CRAFE Project Bike By Tad Richardson 1/7/2018PrefaceMy father had always ridden Harley’s. We have great pictures of him and a buddy in 1948 riding red 45 flatheads around the Superstitious Mountains in Arizona while attending Army Air Corps Lockheed P-80s jet school (with no trainers yet) and diving off canyon bridges. At six years old I was scared witless on the back of a very loud ElectraGlide that emanated that luscious old Castrol(?) smell. In the early 1960s our local Western auto dealer started selling Hondas. Soon thereafter a white ladies step through automatic, silver CL160 scrambler and white 305 Dream arrived at the house. At 11 years old I was allowed to buy a black CB50 not being able to afford a Super 90. They were built and finished like swiss watches. The owner manuals were funny to read. No more Harleys.
We bored and stroked my 50 to 90ccs, added a road racing seat, instruments and a knobby; my first rather unusual blended bike styles custom. We held time trials in the hay fields and have 8mm home movies of those. Summer of 70 I got my road license was allowed to ride the rocket fast CL160. In 1970 I bought a beat Norton Atlas for $165 and fixed it up. It vibrated so badly I was numb all over after only an hour or riding. It was heavy and handled like a pickup truck. The brakes were scary.
Dad had heard about some exciting new Honda that had just come out so we went in on a new CB750 with my getting $550 trade in on the Norton while he traded in the Dream and paid the rest. I recall it cost around $1,600. We missed getting the 1970 K0 and took delivery on a newly released 1971 metallic orange K1. I had been shocked on how fast the CL160 was compared to my 50/90. The CB750 was shocking, insanely fast. When my father rode it I could hear what sounded like a F1 GP car approaching from ½ mile away. What a song from the first Superbike. A favorite stunt to impress friends on rides was to pop the front end up about a foot starting across intersections when hitting 2nd gear at 5,000 RPM, like a racing start.
1971 CB750K1 at Ford Museum, Detroit; same year, model and color we owned.
Cycle and Cycle World magazines had pictures of GP racing bikes and exotica like Dunstall parts which neither I nor my friends could afford. While attending college my working friends making the holy grail pay rate of $5 per hour were buying stereos, cars, beer and weed, and nice bikes; Norton 750 Commando Combats, Ducati 750s, Bonnies, BSAs, and many CB350s plus one Yamaha Bonnie knockoff. I fantasized about adding cafe parts to my CB750 and read about the Daytona racing accomplishments of the CR750s built from the racing kits. I moved away from home in 1975 after college to my first job as an underpaid salary slave engineer and left the bike with my father who sold it when they moved in 1978. I soon heard Norton was going out of business and got a loan for one of the last 850 commandos, bought from the infamous Ghost Motorcycles in NYC, and kept in in the living room of my apartment on Oyster Bay, LI, NY.
So the years pass. I sold the Norton after 10 years because I had a child and riding motorcycles would void my life insurance policy. My son turned 16 and what does he want, a motorcycle. So I let him buy a side of the road for sale Yamaha Virago 920 with all the wild innovations that model experimented with. I buy a $100 Yamaha 650 to fix up at the same time. My son has a great time beginning to disassemble the Virage and eventually realized this project is a little over his head. But he learns how to ride my 650 and I buy a Honda 750 V twin cruiser with Honda financing for fun and we ride together until he goes off to college.
In the meantime I started seeing all the amazing café 750s on SOHC4.net and decide I want to do that, too. So I decided to buy a CB750K and fix it up as if I had kept the 1971 and fixed it up over the years. That was the start of this build.
Acknowledgements and ThanksI do not have a big garage or shop. In fact the work was mostly done in my basement. But I was very fortunate to know the following people who are experts at their crafts. My rebuilt engine mated with the new Keihin CR carbs starts in half a second and runs perfectly despite a move to Salt Lake City around 4,000 ft. higher. The paint job is show quality. The media blasting and powder coatings came out perfect even when I had them do it over because I changed my mind on the color/finishes. They were very patient. The custom parts and mountings are commercial quality in fit and finish. The finishing touch done in Utah was the seat upholstery with beautiful suggestions I never imagined. I was very lucky to find these people.
The countless posts in SOHC.NET were an invaluable source of technical knowledge, referrals and inspiration. Right, ride and write on.
Hales Motorcycle Shop, Enfield, NHJim and Jake are second and third generation motorcycle mechanics. They had also raced Formula 440 cars in SCCA and qualified for the national championships so I could tell they were not your average mechanics having raced in SCCA myself. They rebuilt my engine and installed it into the powder coated frame/rolling chassis then installed and plumbed the new fuel tank to the new carbs, connected the wiring, installed sprockets and chains. They also started the engine without headers or mufflers to check things out, a real pain in the ears.
Their advice and common sense was invaluable. They emphasized that if I was going to ride the bike it needed an air cleaner if I did not want to wear out my new rebuilt engine prematurely. We discussed fluid dynamics and air box designs leading to exhaust pulse coordination. So I modified the stock airbox to fit the new carbs, one of my favorite projects. We discussed the costs of engine performance modifications and how in the end I would have more power trapped in a 1971 frame and suspension technology. So we kept the rebuild simple and sensible. They laced and built my new Sun rimmed wheels and mounted the modern Avon rubber all in current and normal sizes. Looks and grips great. Working with them and discussing my choices was one of the highlights of the build.
Volusia County Customs, East Unity, NHI think Volusia County is in FL but I was lucky Todd moved to NH. Wife’s family there, I think. He is willing to do high quality small bike parts jobs which my tank, seat, fender and headlight cowl were. He took the time to get the colors as close to Honda racing red and silver as we could that he could actually buy and he was right on. Prep is the key and the paint is luscious and deep. Thanks again.
Before:
Race Metalsmiths, Wilder, VTMitch and son Scott, another father and son(s) operation, had the media blasting, powder coating facilities plus metal fabrication skills necessary to design and build my ingenious gas tank, seat and taillight mounting bracketry. Then they repaired, built and installed snuffers and refinished the 1978 CB750 4 into 4 exhaust system so they could be mounted to my 1971 exhaust ports and modified rear mounts to look like CR750 pipes. Looks very CR like and sounds fantastic.
Mitch has a ton of machine shop experience on complicated jobs and finally escaped overcrowded CT to raise his family in the Upper Valley/VT. Good move and his parts and ideas work and look perfect. Scott worked very hard and had excellent color and finish ideas after I made some goofy decisions at first. These helped clean up the design a lot. Then he guided me in how he could patch weld the rust holes in the 1978 pipes and blast the chrome so they would take a clear high temp finish. The metal look is so different than the usual black pipes on CR750s and stands out.
They finished their work and I picked up the bike and pipes for their trip to Utah so none of the New England people have seen the bike assembled until now.
1978 exhaust pipe set before:
Custom seat and rear gas tank bracket:
Examples of cleaned and powder coated parts and frame:
Bearscar Designs, South Salt Lake City, UTEli is an artist who has been teaching himself leather upholstery and getting real notice. His leather handgrips are unique and on some famous builds like the BMW Alpha radical build. I generally knew what I wanted but his suggestions in snap count and spacing , stitching pattern and using different materials on seat vs sides made the whole thing really pop. Good butt grip, too, on the suede like seat facing.
Before:
The buildDo not do what I did. I stupidly bought two basket case CB750s, a ’71 K1and ‘73 K3 that were mostly disassembled and incomplete for $100. Great price, right? No. Getting all the mixed K1 and K3 switchgear to work with the K3 wiring was a nightmare. Especially after I discovered the carb return springs were too strong for my carpel tortured right wrist and arthritic thumb needed me to obtain a K1 friction throttle and get working with K3 wiring and starter button. Ugh! Hours wasted getting it to all work again. Anyway, buy a complete bike to start with is my strong advice.
These are very different in earlier K years. Real PITA to adapt different years to wiring harness.
So what did I want in this bike was as if I had owned and continually modified it since 1971. I love both café style and CR750s so I decided to build a blend of both with some current technology parts like the wheels and tires. I also did not want nor could afford a CR750 replica which is pricey to do right. I knew I wanted a simple metal finish theme with many metal parts to be coated with clear satin powder coating because the Honda quality and metal speaks for itself. So is it like the car style RestoMod? I guess so.
Original rotor cleaned, center powder coated clear, drilled
What I did not doI also decided not do some things. I did not replace/move the oil tank. Not mounting the side covers and finishing the tank in clear gave me the look I wanted. I did not move the battery or replace with lightweight lithium type. I did not add a second front disc. I am not going to race the bike and I recalled one disc worked just fine. I like the old school single disc look. I did send it out for a great looking drilled hole pattern which was not expensive. I did not buy an aluminum gas tank. Maybe I should have because the coated and painted fiberglass tanks cost about as much in the end. But in the end I decided wanted a Honda racing red tank and not have a aluminum look alike tank like the excellent British cafes. I am still worried that phase 2 with the Rickman/Metisse half fairing will create a confusing look. I did not install clip ons nor setbacks, yet. I am 64 and not at an age where riding in a racing crouch is comfortable. I know you erudite readers know there was a Rickman Honda CR750 but building a replica of that bike would have frozen it in 1975.
The snotty looking original tanks that came with the bikes were not the look I wanted.
More to come...
