Would the condensers be any good after all this time?
Yes.
The condensors are built in such a way that if they are left unused for a LONG period, they reduce their capacity slightly as the electrolyte shrinks from electron loss. The typical 'loss' is that instead of being 0.24uF, they become closer to 0.20uF. Using them for 50-100 miles and/or in typical short-haul commuter service (like 10 miles to work and back, etc.) will also restore them.
The condensors were frequently changed on these bikes just because of that practice in cars (particularly GM cars) at the time, when the very high heating of the back-of-engine distributors, combined with vendors who would use [cheaper] inferior insulating material in the condensor windings - some were simply wax - would damage the insulation of the condensor itself. This resulted in either shorted condensors or 'open' ones, which changed their value to be 50% or less of the original capacitance (usually 0.24uF was the most common original value). So, "tune up kits" showed up around the mid-1960s that were points & condensors in a package for your car, and [nefarious] bike dealers started changing the condensors out when the SOHC4 began eating car-like miles in between tuneups, just to bilk owners (which REALLY pissed me off...). Earlier bikes, twins, etc., had remotely-mounted condensors, and no one EVER changed those, as they were not in your face while doing tuneups. Heck, I'll bet half of the readers of this message don't even know where the condensors on the CB72/77 or CB350 twin bikes, or Honda Singles, even WERE...
The 'lost time' in the typical 1970s Honda shop, when the local Honda Service Rep came by and asked about it, was frequently attributed to how long it took to 'change out both condensors and points on the SOHC4 bikes because of all those wires that had to be wound up just so...' when in reality the mechanics should have been only changing points - like I did in my shop, which was a brutally honest place under my thumb. Honda then started supplying entire plate assemblies, a huge waste of money. The sales managers I suffered in my shop came from the less-honest used car and other-bike shops, and we fought all the time over this very topic. I won, because the service shop was MINE. I owned it. This ended up causing quite a reputation for the shop, and we got bikes from 3 States, in pickup trucks and on trailers, that were pooched by other shops, in droves. We NEVER ran out of work, even in the winter.
