1969 Honda CB

CB4501026120

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For sale, my 1969 Honda CB450 K0 Black Bomber. While Honda aficionados know that the original K0 Black Bomber was superseded by the K1 version in 1968, some leftover K0 models were sold all the way into 1969. This bike was one of those, registered in 1969 by the original owner; thus now titled as a 1969 CB450. The bike remained in the original owner’s possession (the bike comes with a copy of the original title, as well as other documents from the original owner documenting its mileage), until the second owner’s purchase in 2010. Up to that point, it had been very well maintained but only ridden for 5006 miles. The next owner did a significant cosmetic upgrade of the original bike, polishing all the major aluminum components and getting the body work beautifully re-painted professionally (the frame is original paint and is in excellent original shape – no rust anywhere on this bike). The bike is gorgeous, enticing me to buy the thing in February of 2013 after the second owner put only 311 miles on it. (Truth in advertising - there is a small - size of a BB - chip in the tank near the intersection with the seat and a similarly small chip at the bottom of the rear fender) While it was certainly beautiful, and the bike had obviously spent most of its life very well cared for, it had not been ridden much. The previous owner had done some mechanical work, including setting the valves and timing, carb cleanup, new battery and control cables, etc., but I quickly found that the bike wasn’t really happy as a rider, with poor idling, abrupt power on and off with a mid-range stumble, periodic hard starting and plug fouling, and very light suspension damping. Determined to not leave this bike as a hangar queen, I went to work. I started with the carbs. I’m not a fan of constant velocity carbs like the original Kehins, but the carbs were thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt, which still left the bike with rather poor drivability. Further adjustment and some needle height tweaking got the bike to usable operation, but I still wasn’t satisfied with the bike’s throttle response and performance. I then committed heresy and installed a set of VM32 Mikuni carbs, and after tuning the needle and jets, the bike starts, runs and accelerates much more like what I would expect the bike that killed the Brit bikes to run. The new carbs are nicely integrated, with Uni filters, and don’t look out of place at all. A new cable was made for the throttle, so the end result is a nicely running bike that starts every time with a reasonable idle. Please note that the original carbs were drained, cleaned, fogged with penetrating oil and packed in plastic, along with the original throttle cables, air filter components, etc., so the bike can be easily returned to its original carburation should the new owner desire. To improve the spark power and reliability, new Dyna coils, plug wires and caps were installed. A Charlie’s Place electronic ignition was also installed to remove the need for point setting and replacement forever. The ignition puts out a nice fat spark now – the bike starts easily, electric or kick. A new voltage regulator/rectifier was also installed to improve the charging reliability The under damped shocks were removed and a new set of British Hagon shocks were installed. The Hagons are not cheap, but you can get them configured so they mimic the shrouded look of the originals. Much less bouncing and squirrely handling. The tires have low miles on them, installed by the previous owner. The bike is a much more reasonable road bike now. In the two and a half years that I’ve owned it, I’ve put on over 1500 miles (6822 total), which still isn’t that much, but it shares ride time with three other bikes. So why am I selling it? Well, this is a really beautiful bike with really low original, documented miles, and from a bike value standpoint, I probably shouldn’t be putting a lot of miles on it, so over the last six months it’s been lightly used. Combined with the fact that I just bought an old single cylinder desmo Ducati for my next project, thus violating my wife’s four bike limit, something has to give. While I feel that this is one of the more iconic bikes ever built from an esthetic point of view, with a historic engine (first large scale production double overhead cam twin) and a substantial impact on motorcycle history, I’m not a collector that’s content to just leave an unused show bike in my garage. So as much as it pains me, it’s up for sale. I have all the removed parts well packed and labeled, so if a new owner wants to put it back to its completely original state, this can be easily done. As I mentioned, it comes with documentation from the first owner, as well as a copy of the last owner’s title. It also comes with a Honda shop manual, a Honda parts manual, and a Clymer guide for 450 Hondas. It has its complete, original tool kit in its original tool roll, as well as the original owner’s manual. It comes with a box of spare parts, including the original Honda 450 badges for the sides of the tank (they were so perfect that I took them off and replaced them with repros so they would stay as nice as they are now). The bike could be on display in a museum, but that’s not how I want to own it, the next owner can decide that question for themselves. The bike has a clear title in my possession. The buyer will need to send a deposit of $500 to Paypal within 24 hours of purchase, the remainder by cashiers check or wire transfer. The title will be expressed to the buyer as soon as the cash is confirmed in my account. I will deliver the bike to the new owner within 100 miles of Hampton Roads area of Virginia, otherwise I will assist in the transfer of the vehicle to the buyers shipper. Youtube video of bike runnin:g: https://youtu.be/wCfY7QMP6N0 Call or text seven five seven 719 one five five 0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE