Hello all,
I became an admirer of old Hondas a while back when a friend bought a pretty cherry example of a 1971 SL350. The more I looked at it the more I realized that in the early 70s, Honda achieved aesthetic perfection with its motorcycles. Something just indescribably 'right,' at least to my eye. Of course, as these things often go, he foolishly sold it, and I foolishly didn't buy it. I was hurting myself left and right on my bike at the time, and viewed motorcycles as guaranteed deathtraps. Time went by, my dreams of someday racing mountainbike world cups evaporated, I started to feel that I could ride a motorcycle responsibly, and set out to find a 71-74 SL350. No such luck there, but in my search I became aware of SOHC4s, and the remarkable elegance of their motors. I bought the most beat-to-hell, non-running CB500 I could find, with the intention of reviving it to something of its former glory. It just wouldn't do, I decided, to buy a running motorcycle and ride it around not knowing anything about what was making it run. Also, I suppose to some extent I wanted to live in the reality in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. So many things turned out to be broken that the project turned into a frame-up restoration. Much more time and money than I bargained for, but that's a typical story here it seems. Anyway, here it is, my first motorcycle as it sits right now:
This site has already been immensely helpful, and I hope with time I'll have something of my own to contribute.
