Honda CB450 K1 Black Bomber: NOS Speedo & Tacho

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CB250 Rebuild Blog

Honda CB450

Super Sports

1970 K1 (UK Bike)

FLF 59 J

I'll use these pages to log my ownership of the vehicle and record any work done on the bike from hereon in. Hopefully, some of the content might later be of help to other CB450 owners.

Now that the bike is in my hands, I can see that the previous owner did some things very well and did other things nowhere near well enough. On the one hand, the bike looked pretty amazing to begin with. Fabulous powder-coating, chroming and paintwork. He rebuilt the top-end of the engine (new piston rings and valves), painted the engine, lacquered it and polished the cases. The tank and side panels were repainted, the seat remade by a specialist and as you can see from the shot below, it looked beautiful.

After I took posession of the old girl, I discovered the first problem. The left hand cylinder was misfiring BADLY!! I recalled the seller telling me (as he counted the money) that he'd bought some dodgy NGK plugs and it had resulted in the engine misfiring, but after putting a new plug in, it was fine. Well, the truth is, there is a problem with that left cylinder. I've not got to the bottom of it yet, but I suspect that the problem is either with the carb or the ignition system.

Anyway, if you put a fresh plug in and don't flood it, she starts and runs superbly! There's plenty of power and those exhausts sound brilliant. Speaking of exhausts, although they are triple-chromed and in sound working condition, they do show weld repairs which weren't mentioned in the advert!

Whilst out on a short journey, I noticed that the front brakes were shocking! At one point during a heavy braking test to determine braking distances, I heard and felt a "clang" and soon after found that one of the bolts securing the brake-torque arm had come undone and was hanging out. That could have been lethal!!

Another undisclosed problem was all the brown staining on the casing immediately behind the cylinders. This was a discolouration of the lacquer and it got much worse when I left the petcock in the open position for about half an hour - petrol from the righthand carb overflowed and spilt onto the casing.

The only other things which bug me are the non-standard front mudguard and rear shocks. They have to go!

Other than that, it is without any doubt a beautiful machine and I'm very proud to own it. It sounds SUPERB and is a bike that you could keep forever and always be sat in the garage having a little tinker with it.

I guess that's the difference between a bike like this and all the new/modern bikes I've had. You can't really do much with the modern stuff, whereas living with a 40yr old twin like this is like nursing a cripple, if you'll excuse the expression. LOL

Tom

Saturday, 20 February 2010

NOS Speedo & Tacho

Whilst browsing eBay (as you do), I came across a brand new (old stock) Speedometer and a Tachometer. Wow!! What a rare find! I clicked on the "Watch This Item" button and made a mental note to return to the auction in the dying minutes to see if I could nick 'em.

Ooops! I forgot to go back to the auction - it had ended without me. BUT, there had been a bid of $1.99 which obviously hadn't met reserve. How very odd that they not only hadn't sold but only got a bid of a couple of dollars! Anyway, I contacted the seller and asked him how much for the pair. We agreed an amazing price and a few days later they arrived in their original 1970's Honda box. Excellent!

Honda CB450 K1 Black Bomber

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Saturday, 20 February 2010

NOS Speedo & Tacho

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