Topic: Pitcures of my bike I drove over 325 miles for!!!!!!!!

[TwoTired]

You don't need a carb "kit".  All the metal bits are reusable (usually).  For the PD carbs, only the bowl gasket (big oring) gets hard with age.  It might still be ok to reuse.  If not, it will weep a bit and the bow interface.

The biggest concern would be the carb coupler front and rear.  Not easy to get at all.  And, if you don't take the carbs out properly, they get chopped up.

I'd drop the outer bowls to look inside first.  Maybe you can clean them without removal of the entire bank.  Otherwise, pulling out the pressed in pilot jets is much easier with the carbs on the bench.  I recently got an official carb removal procedure, that looks to make the carb bank removal/install easier. It begins with taking out the air filter box.

Cheers,

[cameron]

Awesome.

If you chop that I will hate you forever.
If anything, trade it for an already-effed-up bike.. and screw with that to your hearts content!

[BeSeeingYou]

Thank goodness for the stupid 21 year old boyfriend.   Nice score.  Was this a case of you knew somebody who knew somebody?  If that had been listed on CL I would think there would have been a race to get it at that price.

[immortal]

Amazing, congratulations!

[Lostboy Steve]

First off, thats an insane price for a beauty of this kind. Did you hold him at gun point during negotiations? Great find / purchase! Second, on my 77 cb550k there's a sticker on it that discourages the mounting of a front fairing. Did these bikes come with this? And if so, why the sticker on mine?

[Tews19]

I did not know the family who was selling the bike... I did find it on CL in Minneapolis last week when I was looking at old ads.. The bike was listed May 26th.. The kid was actually really nice and so was the family.... I am not going to say any ill words about them.... When I saw the bike in person I was kinda bummed that it was in such nice shape....Then reality kicked in and I realized I have a gem in front of me.....I reallly appreciate everyones input. Next week I will be heading to the bike show with heron Tuesday night..... I am going to look at the floats in the service manual.. She is very drivable now and I do not want to mess her up... For this reason I may just pay the bike shop to fix her up..

[Stev-o]

You may need headlight parts once you take the fairing off. I've never had a fairing and never will, but I'm pretty sure the headlight gets modified when the fairing is installed. Should be an easy fix to bring it back to stock.

Search eBay, parts are readily available.

[nhodges]

Congrat!  It looks great; $700 is a steal.  I paid a little less for my 750, but it looked awful and didn't run.

[Lostboy Steve]

Don't feel bad. I look at it this way; if you are going to keep this bike nice and take good care of it than that's a fine trade off for getting it cheap. Now, if you got it cheap to cut the rear frame off and make it a hard-tail chopper or some crap that's a different story, unless it was a total rat.

[MoMo]

Very nice find, you will need the rear grab bar and all t/s parts as well as front fork ears, t/s, h/l shell and h/l to remove the fairing and luggage. Another member said to ride it for awhile with the luggage on,  I agree-I have bags and fairing on my daily commuter and wouldn't be without-I can stop and pick up most anything I need...Larry

[jneuf]

Are you going to be selling the luggage? If you are, I wouldn't mind it!

I could use a little extra storage on my daily rider!

[welnamark]

Nice find.  I purchased a similar 550 about 5 years ago here in MN with around 7k miles for $1000 in REALLY nice condition as well.  I have since riden it around the country and it now has 20k miles.  I have fitted hard bags too it.  I find that when people buy a bike their first inclination is to strip it to naked, but once they ride it for awhile and want to use it for touring they often end up looking for the same fairings and bags that they've already sold.

I'm partial to the Hondaline bags.  I used to have a Vetter on mine untill i bought a GL1000 to use for touring.

Let me know if you have any questions about the 78.

Congrats!

[Bankerdanny]

Very cool. I have that same luggage rack on my '77, but without the fairing and trunk/panniers. I put a windscreen on mine a couple of weeks ago as I have been logging a fair amount of highway time and plan circling Lake Michigan with the Michigan crew during their leg of the Rally.

Two Tired is right that the fairing would make a huge difference in comfort. I know I would love to have that trunk for the rally. I had a generic trunk on my FJ, which I used for commuting and light touring. It was incredibly usefull. I could do a light grocery shop or just about anything that didn't require a car sized trunk.

I know you said you plan on keeping it stock (thanks for that by the way). If you still have an itch to build a SOHC cafe bike, spiff up this one and ride it for the rest of the summer, then sell it in the Spring. I guaranty you will get enough to by 2 bikes, a beater to cafe and a nicer one to ride while you fix up the other. That's actually been my plan with my 550 since I bought it in March. I was going to sell it in June after the Chicago leg of the Rally and the local Mods vs Rockers. But since the weather was so terrible when GZ was here in May and my bike was acting up then, I decided to hold on to it so I can ride with the Michigan crew. I am thinking I will sell it after Rockerbox and split the proceeds into a project GL1000 (I have my eye on 2 right now) and then something else to ride for the rest of the season.