A month ago I bought a new project which needed some TLC to become a true classic again.
This time it was a Honda cb500 k1 from 1972 which had one owner since 1985. He already bought the bike in the current shape and just loved how comfortable it was, although I must admit the seating position was not very nice in my opinion, it just didnt work.
The bike was fitted with a cb750 gas tank, a cb750f1/f2 giuliari king&queen seat (which the PO patched on the rear to cover the hole for the tail section), some Hella high beam lights, GL1000 tail lights, panniers and a fairing. I guess the intention was to mimic a small Goldwing...
It did have a very nice blue paint on there but sadly it just didnt work for me as it wasn't original and it had the wrong tank.
But underneath all this there was a very good frame and engine and it looked superb.
It just didn't run when I picked it up, the PO didnt understand it and thought it would be the spark plug leads. It turned out it was just a clogged carb from sitting for 2 years and not running. Easy fix and she was running on all four again.
So I bought it like this
After calling around I was able to score a really nice original paint set, with original emblems on there.
I also got some original shocks, brand new Busso reproduction exhausts, a DSS seat, and a couple of covers for the engine and forks and a lot of small things. And after a couple of weeks I finally got my hands on a pair of original k1 fork ears. So after a month it now looks like this:
I think it looks 100 times better now, very pleased with the result.
And on to the next project!
