Topic: How different are the various 650's?

[Pinhead]

How much did they change the CB650 from '79 on up? In other words, will the tank, seat, sidecovers, etc. from an '80, '81, or '82 fit on my '79? I like the looks of the later models but like the performance of the '79 (and I already have the '79 haha).

[jpc002]

I have an '80 CB650 for a parts bike and a '81 CB650 for a rider.  The petcocks are different on the tanks, but the tanks themselves seem to be interchangeable.  The wire harness is the same, horn, switches, gauges, tires, chains, cams, pistons, tach, exhausts.  The airboxes are different as well as the carburetors.  Ah, and the heads are different as well.  I maid this mistake already.  I recently ported and polished the head off of the '80 cb650 and tried to fit it on my regular bike- the '81 (in case I burred too much metal off I would have another head as a replacement), however it did not fit.  I realized this when everything was torqued back on, and right when I was ready to put the carb back in.    The intake port wholes on the '80 head did not fit the carburetor to the '81 bike.  Ah, so much time and energy porting and polishing wasted (good for practice though, i guess).  Anyways, i took the head off, and re-did everything to the correct fitting head.  All is well now.

The sissy bars from the two are transferable.

Did this help at all?  It seems like many of the parts are interchangeable, but I may be mistaken (as with the heads). 

[Pinhead]

I want to keep the core pieces the same on my bike, just change the tank, sidecovers, and seat. I don't think the '80 would fit on my '79 because the sidecover is a triangle and dips further down.

The '82, on the other hand, looks like it may be a CLOSER fit. Probably wouldn't be a bolt-on, but it COULD work. I like the looks of those a lot better than the '79...