Hi everyone,
So I was approved for the forum today. On January 1st I took delivery of a ‘77 CB750. Way back in 1977 I owned a ‘75 CB750 which I sold in 1980 when I got married. And yes, we’re still happily married.
I owned a few motorcycles after that CB750 but really I stopped riding. You know how it goes. In 2007 I started to look for a ‘75 CB750 as a restoration project having just finished building a garage. No CB750s we’d on offer, but a ‘76 KZ900 (gasp from the Honda people) popped up. I well remembered the drag race I had against my friend’s new KZ900. I was left behind right out of the gate.
So from 2008 until last year I restored a number of the big bore ‘70s Kawasakis including a very nice (once I finished it) 1973 Z1 900. I would restore them, ride them a while, then sell them off, holding back the Z1. But last year after doing a 5,000km trip on a KZ1000, I was done with old bikes. Or so I thought. I sold off that KZ1000 and my Z1 and bought a shiny new Yamaha Tracer900. Man is that a sweet ride.
A bit more background. In 2016 while on a motorcycle trip in New Zealand, I had a near fatal crash on the second day. I spent 2 months in hospital there. When I returned home I spent two years recovering and decided not to return to work. And now that I no longer had old motorcycles to tinker with, I was at loose ends and decided to get another project bike. A ‘77 CB750 with 23,000 miles on the clock presented itself, so here I am.
The bike is in reasonable shape I guess. Not requiring a restoration, more like a revival I hope. Typical story, “it was running when parked”. The bike is pretty much complete though. It needs a significant amount of help. The carb slides were stuck solid from evaporated gas. I’ve just now disassembled them and am ultrasonic cleaning them.
Because I’ve not worked in almost seven years, my funds are limited so the CB750 must be done on a shoestring budget. First I’ll make it run. I’m going to clean the cabs, reassemble them without any new parts and see if they leak. If they don’t leak, I’ll put the on and see if the bike will start (have to get a battery) and go from there.
I don’t yet have a manual, but a friend has a Clymer he’ll give me tomorrow. I’ve no idea of the base settings for the floats or needles etc., so I hope the Clymer will help. My opinion of Clymer manuals is not very high.
Cheers,
Ross
