I only collect SOHC cb750s. A year ago, I heard of a woman that was selling her husband’s collection of unfinished motorcycles. He had two K0’s that were not complete. As I was building one for myself, I went to look. One was almost done, the other in crates. He also had a cl200 (never sold here in Canada), Suzuki GT550, 1975 CB750 USA drag bike (originally built by Orient Express), and a 1977 Benelli 750 SEI. The Benelli was almost completed. There was also about 60-65% of the parts for another Benelli (including another frame) and tons of NOS Honda, Suzuki and Benelli parts! I made her an offer for all the Honda bikes and bits, and suggested I could sort the Benelli and Suzuki parts into piles and give her an estimate of value.
Next day she called me back and told me I had offered her more for the Honda stuff than her husband’s “FRIENDS” were offering for everything. There was a hoist table, tools and equipment too! I addd $5k to may offer and she gave me everything!
It took me four trips with a pickup truck and a large trailer to get everything home. Lots of boxes I had never seen, were filled with more NOS parts than I’d imagined. It took me a year to finish his first K0, the GT550, drag bike and the CL200. I sold them all and passed on the second K0 to a buddy, for a very fair price.
The Benelli is basically a cb550 Engine, with two extra cylinders. It came with new BUSSO 6-6 pipes, and everything else to complete. As I worked on it, and did more research, I fell in Love! Then when I fired it up, it got worse! Sounds just like an early 70’s Ferrari F1 racer. Great ride, lovely handling and even better brakes. Put 6-700 miles on it last Fall and it will never sell. I just found the correct CEV turn signals and stalks, but I kind of like the CB750 units on the SEI. Ties it nicely to the others bikes in my shop.
As a bonus, all those extra parts helped me finish my K0. In the end, it cost me nothing but the time and effort. His K0 ended up in a museum and we added a plaque indicating the Restoration was by “the previous owner’s name”. His wife and Family were thrilled.
