The Honda 500 Four and 550 Four
THE WINTER OF 2021-22 FOR ME HAS BEEN ONE of lumpy old singles and characterful twins, so the experience of riding a 50-year-old Honda Four for the first time in an age came as something of a surprise and a treat on a grubby, muddy and moist day. I had two 1970s Honda middleweights to play with.
I like to imagine the shock that the motorcyclist of 1972 might would have experienced on a first encounter with Mr Honda’s Four. They would, no doubt, have enjoyed the experience of just pushing a little lever on the end of the carburettor bank to engage the choke, rather than dribbling expensive Four Star over the engine while tickling an Amal... of turning on the ignition with a proper key, not something left over from a British Leyland parts bin... and of a row of lights appearing on the dash with instructions as to what they meant. And then, rather than fishing around for the kick-starter, they managed to start it by the process of pressing a button. With my best 1970s head on, I did just that. As I sat there noticing the wider engine, the bike burbled away through the four tulip silencers, but I couldn’t feel a thing from that four-cylinder unit. The only way to check it was running was to listen for the exhaust and watch the rev counter needle move about as the throttle was blipped. Apart from the exhaust, the only other sound was the occasional rumble from the primary drive chain.
Big-little sister
The first bike was a mid-1970s US-spec CB550-4. This has Honda’s original tulip silencers, an updated clutch mechanism, big clocks from the CB750/4, and a seriously big taillight. How big? I reckon you could keep your sandwiches in it.
First of
