After almost 5 months of near daily searching on Craigslist, Walnecks and the local paper for a CB550 I finally got one! It's a 1977 Super Sport and all stock except the tires with 29,000 on the odometer. Other than oxidation on the spokes, some rust on the pipes and a few dings and scrapes and some fading on the tank. The head has been sprayed silver and appears to have a new gasket on there. Other than that she looks well maintained.
I've checked out a few other bikes. The first one was a 1970 CB450, been restored but it didn't feel right. The first 550 that I looked at was in crappy shape I declined to even make an offer. A month later I found one in the classified ads so I called up and made arrangements to look at it the next morning. To my astonishment it was the same piece of crap that I saw a month prior! I told him that I looked at this bike a month ago, it has the same mileage, exhaust, same dings and all. He straight said, "No I've had this for four months, I even ride it in the rain." BS! This is SoCal and it hasn't rained since last year!! I got outta there before I socked this liar in the grill. He's STILL trying to sell it as I see the ads in the paper.
Since finding a CB550 was not a simple thing. I decided that I should expand the makes of bikes to my list. I checked out a Yamaha XS650 from a trailer park guy. I bailed before I passed out from the stench of the place. My search went on to RD350's or 400's and Suzuki GS550's. One problem with getting to look at these bikes is that the only time I have is on weekends that I don't have work on. I also got sick too. Time when on and then I spotted an ad and called up to make an appointment to check out the bike.
The owner is a cute girl and my attention was bouncing back from her to the bike, but mostly on her, especially after she got on it!
Still wanting a second opinion about the bike I asked for a friend of mine to come along with me to check it out as well. All is go!
Last night we finalized the sale and rode my CB550 on home. She smokes a little bit when you get on the throttle hard, yet pulls strong. And the cam chain noise is more pronounced while riding, but hey, she's almost 30 years old.
I'll be hearing from this cutie after Thanksgiving so she can give me the spare parts which are in storage. This weekend I'm gunna go for a ride!
