Thanks Scottly,
Build thread:
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,165654.0.html A bit of history on the bike... I bought it 6-7 years ago at an estate sale. (I think) I bought it originally because it was a K0. Plans were to do a full restoration on it. When I bought it, it was just a nice roller. The motor was apart, and in boxes. I put it in the corner of my garage where it sat for years while I pretended to accumulate the missing parts. And it sat. And it sat. One day, while cleaning out the garage, I started going through the boxes. Buried in them, there was an original Honda manual that I had missed. It had receipts. Many receipts. Many from R.C. Engineering in Glendale Ca. from the early 70's. The cool thing, R.C. Engineering had made notations of the motor serial numbers. It matched! There was a box with Venolia forged pistons. The crank was micro-polished and balanced (according to the receipts). The heads were ported. Hmmm...this was getting interesting. A box of old valves and springs. It looked like the PO had started hot rodding it and for whatever reason - stopped. The people I purchased it from told me it had sat, as it was, as long as they could remember. Easily back into the 70s. I love when there is some sort of history with a bike. I always like to know a little bit of the story even if it is just a little bit. I started organizing things. It was then that I noticed that the frame had been cut (the passenger loops were gone and some tabs were added and relocated.) That kinda screwed up my stock restoration plan. I was still missing ALOT of original parts. So, I decided I'd build another cafe bike. I'd built a few but it had been a while. The MC world was flooded with cafe'd CBs for a while now, but I didn't care. I planned on trying to use old parts to make a "older looking" cafe. The idea was to build it as if it could have been built back in the 70's.
I've always loved the CR750 and would love to own a proper replica, but most of those parts are definitely above my pay grade. Maybe I'd do a "poor man's" CR. A naked bike without the full fairing. A pimped out, period, privateer racer! I had an aluminum fuel tank that had been on the shelf for a couple years. It's a loose copy of the Honda CR tank - a bit shorter and a hair wider. I had a Calfab swingarm made by Chris Redpath of MotoGP Werks on my rider. I could steal that. They are beautiful reproductions of the 70's CalFab swingers. I also could swipe the stainless 4 into 1 pipe off that bike (Also by MotoP Werks) Now I just needed on of those oil tanks. OldScrambler, a member here, was able to provide a loose copy. Mocked things up and things were starting to take shape.
I had to have the cylinders bored to take the Venolia pistons. It would be an 836. Got a cam from a 69 bike. Had a serti valve job done on the heads. Added some new springs,and valve guides as my machinist recommended. Valves looked new - or relatively unused. A new cam chain roller and some other new bits and the motor was good to go. I was suprised at the difference between the new motor and my stockers. Above 5k rpms and you'd better hold on. Scored a set of CR carbs that were used, but very lightly. Probably the luckiest part on the bike that I had to buy. I had some flanged rims hanging on the wall, so those got new spokes. I've always loved the look of the big mechanical drum hubs. I had one (off a 72 WaterBuffalo) that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. I figured, what the heck, it's my bike - I'll use that. Not as good as a twin disc set up, but it really is about as good as the original single piston. I'm somewhat lanky, so I did not want to use clip ons. Settled for some superbike bars. Don't really like the feel of rearsets, but I did need to move the foot position back 4-5 inches. It fits me quite nicely and it actually pretty comfortable. New Hagons for the rear and new progressive springs for the front. Took a while to dial in the amount of oil I was using in the front, but it's much better now. I made a seat pan out of an old stop sign and had it covered with leather from an old jacket I had in the closet. Looks new, but somehow older and used. I love it.
When it came to paint, I was really having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. The fuel tank and oil tank was polished. How do I paint over that!?!? Saw a photo of an old Honda Ascot with red and orange graphics on top of black and I was hooked. I hadn't really seen that color combo in a while and it sure seemed to pop. Spent a few nights laying out the stripes until I liked it and went at it in my trusty 10' x 10' EZ-up booth
. I really like the look of an empty rear triangle on these old bikes, but since I had that pretty oil tank, I didn't have that option. I thought that if I left it polished, it would reflect the scenery around it, giving the illusion of an empty triangle. Worth a shot. I made the tail section out of a KZ650 tail. I took a section from the middle of it, and took off quite a bit off the bottom and front until I liked the shape. It's not too round and not too sharp - matches curves and angles of the fuel tank pretty good. The only modern things on the bike are the tiny LED turn signals and the gauges. The gauges are SpeedHut. Speedo is GPS and the tack is electronic - eliminates 2 cables. I was able to design the faces myself in an effort to make them look more vintage. I really like those.
I've got about 750 miles on her now and there are a few things I'll eventually do to it. I have a fender and a small bullet nose fairing that will eventually make it's way on there -maybe. Hope to make a trip to the dyno in the next couple of weeks to see how much closer I can get it. It starts immediately, idles great, and pulls like a freight train. There is the tiniest of stumbling when transitioning from the pilot to the main jets. It doesn't bug me too much as I don't really put around too much at low speeds. There's more to it, but I've typed more than enough.
p.s. As my original intent was to restore to stock, I kept all the "number 8" fasteners in place. Had them re-plated.
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