Topic: 1971 K0 CB500

[Little_Phil]

Clocks on the early 500s seem to age better than later 550s etc., especially if low miles. You'll need to remove them and post a pic of them underneath out of the rubber cushioning to see the crimped ring.

[Shtonecb500]

Clocks on the early 500s seem to age better than later 550s etc., especially if low miles. You'll need to remove them and post a pic of them underneath out of the rubber cushioning to see the crimped ring.

duh, check if the ring was snapped, thanks for reminding me.

[Shtonecb500]

I put 68 miles on it today, at the end of the evening I noticed white smoke coming from pipes 1 and 2, went to get gas and carbs 2 and 3 were dumping fuel under my bike. I haven’t revved over 5k while shifting and only hit 70mph accidentally once for a brief moment but immediately returned back to 60mph.

edit: went through the carbs cleaned the jets, gas tank, and petcock. No more fuel leak, nice idle, but still puffing white smoke from 1 and 2.

[Shtonecb500]

After over a hundred miles on this thing it is really started to come to life - This thing has power EVERYWHERE - I can roll on throttle in any freaking gear and thing pulls. The right side fork gator cracked so I ordered a new set, when those show up Ill pull the entire front end apart and check steering stem bearings and replace fork fluid. If I had nice new rubber on this thing it would be a whole different story.


I was going to get new fork gators but I ended up buying a gently used set off ebay, hoping to get away with just replacing the broken on. Going to order new correct throttle grips and an MC rebuild kit, need to verify if the stock factory chain is still on the bike, and take new pictures.

[Alan F.]

Nice job!

[Shtonecb500]

Took the front end apart to paint the head light bucket, lower and top triple, speedo and tach mounting bracket, fresh grease on the steering bearings, new fluids in the forks and installed used good condition fork gators off ebay. 10 weight fully synthetic fork fluid went it, the original fork fluids still had some red to it and the seals were in good shape, even the uppers on the forks were in nice shape - usually very rusty under the fork ears. Polished the fork ears, handle bar, and mirrors a little more and I have some better condition signal stems for my K1 so they will get adopted to this bike.

Ordered an oem master cylinder rebuild kit and oem grips - didn't clear the triples and went with gloss on the lower and semi on the top. Degreased the steering neck. I'm painting the body work for 550 as well so the head light buckets will get wet sanded, sprayed black again, and cleared....will let sit over the weekend....the last picture is everything buttoned back up just waiting for the headlight bucket.

[Shtonecb500]

Thankfully I opened up that master cylinder cause PO installed the incorrect rebuild kit, which is why he bought an aftermarket replacement M/C and slapped it on..happy the original came with the bike... that lever was flat for the first few mm of play and didnt feel right, bled the brake with new M/C and looking forward to see how it brakes n the future.

Painted the triples, top bridge, speedo and tach bracket, and touching up the gauge bodies with some black paint was all very, very worth it. Upon inspection the bezel on the speedo and tach are un-broken which means the faces were never rebuilt....SWEET, the chain is original

Finally got the number of a painter another local collector uses, If I repaint Im considering green. .

[grcamna2]

Thankfully I opened up that master cylinder cause PO installed the incorrect rebuild kit, which is why he bought an aftermarket replacement M/C and slapped it on..happy the original came with the bike... that lever was flat for the first few mm of play and didnt feel right, bled the brake with new M/C and looking forward to see how it brakes n the future.

Painted the triples, top bridge, speedo and tach bracket, and touching up the gauge bodies with some black paint was all very, very worth it. Upon inspection the bezel on the speedo and tach are un-broken which means the faces were never rebuilt....SWEET, the chain is original

Finally got the number of a painter another local collector uses, If I repaint Im considering green. .

You going to keep' er after all this,right?! 

[Shtonecb500]

Thankfully I opened up that master cylinder cause PO installed the incorrect rebuild kit, which is why he bought an aftermarket replacement M/C and slapped it on..happy the original came with the bike... that lever was flat for the first few mm of play and didnt feel right, bled the brake with new M/C and looking forward to see how it brakes n the future.

Painted the triples, top bridge, speedo and tach bracket, and touching up the gauge bodies with some black paint was all very, very worth it. Upon inspection the bezel on the speedo and tach are un-broken which means the faces were never rebuilt....SWEET, the chain is original

Finally got the number of a painter another local collector uses, If I repaint Im considering green. .

You going to keep' er after all this,right?! 

its a coin flip at this point - if/when i need money this will be the first bike to go, I seem to keep chipping away at it even though i dont really want to.....it will be better for resale in the end tho.

[Shtonecb500]

.

[grcamna2]

How do you like how the bike is running and handling/stopping ?

[Shtonecb500]

How do you like how the bike is running and handling/stopping ?

before i rehabbed the front end the bike was running lovely, i have some air in my brake line so havent had interest riding it until i remedy that. Trying to wrap up the 550 right now.

[Shtonecb500]

got the bike when it had 4,077.3 miles on it, I got to about 4,180 when the engine damage occurred, and now we are sitting at 4,491.9 miles - 414 miles on tires from 1971....LOL


I rode the bike yesterday and had the idle set to like 900rpm and it did super well..I was told to take it up to about 1100rpm...all finished with the test riding, it starts runs idles and goes/stops, looks good, time to sell it.

the only thing im conflicted about is I know the bike could really shine if I rebuilt the wheels and put on new rubber.

[Shtonecb500]

Just noticed these

[Shtonecb500]

The bike did come from California, I’ll try to locate the original owner.

[grcamna2]

I like seeing receipts like that,showing the PO's took it into the dealer  plenty and had it cared for.

[Shtonecb500]

I like seeing receipts like that,showing the PO's took it into the dealer  plenty and had it cared for.

yeah it should help with the listing...

[Shtonecb500]

high res pics.

[Shtonecb500]

The bike is currently getting it's BAT listing revised for a no reserve auction.

Wish me luck.

[Alan F.]

Good Luck. Don't sweat the wheels and tires, they're only original once.

[HondaMan]

This one looks exactly like my brother's 500. We toured together (me on my 750K2) for tens of tens of thousands of miles together.
I briefly had one of the same genre, but it was in the Brown color.

[Shtonecb500]

my first bike was a brown 73' cb500.

[Little_Phil]

How do you like this one just up on UK ebay?  Approaching $14000!!!
3000 miles.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276200320629

[Shtonecb500]

thats a really nice one, hope these things start pulling in some good money

[BenelliSEI]

Yours look perfect. Really lovely work.