I am 72 and still riding my 1975 550 as the original owner. 73000 miles, and most of the bike is original. I still do 1000 mile rides with my son's, and have never been stranded. Engine never rebuilt and only now suffers a very small oil leak. I guess prices were different here. My original receipt shows I paid $1890.
If i lived in Connecticut I'd be at the shop every day drinking coffee and smoking cigs, just to relive the good old days by looking at the beautiful classic bikes that pass through. I'll never forget the time my buddy and a friend had their 1975 Honda CB550Four doing 75mph down our quarter-mile long driveway on our country farm. I was inside the house when i heard what sounded like an explosion. I looked out the kitchen window and saw that the single car aluminum garage door was mangled and laying on the ground. I thought my mother's 1976 Plymouth Valarie had exploded so i went outside to take a look and saw the long skid mark on the gravel drive led to inside the garage where my 17 and 15 year old friends were laying on the ground moaning after they struck the garage door and hit my mother's 76 Valarie pushing it 2ft into the rear of the garage. He had borrowed his father's 1975 Honda, picked up our mutual friend and rode out to see me that day when they were showing off by redlining through the gears and couldn't slow down in time to make the turn that led to the 4-car garage and ended up going straight into the 1-car garage. To push a parked car 2ft rearward by slamming into the car's rearend tells me they were moving at a pretty good clip. Our pebble driveway was a quarter-mile long so whatever these bikes can run in the quarter that's how fast they were going when they couldn't stop and round the turn. I'm sure the bike wasn't running to it's full potential since there were 2 of them on the bike but nevertheless it's a memory I'll always remember. Fortunately both young men miraculously survived the crash but that incident showed me that their recklessness on that day in 1977 was only the beginning of many crazy incidents i would hear about with both of them in the years that would follow. One died in 2014 and the other i do not know if he's around or not.
Got mine in the garage right now. 74 550 four. 100% original Grandpa gave it to my dad, dad gave it to me. Slowly starting to restore it. Currently working on the carbs. Has 7900 miles on it 2 owner. Same color. Used to hot wire it when I was 14 and drive it around. Been sitting in the shed for 10 years now and needs some love. Wish I could post a picture
I had a cb550k 1974 ran= yoshimura pipe off cbr600f1 1996 Sprockets from d.i.d...put dyna S ignition. Set up carbs with exact jetting as cb750c model.1983 Factory airbox with k&N filter Ran mobil 1 20w50 Ran vfr700 front master cylinder. With motul dot 5. Drum rear were machined to run cooler. She ran pretty sweet... Had a real nice sound bear in mind this was in 1997 folks. Would do an HONEST 135 mph Fun little bike on 610 loop houston.
I have one just like that. Has a few more miles on it and my rear fender is mildly bent but other then that it's an identical bike and I love it man. It really is a sweet ride!
I had this exact bike color and all in 1989 bought used for 500 bucks road it for a couple years trouble free it was fast enough and smooth on the highway at speeds over 75
Bikes like this, as good as they were, were just considered throwaways by the '80s. So there aren't many left in salvageable condition, much less restorable condition. This one is sweet.
As you were saying it's a classic and rare, you were crossing the street and I don't know why but I was thinking an 18 wheeler was going to come and plow right over you. Glad one didn't, I'd hate to see such an awesome bike get killed.
I had one in the early 80’s while in college. Total chick magnet! One girl said, “I never had anything so big, between my legs for so long”. You can guess where that date ended...LOL!
For this specific make/model bike; just curious, what does a carb clean/adjustment job cost - supposing it needs a few minor parts/replacement - ballpark figure (like the job you did here)... how much today?
It's got a little secret with the mileage though there Kap. I know this is an older video and I'm sure the bike is long gone, but the Speedo was disconnected, so the mileage reflected on the Odometer is NOT correct. Even if you guys disconnected it for the video, it's clear in the video that the Speedo is NOT functional, so for all we, or the buyer knows, the bike could have 40K on it instead of the claimed 5K. Just saying. Cheers! Zip~
