Serious money for a 550....

[JamesH]

Was anyone else tracking this??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251532075771

Serious money for a 550 - especially a restored one.

And check out the restored gauges - look off to my eye (especially the tacho).

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

James,
Have to say smashing looking bike but I thought 550s for some reason had different pipes and yeah not sure about the tacho but to be fair not really up on the 500/550 range but got good money.
Cheers
Ralph

[JamesH]

Pretty sure the 550's had the hm323 pipes - at least my two both do, as does the 500. I'm just surprised how much this one fetched...someone must really have wanted it.

As you say though, lovely looking thing...

[Trigger]

Right exhausts for a USA CB550 1974. Nice bike

[matthewmosse]

Compared to the price of a modern it compares ok I geuss. Lovely looking bikes the 500 and early 550. If I won the lottery I'd be buying the best example I could.

[Bryanj]

I think the clutch cover apparent shape could be shadow and I know the 550 US had different striping to the 500(with gold in it) but i would have to go and get out my NOS Boss maroon Mettalic one to be certain what it should be.

The US 550 had 374 exhaust pipes but the only difference to the 323 ones, to the best of my knowledge, is a load of "blurb" rolled into the inside edge about not changing the exhaust or you break federal rules---again I could go and get one out and photo it if i couls be arsed!!

All in all, personally I think it went way over the top and as Oddjob said for that money should be 100% original and perfect

[UK Pete]

WOW i just took a look at it, the seller must be happy, infact we should all be happy that these bikes are comanding such good money as it means we should all have a nice little nest egg to cash in one day
pete

[Lobo]

In reply to Pete's posting... alas I suspect, if you did the bloody sums... it's a dubious nest egg.  Especially you Pete... you're obviously a perfectionist!

I vaguely know what I've spent on my 400F/750K2 and pretty much realise I'll never see it back.

But hey, I don't care... it's an absorbing & satisfying past time, which makes me 20yrs young again. Other people throw it all at golf, gardening, etc... old man's stuff.

And as Bitsa rightly points out.. you can't take it with you...

Just a thought to throw out there... as we 50+s who grew up with these things 'fade away'.... will the interest (& value) in the machines of our youth (SOHCs etc) do so too?

[SteveD CB500K0]

Just a thought to throw out there... as we 50+s who grew up with these things 'fade away'.... will the interest (& value) in the machines of our youth (SOHCs etc) do so too?

I don't think so - look at the popularity and value of decent 50s and 60s Brit iron.

[s7paul]

Wow; I might have to reconsider re-negotiating the agreed value of mine now.  It's not quite as highly polished, but arguably more original, and it's a genuine UK model. 

It's great to see them fetching good money (not that most of us would sell, I suspect), and although this one may turn out to be a bit of an oddity (in terms of what it sold for), I don't see why the Fours shouldn't keep increasing in value.  After all, look what the Suzuki & Kawasaki triples are selling for these days, and they turned out to be technical dead-ends. 

Our bikes are the forerunners of all the inline fours that followed, and their significance should be recognised.

[matthewmosse]

On the future generations note, I'm 32 so I have a slightly different take on the bikes of our youth slant, cb550's and 500 were the ratty first / second bike for me and a fair number of my biking mates and to be brutally honest a lot of the bikes we were riding were totally awful, but I think those of us with 550's enjoyed our bikes more than say the xs400 one of my mates had, even some really dog rough rat bikes based on cb550 were still nice to ride and fairly reliable. I was firmly hooked from day one and regarded my bike as a dog eared classic, even if my mates refered to it as a rat bike. I reacon there will be a fair few of my generation and the following one who'll get the sohc bug, they have that classic look and reliability. I don't care too much if the upper end of the sohc markett goes nutts, my bikes aren't near that leuge, though from what I've seen on ebay my bikes have preformed well as investments, but I'd rather ride them than worry about the value.

[Trigger]

I put a 550 up yesterday and have had 25 mails on it in the past 24 hours. I think i should put the price up to cover my hourly rate of answering emails

[Captain Snakebite]

Details aside, it is a beautiful looking machine. Possibly a bit too beautiful. I wouldn't dare take it out - I'd have to shift the furniture around, install it in the lounge and polish it with the finest silks: CB Sculpture! ;-)