Newbie in Berkshire

[alterego]

Hi everyone!

I'm Laura and yesterday I picked up my first ever '78 CB550K. It looks a bit rough all around and I intend to repair/restore/maybe modify it, hopefully doing a lot of work myself which should be quite a steep learning curve because I've never done anything like this before... I suppose I'll be spending a lot of time on these forums to learn!

After getting the bike home I identified the following issues:
Clutch Rattle?
Oil pressure switch? (the oil light comes on after the bike gets quite warm, only to cut out at say 3000-4000rpm or over)
Front brake catches permanently and hardly does anything when you do press it * opening & cleaning the calipers seems to have done the trick
Clutch is very hard and seems to only engage when you squeeze the lever almost all the way * a new cable solved this problem
White smoke & smell
Slight leak from gear change lever
Bodywork/paint is quite ugly
Superficial rust on most of the chrome

On the bright side it starts first time every time (so far), it's (supposedly) passed its MOT and got me home (100mile ride) without any problems as such. Oh and the seat is in good condition, that has got to count for something!




Cheers,
Laura

[meerkat]

Hi Laura and welcome to the forum. I'm a 'newbie' myself and have learned a lot from members on here.
Good luck with your purchase and congratulations on 'your leap of faith' in riding an unknown bike 100 miles home on the first ride !  

[UK Pete]

Hi Laura welcome to the site, sounds like you have a fair bit to sort out but you are at the right place as there are many people on hear willing to share advise
pete

[Bryanj]

If it runs on all four you are halfway there, all the rest can be sorted www.davidsilverspares.co.uk is your friend, if not the cheapest

[Tomb]

Hi Laura, like Meerkat, I'm a newbie.

If your oil light is coming on a low revs you could do with changing oil and filter asap, and check the filter bolt to make sure the bypass isn't stuck open

[Hinomaru]

Laura, welcome to the forums.

Here

[SteveD CB500K0]

I'm not a newbie  but I am pretty close.

Clutch rattle = normal but worse with out-of-balance carbs. Pull in clutch lever at tickover. Does the rattle go away (or at least get quieter?)

Oil Pressure Light: Sometimes the switch fails in that oil leaks around the seal and equalises on both sides leading to the light coming on. A new switch is easy and not too expensive.

There are quite a few SOHCers locally.