Topic: 1971 K0 CB500

[Shtonecb500]

Yours look perfect. Really lovely work.

Thank you, thank you. Praise coming from any of you guys means a lot.

[Little_Phil]

End of the long story I see. What are your thoughts?

[Shtonecb500]

That was my straw buyer, I didnt sell that damn bike.  They wouldn't give me a reserve so i  just paid 5% on the back end to protect my #$%*.

$400 bucks to get that result.

Bike would have sold for $3100 if I let it do its thing.

Im just keeping the bike, Its lovely.


I admit all this at risk of getting banned from BAT but i dont really care lol.

[BenelliSEI]

Good call. I went through the same thing with my K0 “show bike”. Then I put it on EBay, with an opening bid that I would have been happy with. No bids, but a few weeks after the biding closed a guy got in touch. A month later he made a very respectable offer and we went from there…… be patient.

[Little_Phil]

A bad outcome, but the best decision at the end.
I think it was a unwise decision putting it on at this time of year and being a bit too honest about your confidence in your painter.
What other options have you got for selling? Craiglist, ebay, this site, others?
I will sell a couple of my bikes in the next couple of years. I doubt I will get back what I have spent on them. C'est la vie.

[Shtonecb500]

Incredibly terrible outcome but as we've mentioned before, worst time of the year to sell a motorcycle as well as lots of variables that could have dampened the result....like original rubber tires, bad paint/incorrect paint scheme poorly executed and wrong color (too honest). I THOUGHT the bike would pull in 5-6k on the low end and I would have been fine with letting it go for that....usually a well sorted bike would move for like 3k-4k and if it had original pipes you could add another 1500-2k to the price.....This bike would have sold for $3100 which doesn't make sense to me, but again lets reference all the variables that were at play.

I'm not upset and was prepared to take a $400-$500 loss covering the 5%.

I have a buddies wedding festivities around the corner, they are kind of unexpected starting so soon and I'm in school full time now so I kinda needed the money, hence why I risked it.

The other reason im considering dumping one of the bikes is I got covid for the first time and its going on about 20 plus days and IDK if ill be able to go pick up extra work hours if I keep testing positive the way I am.

[GV1390]

This thing turned out awesome - such a pretty bike! I love the receipts too! My 71' came with a binder full of receipts dated from the 70's through the early 00's. 

[Alan F.]

I hope you kick the covid soon, lots of "long covid" out there still. I know you've got stuff to do.

[Shtonecb500]

This thing turned out awesome - such a pretty bike! I love the receipts too! My 71' came with a binder full of receipts dated from the 70's through the early 00's. 

Thanks a lot! I need to toss some new rubber on it and log some miles.

[Shtonecb500]

I hope you kick the covid soon, lots of "long covid" out there still. I know you've got stuff to do.

I was able to kick covid, went out to Colorado and struggled a little bit at elevation, just keep pushing through school. Im about to go take the 750 out for a spin.

[Shtonecb500]

The 500 is leaking at the head gasket looks like mostly on the left hand/shift side, I'm noticing this and white smoke out of #1-2 tail pipes, it's not going away. I have a hanging idle that behaves weird as hell and I'm accepting the fact I'm about to open up this motor again....doesn't seem to matter where the idle screw is, the bike likes to run up to 2k at idle, then fall down to below 1k and then hover just above 1k..over and over....it won't die on me while im out riding but the oil leak is annoying. If I cant ride without getting oil on my legs, then I don't want to ride it. I was hoping it was just some sweating but its pooling on multiple fins on the left side after a 10 min ride.


Any suggestions on GOOD cb500 head gaskets?

[Little_Phil]

It always seems to be the left side.
The story goes that all the aftermarket head gaskets are thicker than the original. So you need bigger O rings.
Original ring was 4.9 x 2.5mm I think. Measure gasket thickness up when you dismantle and check the depth of the location c/bore. The oil hole is 5mm dia or fractionally under.
A pain.

[Shtonecb500]

It always seems to be the left side.
The story goes that all the aftermarket head gaskets are thicker than the original. So you need bigger O rings.
Original ring was 4.9 x 2.5mm I think. Measure gasket thickness up when you dismantle and check the depth of the location c/bore. The oil hole is 5mm dia or fractionally under.
A pain.

I found another head gasket at the shop so I can start this asap, I also never really cleaned the carbs because they worked well previously, had to replace and overflow brass and a o-ring but that was all....I think this previous winter of sitting with non race fuel in the tank probably is the reason for my idle issues.