Floppy rear footrests.

[Bryanj]

NEW pillion footrests DID NOT bend down towards the exhausts but were horizontal, bending down was wear frequently caused by passengers mounting the bike like a horse

[Oddjob]

Well 2 can play that game.

https://www.cmsnl.com/honda-cb500k2-four-1973-usa_model461/bracket-pillion_9501572100/

Straight as I said. The thing to note is that on the parts book list if you view it from the UK the European version of the K2 doesn't appear, the ONLY K2 version which does is the USA version, you an only state what you can see.

I'd sooner previous bikes mate, tried and tested unlike new bikes which are still being assessed  The thing about it is why go with bent when all the models before used straight? why go with round bars and rubbers when all the rest were square? Because they didn't have any left is the answer, hence mongrel, made up of all the bits left from other bikes. You can't claim the 500 is also made of other bikes as almost every Honda is, same dash bulbs in all the 12v bikes for instance, lots share the same filters etc.

Clocks I'll give you, big improvement but suspension and swinging arm were the same as the K0 and K1, same with the clutch, are you sure you're not thinking of the 500K3 which did indeed get the 550 clutch and gearbox. The 500K2 didn't, it's essentially the same bike as the 500 except for the clocks.

[deltarider]

(Sigh) Oddjob, with all due respect, you have mistakenly selected the CB500K2-A, a model marketed in the US in 1973. The CB500K2-ED, -F, -G at CMSNL renamed CB500K2 GENERAL EXPORT has been assembled in 1976 and was marketed in continental Europe 1976-7.
When you open the CMSNL site: https://www.cmsnl.com/honda_model8286/
, type in the search window: CB500K2. The program will react with two options: the US K2 model and the K2 GENERAL EXPORT. Select the latter. BTW, IIRC that particular parts list is also in Ash box. If not, it is also here: https://www.honda4fun.com/dwnload/Part-List/CB500/CB500-K2-76-Parts-List.pdf

[Oddjob]

Not sure how CMS looks to you in Europe DS but that's not how I see it, I select CB Four, that gives me the 750, 550, 500, 400 and the 350. You select the CC of your choice and if you select the 500 then you see all the models that CMS choose to list on that model, there are quite a few variants, however the ONLY variants we can see in the UK are the 500K2 USA and the 500K3 European Direct sales, we don't get the choice of any other variants after the K1.

IF I do as you said then yes I can see the K2 European however it doesn't show a year whereas the 500K2 USA version does say 1973. We confirms my belief that your K2 version is a mongrel, a bitsa, essentially a K3 badged as a K2. Just to clear the shelves of all those excess parts Honda had left over.

[deltarider]

[...] We confirms my belief that your K2 version is a mongrel, a bitsa, essentially a K3 badged as a K2. Just to clear the shelves of all those excess parts Honda had left over.

I agree. I've contacted CMSNL over this lack in the representation a decade ago. I have no idea why they present the Parts list in this manner and named it GENERAL EXPORT. It could be that they reasoned that this batch has been grey import.
This model has nothing of the CB500K3* (thank goodness), but shares many parts with the CB550K2, aka CB550K76. Assembly may have begun in 1975 and continued into 1976. My model has been traded into 1977. Both these CB500s and CB550s are the last of the old style models. I really appreciate the modifications, which were all improvements but for that silly beeper. Also I like the styling more than that strange paint scheme of the previous models with those colours of 'the age of Aquarius'. But I admit, I'm a bit oldfashioned: for me a bike should be black and certainly no sunrise or sunflake fancies.
* ... and so the CB500K2's Owner's Manual
https://www.honda4fun.com/dwnload/Owners-Manual/CB500-75-Owners-Manual.pdf
is wrong where it shows the K3 clutch cover and the 'blow-by-filter' arrangement. When asked around, none of the owners in Europe reported having seen these on any K2. Even more strange is that an Owner's Manual edited in 1975 (!) shows a clutch that did not appear before... 1977, and then on the CB500K3 model. It looks like the Honda editor in 1975 mistook the 500 for a 550 which did have these parts.