Moderator SteveD says its all right to post on a non SOHC4, so here goes:
Not a RestoMod. As close to original as budget will allow.
I bot this bike in 1998 from a lady who was running a General Store in Berlin, KY. I was on a 3 day camping outing with my wife, and 2 other riders. I was riding my 1988 Honda Hawk GT, the one with the interesting if not anemic V Twin 650cc Shadow engine, and the twin spar aluminum frame and single sided swingarm. Linda had a Kaw ZL600. A cruiser with shaft drive, dual baloney cut mufflers, and a detuned Ninja 600cc engine. Still it put out about 70hp and could stomp on any of us. She would have preferred a sportier layout, but the cruiser style was low enough she didn't have to tippy toe at stops.
Anyway, we were enjoying the ridge roads of northern KY when we pulled in to the General Store for some R&R. Got to talking to the proprietor, a lady in her 70s. She said she had a motorcycle. We said we wanted to see it. She took us into the Liquor Store portion of the store. Back then KY was stingy with Alcohol permits, and she had the one for her area (county?). It was a small lockable closet of a store. And parked in there was this all white, 305cc Super Hawk, all original. with a 1974 plate on it. A true "barn find". I offered her $500 for it and she agreed. She got the title and signed it over to me, I picked it up with my trailer the next weekend.
Her husband had bought it new, put about 4,000 miles on it, then died, unrelated to the motorcycle. She parked it in the liquor store in 1974 and there it sat. For 28 years! When I got it home, I went over it and found that time was not kind. The double leading shoe brakes, front and rear, had corroded to where they were inoperable. The number of pivot points on the brake linkage is about 6 and they were all locked up. Inside the drums, the brake shoes were disintegrating, and more stuff like that. I fixed all of those issues and got it started. I began riding it around and got the kinds of remarks you couls expect from those in the know of what it is. Honda's first stab at a high performance street legal motorcycle. It can do a true 100mph, won fuel economy records at 100mpg, and was the bed for all kinds of racers. Its sister bike the CL77 Scrambler won the Baja 1000 in stock trim. But even at all that the other sister CA77 Dream was the more popular of the 3, but I hated it. Single carb, 360 degree crank, valanced fenders, funky ass front end, etc.
The CB77 is a dual carb, dual points, 180 degree crank, ..this article tells the differences better than I can:
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/3124580I rode this bike about 2000 miles, took it on overnight "tours" with sport bags, bedroll, tank bag, windshield. I've got a real nice pic of me, the Superhawk, Linda and the ZL packed for a trip.
But it came to pass that I couldn't get the cam chain to hold its tension. I'd adjust it and with in miles it was noisy again. Finally I pulled the cam chain tensioner off (its very much like the CB750s, or the 750s is like the Superhawk's). and found that the wheel on the end of the arm had seized (another victim of father time) and the chain had cut it down to nothing as it wouldn't turn. That put an end to riding it, and it was parked, till now.
It is 98% original. But I won't be able to get it running without replacing some parts. The exhausts are full of holes, the chainguard needs repair (they all did). I had to replace the handlebars s I took a little spill on it, and some of the original cabling was replaced. Original paint is not going to happen. It is speckled all over with rust, frame,, gas tank fenders, all painted surfaces. I've about settled on using white powder coating all over. The rims are speckled all over with rust, etc. But, my goal is to keep it as stock as possible. So it will actually be rideable and worth something too.
Here's where we are:
I've sourced some new rims, but I'm still trying to see if someone won't rechrome the original ones.
More later.
