About a month ago my doorbell rang, after answering the door a gentleman asked if the motorcycle on the parking place was mine. Why yes it is, that would be mine indeed.
(me being proud of finally getting my 400 running after 2 years of low-pace work)
I asked the man where the curiosity came from. The man told me that his elderly neighbor across the street had a similar bike in her garage, and that she was selling it because the owner had passed away a couple of months back. They'd prefer if it went to a enthusiast rather than some random buyer. The man assumed I were an enthusiast because of my bike (despite it being in a pretty rough condition). The same day I went to check it out and there it was, a very dusty CB500! I made it clear I was interested in the bike, gave my contact info and left. Last week I got a call that the brother of the owner was coming by to drop off the paperwork.
So, saturday was the day! I went to the house, made the deal and pushed the bike home! It was an agonizing 3 kms, since the bike had two flat tires, but that's where the bonding starts.
Here's how I found it, still in front of the garage where it stood still for a couple of years.
The mileage and some fly-poop.
In front of her new temporary home.
It's been preserved pretty well, the tank is completely rusted from the inside, hopefully still salvageable though. The chromework cleans up pretty nice, some tiny rusty spots at the front fender's usual place, same for the rear. Exhaust is in really good shape.
Rusted tank, would this be salvageable?
I put the battery of the 400 in there to check if she would turn over. All the lighting worked, but she didn't turn over. The solenoid gives a click and there's a little sound from the electric starter but it doesn't move completely.
After taking the tank of I noticed one of the levers on the carburettors being cracked, would this be a problem? It does move smoothly and everything, do I need to replace this or doesn't it offer any danger whatsoever?
Cracked lever thingy.
First I'm gonna try and get it running, from there on I'm going to restore it to running condition. I'm going to keep it as original looking as I found it, but replace parts where needed.
Since I don't have a big pool of money this project will be taking a while. I'm hoping to get advice where needed, and hopefully bring some smiles to people when this bike is finished!
