Greetings fellow gearheads! Just got a '78 550K to restore with my son. Got to ride it one day in Nov before we laid it up for the winter's restore phase 1. Had to loosen the frozen front caliper and goose the heck out of it with starter fluid until it warmed up, but it was a sweet sound and rode fine, but with only a rear brake and 40 year old tires we cut the riding short to not push our luck.
I had a CX-500 back when they were new (and a Y@m@h@ 500 before that) but this is my first experience with a 4. Love the sound and the kind of classic/dorky look of the stock 4 pipes and big turn signals.
We built a big ramp and drove it into our basement and we're setting up a little shop. Nice to be working on it over the winter in a heated room! Did the caliper and master cylinder rebuilds first (nasty little circlip!) and doing the forks and steering bearings (tapered rollers of course) now. Ordered some tires and will try to tighten up and true the wheels ourselves and then mount/balance the tires. Going to put some narrower bars on it -- not sure which yet -- partly to make it easier to fit into the basement sliders but also b/c I find the stock US bars too upright. So, lots to do to get it ready for riding in the spring. This forum has been a great resource -- thanks! Maybe we can add some hard-won wisdom as we learn from our mistakes.
Roll on!
