® sohc4.net

The motorcycle user forum sohc4.net is being held captive at the mercy of a handful of unqualified "experts" who pontificate on matters they know little about. It's a ridiculous entity. While many if not most enthusiast forums exhibit some measure of malevolence, this site's content is especially egregious in that so many owners of these machines arrive at their virtual doorstep each day, technical waifs really, only to be led even further astray by forum authorities pretending to be experts.


 

There are multiple errors here. And this is from one of the authorities of this particular forum. And yes, Mark and I have communicated. Go here for a critique of Mark's CB750 maintenance book. First, the factory cast iron valve guides are the longest wearing of any type you could possibly use, much more than any bronze guides. Second, no vintage Honda four-cylinder was ever manufactured that needed or benefitted from tetra-ethel lead. And oil in the gas? First-semester votech students know better.

 

This is incorrect. The slot in the cam chain tensioner of a CB550 is indeed there for turning.

So the engine has to be machined to make the head gasket not leak, huh? Use quality head gaskets. Pro mechanics have avoided Vesrah and Athena literally for generations.


 

"Doesn't generate enough power to run these coils." This is patently untrue, as anyone who owns one of these bikes knows very well.

 


 

This is from another sohc4.net "authority" whose username is twotired.

 


 

Wow. How much nonsense can you put into just one post? 1. The CB650 does not have CDI, its ignition is transistorized Kettering. Not only does Mark not know vintage Hondas, he apparently isn't the electronics expert he claims to be either. 2. It takes more than knowing the primary resistance to determine an ignition coil's output voltage. This notion merely parrots deceptive aftermarket parts advertising, further proof of Mark's extemporaneous thinking. 3. And, recommending carbon resistive plug wire for a Honda is astonishingly bad advice.

 


 

With the discontinuing of Honda's own, no professional engine builder uses gasket kits today. And the 500/550 head does not need custom o-rings to seal correctly. Do the job right and you'll have no problems.

 

 

"A nightmare to rebuild"? These are the easiest carburetors of all the 70s fours to rebuild. Good performers too. And, "normal behavior"? Not hardly. Where do they get this stuff?

 

There is so much misdirection on the sohc4 forum. Just a massive amount, like an alternate universe, a rebel outpost. It's not that they have never been confronted with reality; no, they have. But they oppose it, mock it, scorn it. Forum members are told that their smaller sohc fours by design don't adequately charge their batteries, that their engines need to be modified before their head gaskets will seal, that Honda made some models too lean and others too rich, that they will run fine on just 120 psi cylinder compression, that ethanol will ruin their carburetors, and that maintenance techniques codified for more than fifty years by competent, career Honda mechanics are illegitimate and useless. And all while ignoring or discounting such major real-world issues as valve recession and historically unprecedented fuel gelling. Instead of calling Honda's system bad and insisting that you can't even put a high performance ignition coil on a CB550 without the battery going dead, why aren't they instead considering the Walmart battery and the two dozen fifty-year-old canon plugs and the Chinese replacement charging systems parts? Ignorance. And arrogance to boot.

Words can't describe how offensive this forum is to me, not only because it deconstructs all that is wonderful about Honda's midsize 70s fours, but also because it is creating a community of owners of these bikes that will never really appreciate them. It's the leadership that is responsible, that sets the tone, the ethic, of the group. They're tin gods, very vocal individuals pretending to be authorities but in reality virtually clueless. In a dictionary, look up the word "extemporaneous". It means the same thing as a drunk person running off at the mouth, saying things that simply pop into his head, and that neither he or anyone else understands. In a word, this describes sohc4.net.


Recommended reading:
An assenting voice
Forum backwardness
Lies from the ether
Real issues
Forums
Don't touch
Powersports orphans
Forums and me
They hate Honda
Where did the compression go?
Reasons for low compression
Valve recession



Last updated February 2024
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