Not sure why the thumbnails above are all weirdly oriented, but the actual photos are normal. After getting it running I couldn't resist the urge to go for a quick ride, so I put on the chain and took it for a spin around my backyard, only to find out that both the clutch cable and rear brake were almost completely useless, meaning stopping was more of a suggestion than a command. The clutch cable was shot and the rear brake was just horribly misaligned, but needless to say it was an exhilarating ride for a few seconds before killing the power. Once I got back inside I adjusted the rear brake lever and ordered a new clutch cable.
The front brake caliper had come in pieces from the PO and I had purchased a complete used one from ebay but the piston was seized. I took the advice of someone on this forum and used a grease gun to force it out which worked wonders, other than all the grease I had to deal with after. The piston had some small pitting, but the main culprit was rust on the back/bottom of the piston. I threw the whole caliper and piston disassembled into the ultrasonic cleaner and finished it with steel wool to get everything nice and clean again. I replaced the piston seal and it now moves much better. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get some brake fluid through it this week and see how it works.
I also decided to ditch the old digital tach and speedo combo I had purchased from Amazon, and went with the mini reproduction models from 4 into 1. The digital one never quite worked right, and everything I read said speed and tach were not as accurate anyway without the direct drive. In a stroke of good luck, both the tach and speedo fit on the existing mounting points for some of the old instrumentation, right between the clip ons. Eventually I want to get a small plate made that bolts into the original handlebar mounts to tidy up that area, but that's less of a priority atm. One thing I have noticed since I've replaced all the cabling is how much slack I have now that I run clip ons. The throttle cables were an absolute pain to route in a way that they didn't kink or bind with so much slack, enough so that I have to find another shorter B cable because there was just too much extra cable. I replaced the brake lines with SS and the tach and speedo cable and am facing a similar problem though they will fit. Whenever they get replaced, it'll be nice to shorten everything up a bit.
Once I get the brakes working 100% and the new instrumentation installed and mounted, It'll be time to start fiddling with the carb tuning. I checked the plugs after my first run through and it was running lean, so it will take some adjustment to get right I'm sure. I've never used a carb sync, but when I bought my original CB650 8 years ago a set came with it, so it'll be nice to finally get to use it after I get somewhere comfortable with the mixture screws.