The project is about halfway done so there will be some follow up pictures of the completed bike in a month or so.
After having the past two winters doing full bike rebuilds, I decided this winter to refine one of my bikes with something I have wanted to do to it since I completed it in 2007.
The CB-550 has less than what one would consider "good brakes". Many times while driving to work in rush hour traffic, I have needed to haul it down in a hurry. A couple of stops required me to run up beside the vehicle that I was about to rear end! I don't care how much space you leave, this has happened to Every one of us!
With a little research online, the early GoldWing front end and braking setup seemed to be the way to go. I know by today’s standards, also probably not cutting edge braking, but with it's dual rotor/caliper, it should have plenty of braking power for the lighter 550. I also like to retain the use of vintage parts as much as possible.
I began gathering parts for the project in December from sources like Craig’s List, E-Bay, and SportWheels. By January I had enough to get started, so the tear down began. First off, the GoldWing head tube is quite a bit taller than the 550's (it would be a direct bolt on for a 750) so to adapt it to fit, I needed to remove the mounting stem from the G.W. lower and press in a shorter one from a donor 550 lower. This was accomplished by grinding off the weld and pressing/welding in the donor mounting stem. Now the G.W. triple trees will physically mount into the 550's head tube using all the stock bearings and spacers.
The next issue was the extra length of the fork tubes, the G.W.'s are about two and a half inches longer than the stock 550's. I would have to push the fork tubes through the upper trees to get the ride height correct, so what to do with the tops of the tubes? This was solved by using clip-on handlebars off of a 1984 Honda Interceptor. I really like the style and adjustability of this set up. The original handlebar clamp on the G.W. upper tree was now vacant and looking ugly so it too was ground off and re-tapped to accept the stock 550's dash panel. The headlight ears from the G.W. also needed to be cut down due to the fact that the triple tree was now around an inch shorter, this was easily done by cutting the tops and refitting the rubber insulators.
My goal in this project, as far as appearance goes, was to keep the bike looking the same as much as possible. I wanted to reuse the speedo/tach with the GoldWing conversion, this was accomplished by cutting the stock gauge mount and welding it too a custom piece that I made to adapt to the G.W. upper tree. After I installed it during mock-up, I realized I had a dead spot in the area between the dash panel and the gauges. I found a clock to fill in that gap and bring it all together. I had played around with the idea of going without a front fender but later decided to use one. A trip to the salvage yard yielded me with the same Kawasaki fender I had used in the first version of this project. This time the dual brake line holders could be retained and with some welding and re-drilling the fender was fitted.
The last picture shows how the bike looks today mocked-up. Now everything will be pulled back off. The calipers will be rebuilt - the fork seals replaced - and all the other parts either polished or painted. I bought a modern master cylinder off E-Bay and found a cool tweak brace at the salvage yard for the forks. The paint scheme will be the same as before. I will send some pictures of the completed project in a month or so and it will be at the next V.J.M.C. show.
Scott Demko PriorLake.
