Topic: Model confusion....CB550 first year?

[Airbusboy]

Gentlemen...

     I'm new here and find your site very interesting. I am currently restoring a '74 Honda CB550 and find myself a bit confused.  The previous owners title shows this bike as a 1974 CB550.  The frame serial number matches Honda ID info and all badging on the bike says CB550. Research tells me that Honda made the CB500 '71 thru '73, then in 74 bumped the engine size up to 550. However, the Barber Museum in Leeds, Alabama has a Honda CB500 on display that they claim is a 74. Short of insulting them and asking them to verify (via the serial number) that theirs is a 1973 model and not a 74, I'm perplexed. Did Honda indeed make the CB500 into 1974 or is Barber wrong?

[Smoke Detector]

All your info is correct and it would seem someone at Barber got it wrong. Just a guess but sometimes bikes were titled in the year they were sold, so maybe that particular bike was a 73 sold and titled as a 74 and someone at the museum went by title?

[Airbusboy]

Thanks for the confirmation.  I'm having a hard time finding a #4, upper right exhaust pipe for my restoration. I know any pipe '71 - '76 will fit but the only ones I've found so far are either beat up or rusted through. Any known sources?

[Bailgang]

You're not the only one, I have a friend who swears up and down that he used to own a 72 cb550-4.

[RAFster122s]

Thanks for the confirmation.  I'm having a hard time finding a #4, upper right exhaust pipe for my restoration. I know any pipe '71 - '76 will fit but the only ones I've found so far are either beat up or rusted through. Any known sources?

You are looking for the exhaust header pipe or muffler? Or both?

[Airbusboy]

I thought they were one unit? My header pipe is good but the muffler is badly dented....

[Stev-o]

Welcome Airbus.   Barber guy is wrong and as Smoke suggests, the bike as most likely titled in '74 but technically a '73. Look here....

http://www.sohc4.net/cb500-model-guide/

The 550K's were introduced in '74 (April?). Look here for the model guide for your bike...

http://www.sohc4.net/cb550-model-guide/

[Stev-o]

I thought they were one unit? My header pipe is good but the muffler is badly dented....

The 4 -4 pipes on the K are one piece.  The 4 - 1 on the F model are two piece.

Save this link for future reference to all parts for you bike....


 http://www.westernhonda.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=2450237&category=Motorcycles&make=Honda&year=1976&fveh=131065

[bryanj]

500 K1's were produced all the way up to 76 for the UK market and the first 550's were being made at the same time as the last K2 500's so in fact all 3 models  were being built at the same time