Yesterday I was driving the 200 miles to visit my old ma and rang my mate Fred to break the boredom. Fred has a couple of K1's (and some POS Pommy Oil Distributors that look nice, but of course are about as reliable as Charles Manson on crack) and he's always on the lookout for K1 stuff so I mentioned that I've got a set of K1 engine cases that I don't need now that I've swapped my K1 for my magnificent RC51, and what did he have to trade for them?
Well I could almost hear Fred slavering at the thought of having yet another set of K1 cases, and he offered me a nice K2 frame that I was admiring last time I was at his place, so I thought, hmnnnn, I've got that Fcuking F engine sitting on my garage floor, I might have to throw together another bitsa! (Bits of this, bits of that.........)
The F engine has never been apart, it was in a Seeley that a lady had built back in the 1970's, she bought the F new but was only a petite little thing and the seat was too high for her, so she had a Seeley custom made and had her F-ing engine installed. Anyway, fast forward 40 years, a guy in Canberra buys it and builds a hotrod 836cc engine for it, and I buy the old engine, plus an F2 engine that he started to recondition before he bought the K-something engine.
He told me that the F engine was stuck when they bought the seeley but after soaking the cylinders with ATF it freed up and it fired right up but smoked like a barstard, but I'm hoping that the rings will seat OK after a longish ride and hopefully I won't have to pull it apart.
Now I know that this might distract me from my K0 build, but I think it'll be good to have two projects on the boil, so that while one might stall for a little while when I'm waiting for parts, I'll be able to kick off on the other project, and vice versa. I've got a good set of forks for a later K2 (in Oz we didn't get K3's, K4's or K5's, so our K2's started with early forks much like a K1's, and our last K2's had forks like a K6) but anyway, when I mentioned to Fred that I had some K1 gauges he was just about turning cartwheels and offered me some later gauges that will fit my later triple trees, and a swing arm, rear fender, etc etc.
The good news is that the frame had some damage when Fred bought it, but he's had it professionally repaired, so it'll probably only need a coat of paint and I'll be able to slot the F-ing engine into it, throw on a set of carbs and an exhaust, and some Henry Abe wheels, and I might come close to having yet another running riding CB750. Ah the joys of playing with old motorcycles.........
