Le Fatteincasa: CB550f Kyle

Hey guys,So here's my baby. I started with the bare bones stock '76 CB550F about 5 years ago (seen in blue in the attached pics). I had never even sat down on a motorcycle before that! I found it in an old barn and bought it from an old lady for $300 bucks. Decided that I wanted to learn how to ride. So, I'll admit, I was a car guy, and because of that, I quickly learned that motorcycles were a whole different beast than cars and trucks. I also learned what a cafe racer was! I found some local old school guys that were chopper builders, but they also had some background with cafe culture! They basically told me the to-dos and not-to-dos of building a bike! So, equipped with some old timer's knowledge and a garage full of (automotive) tools, I began the last five years of slowly building this up to what it is today. I first just got her running, and taught myself how to ride by reading the manual. Then, I rode her for about 3 years, crashing a few times and fixing her along the way. Now, I am an experienced rider, so I decided this past winter to make her look pretty and get some more power!So what I did was, I first decided I wanted a clean look, so I cut off the fat in the front end. Chopped off any un-necessary parts I could find. (i.e. brackets, turn signals, bulky tabs, horn, etc.) Then I started designing a new seat. I used some old 3 ring notebooks and a roll of tape to mock up the design in my head, and then transferred it to aluminum pieces which I then tig welded up and presto mindo, I had a seat! I then used some vinyl boat seat fabric, a white erase board, and some high density foam to create the seat pads. Now I finally had the tail section looknig sexy without that big old bulky seat/fender mess! Next, I decided to go with a clean new headlight with visor and ears from good old ebay, and some clubman style bars to clean up the front end. That was all pretty simple, so I thought I would spend some serious time in paint and also in getting that extra horsepower I yearned for. So I stripped down the tank, shaped the fender and stripped it down, and the side covers as well. I painted everything a burnt orange color, and clearcoated everything a few times, then decided to go with the classic stripe down the middle! I love it!! Finally, now I will tell you a little about how I tuned my powertrain. I decided to get rid of the stock air-box. This is sometimes a bad thing, but in this case, turned out to be amazing for me. At first, it killed my air/fuel ratio, as expected, but then I stepped up my mains a size, re-synchronized the carbs, fiddled with the spark plug choices, and ended up porting the head a little bit to get more horsepower than it has ever had! I have clocked over 105 mph which is pretty good for an old 550.The last bit of fun I have had with her is playing around with the gearing in the drivetrain. I have played with the sprockets and had some fun getting a lot of acceleration for in the city, and also found it nice to change back for longer highway trips.All in all, after this past winter, I have had more people stop, stare, and comment on her than ever did in the past five years of riding! So I must have done something good! I just hope that after all of the hard work and emotions I have put into building this baby that someone (especially anyone who has ever built anything) would be able to tell that it is not just your everyday bike, and that the exact opposite is true! That it is a one of a kind, custom garage built cafe racer.Cheers,Kyle