Wouters CB450. Bastard or Beauty

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The Honda CB450 K1, the successor of the famous Black Bomber, has led a shadow existence for a while. That lasted until the four-speed CB450s had all found a home. Then the prices of the Black Bombers went up so fast that many people thought 'Do me a K1. Nice puh! ”.

Then the prices of the Honda CB 450 K1s started to rise

In the past, in 1968, such a CB450 K1 was still quite a motorcycle. The novice's crankshaft was now mounted directly in the horizontally divisible crankcase. The compression ratio was increased to 9: 1, the inlet valves went from 37 to 38 mm, the outlet valves from 31 to 33 mm. This increased the power to 45 hp at 9.000 rpm. The oil pump became larger and the starter motor smaller. The clutch got four clutch springs instead of six. The machine had five instead of four gears and the bearings of the gearbox shafts had also changed. It had technically become a very different engine than the Black Bomber.

With the consecutive 'K-numbering' we arrived in 1972 at the CB 450 K5. And in the meantime that was no longer a spectacle, but a solid two-cylinder mid-sized car at the time that four-cylinder models became the norm.

But because the K1s suddenly start to rise in value, the K5s come into the picture. A beautiful K5 who raised € 1.750 not so long ago recently found a boss for € 3.100.

What does it cost nothing?

In 1974 another successor to the CB 450 appeared, the CB 500 T. The "T" as an addition was needed to distinguish the now-released Honda CB 500 Four. The 500 cc engine capacity was achieved by maintaining the bore of 70 mm and increasing the stroke to 64,8 mm. The CB 500 T was no longer a sporty motorcycle, but one of the first retro bikes. And for retro bikes, the market wasn't ready for that. The power was even lower than that of the CB 450 and the appearance quite subdued in dark brown and red colors. Nobody wanted a thing like that. The CB 500 T did not last long. In 1979 this model disappeared again. Now they are rare. And yet not expensive. But cheap? Those were the Bombers and K1s once too.

Almost real

And then we come to Wouter, whose hobby has gotten pleasantly out of hand as in 'www.klassiekemotoren-lm.nl'. Wouter found a K1 disguised as K5. A real barn find. In fact it is a K5 that derives its looks from its K1 tank. This makes it endearing, because in his time it was more common to upgrade an 'old model' with parts of a 'new model'. Given the enormous layer of dust on the find, the 'conversion' was done a long time ago. But under all the dust was a fantastic good and neat motorcycle. And well, after a life of 43 years, most people have also changed from their infancy. So does the detriment to originality hurt? Given the technical differences in the CB 450 line, you could at most say that it is now just a K1 with a better front brake. And the men from the RDW loved it.

Thanks for the tip about Wouters 'company'. Because it is good that there are people who manage to get motorcycles out of sheds.

 

From an old barn, now on Dutch license

We bet that they will soon be appreciated?

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