Me back on a HONDA Twin

[bladerunner]

Hey Don't laugh too hard:




I call this bike "forty-five, forty-five".

The bike was bought brand-new in late 1975 by a newly minted Navy seaman, John Pasco. Young Mr. Pasco was gracious enough to put nearly 12,000miles on the clock while owning the bike for eight years.

Within that time, John Pasco served his county honorably and then got the opportunity to fullfil his childhood dream of becoming a Police Officer for the City of Dallas, Texas beginning in 1981. On Sunday, January 16th, 1983, Officer John Pasco was shot and killed while pursuing (on foot) an armed felon. He was twenty-seven years old.

John Pasco's brother took possesion of the HONDA CB450 within a few days of his death in 1983, at which point the 'little' bike was ridden to Adel, Iowa, and put into storage until I found it on craiglist less than a month ago. The bike still had the 1982-1983 Texas DPS license plates attatched that John Pasco had renewed five short months prior to his heroic death.

I am over-joyed to have this bike. I have been riding and racing motorcycles since 1996. I have been a Police Officer since 1990.

John Pasco's badge number was 4545.

[bladerunner]

Unfortunately here's what it looked like when I drug it home:



And after a month of cleaning, repairing, repainting, tuning, and a bucket laod of new parts, my NEW bike is running sweet. You'd never guess the thing is soon to be four decades old. This thing rolled off the HONDA assembly line in July of 1973. I love it because I don't have to go 100mph on it to enjoy it. (and its not a fvcking Harley)

So far I've put about 200 miles on it. I hope to have the points/condenser ignition system ditched in a week or so in favor of an all electronic unit, then ride this "little" bike to St. Louis and back before the snow arrives!!

This last picture was taken by my 8yoa son. We had a ball toodling around on the four-fiddy all day. PERFECT!!! With all the track riding/racing in the last few years, I forgot how much fun street riding can be when you are NOT on a hard-core sportbike.

[Jami6989]

Those new bars make the bike look a million times cooler.

[whitw wings]

I have a 73 cb500 just getting older and older in my moms garage right now as well. Stunnas dad rebuilt the carbs last year and the thing was alive for the first time in 20 years. These bikes are AWESOME and would compliment any of our RC's very well. Kudos to you and your great find!

[Tacheny]

Awesome bike. No one is laughing, maybe blushing from being jealous. I know I am.

[Vitza]

a story like that always compliments something of that age... nice find and enjoy

[jgos929]

Great lookin bike !!!

[glockem45]

Oh that bike is tits. Cool. What's cooler, is the scenery in the background. Gosh I miss living in the country.

[b.miller123]

Sweet bike! I love those old(er) Honda CB's. There is just something about them. They are timeless.

[fishhead]

Bladerunner, I am so envious of your find. Nice nice nice work! I've got an 81 400 in much worse shape than yours was. The 80s models have nothing on that great 70s classic look. The 80s sucked in so many ways. I really dig those bars! Can you help me out by giving me a couple of tips on where to source the nice bits like those!!!

Thanks! Say hello to St. Lou for me.

[bladerunner]

Hey Fish,

The process of buying and wrenching on this bike has been nothing short of a very detailed learning experience. Its amazing what new bikes have done to some of us, especially me. I have been spoiled by modern fuel injections and electronic ignition systems! I had to teach myself many new processes as it comes to tuning. Before this bike I had never set a (set) of points! Hell, I even had to source a timing light. When was the last time any of us held a phacking timing light???

What I found most rewarding and interesting is that (1). these bikes are extremely robust, extremely well built, to the point of being over-engineered. I can see now how HONDA built their reputation on build quality and fit and finish. Thes bikes must have looked and felt amazing compared to the british bikes, and the HD's must have looked like the farm machinery that they still are. And (2). I was shocked that many, many, many parts of this motorcycle can still be ordered directly from your local HONDA dealer, or of any number of on-line sources. I have found BikeBandit.com to be a good place to go, as their shipping times are reasonable to within a week. Plus almost any consumable part that you could possibly think of can also be found on eGay (what a shocker, huh?)

Once I had the service manual in my grubby little hands, I did the valve adjustment, cam chain adjustment, set the points gap, set the timing, cleaned the float bowls and main jets, and synched the carbs. The entire process took less than an hour. Amazing. And the part that I find fascinating is that once all that had been done, this bike, at nearly 40 years old, runs like a swiss watch. The 35 year-old cams don't have so much as a scuff mark on them. Once you get your head around the procedures, and necessary tools, these bikes are surprisingly easy to work on, and parts are cheap.

70mph is no problem on this 'little' bike. Hell, I could (in theory) ride the thing to St. Louis at 100mph, and the bike would probably just smile and ask for more; except the vibration that creeps up through the foot pegs would be at least mildly annoying, if not down-right painful within a couple of hours. While I would in no way compare this bike to any modern tackle, this bike will hustle along a smoothly paved backroad at a very surprizing pace!! Once the new tubes/tires were installed, the front brakes rebuilt and the fork oil changed out, the bike is very responsive and lively between 45 and 80mph.

So far, I have replaced the tires, all manner of O rings, all cables (had to with the ape bars), chain/sprockets, all light bulbs, headlight, points/plugs/condenser, regulator, rectifier, starter selenoid, left/right switchgear, master cylinder, front brake lines, brake pads, and completely rebuilt front caliper and fuel petcock. As of this moment I am waiting for the etching primer to dry as I completely took the tank down to bare metal today, and I'm getting ready (hopefully tomorrow) to repaint the tank more of a modern HONDA red, pretty close to the red on our fiddyone's.

It took me an entire day with armed with about a dozen cans of WD-40, carb cleaner, brakeclean, SOS soap pads, a tooth brush, and brass bristled brush to remove 30+ years of 'cack' this bike was encased in. But the effort has been very rewarding. Again last night my son and I went for a little 'scoot', as he calls it. We stopped at a gas station to get some ice cream and an 'older' guy said that this bike was "really cool". And not that it really matters, but I have been keeping track of the mileage at fill-ups, and I'm getting 61 miles-per-gallon. Last week it got well into the 80 degree temps. I had the day off and went riding all day for less than a tenner. I wish I had found this thing back in March or April, so I could look forward to riding it all summer. Hell, I'm just going to get this thing about perfect only to have to put it away for 4-5 months. .

And so it goes. I'll try to post more pix as the bike comes along. Thanks for all the nice comments. Any day I get to ride is a good day.

[bladerunner]

And just in case you were wondering,...this is what lurks inside of a 35 year-old brake caliper.



AFTER:

[56cbr600rr]

Very very cool!!! Several months ago I picked up a 72cb350. Matter of fact i've been tinkering with the different jetting all day. It's amazing what these old bike's teach you. Cool story your bike has too; sad though...

rip

[fishhead]

I should have taken pics of the brake fluid in mine as well. It was nearly a solid mass. So far, I've done the same as you, all carb rubber and brass part replacments, all cables, filters, fluids, some hoses, chain, brake pads and master cylinder rebuild. Top end clean up and compresion test. Mine was in a bit of an accident and owner did a lot of rigging to the electrical system so I've had some parts to replace. Next up: fork oil, stator work and another attempt at starting her up. If it runs, Ill spring for tires and look for swapping to some nice low bars. Maybe even some spoke wheels...the mags are ugly!
I've been getting a lot of parts at Z1Enterprises, and some at Bike bandit, and some on FleaBay.
Best of luck and keep the updates coming!

[RxRC]

Grreat bike. I have some old one's too and they're a lot of fun. I hope I can hang on to them.

I'm curious as to why you would repaint this bike.

[bladerunner]

Originally Posted by RxRC

I'm curious as to why you would repaint this bike.

Two reasons:

1. The top of the tank was heavily scratched and developing some substantial surface rust that was just going to get worse with time. I have the tools and skills to re-paint, so a re-do was in order.

2. The burnt-copper color shown above looks a lot better in the pictures than it did in person. I appreciate the 'nastalgia' of this vintage bike, but the simple fact is, it is never gonna be a collectors bike in the same way the CB750 is now, so repainting the tank (IMO) did nothing to detract from the value of the bike, but has done wonders for its appearence. In fact I have repainted the tank for a second time, and now it is RED, baby!

[El Pozzinator]

congrats on a great find and good on ya for keeping the history of the previous owner alive. i'm sure it'll make quite a hand-me-down through your family in the years to come, esp with it being owned by a fellow LEO. i'm sure mr. Pasco would be proud.

keep the pics coming...

[bladerunner]

Here are some pix of my last good trip of the year on 4545. I started out for St. Louis on Thursday morning, just before 9:00am. 37 degrees. BRRRR!!!!!!

I had to stop about an hour into the trip as my hands were numb. My teeth were starting to chatter, so a quick stop for some gas, hot chocolate, and a few minutes in direct sunlight helped a bunch.




I stopped every hundred miles. I took mostly two-lane state highways, and toodled along nicely anywhere between 60-80mph with no problems whatsoever. Took Hwy 2 east to Hwy 63 south into central Missouri. When I reached Columbia, I then took I-70 further east to the St. Louis area (Washington, Labode, Union). The ride was great and by noon, temps had reached the high 60's low 70's and I was very comfortable. I stopped a few time to take some pix, but I knew I could not stop for long as it is an eight-hour trip one way. Here are just a few I took on the way there:

[bladerunner]

A few more. What a great ride. North central and eastern Missouri has some great roads to ride. And on the CB450 I have learned to fall in love all over again with street riding. You just can't enjoy street riding on a modern hyper-bike. The next two pix are of the same trip I took to the same location a month earlier on the GSX-R1000, but you get the idea of what a great area it is to ride.

[bladerunner]

O.K. Now back to the trip on the ole CB450. Remember I started out for St. Louis at about 9am on Thursday morning. This is a pic I took the following day at about 8am on my return trip home. Temps were in the mid 50's when I left which was alot better than the previous day.




Then for the next hundred or so miles it was like this: HEAVEN


Then lastly here is the old Bladerunner about 100 miles from home in a little town called Centerville, at a mom and pop ice cream stand. Stopped for a burger/fries/ice cream (came with a free angioplasty), a splash of fuel, and then finished the ride home. Tired but very, very happy.


What a fantastic trip. And a great way to top off the riding year. The little 35 year-old CB450 didn't skip a beat the entire 872 mile round-trip. When I got home all she needed was a good cleaning, about 1/2 quart of 10W-40 oil, slight chain adjustment and lube; and all was right with the world. I love superbikes. I love racing and trackdays. But there is far more to motorcycling than circling a racetrack. In the past several years I had forgotten that fact.