Topic: Blog: 736cc Builds His Pipe Dream

[736cc]

Start with freshly-built 1969 CB750 sandcast engine E1002006 and powdercoated original frame 1001887.

[scunny]

and ?
going by your other 750"s, I'm looking forward to this

[ekim98]

Surley you have more than one picture you can post, have a heart.

[754]

What frame or engine # ??

 last 4 numbers blank out the last 2 if you want..

[bwaller]

Are we to take it that this one will be a keeper?

I've got to hand it to you 736cc, you've done alot to keep the marque alive!

[736cc]

  I take inventory of everything that comes w/ the motorcycle. This motorcycle is an EXCEPTIONAL basket case and came w/ the motherload of rare original parts and a fantastic cache of nos bits, it literally filled my van. Previous owner (and my very good buddy) has been accruing and hoarding parts for 15 years, and knows the sandcast esoterics as well as anybody. I've been "handed the torch" for me to finish. I cannot think of a more enjoyable and personal mission to accomplish, and I am determined to give it my very best effort to date. I've been doing this for 10 years, owned and restored 40 early CB750's, and have learned there's no down-side in doing things right (except breaking the bank- but this certainly is a blue-chip investment).
  Motor was rebuilt, aluminum polished, frame powdercoated, all the chrome re-plated, motorcycle just needed that BIG final push. The inevitable missing and INCORRECT parts must be sourced. And it will be CORRECT, that is the only direction to go.
  The Honda Parts Book contains every single part including sizes of screws/nuts etc. An invaluable reference tool, it also has part #'s which you can simply hand to your friendly neighborhood Honda parts guy. Honda will carry a suprising percent of what you need (except the really early GOOD stuff- for that you will need a parts bike (or 2), buy/swap w/ people in the loop, shop at YAMIYA, and bid victoriously on ebay).

[nteek754]

Damn it! 736 Ive drooled all over my computer key board.  NICE NICE NICE lots of luck completing your sweet ride. I feel like the hulk no not that big but just green with envy have fun Craig in Maine

[736cc]

Rare original rims newly chromed. Hubs stripped, hand-polished w/ Penetrol and clear-coated, along w/ rear brake panel and sprocket carrier. This week I laced on a new spoke set purchsed from YAMIYA in Japan. Note the 2 hole rear hub; unseen details like this make the difference between getting it done, and getting it done RIGHT. And thats how you play this game.

[Bob Wessner]

Is the two hole rear hub unique in some way?

[736cc]

Is the two hole rear hub unique in some way?

Along w/ a host of other parts, Honda changed things slightly as production got tweaked (like the notorious short chainguard). Look at your hub, K0's might have 2 holes; K1's and all the rest definately have 4 holes for increased cooling and dust evacuation.

[Bob Wessner]

Thanks, mine does have the two hole hub, I just never noticed whether later models I've seen had two or not.

[754]

736cc

I had a 69,  Frame # 572 engine # 700 that was fairly complete.
I have a partsbook,dated 71 green cover.. it lists all the really early parts and when they changed, there was a lot of bits unique to the earlier ones..you really would not know without the partsbooks.


Wonder where that ended up, sold it on ebay Dec 2000.

[Bob Wessner]

I see what you mean. I have a reprint parts book, it does show the rear brake panel changed sometime during the K0 production run (#1026021) but no obvious indication of what change, or changes were made.

[754]

I think it is sometimes a vendor change, or patterns break down as they were made for short runs initially.

Vendors usually get a drawing with specs, as long as casting quality is good and specs are met they get approved, but there can be differences. like the 2 hole vs 4 etc.

Quite often when I had mine I would just grab a later part and compare you could see the difference a lot of the time, like the shoulder on the disc carrier, radius under the seal area on the fork leg..etc.

[Bob Wessner]

I have a stable of one, so comparisons are hard.

[736cc]

THE BOX from Japan.
Yamiya in Japan has an early CB750 sandcast restoration website. It is now more user-friendly than it used to be (and scary- just click "add to cart" and watch your credit card melt).
The "old" website carried items that are not on the new website. I recall they listed mind-boggling new original "unstamped" exhaust pipes. No-number (unstamped) pipes w/ the REALLY FAT diffusers were never sold by Honda seperately and were found only  on early production sandcasts motorcycles. Usually if you need a set of good used, you buy a few COMPLETE CB750's and hope the pipes aren't rotted/rusty/dented and settle for decent. And they make the restoration- how good are your unstamped pipes? Honda still sells NEW HM300 pipes but they have lettering, numbers, paragraphs, relief indents for brake pedal, etc and the sandcasts did not have all those politically-correct safety-standard stuff. The sandcast pipes are plain and VERY sexy. YAMIYA actually made them. How? Apparently, at Honda's SANKEII exhaust source, theres a dude on the HM300 assembly line who takes the new pipes off the assembly line BEFORE they get the stampings, and sells them out the backdoor to YAMIYA, and call them "Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust". (What Lotus Root means I never figured out).
Anyway, I emailed YAMIYA and inquired what happened to the "Lotus Root" unstamped pipes? His reply: "You are very lucky. I have 1 set of the very last Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust available. No more. $2250 shipped to USA."
Sweat trickled all over me. I hesitated 1 nano-second and clicked the mouse.
They amazingly arrived from Japan in 2 days(!) in this BIG BOX. Talk about HOLY $HIT.
My wife actually approved.

[754]

Mine was missing pipes had a header. Found a guy said he had an early set, big baffles but could not find number?

 So in the partsbook I noticed that most were the same for a long time after the switch, so I figured maybe the early ones had no numbers! i went to see them,pulled the baffle which was bigger than any I had seen so I bought them. There was a bit of rot by the joint on 2 of them, but i figured, if I dont grab these where will I get any?? Think I gave him the header that was on the bike and 200..or something like that.. mine had fatter clamps too..

[Bob Wessner]

No-number (unstamped) pipes w/ the REALLY FAT diffusers were never sold by Honda seperately and were found only  on early production sandcasts motorcycles.

My #2, #3 and #4 are such, but the bike is not a sandcast. Must have been put on by the PO, perhaps after a spill as there are other signs of road rash, none too severe. I had the #1 also, but it was pretty bad.

[754]

They would have to stamp the number during the initial pressing or a 2nd operation before welding them..

[Roach Carver]

watching ................................anxiously

[paulages]

THE BOX from Japan.
Yamiya in Japan has an early CB750 sandcast restoration website. It is now more user-friendly than it used to be (and scary- just click "add to cart" and watch your credit card melt).
The "old" website carried items that are not on the new website. I recall they listed mind-boggling new original "unstamped" exhaust pipes. No-number (unstamped) pipes w/ the REALLY FAT diffusers were never sold by Honda seperately and were found only  on early production sandcasts motorcycles. Usually if you need a set of good used, you buy a few COMPLETE CB750's and hope the pipes aren't rotted/rusty/dented and settle for decent. And they make the restoration- how good are your unstamped pipes? Honda still sells NEW HM300 pipes but they have lettering, numbers, paragraphs, relief indents for brake pedal, etc and the sandcasts did not have all those politically-correct safety-standard stuff. The sandcast pipes are plain and VERY sexy. YAMIYA actually made them. How? Apparently, at Honda's SANKEII exhaust source, theres a dude on the HM300 assembly line who takes the new pipes off the assembly line BEFORE they get the stampings, and sells them out the backdoor to YAMIYA, and call them "Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust". (What Lotus Root means I never figured out).
Anyway, I emailed YAMIYA and inquired what happened to the "Lotus Root" unstamped pipes? His reply: "You are very lucky. I have 1 set of the very last Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust available. No more. $2250 shipped to USA."
Sweat trickled all over me. I hesitated 1 nano-second and clicked the mouse.
They amazingly arrived from Japan in 2 days(!) in this BIG BOX. Talk about HOLY $HIT.
My wife actually approved.

 

[736cc]

Are we to take it that this one will be a keeper?

  Good grief, after what this cost, I have no choice but to sell it when its finished. I always do. This bike would not have happened if I hadn't sold my gold bike, and that was my keeper. And so it goes, deja vu.

  The build and the whole process that comes w/ it, including the road trip, tooling and handling the exquisite parts, stripping it down, making it better, parts deliveries (which are like Christmas morning year-round), coffee and beer breaks, the 1st ride + a few Sunday rides w/ the bros are more than enough for me.
  And its been invited to the big motorcycle show in NY at the end of December, which really clicks, as it'll be right about when this motorcycle will have peaked. After that, its all downhill.
"Half the Fun is Getting There"

[andy750]

Wow nice pipes - this is why Yamiya is yamiya  - it means "black market" in Japanese 

Looking forward to the finished product!!

cheers
Andy

[mlinder]

THE BOX from Japan.
Yamiya in Japan has an early CB750 sandcast restoration website. It is now more user-friendly than it used to be (and scary- just click "add to cart" and watch your credit card melt).
The "old" website carried items that are not on the new website. I recall they listed mind-boggling new original "unstamped" exhaust pipes. No-number (unstamped) pipes w/ the REALLY FAT diffusers were never sold by Honda seperately and were found only  on early production sandcasts motorcycles. Usually if you need a set of good used, you buy a few COMPLETE CB750's and hope the pipes aren't rotted/rusty/dented and settle for decent. And they make the restoration- how good are your unstamped pipes? Honda still sells NEW HM300 pipes but they have lettering, numbers, paragraphs, relief indents for brake pedal, etc and the sandcasts did not have all those politically-correct safety-standard stuff. The sandcast pipes are plain and VERY sexy. YAMIYA actually made them. How? Apparently, at Honda's SANKEII exhaust source, theres a dude on the HM300 assembly line who takes the new pipes off the assembly line BEFORE they get the stampings, and sells them out the backdoor to YAMIYA, and call them "Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust". (What Lotus Root means I never figured out).
Anyway, I emailed YAMIYA and inquired what happened to the "Lotus Root" unstamped pipes? His reply: "You are very lucky. I have 1 set of the very last Lotus Root CB750 K0 exhaust available. No more. $2250 shipped to USA."
Sweat trickled all over me. I hesitated 1 nano-second and clicked the mouse.
They amazingly arrived from Japan in 2 days(!) in this BIG BOX. Talk about HOLY $HIT.
My wife actually approved.

Sex.

[KB02]

My wife actually approved.

Now there's something to brag about in a build.