My other CB550s...

[Yoshi823]

 I was after a commuter bike (back in the '80s) that I wanted to use instead of the modified 750, so I bought this bike as a possible project. It had a Dresda box section swinging arm, the shown Piper 4-1 & a box with a load of bits in it. Unfortunately the cam bearings had gone, & a friend offered a straight swap plus his original swing arm for the Dresda plus beer vouchers. I sold this bike on to someone else who wanted a challenge.

[SteveD CB500K0]

That Piper looks familiar.

76-79 I lived in Brighton and had a Piper on my 500/4 (as shown in avatar). My room-mate had one to.

After about three weeks, rust started to appear on the downpipes so we (both) took them back to Bikes of Brighton and they replaced them immediately.

A month or so later - same again. The guy in Bikes said "Where do you live - on the beach?" Might well have done.

The third new Piper (x2) we sprayed with Sperex VHT lacquer before riding anywhere and they lasted a few years.

Later that year at the Racing & Sporting M/C Show (remember that?) we heard about Piper's chroming problems and that they'd changed their plating subcontractor.

[Yoshi823]

This was another CB550 that I bought as a commuter. I had been working up in Kettering where the rag MCN is printed, & as I was about to leave late on the Monday night, there was a pile of the classifieds page waiting to be inserted into the main part of the paper. When I got home at about 3am, I sat & had a coffee & read the paper. I was due to start a new job up in London so wanted a bike that I knew about & would be reliable, so when this bike appeared in the advert for

[Yoshi823]

Concerning the chroming on Piper exhausts Steve, I din't have much of a problem with the downpipes, it was the collector which seemed to rust the quickest.

I had a Piper on my other 550F1 as well, but the bracket that went on to the pillion footrest came away...it should have been longer & it stressed the welding...hence the break.

My brother & another friend liked the Pipers that I had & both bought this pipe for their 550s.

They always seemed to go blue where the pipe mated to the cylinder head, no matter how careful you were with getting the jetting right.

[Yoshi823]

This shows how long ago the picture was taken. In the background is Clacket Lane services being built on the South side of the M25. Shown is my commuter 550K3 & the wifes 550F2 with the lower seat borrowed from my K3.

[Yoshi823]

This was my 550F1 commuter bike that I had before I had a company car. I went everywhere on this bike as it was comfortable, economical & handled reasonabley well. My brother-in-law even borrowed it one time to go on the Mayday Run & suprised many people by the way he rode around the outside of many other bigger bikes. It had my old 750F2 rear shocks on it, which raised the rear of the bike so's to give better ground clearance.



My 550F1 alongside the much modified 750F2.



This was when I had a strange rattle from the bottom end of the engine on the commuter F1. So I had the engine out, stripped off the bottom crankcase, looked at the big ends & mains which were all ok. So I popped the engine back into the frame & ran her up...no rattle. It wasn't the oil as I had tried that first before wanting to take the engine out of the frame. A mystery.

[Yoshi823]

A bevy of Honda 550s...


At the front is my brother's CB550F2...he liked riding my 550 enough to go out & buy his own. I don't think that he liked the bellmouths much, as they let in rain too easily.
Behind is my commuter 550F1, with a friends CBX550FII behind that.

[SteveD CB500K0]

This was the normal view of the road outside our house in Hove...

[Yoshi823]

That looks like a Rickman Polaris fairing on that one on the left Steve...

[SteveD CB500K0]

Yes.

Richard (550K3) was always a little less radical than the rest of us.

The red(ish) 750F1 on the right also had a Type 2 fairing - Nik always took it off when cleaning the bike...

[Yoshi823]

This was my first big bike after the CB125s...


I bought it from Parks of Lewisham in 1978 & I loved it...apart from the rubbish headlamp unit. I managed to find a car sealed beam halogen unit that slotted straight into the standard chrome mounting & was shallow enough to be able to fit the headlamp shell. I sold the rack to a friend who needed it as I thought that it spoilt the lines of the bike.
Unfortunately the bike was stolen from outside of my flat in Bromley in Feb 1979. The next bike was the 750F2, but it wasn't until I started to ride the 750 harder that I found out how good a bike it was. I had enjoyed the orange 550F1 so much that I was almost prepared to swap the bigger bike for a smaller bike. I managed to find another orange 550F1 in a bike shop in Beckenham, but when I approached the owner of the shop about a deal, he said that he would only take the 750F2 in part exchange against the 550F1...he wanted another