Honda 550 F1 Part 9
First impressions:
Just about six months after buying the bike, it was on the road again legally but with that huge bridge in the middle of the tank the half gallon of fuel I had might hardly be enough and about 5 miles down the road, I could tell it was down on one pot, so pulled up and leant the bike to the left for a short while and was on my way on all four again. I brimmed the tank at the petrol station about half a mile further to take a little tour around the West Mainland. Immediate impressions are that the forks are too firm - might be oil quantity or viscosity - I hadn't changed that yet and was waiting for the Winter layup to strip the forks, wheels and perhaps have some chroming done.
First time out over Birsay Moor, watching a Male Hen Harrier
The engine pulls really well and at 50 mph it's turning over at just over 3500rpm, which is a big improvement on the 350/4 which would be indicating 5000rpm at that speed. The gearbox is silky smooth but the throttle closing cable seems a bit stiff - although I like that really as you can use it as a poor man's cruise control, even though it wouldn't pass an MOT as it is. The front tyre looks new but the rear is perhaps over half worn - no Idea how old they are so they will both be replaced soon - probably when I do the wheels over Winter.
So far, I'm very impressed with the whole package and it will definitely be pressed into service for runs around Orkney and even much further afield. An added bonus is that it is easier to put on to the centre stand than the smaller fours and the side stand is in a good accessible position. Although I had bench synced the carbs before fitting, they will still need checking with the vac gauges to make sure all is in balance and that's about it for now, apart from normal servicing and checking, as it will get used quite a bit this season. With the weather being set fair I had another ride out of about 35 miles with Les on his 300 Forza and it behaved very well - forks are perhaps still a bit too firm for my liking, now with Putoline 7.5 fork oil in, so perhaps that needs reducing to 5 or even 2.5 - time will tell.
Another 'shakedown' run with Les on his 300 Forza
As the engine got hotter it became more difficult to select neutral when stationary, so a re-adjustment of the clutch is needed. Also the headlight sometimes doesn't work so a bit of connector chasing and cleaning is on the cards. Initially I was pleased that the annoying indicator bleeper didn't work but the damn thing has started working again! - that will be swiftly disconnected when I get chance. On another ride out a few days later it struggled after about 6 miles and I pulled up and it stalled. Surely not out of fuel yet? I checked the fuel and pressed the button and it fired up straight away; this happened a few times and always at about 6 miles, so when I got home and removed my helmet, I could hear the in-rush of air as I removed the petrol cap. I had re-plated the cap, so the vent may have been blocked; I blew through the cap vent hole with the airline and all now seems well - we'll see on the next ride. Probably on that first ride to the petrol station the previous week it was the same problem but on the ride with Les we had been stopping to admire the views and have a chat so it didn't manifest itself then.
As the bench was clear and the new 350 Forza should have been arriving imminently for me to play with, I made the rash decision to put the 550 on the bench, pull the front wheel, mudguard and forks out to strip and clean them properly and put the correct amount of ATF (instead of Putoline) in from dry - which was the recommendation back in the day. This would also allow me to get at the left hand fork ear to straighten that and also dress the dent out of the front mudguard and rust proof those parts for the future. There are also quite a number of bolts, spacers and washers to improve with fresh zinc plate and I will also replace the slightly notchy steering head bearings with taper rollers, while it's down this far and there is easy access. Also on the cards is the right hand kill switch/starter button unit as this seems a bit temperamental; they are the same part number as 400/4, so I think I have one somewhere in the 'stash'.
As it was stripped this far, I replaced the steering head bearings with taper rollers
All reassembled and out for another ride all was still not right with the fuelling on 3&4 cylinders. As they are both fed from different coils, I couldn't imagine it being an ignition problem. There was only a gallon or so left in the tank, so I removed it and supported it on its side to remove the new (aftermarket) tap. Nothing blocking the filter tube but when comparing the mesh screens on the original tap and this new one, the original had a much coarser mesh. I swapped to the original filter screen and it's now running fine, bloody aftermarket crap - if a new Honda double pipe tap had been available I would have opted for that.
The forks are still not to my liking even though everything checked out OK - straight stanchions, yokes are fine, the innards of the legs are perfect and the correct amount of ATF is in each leg from a 'dry fill'. I have even replaced the springs with new Honda ones from David Silver, in case they had been 'specials' fitted by a previous owner, although they were within spec for length. The riding season is almost done for this year, especially on the older classic stuff with hard to get parts that might suffer the ravages of salty roads - I do have other bikes to use on bonny days but I have just removed the silencer and sent it for re-chroming - to remove that battery acid staining.