Compared with the factory ignition, what a pile. Really. Nearly the worst of all of them, and I have seen and worked on them all. Too bad. Boyer had a good name in the pushrod Brit bike arena.

Last week I completed a gentle little massaging of a 71 (first year) CB500 four. The owner bought it from a "restorer" and it turned out to be a disappointingly typical dress it up, paint it up product of a mechanically challenged and certainly largely Honda-ignorant individual.

Even so, over a few days time I made dear love to that old Honda, and every time I glance at it sitting completed on my lift I caress it with my eyes. Poor tuning technique, munged up (and badly set up--one float was so far off it sooted one of the spark plugs) carbs, a patently flaky aftermarket ignition, Chinese ignition coils, bad plug caps, a battery whose cells were fractured, and most egregious of all, some unfortunate sloppy maintenance that inspired serious electrical connector damage, and these connectors are one year only/one model only and thus required buying and cannabalizing a used (and rare) whole bike harness as well as an also hard to find left side electrical panel.

But I am saddened to be done with the bike. I'm afraid I'm firmly in the grip of a significant bout of nostalgia.