I just have to say, wow. Some really great bikes and I'd love to go for a rip on each one of them!
My story starts out several years ago. I was about 10 at the time and my dad was a heavy smoker. My mother was also a smoker a few years back but had quit and was now urging him to quit too. Eventually, the deal was hashed out that if he quit smoking he could buy a motorcycle again. My father had always a been a bike guy in his younger days. He had lusted for, ridden, and owned several CB750s back in the day. He even got into a pretty severe accident during university that put him in a coma for a while! He kept riding even after that. Once the kids came though, money was tighter and the bikes took a back seat to parenthood. Now that his family was more established (many years later) they could afford some more luxuries again like bikes.
So, the deal was done. He quit smoking from a 2-pack-a-day guy to nothing. Cold turkey.
I remember the evening a guy rolled over to our house with a bike. He didn't even ride it over, he brought it in the back of the truck. He started it up once and we heard it run ... I think that sealed the deal. Even though it was dark and he didn't even know if it would shift into gear ... my dad bought it. I recall it had a Wind Jammer fairing, a back rest, engine crash bars, and was actually the original green for that year but the paint was in rough shape.
Immediately, the fairing and crash bars were removed (just in time for my sister to dump it over!) and the tank was sent off for paint. The bike went in and out of several shops and dealerships but none of the could seem to get it to run quite like he remembered!
It looked something like this (I don't have any pics on my computer of what it actually looked like back then):
In this pic it actually already has new exhaust and I had extensively cleaned it up.
It did run but it was always a cold starting pig. He just couldn't get it to run like he remembered them. He use to tell me stories about how legendary these bikes were back in the day ... and I just couldn't see it at the time with this poor running, beat up old machine. How could this be so great?
BUT then he taught me how to ride. This was my first street bike. I was in love after that.
In 2007, my father passed away suddenly while scuba diving. An unknown congenital heart defect took his life that day. My family was lost for a long time without him.
I continued through my education and got my Mechanical Engineering degree as I knew my father would be so proud for me to finish. After getting a job and paying off some debt I decided it was finally time to clean up that old bike. Get her running like it really should and really experience the 750s as they were meant to be. One big problem .... I live in a 3rd floor condo. My gf is in law school so the money for buying a house really isn't there .... hmmmm
Let's turn the spare bedroom into a shop!!!
Fortunately my gf played along ... even that day where the bike sat in the kitchen for a little while. hahah
You can check my build thread for all the in between details but it ended up like this after what I estimate to be about 400-500hrs spent over one winter:
Her first road trip of any significant length after the rebuild.
Glamour shot!
Chrome all shined up!
Me with the old girl.
So anyway, that brings us up to today. It runs very well and I'm very glad it's done (... well as done as you can ever say a project really is...).
Happy voting!
IW
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