Topic: Zen and the art of motorcycle repair, 77 cb 750 build.

[Country]

My 77 cb 750 build kicked off today. I bought this bike in boxes a few weeks ago and kicking off the rebuild. I got a bike lift from harbor freight 1/2 price and I figure if they are going to ship it all the way from china it's got to be good. I usually build on my welding table but this will free up space for fab work. I have some basic ideas on the end state but nothing real firm. I bought a 75 blue tank I'm going to use and for sure the fenders, blinkers and seat are going away. I'm going to assemble the bike first see what I've got and what I need toy around with the ride hight and tire sizes and let the plan come together. I'm thinking of putting a really tight budget on this one and see if I can make it really cool on cubic time not cubic dollars. It may never be a cover bike but it will be cool, fun, clean and something ill be proud to own. I've got a lot of decisions to make but I think over next few weeks of working on it a good plan will come together. I'll keep you posted.... I'm trying to post pics but evidently my iPad pics are too big to post any help would be appreciated.

[Stev-o]

Hey Country....subscribed.

On the pics, open a free acct at photobucket.com.  Then upload pics to their site, it will automatically resize for you.  Then copy the direct link of your pic,  reply to your post, click the "Mona Lisa" icon and paste the direct link in between the two IMG's that pop up when you click the icon.
BTW - I find it easier/quicker using my laptop rather than my iPad.

[Country]

Found a round about way to get the pics to work. It involved a lot of emailing pics.

[Country]

Thanks Steve-o ill try to make that happen later tonight. I did get some up by emailing them to myself and resizing them.

[Stev-o]

Your shop looks great, wish I had that much room.  So are you going to install the motor?

[Country]

Thanks, ill have more room when I can get my welding trailer out of the way. I am leaning away from putting the motor in it right now. I don't see a big benefit to it and it will make the rest a pain to work with.  I am mainly concerned with getting a good inventory of what's good and what's bad, figuring out the ride hight and stance and getting a direction on tires and wheels. The motor is going to come apart soon anyway.

[Country]

Found a 93 cbr 900 rr today complete not wrecked. Thinking about buying and using the complete front, rear, brakes and anything else i can use. I saw a bike on the forum done using those parts. It doesn't seem that bad but does add a lot of time in fab. Any thoughts? I can get the bike cheap enough to really help out the budget.  Stripped the trees yesterday and mocked up front and rear for ride hight. Not happy with front end and was looking at a gl swap when I found the 900.

[dusterdude]

Damn,if you were closer i would offer to buy the engine

[Country]

All the plastic is nice too. Hoping to sell off the extras to pay for the bike. Cut the rear tubes and fender mount off the cb today can't get the 900 til this weekend so may start on the motor tomorrow. Can't do much else until I get parts....

[Country]

Hey guys sorry about the long hiatus. Life happened and unfortunately the CB fell to the bottom of the project pile. I finally finished my 58 Apache last week and although I have to tear it back down my old shovel is a running driving concern. This winter is going to be dedicated to the CB. Since my last post I cut the back of the frame off and re welded most of the seams. Not going to be much progress for the next few weeks (weather is to nice not to be rideing) I'll get some pics soon and again sorry for the break in the action. I hope yall will tune back in Im excited and I know the bike is going to be cool.

[70CB750]

Following.

[Country]

Just got home tonight with all the hayabusa parts for the project. Les Bon temps roulette....

[70CB750]

Is it Willys pickup?

[Country]

Quick update got my steering bearings today so I broke down the Busa trees and pressed the stem out to get the race and seal off. Gonna put the new races in the neck tomorrow and start fitting the Busa trees. Looking at the neck I don't like the factory welds so I'm going to do some welding on the neck before I go any farther. Btw Its a 1963 Ford....

[Country]

Lot of work today but not a lot of progress. Re welded most of the frame and designed my reinforcements. Drove the lower race in the neck, spaced and pressed the lower bearing on the stem and took measurements at the top of the neck. I'm going to have to mill the race seat 600 thousands deeper. Needed some motivation so I put it together just to see it how it's going to look. I'm using the blue tank.

[Country]

I had a local tool maker make me a boring bar and I used it to take the inside diameter of the neck .610 deeper so that the hayabusa stem Whould work with the adapter bearings. Front end is done.....

[70CB750]

Sweet.

[Country]

I had two steel bushings and a spacer made to mount the rear swing arm using the original CB bolt. It works awesome but I'm not real excited about the overall length of the wheel base. It extended it 3.2 inches and added a lot of complexity mounting the mono shock. ( After sorting where to relocate everything to, I have a full custom rear suspension to engineer and deal with. I need to get the geometry right, and it's going to take a lot of trial and error with spring rates.)
I'm going to spend a little time planning before I go any farther. I'll post some pics tomorrow.