My expectations of this bike were somewhat confused, not only was this my first new bike, it was my first Japanese bike. A friend had claimed to have done 27000 miles on a Z1000 Kwacker with no problems, but I didn’t believe him. In truth, I expected to rebuild the motor within 20000 miles and, as I was going to commute on the bike every day, that would be a biannual event at the very least.
I took the first week of August off and spent the time with my wife riding around the Kent countryside. The CB550F2 is, I think, a particularly nice looking bike. I was well proud of it. Old habits die hard, though, and my neighbours must have thought I’d started a new religion because every time I came home I got off the bike and knelt down beside it not prayers after a ride, I was looking for oil leaks. You know, after years of riding all sorts of bikes none of which could survive a five mile ride without pissing oil somewhere, it can be most disconcerting to find after several days and a few hundred miles use that not a drop, not even a trace, of oil has escaped. And then one day, lo and behold, I spotted a little black droplet under the gearbox. At last, I thought. When, however, I poked my little cold finger in it, it set solid Linklife. That had been my first modification, to break the chain for its fortnightly fry. The 550 chain lasted for 25000 miles with this treatment.
This was also the day that the great trip to France was hatched - a mate had just bought a new Darmah and paid us a visit. There we were, out for a days ride looking at the views across the channel and thought how nice it’d be to cross over and keep going. In late September we set off, the two bikes with my wife and daughter on the pillions. Such was my paranoia about breakdowns that before I set off, I went back to RAT for a list of Honda dealers in France. I could not understand the dismissive attitude of the shop owner and was aghast when he told me he too was off around Europe, on a secondhand Z1 borrowed from the shop with 15000 on the clock.
Such foolhardiness I thought.
Needless to say, the trip went without a hitch, both bikes gave not a whiff of trouble, the 550 quite happy to bowl along the French back roads at 85mph with two up and luggage. It was quite an enlightening experience to be able to ride fast for hour after hour, and at the end of the day, nothing had broken, fallen off and no oil leaks. In the morning, the motor sounded just as sweet and ready for the off as before. You know, when you’ve had a Catholic upbringing, you accept that a few moments pleasure often reaps hours of misery and my previous experience of bikes had more than satisfied the church’s teaching. The Honda changed all that.
I learned a few things about the 550 on the trip, like the need to keep the chain well oiled otherwise it would go as tight as a bow string. I found that the three and a bit gallon tank was a tad small for the job, especially as it needed filling every 120 miles or so. I also found after a mad dash that consumption dropped to as low as 32mpg. The Duke by comparison returned 50mpg no matter what.
The return home was a bit wet and by the time we landed the Honda was filthy. I set about restoring it to its new condition as soon as possible and soon realised that to do this would mean whipping off the exhaust system. This was the first time I’d put a spanner on it apart from taking the chain off. I must say I was impressed by the simple way the sprocket is fitted to the gearbox output shaft, as I remembered having to spend hours on a similar job on an old AJS single, using pullers, hammers, tyre levers and various other instruments of torture trying to persuade a reluctant sprocket to part company with its tapered shaft.
My efforts to keep the exhaust system clean paid off as it was still sound and gleaming when the bike was sold after three years use. On one occasion I thought I’d give the insides of the silencer a treat whilst it was off the bike. I poured in about three pints of clean paraffin and shook it around for a few minutes. I then went to pour out the Aladdin blue into a tin, nothing happened. I turned the silencer over and offered the other end - again nothing.
Without more ado, I stuck the silencer back on and went for a ride with my mates. About a mile up the road, I looked into my mirror to see where everybody was but instead of my mate’s bike, all I could see was a thick fog. It took about four miles for the cloud to subside and about four weeks for my mate to get the smell of paraffin out of his clothes.
About a month after the French trip I had my first and only crunch with the Honda. I tried to squeeze between two lorries stuck in heavy morning London traffic. Just when I committed myself to the move, the truck to my left moved off. I looked up, to my horror realising that it was left-hand drive and that the driver had no idea that he was about to crush my lovely new bike. The bike was wedged under the tailgate of the truck so I leapt off. At last the Frenchman stopped to see the cause of the screaming - the Renault was just about to write off my centre stand and foot peg. When he got back in his cab he turned his power steering the wrong way; I watched in disbelief as the thing bent my indicator stalk, rev counter, tack, centrestand and chain tensioner bolt. I suspect that the damage was more expensive because the chain adjusters never lined up with their marks when the wheels were lined up with a plank.
Most of the bits straightened out, except for the stand which flicks the bike first to the right and then the left before finally settling down properly. I can’t recall that the handling was bad before the shunt, but afterwards it did not appear too bad, not that I’m all that sensitive to handling traits: once, the dealers had to point out to me that the rear wheel spokes were loose and the wheel had about two inches of lateral movement! I have to say that when I put the rebuilt wheel back in I didn’t notice any difference.
By Christmas, that first year, I was used to the bike’s reliability and went through a phase of disillusionment, mainly because the bike required so little input from me. Apart from chain maintenance, everything else seemed to need little or no attention from me. The bike was serviced every 3000 miles and oil changed every 1500 miles. A rep from one of the major oil companies advised me that Honda took worst cases when recommending oil changes and that a well used bike in our climate could go a good bit further without any risk. I changed oil at 2500-3000 mile intervals, though what I have since read and heard suggests that this advice was ill founded. Still, when I sold the bike it had 54000 miles on the clock and was not burning oil, neither was the camshaft rattling.
At the end of the first year I had 17000 miles on the clock, the back tyre was changed at 10000 miles, I fitted a Windjammer fairing and the brakes were still original. The second year was singularly unremarkable. I changed the chain and sprockets at 25000 miles. During the third year I had a near disaster when the front wheel bearings collapsed as I was about to join the A2. I was doing about 20mph and came to no harm. A few minutes later I would have been doing 85mph!
What had been a whiff of blue smoke on the overrun gradually became worse. Friends advised replacing valve stem seals. Against my better judgement I whipped off the head and did the job, along with a new camchain tensioner which was only slightly scored (at 38000 miles). I made the mistake of trying to reuse one of the old oil seals and had to do the job again to stop the oil leaks.
Whilst I had the head off, I dropped the needles down a notch to compensate for the wear - economy improved to 54mpg overall. I have a thing about fuel consumption and wouldn’t buy a bike that did less than 45mpg and it was this aspect of the CB550 that I disliked most of all. It was often quicker to keep the bike below 60mph as the less frequent fuel stops compensated for the slower speed. It returned a worst of 32mpg and a best of 74mpg, but the latter was rare. Most times around 50mpg.
I found the bike straightforward to work on and service. I had to reappraise my ideas about Japanese bikes, but wish they would spend more time on improving fuel economy and improving finish than producing 160mph projectiles. I sold the CB550 for £350 in favour of a BMW twin.
Eddie Barnes