In many ways, the CB550 was the best Honda of the seventies. The CB750 is legendary, but its smaller brother handled better and offered enough performance for most riders.
Introduced in 1974, the CB550 was produced for five years with a 544cc
SOHC engine putting out 50 hp and a crisp five-speed gearbox. Although the CB550 couldn’t quite ‘make the ton’ in stock form, it has become popular with custom builders over the years—partly because secondhand examples are much more affordable than early CB750s.
Planning to tackle the Dakar Rally? The 2026 KTM 450 Rally Replica has you covered. If modern café racers are more your thing, we have a Honda CB550 from The Netherlands and a Ducati SportClassic from Australia to sate that appetite.
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I know, I know. I promised you wiring in this installment, and it’s been so long since you’ve seen anything about our Honda CB550 street tracker project that you forgot where we even left off. I could make some excuses, tell you I’ve been busy, but how about we skip all that and get to…
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Fascinated by the beauty of engineering, photographer and military veteran Anthony Scott, alongside partner and photographer Melissa Bryan, started Enginethusiast as a way to house their interests in building, photographing, and filming anything with a motor. Enginethusiast is the culmination of passion and purpose. It covers everything from motorcycles to autos to airplanes and shows…
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“How are we doing on the CB project?” The question weighed heavy on my brain as I considered the plateaued progress of our 1975 Honda CB550F project bike—dubbed the Everyman Tracker. Not unlike the gems collecting dust in your garage, our bargain-bin Honda had been put on the back burner for more pressing matters, and…
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One bike sticks out like a sore thumb this week; a rare Honda Monkey Gold Edition, currently for sale through Iconic Motorbike…
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Unless you start with a pile of tubing, all-new parts and a beautiful mind, your average garage-built motorcycle comes together one piece…
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Whether it’s from decades of neglect or a dutiful service interval of soaking up potholes, the day will come when your suspension…
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I’ll be honest, rebuilding the wheels on our 1975 Honda CB550F was a job I was hoping to put off a lot…
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Any clown with an adjustable wrench can take a bike apart (the term basketcase exists for a reason), and if you go…
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They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and we’ve certainly dragged our fair share of trashed motorcycles home. Wherever we…
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Like most things in life, building a custom motorcycle is certainly a process. It starts with a vision, and (hopefully) ends with…
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Deus ex Machina returns to their roots with a no-nonsense Kawasaki W650. We also profile a Honda CB550 café racer, a Kawasaki…
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