The Honda CB550 is perhaps the perfect cafe racer candidate. The bike packs a strong punch from its gutsy middleweight inline four, and the handling is lightning-quick and crisp. Donor bikes have become more expensive in recent years, but there is a large aftermarket to help the garage or shed builder in need of parts or expertise.
Five Stars: “Cinque Stelle” Honda CB550 Café Racer- As Seen at Bike Shed: Five-Star Café Racer… At the 2024 Bike Shed Show at London’s Tobacco Docks, our photographer Roberto Garagarza (@roga______) captured shots of a lovely ’76 Honda CB550F nicknamed “Cinque Stelle.” […]
The Perfect Café Racer: Honda CB550 “Sapphire”-For Sale: Matt MacVittie’s 1977 Honda CB550 “Sapphire”… If you had to choose one vintage Japanese motorcycle to serve as the base for a café racer project, you’d be hard-pressed to improve on the Honda […]
“Moxie” Honda CB550 Café Racer-Engineer Mat Kubak’s Budget-Built Honda 550 Café Racer… We always love to hear the origin stories of the builders who grace our pages. While many grow up around bikes — riding, racing, and rebuilding dirt […]
Czech Yourself: Honda CB550 “Respect”-A Prague-built 550 Four from Gas & Oil Bespoke Motorcycles… While the CB750 may have grabbed the world’s attention as the “Original Superbike,” many Honda SOHC enthusiasts will tell you they actually prefer the CB550 […]
Nius Moto: Honda CB550K Roadster-The Honda CB550 remains one of the sweetest midsize machines ever produced, a 50-bhp inline four that handled well, ran sewing-machine smooth, and had the gorgeous looks of the heavier CB750. “Like it’s larger sibling, […]
Project Clean Slate: Honda CB550 Cafe Racer-Ohio’s Mark Colasante builds a 550/4 dream machine… When it comes to Honda’s four-cylinder machines of the 1970s, the CB750 has always received the lion’s share of the limelight. It was a groundbreaking machine — […]
“BBCB” Honda CB550 Café Racer by GMW-Gaston Motorcycle Werks builds a best-in-show CB550… One of our favorite motorcycle events each year has become The Congregation Show in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted by the good folks at Prism Supply and DicE Magazine. […]
“Jersey” Honda CB550 Cafe Racer by Kott Motorcycles-“A sleek, stripped down version of what this bike could have looked like straight from the factory…” Built from 1974 to 1978, the Honda CB550 was the company’s middleweight four, featuring an 8-valve engine that […]
Honda CB550 “MD01” by MOTODesign-Nine Years of Vision: Barn-Built CB550 cafe racer from New York… The Honda CB550 is one of our favorite platforms for a custom build. While the 38-hp middleweight didn’t have the outright power of the […]
Honda CB550 Monoshock Cafe Racer- A father/son Honda CB550 cafe racer build with custom monoshock conversion… Honda’s four-cylinder middleweight, the CB550, is one of our favorite platforms for a cafe racer build. While the air-cooled SOHC engine doesn’t have […]
Grey Ghost CB550K Cafe Racer-Today, we are thrilled to present one of the most beautiful vintage Honda builds we have ever seen: the Grey Ghost, a 1977 Honda CB550K cafe racer built by Alchemy Motorcycles of San Diego. Previously, […]
Honda CB550 Brat Cafe by Eli Carver-We were lucky enough to meet some incredible people at the 2017 Handbuilt Show in Austin. The bikes in the show were off-the-charts, as always, but there was also a staggering lineup on the street […]
Honda CB550 Cafe Racer by Macchina Salvobros-There are a lot of “bolt-on” cafe racers these days. We have nothing against that — there is an art to sourcing the right components for a build, and few parts bolt on without some […]
Honda CB550F Cafe Racer by Other Life Cycles-We found this oh-so-clean 1975 Honda CB550F cafe racer through Denton Moto Collective of Denton, Texas, who recently listed the bike as their #motoinspiration of the day. Nicknamed the “F-Bomb,” the bike was built by […]
Honda CB550 Brat by Ironwood Custom Motorcycles-(Written by Mark Turner.) Thankfully we are all individuals. Some of us like big women, some like marmite, some like to wear women’s clothing on a Thursday night and call themselves Mildred. Personally, I like […]
CB550 Cafe Racer by Sin City Vintage Cycles-Today, we’re excited to present one of the sexiest, most well-sorted Honda CB cafe racers we’ve come across: “Class Act,” a 1977 CB550 built by Bill Docchio of Sin City Vintage Cycles and owned by […]
CB550 Cafe Racer by GT-Moto, “CB605”-Today we’re excited to present a very special build: the “CB605” by GT-Moto, which was the first build to come out of this very special shop in Plano, Texas. GT-Moto: The Story GT-Moto is a […]
Mono-Shock CB550 Cafe Racer by Alchemy Motorcycles- Today we’re thrilled to present this 1978 Honda CB550K built by Michel Valle of Alchemy Motorcycles, located in San Diego, CA. We found this bike on Instagram (@alchemymotorcycles), and it jumped out at us […]