Topic: Help identifying the forks

[jlh3rd]

[...]
Also, fyi...U.S. model year date is NOT a marketing ploy of the U.S. It was official honda policy. Period..for legitimate reasons..
facts over opinion:

That is American Honda,not the Honda we have in our official docs, which we have collected with great care to check for all the world.
I thought it wise to limit my remark to the frame which OP indicated. As you know the forks are part of the frame. I hope you don't mind, I've directed OP where he for himself can find out what is original on his bike and what not. Again, I hope you don't mind and I wish you a good day.

Sure, same to you.
I was just pointing out that model year wasn't a U.S. marketing ploy, that's all.

And I was trying to help the OP also. Posting pictures of a parts diagram claiming that's what he has when it isn't, plus not being original to the bike, certainly doesn't help with pinpointing correct parts.
I wish you a good day
and the OP gets his pipes.

[wmajinw]

Thanks all I really appreciate all of the help.

Went with the "374" forks from Ebay.

[Deltarider]

[...] I was just pointing out that model year wasn't a U.S. marketing ploy, that's all.

Point me one genuine Honda Parts List, that determines the model by year. I know of one 'half half' one, but that one was edited by American Honda. The year is irrelevant. There are markets that don't even have the same era calender as you have! Moreover the year in some markets may indicate to: when the bike was first registered in that country (arrival) or when it first received a license plate number, and there are more variations. It's called diversity. You do miles, others do km. It's a fact of life.
If you do the effort - and you only have to do it once - to pinpoint what exact model you have, you can save yourself a lot of frustration and you will 'revaluate' your Clymer or Haynes manual.
Every bike has a frame- and a enginenumber. Fact. The true identity actually is in the framenumber, because one can mount another engine in that frame. Both frame- and enginenumbers are listed in the various CB500 and CB550 parts lists. By identifying your bike, you will also learn the 'area code' and so you will learn that Honda had different cables in different markets. Always good to know when ordering, don't you think? I remember quite a few times here, things went wrong and an owner ended up with the wrong cables and clutch plates. Just disciplin yourself once and you can't go wrong.
Praise yourself lucky some people did the effort to share their genuine Honda documents for all the world to consult. People differ however. The only time I myself have invited a member here to share his owner's manual (CB550K2) which still isn't on the internet, he refused, saying: "Oh, no, mine is in its plastic cover and I don't want to get it out." Mind you, other people have spent weekends scanning and uploading documents to make them available for all of us...
Back to the 'year'. If you talk years, the rest of the world will not know, what you're talking about. Realise that Europe did not import the CB750K3, K4 or K5 for instance. If your thread begins by indicating your model, the way Honda did, readers can conclude rightaway whether the content is relevant for them or not. The 'year' leaves us clueless. Another example: the CB500K1 model has been marketed in Europe for quite some years unchanged. Maybe hard for Americans to grasp, because they're accustomed to a new model every year: a goldmine for the advertising to which Americans seem addicted, judging by the presence of the phenomenon just about anywhere, anytime and we all know what that has resulted in:  blessings like electric car windows and 17 (!) cupholders in cars that have... 7 seats. 2,43 cupholder per person. Isn't that great?!
Best service in this forum you can give a newcomer in my - as always - humble opinion is to show how that person can help himself. Yes, you read well: an opinion. An opinion however that, when shared, can save us a lot of unnecessary posts.

[...] Posting pictures of a parts diagram claiming that's what he has when it isn't, plus not being original to the bike, certainly doesn't help with pinpointing correct parts.

Oh, where did I do that?

[Floshenbarnical]

come on lads we're all friends here

[jlh3rd]

jeez..
you didn't, the OP posted the pic, I was answering him. He wanted replacement pipes that needed to fit that particular lower case....It didn't matter what "model" or "year" he had because multiple models used that case  with that particular pipe.....because of THAT pic. only, that's where I went.
However, this thread would've been a hell of a lot easier, faster, and exponentially shorter if he'd just said I think the front end is original. The next question then would have been, "what model do you have"...."what are the frame and engine #'s".......
I've never denied parts search requires knowing what model you have. If you would read all of my post, you'd see that's what I'm basically saying. As a matter of fact, I learned the model vs year concerning honda from YOU on this site from years ago!
However, I've also learned that American Honda designated a year policy definition in 1973. My understanding was because of title/registration issues in the U.S..
Honda did start owner's manual "year" at least in 1977...but parts lists still just model...
But it wasn't a marketing ploy.

[PeWe]

Is it same with CB500 as CB750?
European model, my case Swedish CB750 had their own configuration. K2 between  1972-1975.
Next model was K6, still with K1 blinkers and rear lamp.
Engines as the year.

I remember how my K6 looked like when I bought it in stock configuration.

It must be a puzzle when buying an old bike now several PO's had restored, modified and "upgraded" using parts they found.

[Deltarider]

For who is interested: this info on the functioning of the forks which were on the CB500K2 GENERAL EXPORT and CB550K-K2, appeared yesterday on the German site. It's in German, but if someone here is handy - handier than me, that is - in having it translated by ChatGPT or whatever, I offer to double check the translation. Note that these legs were not on the CB500K2-A.
attachments courtesy Rainer Nowak

[wmajinw]

So while I'm waiting for the fork uppers to arrive and getting "high" (learned that you do need a good ventilation the hard way) on paint stripper while trying to remove the powder coating from fork lowers I decided to get a better look at the frankenstein engine.

It seems that although the engine case number is for a CB500k0 but in addition to the heads being from CB550, some innards were also changed - the clutch actuator is on the right side by the oil dipstick. My understanding is that such configuration was only on CB550, while the CB500 had the clutch on the sprocket side.

The sprocket cover is from the CB500 with all the holes for clutch operation empty. So I guess I'll be searching for a cover from the CB550 and putting this one up for sale.

[bryanj]

What you say is there cannot be done without majour bodgery as the 500 and 550 clutch covers are a totaly different shape, is it possible you have a 500K3 engine which is same as 550 but 500 barrells?

[wmajinw]

What you say is there cannot be done without majour bodgery as the 500 and 550 clutch covers are a totaly different shape, is it possible you have a 500K3 engine which is same as 550 but 500 barrells?

Well my assumption is based on the fact that the heads are form a 550, but assumptions are just assumptions.

My engine no. is CB500-1026*** which, as far as I managed to read into the parts manuals, is for a K0 (but I might be mistaken).

The CB500K3 engine case and clutch case fit that only CB500 model and then a lot of CB550 models.

Since I plan on polishing the clutch case I'm going to take it of any way and that'll expose the part of the clutch assembly.

Any pointers what I should be looking for to help identify what innards does it have?

[Deltarider]

You certainly own a bike that interests us. A few questions, if you don't mind.
What is the stamped in number on your carbs? (see pics for the location)
Does your frame has two grease nipples on the left and right side of the swingarm or one grease nipple underneath the swingarm that the later models had?
When you have the clutch plates out, we can help you identify them no prob.
Another thing that may interest you: does your engine have the modified cylinder head cover later 500/550 models got standard, or the previous one? For that we need a pic of that cover with just the breather cover removed. But this can wait ofcourse.
First pic courtesy Dave500