CB500 Hill Climber

I had been trying to get my hands on this 1973 CB500 for quite some time. An acquaintance of a friend accidentally bought at an estate sale last summer for $10!. Finally last Tuesday I got a text message saying we could go pick it up at the guys farm. When we arrived it was behind a silo with it's tires frozen to the ground. After we got it loose we started to check out some of the custom hill climbing "mods". It had all of the crucial things; extended swing arm, knobby tires and kill switch (made from an extension cord naturally) that shuts the coils down if you fall off. Whoever owned it certainly had the correct vision for a hill climber however their execution could leave much to be desired. (see images below) I didn't really know what I was going to do with this motorcycle but I knew I had to hear it run and hopefully ride it in it's current configuration. Some guy obviously spent some time and energy creating this thing so I feel like I owe it to him in some way to make it live again. So the task of getting it running began. I'd like to make it sound like it was difficult but it was actually very easy. I cleaned the carbs, adjusted the points, put a charged battery in it, revised the wiring and viola! It lives!!!!

CB500 Hill climber fires up from fortyonethirty on Vimeo.