Topic: Proud owner of a new (to me) 15000mile '75 CB550K!

[robbiec]

Heya folks!

Well, I said I'd let you know when I snagged a SOHC 4; and today I finally sealed the deal!

I've been eyeballing a nice fairly mint CB550K1 over the past few weeks and went up this afternoon with $1500CDN (approx $1300USD), a six-pack of Lucky(tm) beer and drove home in my brothers Toyota P/U with it proudly. I have to say, there were a lot of bikers out this sunny Saturday afternoon, and more than a few turned their heads and looked at the 550 strapped into the red Toyota.
So, it pays to, well, pay with cash; and knowing the favourite beer of the owner doesn't hurt either.

The bike needs a) to have the carbs properly cleaned (as it hasn't been running for 1.5 years) and b) have a new exhaust system installed (it's currently sporting a non-stock 4-2 that has seen better days).
Other than that, it's essentially stock, including the side panels, owners manual, bill of sale, tool kit, Haynes manual and even white warranty card!

Time to really put these forums to good use and get this puppy up and running for summer!

I'll post pics as soon as I can...man, it's going to be tough dividing time between Mother's Day and the bike tomorrow...

Hope to see some of you on the road soon,
Rob

[GroovieGhoulie]

Do the right thing and buy the proper factory HONDA exhaust from David Silver Spares.  So many people wanna go CHEAP and buy some BULLSH**T NON FACTORY HONDA exhaust for their restoration.

Seriously, if you're gonna go "there", go all the way.  If you're THAT cheap, you deserve whatever comes to you.

DO NOT go cheap.

[robbiec]

Do the right thing and buy the proper factory HONDA exhaust from David Silver Spares.  So many people wanna go CHEAP and buy some BULLSH**T NON FACTORY HONDA exhaust for their restoration.

Seriously, if you're gonna go "there", go all the way.  If you're THAT cheap, you deserve whatever comes to you.

DO NOT go cheap.

First thing's first; get the bike running. Once that's over with, my friend said he could help me put together a pretty sweet exhaust. He said I'll have to pay for parts, though. Here's the list he gave me:

- 16 x 16oz tin of Tomatoes
- 4 x 32oz tin of Tomatoes
- 1 x can of muffler sealant
- 4 or 5 x large hose clamps
- 1 x roll of tinfoil
- 1 x can opener
- 1 x fork to eat the tomatoes

He said that when we're done, that it should look fairly stock, and that I could even enter as concourse!
It think I make do it over a few days, I mean, how many tomatoes can a guy eat at once!

-Rob

[TwoTired]

Tomatoes are too acidic. Canned peaches, OTH, are quite tasty, and will keep well in the frig to amortize their "effects" over a period of a few days.
Mmmmmm, fiber...

I hope I'm laughing WITH you.

[ProTeal55]

Congrats on the new purchase. If you wanna get rid of that 4 into 2 exhaust for cheap ,
shoot me an email....

[rob]

The price of the bike was probably a little bit higher because you brought him some Lucky.  Next time bring some pilsner and you'd have gotten the bike for $1450!   
Hopefully you get the carbs and exhuast sorted out and get it on the road to enjoy the summer,

Rob

[6pkrunner]

Take him some La Fin Du Monde beer at 9% and after 6 of them he'd pay yo to take the bike.

Seriously - good score. And get the pics up as soon as you can.

[robbiec]

Looks like we've already plowed through the first problem; we had the bike running yesterday afternoon! 

It took a good bit of kicking on my brothers part, draining the bowls a few times after putting through a bit of cleaner, putting the old coils back in, cleaning the and gapping (well, by eyeball anyhow) the plugs, then she was running on one cylinder. Then two. Then three. Then finally all four. And let me tell you, open 4-2 pipes are loud when you crack that throttle! It probably doesn't help that we were working on it next to a lake that loves to carry sound,  The #3 float is stick sticking however, so I'll try to get a bit of Yammy cleaner in it over night and see if that helps. If not, I'll do a proper cleaning, which I should be doing anyway.

And yes, I will be getting a proper exhaust system in the near future, however, I won't be throwing down the cash for the stock 4-4 right away. Step 1 is to machine up a couple of simple baffle bungs at work to keep the boys in blue off my tail and then see if I can locate a decent used system.

Also, one of the slickest tools that we were using was a infrared thermometer, which was an quick and easy way to tell the exhaust manifold temperature and how each cylinder was doing.

I'll have to post the pics later when I can get them to look halfway decent at 128kb each. (I have video of the bike starting, BTW, so I'll have to find a way to post that..)
-Rob

[rob]

Hey Rob,

Glad to hear you got it going.  Can you provide some more details on the infrared thermometer you were using?  Is it accurate?  Where did you get it?   The weather was nice in Vancouver over the weekend, did lots of riding.

Thanks!

Rob

[robbiec]

Hey Rob,

Glad to hear you got it going.  Can you provide some more details on the infrared thermometer you were using?  Is it accurate?  Where did you get it?   The weather was nice in Vancouver over the weekend, did lots of riding.

Thanks!

Rob

Heya Rob!

Essentially, it's a thermometer (for lack of a better word) that uses an infrared beam to take a reading. This one is equipped with a laser light to show you exactly where it's reading from. It's really quite accurate, and it works great for spotting hotspots on your exhaust manifold, brakes, etc. Here's a link to the one that my father has:
http://www.raytek-northamerica.com/cat.html?cat_id=2.3.5

Since you're over on the mainland, you lucky bugger, you can swing by Princess Auto. Last time I was there they had two versions, one like my fathers for around $100 and another without laser pointer for around $30. I'm sort of kicking myself for not even getting the cheap one, but next time I go I definately will.

Hopefully I'll be doing a quick "test ride" around the area when I get this float unstuck. Oh, I wish work was over already...

Later,
Rob