Howdy Everyone!I just inherited a bike that is just blowing my mind with how cool it is. Follow along with the pictures and I'll tell you the story of the bike as I know it. I want to restore this beautiful bike using minimal intervention and keeping as much of the stock components as possible and I'd like your help!! I'll be posting the rebuild process here on the forum and soliciting tons of advice. I've done some work on all my cars including transmissions, suspension and regular maintenance but I've never opened an engine before. Wish me luck!!
About a year ago, I attended the funeral of my girlfriend's aunt's sister(it gets more convoluted from here so hang on.) She lived on a farm in central Texas with a small pond, some pasture and a little steel barn. I never met her but she seemed like a good country girl judging from the Waylon and Willie framed poster in her living room. My girlfriend's Aunt and Uncle inherited the property and it's contents. After we scattered her ashes in the pond on the farm, the Uncle says he's got something to show me. He says there's an old motorcycle in the back stall of the barn and would I take a look at it. The barn smells like fresh hay and dust which I took as a good sign. No manure!
We walk to the back stall and I see a large indistinct mass under an old painters tarp laying on the ground. Crap, it's laying on it's side! "How long has it been like this?" I ask. "On it's side? I dunno. The bike's been in here since the '70's." he says. My heart starts to get that adrenaline rush as I pull the tarp away. If you're unfamiliar with the words "Mud Dauber" or "Mud Dauber's Nest" they're terrifying looking wasps with foot long stingers that build mud nests 3 feet high. Everything's bigger in Texas!! Haha! We got her back on her feet and rolled her out in to the light for the first time in forty years!
Well the Uncle crushes me at this point by saying he's promised it to his nephew. Oh well "Cool bike!" I say as I'm applying salve to my wasp stings (Just kidding, mud daubers aren't aggressive.) Fast forward a year and, long story-short(too late!!), the nephew is too busy for a project, would I like it? "Yahooo!!!" I yelled and raced there this past weekend to pick up this little gem. I hadn't really gone over it too much when I first saw it a year ago but apparently it went back under the tarp and stayed parked in the barn where brand new mud daubers setup a few brand new nests. When I get there and take off the tarp for the second time, I'm absolutely floored. There's spiderwebs covering it and 40 years of dust but behold that beautiful odometer!
Immediately I'm wondering "Is that 955 miles or 100,995miles???" I'm freaking out a little bit cause things like this don't happen everyday. A true barn find bike that's been parked for 40 years and only has 955 miles on it?!?! Are you kidding me??? So I starting going over the bike. It's dirty AF, but some spit on my thumb shows me the paint looks pretty freaking good. Orange sunrise flake or something? I should learn that! haha! Well the rest of the bike looks old and filthy to my untrained eyes. Is there any good information in this photo??
It has a huge white fairing and white fiberglass saddlebags so I decide to open them open. After clearing out a mud dauber nest the size of my head, I'm delighted by a literal time capsule of goodies. The left saddle bag has just two items. The original tag and the original inspection sticker which is on a funny little tube.
The last time it was inspected was 1975 and the tag expired in 1977! Holy #$%*e!! This thing might be legit! Well if you think that's cool, wait til you see the contents of the other bag.
Original Toolbag? Check! Original front turn signals? Check! Mud daubers nests? Check! The original felt is still lining the bag! Well the biggest treat is just barely poking out of the picture above. I present to you the original owner's mileage logbook.
The first page says "1974 HONDA CB750 - Picked up 1-29-74"
There are some gasoline credit card carbons tucked into the next page, the only page with writing on it in the whole book. Just take a look for yourself. Run the numbers. I was in shock!
This cool cat only rode this bike 12 times. 12 times!!! For a combined total of 932.9 miles!! The current odometer says 955 and almost 7/10 so only an additional 23 miles was put on the bike before she was put into that barn. I guess you could argue that someone put 100,023 on it before it was stored but c'mon! The story I heard was that the original owner had a close call somewhere around that last ride (those missing 23 miles??) and swore to never ride it again. He gave it to his son who was dating and then married my girlfriend's Aunt's sister whose funeral was at the start of the story. He had died many years prior so the cycle passed to her, to the Aunt&Uncle, to me. End of story. Whew!
So now the real work begins. I'm going to share some additional images of when I got her home and cleaned her up. Then I'm going to post a TON of questions! Like I said, it's my first rebuild and I really want to do this dream find justice. Please let me know any and all your advice! I'm going to post a bullet list of questions after this little slide show. Thanks for reading and be sure to help me answer some questions below!!
Last picture with her old home. On the road again! Her first bath was a wind bath. It got rid off all those spider webs that you see in this pic!
In the driveway and ready for her first bath. Are there any purists out there that would rather keep all dirt??
And viola! Showroom new!!
Remember: Preserver Nature, Always Wear a Helmet, Think Safety!! All the stickers like this are still on the frame. The original tires are dry rotted but still have the little new tire nubs on them!!
I didn't spend a lot of time cleaning or spraying water into this area but included the picture for comparison to the previous engine shot.
Didn't I say the paint looked great?! It makes me taste Orange soda every time I look at it!
Don't think I forgot about the fairing and saddlebags! Anybody know the brand?? I don't think I want to include them in the final build so would possibly sell and use the funds to restore the bike. Any idea of value?? The saddlebag that the bike was laying on when it on it's side is cracked but it's a clean crack. The other bag and fairing are cherry!!
What I know:
- The engine doesn't turn using the kickstarter. Locked up tight!
- The gas is turned to the off position.
- The choke is all the way pushed down. idk if that means open or closed.
- The gas tank has a weird buildup under the cap and smells really bad. I can post a pic.
- The front brake lever has no resistance. It just flops back and forth.
- The rear brake foot lever operates and appears to engage the rear brakes.
- The front forks leaked oil onto my garage floor after we unloaded it from the pickup.
- The battery is still installed under the seat.
- The clutch appears to work (has tension) but I haven't tried to shift gears yet.
- Is there anything else I should evaluate to include on this list?
Questions:
- So, what is my first step? I'm going to gather as much info before I start but where do I start? A friend said to put Miracle Oil in the oil reservoir after draining it and then seeing if it frees the pistons.
- Should I break the project into stages? Like start with the front suspension and brakes, then tackle the engine and then do the rear?
- I see the forums have the service manuals listed but what books should I need to buy? Haynes or Clymer??
- Who made those saddlebags and fairing? What are they worth and where could I sell them?
- Did I mess up by washing away all that valuable dirt and grime??
- What major pitfalls can I expect/look out for?
- If this was your bike, what would you do with it? Chop, cafe, original??
- What questions am I forgetting to ask? (Starting questions. I know I'm going to have a million detail questions!)
- Give me your closest cost estimate to getting this back on the road. I'll post the cost total when I'm done doing the first test ride and the person who guesses closest gets a shoutout.
Thanks and I'm looking forward to getting going! Check back for updates!!
