The CB550 has a junction for the brake light switch, mounted to the fork. I only needed the lower brake line. Looking online, I e-mailed a guy with a good reputation on SOHC4.net. He didn't reply to my e-mail. So I waited a few more days then started looking around in Honolulu. A company called Hydra Air Pacific, near the airport makes brake lines, among other things. They put together a new lower line for me in about half an hour and about $40 bucks. Not bad!
Next, my long time friend Felix called me up. Felix has been a motorcycle rider off and on (like me) for years. He had been watching the "Cafe Racer" TV show and was getting the itch for an old Honda four.
Old Japanese bikes are hard to find in Hawaii! Not sure why but let's think... I had seen a '77 CB550 Supersport on craigslist awhile back. The guy was asking $3,000 and it looked okay, running but not fixed up. Then there's the guy in Mililani who sold me a front wheel last year. I e-mailed him to see what happened with a CB500 he had put on craigslist. He said he still had it for sale. He had made some changes, like taking off the expensive 4 into 4 stainless exhaust and putting on a MAC pipe. But now his price went way down, to $1,800.
I called Felix and we checked it out. He was pretty excited and the Honda had some nice parts, like Works Performance shocks, rearsets and aluminum rims with stainless steel spokes. The bike still needed some finishing touches, like paint. Felix made the guy an offer, he said yes and the deal was done. Or was it? A week or two later Felix called me and said the bike was going to need too much work. I agree - Felix is married, has kids and yeah he works. Getting that bike in top shape would take a lot of time that he probably doesn't have.
Next, Felix started looking on E-bay. He found some interesting Hondas and was thinking about buying them. I told him some stories about the two RD400's I bought in the mainland, sight unseen. It really sucks to buy a bike, pay the shipping cost and find out there are problems the owner didn't tell you about. One of my RD400's didn't run when it got here and I spent hundreds at the cycle shop getting it road worthy. And the owner of that bike had told me over the phone "Yes, it runs."
At the same time Felix was hunting for a Honda, my friend Vince in Hilo was shipping a Kawasaki GPZ1100 back from the mainland. Besides the purchase price of the GPZ, Vince paid a company to haul it to a motorcycle shop, have it crated and then ship it to Hawaii. Total cost to move the bike - about $1,000. I shared that info with Felix and that backed him off a bit about buying from the mainland.
Next - I didn't really want to do this, but Felix and I started talking about his buying my CB550. I entertained the idea because I was finding that a lot of the "fun" for me was actually working on the bikes. And I have two more to work on, the KZ1000 and GS550.
Another week or two went by and then Felix bought the bike. I rode it over, then he drove me home and I gave him a box of parts, repair manual etc. Kind of sad but I knew it was going to a good home.
Felix test rides the CB550F
Three weeks later, Felix called and asked if I wanted the Honda back! Why? Well, finances were running low and as much as he liked the bike he needed some money too. He knocked the price down a bit and said "consider it a rental" for that time period. Pretty good deal. He made some changes including polishing parts using a bench grinder and removing rust using Oxalic acid.
So here we are again, the Honda has come home!
