http://www.bikeexif.com/cafe-racer-honda
Reminds me of some of the classic BMW "bubble" fairing racers.
Neat little bike :D Great story for those into old school GP look, vintage cafe styling, classic SOHC Honda fours or just bikes in general. Thanks for the link. :D
edit - just occurred to me there may be a Yamaha connection to this bike. Are they XS400 rims??
The CB500/550 sounded great and were reliable , but got lousy millage . I worked on lots of these at John Burr Cycles , in Fontana CA. in the early '70's
That is a cool web site, many pics. I used to ride a 500 four, bought that sucker brand new green one in 1972. I got it from the low price dealer in Jackson, Ca. $1,300 OTD. My cousin, already had a new brown one, and we rode 90 miles double to buy mine. The town of Jackson is on HWY 49 and is one the best roads in California . I can remember the ride home, identical bikes resonating, making music to my our ears.
Yeah, I had a CB500 also. They were very cool bikes for the day, but can't hold a candle to the stuff from the last ten years. I got to race one that belonged to the shop where I worked at the time, in a 250 mile road race at Vacaville, CA. (1972) The Z1 Kawasaki boys were there with 4 of the Z1 900s entered, but only one of them finished. This was shortly before they were available to the public to buy, which technically made the Z1 illegal in our rules but so what, I guess. Anyway, John Green (the other rider on the Honda 500) and I got to thrash along for 250 miles and had a fun time doing it, and to be beaten by only one bike, that sole remaining Z1.
That was a fairly forgiving track where you could mostly see the turns as you approached them and there weren't so many turns so you could memorize the track. I liked riding there.