Clubmans on the Supersport

I sold the Honda recently.  The new owner is a younger guy and he wanted some help fixing the Honda up how he wants it.  So it's still at my house even though it's sold.  He wants clubman handlebars.

Today I got to work on it.  The first task was to grind a wire passage in the left control switches.  Reason: the stock handlebars have holes where the wiring goes through them from switches to the center of the bar.  The clubman bars are not drilled for internal wiring.

I had a spare left control switch so I worked on it and left the switch on the stock handlebar intact.  It took quite awhile for me to grind a smooth gap big enough for the wires to go through. It's important not to grind into the wiring in the switches.  The right switches were newer, I replaced them about a year ago and they actually had a gap built in for external wiring.  This was not a feature on the original switches.

Next, removing the stock handlebars, disconnecting the throttle cables and the cafe mirrors.  I bolted on the clubmans and got to work installing the switches on both sides along with the front brake master cylinder.  The shorter bars resulted in excess throttle cable and hydraulic brake line, which had to be routed out so that the controls would work properly without binding.  Another concern was making sure the switches on the handlebars would not bang on the gas tank at full lock.

With the bars on and the controls hooked up, next came the wiring.  Here's where I ran into a snag.  The left switches were from a different model CB, maybe a CB500 or CB550k.  There are 11 wires coming from the switches and I think nine of them matched the wiring harness.  The other two wires had similar colors but you only need to have one wire in the wrong socket to screw things up.  At first, the headlight wasn't working.  I moved the wires around a bit and then the headlight worked.  But when I checked the turn signals, flipping the right signal would also cause the left signal AND the tail light to blink.  And the same problem when flipping the left turn signal switch.

This is where I slowed down, counted the wires and identified the "suspect" wires where I wasn't sure if they were matching up correctly.  A few more plugs and unplugs and it was figured out.  Then I took some colored electrician's tape and color coded the wires for the next guy.

Here's how the bike looks with clubmans:

What do you think, is this a good look? Back in the day I would have liked it. Now, I think a set of CB400F bars (drilled for internal wiring) or a set of superbike bars would look better. And feel better.

The Honda has a new owner, so we'll let him have it his way.

CB550F wiring diagram

It's easy to find a wiring diagram for a CB500 or CB550.  Not so easy to find a wiring diagram for a CB550F also known as the Supersport.

This diagrams is black and white.  Well at least its for an "F" model.