[Slumlord]

Hey everyone.
I'm a first time poster and I’m pretty excited to be here, the site looks fantastic! Lots of great information lurking around.
This week I picked up a 1977 Honda CB550 for a fair price and I'm ecstatic to finally have a great little vintage bike and a fairly decent future café racer style ride.
There are many issues I need to tackle on this bike but one of the main issues is the throttle push/pull cables. They are shot, so I plan on getting some new ones. No big deal but here’s the kicker, my handlebars have a bend in them. I think the bike was dumped at one point in time, which bent the bars. Either way, they aren’t 100% straight so it’s a good excuse for me to get new handlebars.
Before I buy the cables (stock length) and bars, I wanted to ask about handlebars. Don’t worry, I won’t bring up the monthly holy wars of Clubman’s vs. Clip-on’s. I do, however, want to give this bike a sporty look but I don’t know if I want clip-on’s or clubman’s (but from the research I’m doing, clip-on’s would be the way I’d probably go) plus I don’t want to re-route any wires, cut the bars or relocate foot pegs so I think drag bars are the way for me to go. No hitting the gas tank or no buying shortened wires, just a direct bolt on and everything fits, right? If that’s the case, can anyone suggest the best place to pick these up at? If I'm totally jaded and the issues I listed above aren't a big deal for clip-on's, someone, please set me straight.



1977 Honda CB 550K

 

[David Harley]

Heres the deal with the bars- There will be no re-routing needed my friend! the only adjustment you will have to make for clubman or clip ons would be to change the front marker or "turn" signal size. Un-fortunately the stock signals are too wide and don't allow for a low bar comfort. As for the drag bars, well, you are good to go. Just put on and nothing a couple of zip-ties can't take care of!
I recently swapped the original bars on my CB360 to drag then to clubman, I feel more control with the lower bars. They look great, stylish, fit the smaller bikes well, and lets face it, this is the "Caferacernet" website not the "harley dragpost.net" site...so get lower, more control, and sleeker turn signals (use carpy's CB750's site , signals-$90.00 all 4) and we'll see you on the road.
PEACE.

 

[Geeto67]

David - lay off the drugs man.....

Slumlord:
I am not sure about the 1977 550 as to whether the wires run outside the bars or inside. If they run inside a few minutes with a dremel or a file should allow you to run them outside. IF they are already outside the bars then you are one step ahead of the game. If you are not upgrading to rearsets right now and are taller than 5'4", I would suggest staying away from clipons or clubmans as the riding position just won't be comfortable. I have drag bars on one of my cafe bikes and the ride is a lot better (less pressure on the spine and wrists). There are some guys who find it ok (like Joe) but he races so he is used to being wadded up into a ball on a bike (just kidding joe). Whenever you are switiching to lower bars and keeping the stock cables, it is a good idea to reroute them so as to avoid binding but it may not be necessary. This is more of a case by case thing and you won't really know until you are ass deep in the project. You can get shorter cables for low bars if you want to keep the stock routing.

All in all this is not a hard job, but if you are a newbie take your time with it. Don't rush and don't force anything.

I am also going to recommend superbike bars. These are taller than drag bars but give that sport low european feel. These are how most bikes came when sold in Europe, as opposed to America where most new bikes in the 70's had mini-apes. I have a set on my cb750K and I could ride that bike all day.

ebay is a great resource for bars, I have gotten black drag bars new in the package off there for as little as $5.

 

[Slumlord]

Hey guys,

First, thanks for the reply's, much obliged.
Geet, I've read enough posts to know your thoughts on Clubman's vs clip-on's so I appreciate your honest opinion
I like the idea of the Superbike bars, but, like David did say, "this is the "Caferacernet" website not the "harley dragpost.net" site" which I can agree with as well.

I'll keep doing my homework and reading through the site as the information here is phenomenal.