle repair, and cheap because if I messed something up that was irreparable I had to be able to throw the whole thing away without much concern.
Tammy found a bike one day at a garage sale. It wasn’t officially for sale, mainly because the owner had forgotten it was in the back of the garage. They said, sure we would sell it, so Tammy offered such a low price that she figured they would say no. They didn’t.
What she had bought was a 1975 Honda CB550. It had a Vetter fairing and supposedly it ran when it went into the garage, in 1996. Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures before I started taking things apart. That fairing had to go!
I had been planning on turning it into a bobber. Then Tammy said she wanted to learn to ride, so I thought something more understated. But now that plan has changed as well. My oldest son, who is 20, has shown interest in riding, and talked his mother into letting him have the bike, so long as he works on getting it up and running.
Well, a 20 year old, in the modern motorcycling climate, was neither interested in a bobber, nor an understated quasi stock street bike. What he wanted was an old school café racer. And after looking at the frame, and bike design I tend to agree that this particular model will be a much better café bike than a bobber.
So, tonight we got started stripping her down. We had 2 hours before Sons of Anarchy, so to the garage we went.
Two hours later we had the back fender off, the seat off, the air box out, the battery box out, the electronics board off, the carburetors off, the front fender removed, the headlight removed, the handle bars removed, the wiring disassembled, and who knows what else.
About the only things left to remove, are the wheels, brakes, forks, and engine.
Now it is time to finalize the design. And since I am not real experienced, or even good at design, I think I will just print off a picture and copy it, then draw in the design that we want.
The only thing I can see holding us up is the unknown of costs when it comes to painting, and any problem with the engine when we get it back together (since we were not able to get it running prior to disassembly.)
Prior to full disassembly. Fairing and seat previously removed.
End of the night, this is what was left, along with a large stack of parts.
