Topic: Terry's Taxi CaB 750A project.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Dave, yeah, Sean is the first person who's told me that he's ridden one and doesn't like it. Vik told me that they've got a lot of torque and acceleration is quite good off the lights, and Brian enjoyed his first ride on a bike since his crash, although he wasn't happy that his mates weren't waiting for him to return so they could hold the bike up and lift him off (he's a paraplegic) so he had to ride around in circles swearing at them until they put their beers down and rescued him. He's in the process of having a sidecar fitted so he doesn't have to rely on them again....

Anyway, I haven't ridden it yet, so I have no knowledge of what it's like, but I'm keen to get it on the road. My tyre supplier said that Covid has slowed down the supply of Stinko tyres so could only offer me a Michelin front and a Pirelli rear, which doesn't fill me with confidence, so I asked him if I supply the tyres, will he fit them and he said yes, so I've bought 2 new Stinko 712's on Ebay and I'll take them to him for fitting when they arrive, I really can't trust the 20+ year old Dunlops, they were on the bike when it was imported from the US and they're really badly age cracked, something that I don't often see here in Oz.

Bill, Vik didn't call it the "Taxi", that was me, I used to tease him about it when he owned it. Over here all our muscle cars of the 60's and 70's were either 4 speed manuals or auto's, so being a manual car fan then, I used to say that the GT Falcon's or Monaro's with auto transmissions had the "Taxi Pack", which used to piss off the auto tranny owners. My knees are shot now, so I wouldn't own a manual car in a fit, and surprisingly enough, it doesn't detract from the driving pleasure at all, I wonder if it'll be the same with the Hondamatic experience? We'll see.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Dave, yeah, Sean is the first person who's told me that he's ridden one and doesn't like it. Vik told me that they've got a lot of torque and acceleration is quite good off the lights, and Brian enjoyed his first ride on a bike since his crash, although he wasn't happy that his mates weren't waiting for him to return so they could hold the bike up and lift him off (he's a paraplegic) so he had to ride around in circles swearing at them until they put their beers down and rescued him. He's in the process of having a sidecar fitted so he doesn't have to rely on them again....

Anyway, I haven't ridden it yet, so I have no knowledge of what it's like, but I'm keen to get it on the road. My tyre supplier said that Covid has slowed down the supply of Stinko tyres so could only offer me a Michelin front and a Pirelli rear, which doesn't fill me with confidence, so I asked him if I supply the tyres, will he fit them and he said yes, so I've bought 2 new Stinko 712's on Ebay and I'll take them to him for fitting when they arrive, I really can't trust the 20+ year old Dunlops, they were on the bike when it was imported from the US and they're really badly age cracked, something that I don't often see here in Oz.

Bill, Vik didn't call it the "Taxi", that was me, I used to tease him about it when he owned it. Over here all our muscle cars of the 60's and 70's were either 4 speed manuals or auto's, so being a manual car fan then, I used to say that the GT Falcon's or Monaro's with auto transmissions had the "Taxi Pack", which used to piss off the auto tranny owners. My knees are shot now, so I wouldn't own a manual car in a fit, and surprisingly enough, it doesn't detract from the driving pleasure at all, I wonder if it'll be the same with the Hondamatic experience? We'll see.

Lol  ah,ok. I'm a manual car owner,I always preferred them except for traffic 

[Terry in Australia]

Yes mate, me too, but that's the problem when your knees are shot, I live in a big city, and I'd be pumping that clutch like there was no tomorrow, so especially in "Stop and Go" traffic jams, it'd be hell. I'm more than happy to let my car change gears for me, it's way smarter than I am.

[Kelly E]

My knees are still good and I have one auto transmission vehicle. I bought it when I was driving class A trucks with 13sp transmissions doing local delivery. At the end of the day I didn't want to pump the clutch all the way home too.

[grcamna2]

Yes mate, me too, but that's the problem when your knees are shot, I live in a big city, and I'd be pumping that clutch like there was no tomorrow, so especially in "Stop and Go" traffic jams, it'd be hell. I'm more than happy to let me car change gears for me, it's way smarter than I am.

I slip the car into neutral(rolling momentum)and use just the brake pedal to stop the car 99% of the time in town;that way I'm not sitting at the light/sign continually pressing that pedal down;although if I was in big jamb-ups sitting,I would rather have an automatic.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, no good around here, there are 6 sets of lights between my place and the freeway, only 3 miles away. Sometimes I've been lucky and only copped 3 or 4 red lights, but then on other days I've had them all, plus stop/start traffic all the way home, so nope, I don't miss manual cars. We do have 3 manual cars here, two Hyundai's and my son's Subaru, but I don't drive them very often, both my knees need rebuilding, but I'm in no rush.


 

[Terry in Australia]

Sometimes I wish I could find the weatherman and kick him to death. I looked at the weather forecast yesterday and it was supposed to rain for the next 5 days, so I took the old K2 Bitsa for a 130 mile ride yesterday in freezing conditions. I woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine, but my back was killing me from the pounding it took yesterday, so even though it actually got to 17 deg C (62 deg F) which was probably the warmest day in the last couple of months, I elected to stay home and do some bike fixing..

No biggie, as much as I love (not) working on my bikes in the freezing cold, laying under them as icy water runs down my bum crack in my sloping driveway, it was nice today, to work in relative comfort. First job was to do something about the rusted mufflers. I had some megaphones out in the garage that had been sitting there for many years, in a box, untouched since my CX500 build 7 or 8 years ago. I bought some 15 degree stainless steel exhaust bends. The headers are 35mm OD, and I worked out that the bends had 35mm ID. I asked the seller to flare them at one end, to better fit the ID of the muffler.

The headers were a real tight fit inside the bends, to the point where I had to do a couple of saw cuts and then tap the bends down over the headers, but they came up looking good.

Terry’s Taxi 31 July 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr       

The chrome plated mounting bracket would have been fine, but I noticed that the OEM Honda brackets were a bolt on fit, and looked like they'd be a better fit, especially with the passenger footpegs that mount through them.

Terry’s Taxi 31 July 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They are a fair bit shorter than the OEM mufflers, but probably less likely to break like the originals did, probably due to stress fracturing.

Terry’s Taxi 31 July 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I installed the right side pipe and was happy with the result.

OK, so what else did I need to do. Hmmnn, what about some brakes? I looked in the box that I'd put all of Vik's "Take offs" and found a K1-K6 caliper. Bugger. Oh well, it's not the right one, but it'll do the job, so I installed a new piston and seal, and bleeder screw, new pads and new caliper mounting bolts, then rednecked the OEM brake hose and steel pipe to fit the caliper, and mounted them, then installed them on the MC.

Terry’s Taxi 31 July 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I poked a piece of stainless wire through the bleeder hole in the MC, and bled the brakes, and called it good. Not the right caliper, but it'll do the job until I can find the correct one, (if anyone here has a spare caliper for an F/F1, K7 or K8 let me know, I'd like to buy it) and doesn't look too out of place for the casual observer. More tomorrow.

[PeWe]

The shorter muffler look much tougher, Terry! Hopefully not too loud for approval in your coming  bureaucrazy waltz with the vehicle part of government.

We had silly laws for many years ago with muffler reaching the rear wheel bolt as the rear fender had to do too.
Stupid vehicle inspection with mud flap on with additional reflex since Honda stock did not have an E mark .

Rear number plate will shine in the dark and rear light is on when riding.
Stupid people in charge back then to decide silly rules on lower levels.  The stupidity has got promotions the last years into higher levels.

At least OK with shorter pipes. My bikes will never need a vehicle inspection anymore thanks to a good decision about >35yo veteran bikes.
My extra CB750 frame need a last  inspection when it has got parts. Last time 1993.

Good luck to make the bike roadworthy with plate and all.
Auto must be relaxing in stop and go traffic with lots of red lights a hot day.

EDIT: Saw the Youtube link.
The pipe assembly look really good. A professional look and a possible stock design for non CB750A experts.

[bear]

Those mufflers look to be the same units I picked up for my A. Emgo reverse cone Contie knock off's. They are about the same length as the originals though. Did your 15deg bend workout on those pipe spacers Uncle Tez? I haven't had mine made up yet.

[Alan F.]

It sounds great Terry, good luck getting it through.

[grcamna2]

Terry,those SS pipe spacers look just right.

[dave the welder]

terry just to give you an idea whats its like to ride one of these beasts, take your stock 750 with clutch,start off in 2nd gear,yes its slow but it catches up preaty quick then shift to 4th avoiding 3rd gear now dont shift any more.thats as good of a comparison on the two different bikes

[Terry in Australia]

Those mufflers look to be the same units I picked up for my A. Emgo reverse cone Contie knock off's. They are about the same length as the originals though. Did your 15deg bend workout on those pipe spacers Uncle Tez? I haven't had mine made up yet.

Thanks Brian, they're not Emgo branded, I bought them from a shop that sells parts for British classic race bikes about 8 or 9 years ago. I would have liked some longer megaphones at the time, but could only see some Emgo mufflers that looked like the old Dunstall mufflers that we put on everything back in the day, but from memory they were pretty loud, I don't know if they had much of a baffle in them? I did see a youtube vid of an A with long "Cocktail shaker" mufflers with bends, and they looked to be a really good fit, but I had the mufflers in the garage, so decided to use them.

The 15 degree bends worked really well, if you look at the vid you'll see a better view of them, I could have bought mild steel ones but I'd have to paint them to stop them from rusting, whereas the setup looks pretty professional, and I don't need to take the mufflers off to baffle them. I'll just take the end caps off and poke some stainless steel wool down the pipes, and use some perforated aluminium "Gutter Guard" left over from the CX500 build (with the same mufflers) that I cut into a circular disc to stop the stainless steel wool being blown out the back when I give it the berries.

The bends are a really tight fit though, so you might need to get one of your big hairy friends to help.

[Terry in Australia]

Anyway, today I'll probably have to remove the carbs again to work out why when I pull the choke knob, the choke butterfly shaft thingy doesn't turn? I looked at a set of F2 carbs in my garage and can see that the linkage isn't direct, it's some weird-arse spring loaded affair, but it's pissing me off because of course the bike won't start without the choke, so I can't refit the airbox until I get it sorted. Oh well, at least I can use the C clamp method of reinstalling them, so it's not gonna be as painful as last time.

Once the airbox is on I need to plug back in some wires that Vik left unhooked, then it just needs tyres before I can take it for a sneaky ride. I'll probably take it over to my storage unit and leave it there for awhile as my 1972 Suzuki T500 will be delivered soon (being picked up from Coffs Harbour today or tomorrow) and I need the room to work on it. This means that the registration process will be delayed by a few weeks, but no biggie, the nicer weather is at least another month away, so I won't be missing out on too many rides, plus I'm keen to start on the 500 smoker.

[HondaMan]

I took possession of a sad shape no title 76A last year. The wire rims are already spoken for but I have many of the parts off it. If you seem to be short anything, give a shout.  I had planned to open the crankcase just to see what's in there.

If the guy from Florida who wants me to rebuild his "A" comes thru, I might be interested in some of the guts of your "A"?

[seanbarney41]

Terry, did you have the choke butterflies off the shaft?  If you put 'em back on even slightly misaligned the butterflys will graze the bore of the carbs and prevent the choke from closing properly.  Also dings in the body of the carbs can cause the same problem.  Its pretty easy to ding the airhorn of those carbs, especially if they have been shipped or stored poorly.  Don't ask me how I know

[grcamna2]

Anyway, today I'll probably have to remove the carbs again to work out why when I pull the choke knob, the choke butterfly shaft thingy doesn't turn? I looked at a set of F2 carbs in my garage and can see that the linkage isn't direct, it's some weird-arse spring loaded affair, but it's pissing me off because of course the bike won't start without the choke, so I can't refit the airbox until I get it sorted. Oh well, at least I can use the C clamp method of reinstalling them, so it's not gonna be as painful as last time.

Once the airbox is on I need to plug back in some wires that Vik left unhooked, then it just needs tyres before I can take it for a sneaky ride. I'll probably take it over to my storage unit and leave it there for awhile as my 1972 Suzuki T500 will be delivered soon (being picked up from Coffs Harbour today or tomorrow) and I need the room to work on it. This means that the registration process will be delayed by a few weeks, but no biggie, the nicer weather is at least another month away, so I won't be missing out on too many rides, plus I'm keen to start on the 500 smoker.

I look forward toward your thread on the T500 Terry 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, and for Sean, nope, I didn't have the carbs that far apart, and they don't have any damage that I can see, it's a real head scratcher. Bill, I'm really looking for the T500 build, moreso than this one, although there's not much left to do on this bike now, as it was in pretty good condition when I got it. The T500 will need a lot more love, but that's OK, it'll be really cool to have the big 2 stroke that I've wanted for a long time now.

As it turned out, I didn't get jack diddly done on the Auto today. On Friday night the wind was horrible (I think I mentioned that in my 100 mile ride post) and not long after I got home I heard an explosion so wandered outside, and saw this:

Tree Lopping 1 Aug 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

A big arsed branch, about the size of a large tree had snapped and fallen on my roof. Great.....

Anyway, as the forecast was for more rain tomorrow, I decided to climb up on the roof with my Ebay el-cheapo pole saw, and remove a bit of weight, so that it didn't eventually fall through my roof, which wouldn't be good. Only the wife was home, so I had her stay well clear, and to be ready to ring 000 (Oz's 911) in case I took a tumble off the roof, which is one of the biggest killer of guys over 60, apparently. It turned out that two big branches had sheared off, so I trimmed off as much as I could. Only problem was, one big heavy branch had a smaller branch that hooked over another one, so I had to add another 39 inch extension so I could reach it, and luckily it fell down between the tree trunk and the house, and didn't break the concrete or go thru the window.

Tree Lopping 1 Aug 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, by the end of the day I'd removed a ton or so of tree off my roof, and was buggared. Tomorrow I need to go buy a small chainsaw to chop it into even smaller pieces, and hire a dumpster to drop it into. No bike work sadly, I'll get back to that task shortly.

Tree Lopping 1 Aug 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[PeWe]

Your house has no wood burner or open fireplace you can burn the wood cold days?

[MauiK3]

That type of work is pretty dangerous, good thing you were careful.
Is there someone in your area with a wood burning stove or heater? They may take the wood off your hands.

I too am waiting for the T500 project. I'm envious.

[grcamna2]

No permanent damage to anything but the broken tree branch? I'd call that a Win 

[Just John]

New mufflers look and sound great.  Speaking of the T500, Josh Nowell on Chopperswapper has a bunch of NOS, used and racing T500 parts he is wanting to sell as a group.  He is in Virginia and I believe he would be willing to ship it all to your US shipper.    https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKFqHyrZIj/

[Alan F.]

That's a huge find John!

[Terry in Australia]

New mufflers look and sound great.  Speaking of the T500, Josh Nowell on Chopperswapper has a bunch of NOS, used and racing T500 parts he is wanting to sell as a group.  He is in Virginia and I believe he would be willing to ship it all to your US shipper.    https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKFqHyrZIj/

Thanks John, what a haul! More than I want and can afford, but I posted that I want a sidecover and will need some other parts once I pull mine apart (once it's delivered) so I can se what I need.

[Just John]

New mufflers look and sound great.  Speaking of the T500, Josh Nowell on Chopperswapper has a bunch of NOS, used and racing T500 parts he is wanting to sell as a group.  He is in Virginia and I believe he would be willing to ship it all to your US shipper.    https://www.instagram.com/p/CSKFqHyrZIj/

Thanks John, what a haul! More than I want and can afford, but I posted that I want a sidecover and will need some other parts once I pull mine apart (once it's delivered) so I can se what I need.

My jaw dropped when I saw it!  I've dealt with Josh a few times so I check his site pretty often.  He's a picker so you never know what he will have.