Victory
I am proud to say that I finally met my goal of riding my 1974 Honda CB550 around before the end of the summer (labor day is the end of summer, right?). It took quite a bit of work (and a carb kit), but it’s finally running and (mostly) road-worthy. You can see a pic of it here.
It’s nothing to look at, but for a total ~$300 outlay, I think it’s a winner.
It has a few issues. It leaks gas right now. The carbs stopped leaking, I’m assuming this is because their seals sucked up enough gas while leaking to seal themselves again. However, I got lazy (and anxious) with the fuel lines and they have some not so little cracks in them. This is a problem. (life lesson 1: gasoline eats duct tape). This problem was most evident today when I was left stranded about 0.5 miles from home. (life lesson 2: pushing a bike uphill sucks).
The biggest problem right now is still the fact that it won’t idle unless I keep in the throttle. This makes it hard to drive, obviously. Stopping is hard, but I seem to have mastered the art. However, it still scares me. It likes to shutter down low and then surge, which is most unfortunate when you are a) in a turn or b) stopped and trying to make a turn. I’m still trying to get the feel for it. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel quite comfortable riding, but then again I should probably try not to buying broken motorcycles and see if that helps 
