What do you think about this Bill? Do you find that your 450 is "fragile at best" and a vibrating machine?
When new, 450's were pretty durable, at least as good as a 350. I've owned a couple that saw 100,000 miles each (I did take pretty good care of them). For some years my only mode of transport was a pair of K2's.
But any 40+ year old bike is fragile. I doubt that many of us here take off on rides for any distance without a cell phone and a bag of tools.
I sure don't.........
And all the bikes of that era buzzed you pretty good with vibration. The big fours were not as bad in that respect, but at certain rpm they can buzz you pretty good too. The small 350/400 fours always struck me as a bit smoother than the bigger fours, but they were generally no match for a good 450 performance-wise.
The real exception to that smoothness issue was Gold Wings, wonderful bikes - pretty fast too. Even the early ones will break "the ton".
A good 450 might get a hole shot on a CB750, but overall it would be no contest, the 750 would have no problem in a straight line. A CB750 K0 was the first bike I ever got well over an honest 100 mph on ('69, Arizona, ~5,000 feet, clocked at 107 by a state trooper buddy). Scared the bejeezus out of me, it was pretty snaky above 90, no steering damper to tighten up like on early 450's.
The 750 K0's were a bit faster than the later ones.
A tight, slower road race course would be a different issue.
On the other hand, at least my 450's had few problems with 500/550 fours in almost any venue.
I don't do stuff like that anymore (too old), but I suspect my current 450 would get in the face of any existing stock 500/550 four.
A Hansen/Capelini-equipped 450, fully freaked can approach a genuine 50 hp, even more. But not for long, of course.
The 500T has looks only a mother could love, disgusting colors (except red, red always works), lumpy lines. Just a stroked 450 with more restrictive exhaust and an unfortunate number of parts that won't interchange with 450's. The literature reports it's slightly less power than a 450. Anecdotal reports tend to substantiate that - but I have very little hands-on with 500T's, I was out of the business (stopped working in regular Honda shops) by the time they were old enough to start getting torn down. They didn't sell many of them. Haven't even seen one in person in decades.
