Topic: Will it ever go back together and be a RELIABLE machine? (Venting)

[NGL_BrSH]

I'm still fighting my 1975 CB550K1, my girl is about fed up with me ordering parts and being out in the garage about every day.

I just want to know.. how many people use theirs as daily drivers and consider it a reliable option?

It just amazes me that once I finally get this running right that I could still chance being really really late for work.  I love the bike since it holds sentimental value for me (dad's old bike) but man... seems like i'm fiddling with the carbs all day long to make my ride enjoyable.

Thanks for reading my vent.

[bryanj]

They were suprememly reliable when new, if serviced properly, so there is no reason it wont be again

[rhos1355]

Stick with it, mate. She'll be right eventually. But remember rule no.1 of the bike restorer; NEVER, EVER vent your anger on the bike. Walk away, kick a door down, tear your hair out, take a holiday from it even, but don't damage the bike.

[Canada]

What kind of problems are you having? My 78F was being silly for a while but with a few upgrades like ignition etc she now runs strong and true everyday that I ask her.

[bozo4onion]

Mine (75' 550F) was the same. My advice is to keep it, or put it back stock. Carbs are way important. Spend money and time there. Next is ignition. Learn to tune it if you haven't already. Then valve adjustment and cam chain tension. Mine was a hillbilly cafe attempt with ill fitting pods running on 3 cyl. (bad float needle valve) and died every time it warmed up (bad condenser crapped out when hot). I've finally finished it and just returned from an 90mi. trip. It ran like it would never stop. Plenty of power w/2 up. Keep at it. These bikes are way dependable even at 32 years old. Good luck.

[greenjeans]

Ride mine everyday.
I'm comfortable enough with mine that it rarely crosses my mind that it's 35 years old.
Stick with it...it can be done

[Bob Wessner]

..my girl is about fed up with me ordering parts and being out in the garage about every day.

Take her to dinner and a movie.

[TwoTired]

Any machine is only as good as it's mechanic.

For a reliable bike, you have to amortize the proper work given to it throughout its 30 years of "life".   From that, you have to reverse all the shoddy, improper work, or "previous owner enhancements" done to the machine.  There are few bike modifiers that are as talented, thorough, and successful as the Honda engineers.

Once you have the bike in near new or restored condition, you can ride it 3000 miles between routine service intervals, and years before doing anything else.
Having said that.  A day spent reversing 30 years of corrosion on the electrical connections and component will go a long way towards the key switch have direct control over machine life.

I used my CB550 for 20 years as a reliable commuter.  Yes, there were times I had to take the car, or the "spare bike" due to minor issues that needed and 1/2 to 1 hour attention.  As I got better at the skill of diagnosing and repair, the repair times got shorter.  And, the reliability of the machine greater.

Short sermon...
Your girl may be testing you to determine her importance in your life, and how much she can control what you do and enjoy.  It sounds like she has already made you feel that working on the bike is a bad thing.  And that the end result and the skills you are gaining are meaningless to her. Ask yourself if she will EVER let you enjoy doing something you feel is worth while doing by your own reasoning.  Ask why she is not supportive of YOUR interests and expansion of your knowledge base.

If she is "managing" your attention toward projects that she finds important, beware of being a kept man.  If she wants you to be a couch potato with the clicker in hand, ask your self if that is the life you want. 

My wife was happy that I was in the garage instead of the bars carousing.  She could come out to the garage and visit or participate any time she wanted, and put my tools away before I was done using them.
She also was amazed that I could fix her vehicle when it broke using mechanic skills garnered in the garage.  She valued that more than me paying for someone else to fix things, though being a high wage earner.

Finally, if you are "fighting" with your bike now, it will forever be an adversary and never a friend.  Ask yourself how that relationship was formed.  (didn't you like it when you got it?).  Sounds like she has already succeeded in placing the bike in the dislike category even though she knows it has sentimental value to you (not her..why does she not value the things you have or do?).  If she will let you have a motorcycle at all, ask which one she will let you have, sell the one you have now, and buy the one she approves of.

Cheers,

[NGL_BrSH]

well that is comforting to hear that your bikes are reliable.

I've got bad idle issues once she's warm and runs pretty rich in the stock needle and mixture position.
I believe that I have narrowed my problems down to the carbs and i'm going to take them apart and rebuild them for the 2nd time because I used a couple generic orings on the slow jets and now i have the right ones.. also I want to make sure i put the slides in the correct direction since i've read a few posts about that.. possibly replace the orings between the head and the intake runners just to rule that out.  I've done everything else, dwell, timing, cam chain, tappets, new air filter element, plugs etc.
I'm going to check the jets to see if some a** drilled them out even though it has all stock exhaust and air box on it.
Hopefully that will do it and I'll fall back in love,  otherwise the bike will be suffering from 9mm wounds.


edit: thanks TT for that.. I just shot the girl and started rebuilding my carbs


nah really though, It's been about 2 1/2 months restoring this beast.. we get limited time together because of our jobs and have teh same days off.. she's starting to feel ignored. 
She listens to my stories of it and woes. 
Her dad was a IMSA race car driver and she's spent plenty of time holding wrenchs and that bastid kinda ruined that for me. 
She's a good girl and has just recently felt like I don't like her since I've spent every waking moment either at work or in the garage (or on these forums).  Plus I truly should be spending more time and money restoring the new house I bought rather than this antique.

[captaincrash80]

My wife was like that when I first started talking about working on bikes (she had already gone through me working on computers all the time). I asked her many times if having and working on 3-4 bikes at a time was going to cause problems between us and it wasn't till after I was 110% sure that it wouldn't that I went out and bought my 750 chopper project. Amusingly enough we just spent our 2 year anniversary doing a frame swap on a CM400

[goon 1492]

My wife was like that when I first started talking about working on bikes (she had already gone through me working on computers all the time). I asked her many times if having and working on 3-4 bikes at a time was going to cause problems between us and it wasn't till after I was 110% sure that it wouldn't that I went out and bought my 750 chopper project. Amusingly enough we just spent our 2 year anniversary doing a frame swap on a CM400

Yea the wife has to be supportive, it goes a long way. Mine didn't care much for it in the beginning of our realtionship, espically my blown motor 73 honda elsinore(mt)250, but it has grown on her like it has with me. She wants of her own now......

Hey captaincrash80 good to see another midwesterner in this popsicle joint . Hope I see ya on the road, I work on merriam lane in OP,ks right of I-635.

[captaincrash80]

Goon, where on Merriam Ln do you work. Might be within walking distance of my house 

[greenjeans]

Some more encouragement......

When I first rebuilt my carbs for the first time, I thought they were clean.  Only after prodding from other members (most of the thanks goes to TwoTired)
did I take them back off and REALLY clean them.  It really took 2 very thorough cleanings before they operated properly.   

Do yourself a favor, disassemble the carbs completely and clean them.  Then clean them again.  Then go get some inline fuel filters as further protection.
The majority of my problems, although some seemed like they might be electrical (coils wires etc), came from old dirty carbs that were not properly
synched.   Find somebody with vaccuum guages to synch them or buy some for yourself.  I purchased a Morgan Carbtune for $100 - a bit pricey but
it's an invaluable tool that you will need as long as you own these beasts.

It does become much easier the more you wrench on these things

[hymodyne]

+1 to all the positive advice..my bike is in its third version after three years of ownership. Patience goes a long way.

hym

[fmctm1sw]

my girl is about fed up with me ordering parts and being out in the garage about every day.

Tell her there's comfort in numbers...  so is mine..

[jtb]

I think I actually went through 3 cleanings on mine.  The best thing I did was to buy new carb rubbers, that solved a lot of my idling problems.

My Mother lived in Roeland Park in the 70's and 80's.  I used to go up and down Merriam Lane.

[Frankenkit]

I'm in the same boat... It seems like it took forever to get the monster running, now it feels like it's arguing with every attempt I make to make it run *well*.  What can you do?  ...clean the carbs again, I guess. 

I have the same delusions of my bike being a reliable daily rider, too.  I guess that remains to be seen.

[Hush]

Mine got jealous and went out and bought a Chinese scooter which is disgustingly reliable pink and cheap to run!
However she often drifts into the shed to assist me with the ressurection of my 650.
Like you I often wonder if my bike will be the daily ride I hope but reading on here of all the others who have finished and enjoy riding their machines keeps me plodding on and step by step it is coming together.
If I had a time machine I'd go back to the day the Honda management board were meeting to discuss the carb plumbing of their proposed SOHC bikes draw my hidden Katana and slaughter the lot of them, well I'd probabaly actually beg on my knees the CEO of Honda to fit something that future generations would not have to sacrifice blood sweat tears and the occasional marraige over anyway.
The carbs are the fly in the ointment with these maginificent bikes, however if the bikes were garaged from new and not left for 20 odd years in paddocks and under trees I'm sure they would be 100% reliable.
At some stage to save you relationship and your sanity it might be cost effective to actually get a Honda mechanic to do some of the work you are struggling with.
I know we like to bang our heads against solid objects and attempt to win every macho battle with our machines but just sometimes it would pay to take the lady out to dinner while some fully qualified guy sync's the carbs he he.........

[alltherightpills]

My problem was that I didn't really have a plan.  I got the bike and then just started replacing this thing or that, not really thinking about what needed to be replaced to make the bike as reliable as possible.  So the cosmetic stuff was changed before the cracked tires were and before the timing was set and the carbs synced. 

I think I lucked out in the lady department though, my wife is thrilled whenever I go and work on my bike.  Not because she doesn't want me around, but because she knows how much I love it and how happy it makes me.  Granted I am not out working on it every waking moment, but I try to put in about 4 hours per week.  She is an academic, so sometimes she will sit out with me reading while I do the wrenching.  She doesn't have any interest in riding bikes or owning one, and that is fine by me (like any good academic, she is a little absent-minded and a teensy bit clumsy .  Neither of which go well with two wheels and traffic ) but she asks me questions about what I am doing and how things work. 

The only thing she wasn't excited about was when I would show her pics from the shop thread (Terry in Oz, Kghost, etc.) and talk about how awesome it would be to have a stable of bikes.  She looks at the pics, looks at me and with total deadpan says, "but you can still only ride one at a time, right?"  Sometimes her subtle wit just sneaks up and whacks me in the back of the head.

[andy750]

So far you have had all very good advice and Ill just add my support...been there as well with the endless hours in the garage getting it right, even spending most of one summer getting one bike ready...which it finally was by the Fall. That was 2 years ago and since then that bike (CB750K20 has needed nothing - ride it to work most days (alternate with the K4  ). The CB750K4 has gone through similar work - couple of engine removals and top end rebuild as well as general maintenance items. Now both bikes are running like new and its the best feeling to have well running classics. So my advice is dont give up. Concentrate as others have said on carbs, ignition/timing and you will get it. It really is worth it in the end.

Of course you cant ignore the g/f (yes Ive had an understanding one as well all this time...well a few of them ) and make sure you spend some time with her as well as the bike...and keep the tales of woe for on here and listen to her tales of woe on occasion...it pays to listen 

good luck with it!

cheers
Andy

[bggann]

A bit more encouragement - my CB400F is my daily ride - 42 miles round trip - took 2 or 3 weekend days of focused work (spaced out over about 5) to get it to be reliable - and once in a while it gets me (see Bob's Excellent Adventure...)  But as "Uncrash" put it there -

I love how riding makes transporting your body an adventure.

As for the wife, I rode for many years - my wife has never been on any of my bikes and has no interest - however, we would never have met had it not been for my bikes.  I used to ride "around" every Sunday morning and end it with breakfast where she was a waitress - we've been married 24 years now.  I've only been back on the bike for a couple of months or so - but she sees how much happier I'm am - and that helps.  When I walk into the door after work - I'm smiling...

So - get the bike running - and make sure you always come in with a smile, even when the bike has been fighting you.

And frankly, I feel pretty smug riding that old "real" bike when I see all the folks at work who only ride theirs once in a while....

These bikes can be reliable - but you need to pay attention to the items that age and get dirty.  80% of my problem(s) were carbs.  20% were the points (base plate moving around).

Careful rebuild of the carbs - new electronic ignition (Dyna 1S + coils and wires) and the bike is purring right along (no doubt 'she' is out in the parking lot right now thinking of what will break on the way home ;-)

I put over 100K on my previous SOHC4/DOHC4's with nary a thought - this is a bit more challenging (I'm a littler older too), but hey - it is great.

----------------
BUT - that said - riding an older bike like this does take some work - It will never be as simple and automatic as a new one.... and if you do not enjoy it, you will not enjoy riding it.  So - it can be a reliable ride - but should it be 'your' reliable ride - you need to think that one through. 
BG

[750K2]

oh man, i can surely sympathize, but only through my experiences with my boat. much blood, sweat and far too much cash has gone into what i thought was going to be a 'cheap' boat.  i know how precious free time is to us all, and how frustrating it can be to have to fix unexpected problems, how disheartening a breakdown can be...and worst of all, if all the time, money and effort could possibly be worthwhile.   few will understand the commitment or your dream and what it means to you to get this bike running.  but you'll inevitably learn a great deal and as you gain experience your skills will grow superior to those who just 'turn the key'.  it may seem like a small victory but it's actually priceless.   you'll do some rework, perhaps spend a bit more than you'd like too.  but as you get better at working on your machine, the price of your mistakes will drop and your ability to chase down minor problems will circumvent paying for the major ones.  you'll have to earn the ride, plain and simple.

it's a road worth travelling, especially with a bike that you got from your dad.  there isn't another one like it in the world.  not one.   it may come with a price few are willing to pay but at the end, you'll be rolling down the road and that bike will be the gift that keeps on giving.  and as the smiles pile up, the price will seem a bit more fair.

you also have the resource of this forum, filled with men and women who have walked in your shoes and can share much.  there may not be a ton of people around you who 'get it'...but here, you're surrounded.   keep posting and take some pictures for the rest of us!  good luck.

[Dunk]

I use my '71 CB750 as my daily driver so long as there's no snow on the ground. Rode it out to Carlisle bike fest this summer (coming from NJ), about 300 mile round trip. Was planning a trip up to Maine (460 each way) but my buddy backed out so I didn't feel like going up alone. I wouldn't hesitate to ride to California tomorrow if I you said lets go. Just change oil before we leave and change it when we get there.

Personally I don't like new things. They are expensive and unreliable. Newest car I've ever owned was an '86 Oldsmobile fuel injected. First and last fuel injected vehicle I'll ever own. Onyl vehicle I ever had to pour gas down intake to start on below freezing days. My car is a '68 Galaxie and my truck is an '86 F250 (too new for my tastes, not crazy about the styling). I wouldn't hesitate to take any of my vehicle cross country on no notice. My old stuff is reliable, and tough as nails. Newest thing I ever owned was a '91 XR200 dirt bike, but that was carbureted and air cooled so it was alright.