1976 Honda CB550 Four review from United States of America

When I purchased the motorcycle, it was a rat bike that had been turned into a cafe racer. Nothing was in adjustment. The bike was trashed and broken. It had been abandoned and I purchased it from a local auction buyer. The City of Seattle picked the bike off the street because it had been sitting there on the street for half a year. I remember seeing it by the side of the road.

When it arrived I was unsure that I could get it running, and it took a year of restoration work to get it back to good runner status. The bike had oil leaks in several common places. I did a complete head gasket replacement.

I had oil leaks at the tach hook up and at the gear shifter which are common.

I cleaned the carbs and changed the fork oil.

Soon it will get new tires because the current ones are a little rotten.

I replaced the points and tuned the carb's air flows. Taking the engine apart and putting it back together was a real learning experience, and was worth it for the results.

Now that the bike is running, and has been outfitted with a windshield, saddle bags and highway pegs, it is a lot happier.

I'm also very happy with the bike because it runs like a top. I took it on a 300 mile road trip and it ran great.

The seat is a little hard, but that problem is common with this style bike. I purchased a seat pad with gel in it and that solved the problem of a sore butt.

At this time I'm really not interested in a newer more modern bike, or even upgrading to a faster experience. The bike does a comfortable 65 MPH with no problem. The gearing is perfect for low speeds in traffic, and is able to keep up with the faster more powered bikes.

Finding salvage parts for this bike has been easy because the Honda dealer still has parts available. The local salvage parts guy has many parts available, so I was able to use 750 controls and incorporate them into the bike with no problem.