Sophia Tsingos' 77' Racer

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A few day ago i asked Sophia from Texas to send me a few pictures and words about this sweet little racer she made based on a 77' CB55O. I find the way she did just perfect and wanted to share with you guys ... nd girls. Frank

My first ride on a motorcycle was when I was still in diapers; my Dad duck taped me to the tank of his old BMW. He is an airplane mechanic but anything he touches turns into a work of art, hot rods, classic cars, bikes, even oil paintings. He got me riding my own little dirt bike when I was 10 years old. I grew up with grease monkeys so I guess I never really had a chance to grow up girly! I got certified in 2009 to work on Ducati motorcycles and about that same time my Dad and I really got into old Café racers. He ended up building a Triton and for Christmas in 2010 he got me a 77’ Honda CB550 for my first project. I was living in New Hampshire at the time so we where both freezing our butts off working on these things! Last march we moved back to Dallas and had better access to our tools to be able to finish both of them.

The bike frame is slightly modified, the tail section was chopped and re-shaped, the steering head was modified to accommodate for the bearings that had to be used for the GSXR 06’ front fork assembly. It is bare metal that is clear coated so it does not rust. Same with the tank sides, I wanted to keep some of the metal showing. The front hub is an old Harley Davidson hub, Honda CBR600RR rotors with GSXR calipers that had to be shimmed. The front rim is stock, and the rear rim is an excel rim to put a slightly wider tire in the rear. The head light is also from and old Harley. The tank is from a 1970’s Ducati, and the tail section we actually made is our garage from fiberglass that we shaped from some foam that we got from Hobby Lobby.

The tail light is also one off that we molded and put some LED’s in. the motor I re-build and left it all stock but put some hotter cams in to give it just a little more pep! Carbs are stock but also re-built with some custom stacks. The exhaust I just wrapped and removed to muffler and my Dad actually found the muffler tip at a PepBoys that normally fits a Honda Civic. It fits perfect! I got rid of the Points for the ignition and ended up putting the Dyna Tech electric ignition system on it to make it more reliable. Now the suspension was a really tricky. I really wanted to get rid of the dual shocks on the side of the bike that was mounted on both sides of the swing arm and up to the side of the tail section.

We where trying to figure out how to have a single shock mounted up from right under the seat to the front of the swing arm. One shock what not stiff enough, so my Dad had some extra Hagen shocks left over from his Café project. We got some airplane grade type steal bar that we bent to form a pivot for the shocks to mount to with a Ducati ride height adjuster. Turned out pretty cool.

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