New sidecover decal for the CB550F

The 550F was missing the right sidecover decal when I bought it. Fortunately there are several companies that make replacements for old motorcycles.

Complete sets for this model sell for around $60 bucks. I inquired with reproduction decals and asked them if they would sell just one sidecover decal. These guys are great! They quoted me $10 for the decal including shipping from Canada. I sent my payment and the decal arrived in about a week. Thanks!

Installation was almost too easy. The instructions were very thorough but this was a small decal, which is very easy to apply. I cleaned the sidecover and measured the location for the decal. Measuring from the top of the sidecover, the "F" in Four was 2 inches down. Using a piece of masking tape as a guide, I placed the decal on the sidecover with the "F" centered in the middle. Then I carefully removed the front portion of the wrapping which holds the characters in place. Voila! It took all of five minutes, going very slowly to make sure the decal was in the proper position and free of bubbles. Checkout the pictures below.

The decal is blue with gold trim. Most of these photos give the lettering a black appearance with gold trim.

Ideally, one would clear coat the sidecover after applying the decal. In this case I'm going to skip it. If I need another decal I can get one from reproduction decals at a fair price.
Okay, that was a quick, easy and satisfying job. Next I need to work on the brakes!

New seat installed

I was thinking about the best way to for replace the seat that came with this bike. Looking around on the internet, there weren't many options. The 550 is a great bike but it wasn't near as popular as the CB750.
A company called "buyer 4 us" sells reproduction seats on E-bay. These seats are made in Japan by an aftermarket company (not Honda).

Here's a photo of the touring seat that came with it versus the stock replacement. The new seat looks very much like the original, it doesn't have the chrome trim but that's okay with me.

Other differences - the original seat has studs sticking out for the mounting nuts. The new seat has threaded holes and mounting screws. The seat latch screws were not long enough. I picked up two longer screws (6mm X 30mm) at the hardware store and they did the job fine.







The seat mounting holes didn't quite match up with the stock hinge. I filed and drilled one of the holes (the hole closer to the front of the bike), making it oblong so it would line up with the seat mounting holes. It didn't take much, maybe 1-2 mm.












Here's the finished product - looks pretty good, huh? I think the Honda is taking on that Supersport character again.

The rubber bumpers under the seat don't quite match the frame and the seat rocks around a little bit. I'll see what I can find at the hardware store to fix it.

Next on the to-do list: fix the front brake. The previous owner got some lubricant on the pads. And the master cylinder was leaking after the Honda got shipped to Oahu. I have a new set of brake pads and an aftermarket master cylinder to install. Maybe next week I'll get that done.