I'm wondering whether there are any better or worse options for purchase of a REPLACEMENT SEAT COVER for the '69-'70 CB750K0 SAND-CAST. The "Duck-Tail" style cover - There are many listings & such a range of prices on this item, especially if you include the NOS stuff ha-ha - I'd hate to pick up a cheap P.O.S. & waste any more TIME on this one.
I keep hearing answers about how to RESTORE one, but I need to buy one to start with, I don't have one in hand nothing to restore here, as I'm sticking one on the "CB900K0 Bol Bomber", right next to the "toaster-tank" style, sides polished, original CB1100R Aluminum gas-tank -
Call it a "Retro-Fried" treatment, shooting for a mid '60s paint & trim aesthetic on a mid-'70s FIM Endurance ... "impression" or "shape" if you will, with an early '80s AMA Superbike brake/suspension tech & specs with more of a MID-'80s "stance", rolling over mid-'90s Sport-Touring rubber on the bottom side, held up by original '79s era NOS alloy wire-spoke rims -
(((Well the 3.5x16" "Super-Akront" is definitely some proper vintage Go-Fast Hot-Rod CHOPPER #$%*e, though I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find one used as a FRONT wheel - Meanwhile the Akront TR profile 4.25x18" strikes me as more of a late '80s type of thing, though I've never found any clearly dated advertisements showing just when the hell these wider rims were produced - The alternate "skinny" set for another DOHC 750 project, for my daughter, are definitely late '70s stuff, 2.5x18 & 3.50x18" "Super-Akront" woud be period-correct to the late '70s I'm sure. Though all available pics of MID-'70s Grand-Prix racers appear to show Borrani 3.00x18" which is the inferior of the two so you'd think they'd have use the Akront type IF they were available.... Prove me wrong!)))
Which is to say, it's "Period-Correct" but I'm just not sure WHICH period we're talking about here. Though let's just say that only the tires & the super-wide original Akront rims drag any part of it kicking & screaming past 1983. '81 Grand-Prix or '82 AMA Superbike that is - which translates to somewhere around '88 or '96 in street-bike terms. Which of the two depends on whether & how the TRAC anti-dive fork upgrade turns out, whether it's 41mm or 43mm.
(((The 41mm '88+ GL1500 fork being a derivative of the '82 RSC Superbike/Endurance racers' works-spec SHOWA fork, while the '43mm from '96+ ST1100-ABS fork has only one leg TRAC but two of these ambidextrous looking legs could stand in for a proper '83 Grand-Prix and/or '84 Superbike spec SHOWA fork - which was an HRC thing more so than an RSC item. Would look pretty strange with HRC stickers AND RSC stickers on the same bike though. Meh. Who needs 'em? I'll draw the line at the "SHOWA" stickers on the fork legs....)))
ANYWAY - for the current moment it's all about the SEAT-COVER. I've heard that some of the covers suck so I'm just trying to figure out where to get a better one.
I've practically given up on finding one in a different COLOUR, as the "25-colors" guys don't DO the 'K0 "Duck-Tail" seat, and requested that I send in an original COMPLETE seat, for disassembly, before they'd give it a shot! I mean, WTF - As if anybody would do THAT with anything half put together well enough that they'd be able to USE it. I'm sure they'd get plenty of sales, probably enough sales to eclipse their other non-black CB750 seats of all types, 'K1 through 'K-LTD, 'SC even - And maybe that's why they don't think it's worth it to TRY? I dunno. I'm certainly willing to send 'em a CLONE cover, maybe even a cushion. But I'm using a DIY fiberglass/bondo seat pan here, moulded off the bare ass of a CB900F frame no less, which is to say I not only don't OWN one but I don't even WANT the OEM pan, so wtf do I ... yeah I suppose I might actually care whether it's PERFECT or not, but there's no way I'M gonna be able to tell the difference! Ha-ha.
Would be awesome to have it in RED, for a retro-fried CB1100R look, or more to the point the "CB902" homage to the '57 CB92 Benly Super-Sport, which I suppose would be better best predicated upon a LAVERDA twin, being that it's a compete rip-off from the Honda "Walrus-Head" engine. DAMN though, what an awesome "CB902" one could make from it! I figure the pressed-sheet monocoque chassis doesn't have to be copied outright - But rather, it could simply be imitated:
(((Picture a tight-fitting skin of fiber-glass wrapped around the sub-frame, in the vein of the CB1100R's integrated one-piece seat-pan, side-covers, and tail cowl - only this one would have a down-tuned fvnder rather than the CB1100R's upturned spoiler-cowl. Picture a shortened cut-down version of the CB92 fender, like the most awesome featherweight CB92 based RACER you've ever seen, just a couple of inches of down-turned fender, and with a little upcurled lip of a "skirt", like the best modded CA72/CA77 Dream/SuperDream racers' cut-down fender work.)))
(((Now picture how the side-cover area, which extends down from the top from the flat-top seat-pan area, would wrap super tight around the sub-frame rails. The two sides wrapping around the back-side and meeting with an overlapping slit in the middle of the under-side - a replacement for the black plastic inner fender.)))
(((The whole thing solid over the top & split in half underneath in the "fender eliminator" area - The whole thing would be under tension. The only way it's going on or off the frame is by bending it apart along that underside split, probably a two-man job, you'd pull the sides away just enough for an in-curled lip to wrap around the frame-rails at the rear of the engine bay area, and that lip would grip everything & hold it in the forward position against the tension of the rear-side "fender eliminator" with the overlapping split - But of course with large tri-oval HOLES in the side-cover area, for the underseat battery access etc. Which would be covered over with additional, huge bulbous CUB/DREAM style, SIDE-COVERS.)))
(((Just so long as it mated seamlessly with the rear engine mounting areas, it might seem as though the original frame were replaced by a sheet-metal unit straight off a mid-'60s Honda twin or horizontal-single. Tough to hide the front down-tubes of the twin-loop/featherbed style frame - Perhaps it'd work best with a stressed-engine OPEN-loop type frame?)))
(((Of course you'd need the Tony Foale Leading-Link FORK, or the Paolo Tesio Ducati Monster fiberglass fork SHROUD for USD forks (which look like a proper forged alloy girder or Vincent Girdraulic" style fork from the FRONT - but look pretty silly from the rear edge!) Or more to the point an entirely new design of leading-link fork, being that the Tony Foale item is fully extinct ... a tapped-out Unobtainium mind-shaft that once yielded such GEMS.....)))
Well anyway - all I'm sayin' is, the classic SIXTIES HONDA TWIN aesthetic would look good on any 'F-in thing let alone MY 'F-bike. But above all else, the Laverda twin, done up as a pseudo-replica of any & all Honda "Walrus-Head" engines you can think of. I like the thought of a CA77 SuperDream replica, call it a "CA777 Super-DUPER-Dream' Ha-ha. Damn. Now that one would rock. IF there's any way it could be bored out to 1160cc's you could have that CB160 Baby-Hawk replica - Well, that is IF you're all hung up on the numbers. Still, I'm sure CB760 just wouldn't get the message across. The name's gotta SOUND right.....
More to the point it's about the gloss blue paint over the whole bike, and a dark red seat straight off of a booth table from an old Diner. That dark red Naugahyde, not a bright cherry red, not even as red as the CB1100RB seat itself, heck maybe not even as bright red as a NEW seat-cover for the CB92 but more like a really OLD one, soft worn-in naugahyde with cracks just starting to form....
Meanwhile the frame & all ancillary running-gear, anything that's normally painted black, would be painted that same DARK GLOSS BLUE. Sure you might do one in RED, with a black seat, or YELLOW, with a two-tone brown & cream seat-cover. But I like the BLUE. All over the bike, too. Frame & everything. Right down to the brake calipers & the disc carriers.
Well, truth be told a bike like this would require a DRUM hub, or at least a fake one. Not the CBX550F wire-spoke conversion, 'cause it's got puny lil' 230mm rotors. No - I'm trying to build something from the PC800 Pacific Coast front end. And only 'cause the GL1500 version didn't work out. Either which way, I picture something like the Kuryankyn "Ring Of Fire" rotor shrouds for the GL1500 - Heavily modified, so as to look just like a proper drum-brake's shoe-plate. Maybe some hard-tube metallic brake-lines at the bottom, to emulate the linkage-rod of a 2LS/4LS linkage-rod. Still the two huge air-scoops from the Kuryakyn GL1500 covers - Which themselves are so evocative of the CBX550F "inboard disc" covers. Perhaps this was meant to imply that the shrouded rotors of the GL1500 are "inboard" as well. When you look at the CBX550F brake the only thing "inboard" is the caliper within the rotor, 'cause with the perforated plastic shroud ring removed you can clearly see how the CBX550F rotors are standing clear & free outside of the hub proper, mounted at a stand-off distance, just as with any ordinary disc-brake. It's all about the SHROUDS, really - that's the only thing the brake's really INBOARD of. And if you stick some wire spokes on the HUB, and the hub is of a sufficient diameter, heck maybe even with a smaller standard disc-type hub, so long as it's shrouded - Then it'll look like a drum brake. Which would carry off the best CB92 or CB450K0 or CB160 look - whichever you're going for. It's all about the SHROUDS.
But yeah, THAT type of stuff should be given the same bare bead-blasted style Aluminum. Just like the original drums from these '60s Honda twins. I can't stand the fake alloy PAINT over real Aluminum. That's why I didn't do the fake chrome spray over the alloy TANK - too fake, might as well have been a steel tank at that point, or fiberglass for that matter. (Dangerous though that might be, what with the gas spilling all over you if the fiberglass should CRACK in a fender-bender!) So yeah - Aluminum stuff should be bare, either polished with a gloss clear powder-coat finish - OR a semi-polished bead-blast style, in the vein of the original finish on SOHC-4 fork legs etc - with a MATTE finish clear powder-coat over top of it. I guess there'd be that silver spray-paint over the fiberglass/plastic FENDERS of course - And didn't they use the same stuff over the chain-guard? Yeah, BLUE, or bare ALLOY, or SILVER - or bare steel for that matter. None of the fugly black spray-bomb finish that RUINS the '80s Superbike stuff, IMHO. Don't even want it on the ENGINE - I'll just use a bigger oil-cooler if we need the extra heat transmission.
ANYWAY, like I was saying - about the RED SEAT COVER - I suppose the "homage to the '65 Black Bomber" vibe would be defunct at that point, but I'd sure love to paint the thing dark gloss blue with a dark red vinyl seat-cover, in the vein of a CB92 - that would be the $#*%!
Difficult to commit to the colour though. Without the leading-link fork, it doesn't work the same way. With a telescopic fork, you can shroud it with the tin tubes, and it'll pull off something of a CB450K0 vibe. But only if it's black! Maybe red, like that famous CB450K0 "Red Dragon". But at the same time it's too much of a CB1100R kinda thing. Maybe that's a good thing?
Maybe when I get around to painting the frame, I'll go with blue & throw on a layer of that peel-away paint, for the tank & bodywork, just to see how it feels. 'Cause DAMN if I wanna re-do the paint on the CB1100R alloy tank. More to the point, I wouldn't wanna re-do the POLISH. A peel-away paint sounds better - If you don't like the new colour-scheme, you just peel that crap right back off again.
ANYWAY yeah, the damn SEAT-COVER for the FIRST YEAR of the SOHC-4 CB750K, is currently only available in BLACK. And it's a cryin' friggin' shame! The "Duck-Tail" is by far the best looking seat-cover they threw at the SOHC series OR the DOHC for that matter. Without the curled up lip of a "duck-tail" at the back, it just wouldn't be the same.
For the time-BEING, the MEAN-time, I'm gonna have to settle for a black one. But WHICH? Are they ALL the same cheap P.O.S. or is there a better version, one which stands out as "the best"?
It's awfully tempting to "borrow" a full seat - to purchase a reproduction seat-pan, reproduction foam, AND the cover - and ship 'em off to the 25-colour guys. Then afterwards, sell the pan & the cushion? Can't see what all I'd want the thing for. Except maybe to cut holes to make it fit the DOHC-4 frame, to whit turning it into the DOHC-4 CB750KZ steel seat-pan, and cast a mould from it in plaster or fiberglass or whatever - So that I can make a reproduction pan in fiberglass or some other plastic or composite - Ideally the same glass-filled Nylon aka "DELRIN", as the DOHC-4 'F-bike seat-pans are made from. Difficult stuff to modify - I've chopped it down to size & done a PROPER heat & stick PLASTIC-WELD job on 'em - But the melted sections create a weak point which will always crack in pretty short order. 'Cause the flat laid glass fibers in the rest of the thing remain strong whereas the melted sections will ball up the fibers without joining 'em all interspersed end-to-end as it were, so that even while the Nylon itself is perfectly welded
(((I've done this plasti-welding stuff in the past, enough times to know it wasn't just ME screwing it up. Practiced enough that I got halfassed decent with it. All to make unique plumbing fittings for high-end gov't lab grade Aquarium B.S., huge bathroom sized tanks installed in public places, and all sorts of other horrible vivisection type purposes as befit the exotic animal trade.... #$%*ing bad Karma, man. But the FITTINGS never LEAKED in any case....)))
Anyway yeah, there's no real sensible way to modify those OEM Nylon/Delrin seat-pans, you've gotta reproduce the whole thing entire, in the new shape you were after.
But I'm sure there'd be a demand for a proper OEM style seat-pan for DOHC-4 super-Sports, rendered in such a way as to accomodate a larger box cowl, single seat only type of stuff, etc.
Well at least I'D want one. That, and a "Bosozoku" style seat-pan. Yanno where they're getting that stuff from, hey? CORBIN - As in the Corbin "Gunfighter" seats for the CB900F etc. Same outfit that made all of those "King & Queen" seats - and their later derivative "Gunfighter & Lady" like what came with MY latest bike - Hideous P.O.S. imho - Well they also made CHOPPER style seats, and for the SOHC-4 Super-Sports, too. With a raised sissy-bar style back-rest AND the cowl afixed to the back. If you've never seen one, it's probably 'cause they're all being snapped up & shipped to Japan! Ha-ha. Well in any case, ALL of the Corbin seats come with a decent thick fiberglass or glass-filled plastic of some sort or other. A heck of a lot heavier than the DIY fiberglass/bondo seat pans that I'Ve made - dunno whether I'd want 'em like that. The one truly durable type of pan is the OEM white Delrin pans from the DOHC-4 Super-Sports and subsequent Honda models.
Picture if you will - a similarly constructed seat-pan for the SOHC - no more rust no more flaking paint - And it would WEIGH a fair bit less also.
I should think there'd be a use for THAT, too - Maybe all the more so if it were BLACK plastic?
WHATEVER.
Who's got a hot tip on seat COVERS? Good or Bad. I'd like to hear any & all opinions. Hate 'em? Hate my project? Ha-ha. Hate ME? Any & all suggestions.
-Sigh.
