Well I woke up this morning (geez, that might be a good start for a blues song!) with the intention of doing some chores, then more engine parts painting, (my 836 engine is rapidly coming together) but the wife went out early to visit her Mom, so the chores were forgotten and as soon as she drove out of sight, I fired up my beautiful K0 to go for a quick blast.
As it was a tad over 90 degrees F, my first stop was the Beveridge pub, for a pint of my current favorite beer, "Pure Blonde". I rode by SteveK0's place to see if he was home, but couldn't raise anyone, so I continued on. I remembered that last time I'd ridden the K0 I'd sworn that I'd never wear my open face helmet again, but of course I hadn't taken my own advice, so as punishment I was peppered with suicidal bugs, some dry like little stones, and some quite wet, like sloppy turds.
After 75 miles or so, I pulled into a "Hungry Jacks" (Aussie "Burger King") and washed the bugs off my face and neck in the bathroom, then chowed down. I gave Steve a call, apparently he'd been down in his cavernous barn at the bottom of his property first time I dropped by and hadn't heard me, so I rode back over there, enjoying the ride, but not so much, once again being spattered with bigger, wetter bugs.
When I pulled into Steve's driveway, the bike "conked out" and refused to start, so I figured I'd leave it for awhile and try again later. It did this once before hand, but fired right up the next day, so I knew it wasn't anything serious. Steve took me for a tour of his collection of bikes and his enormous stash of K0 parts, it was that "kid in a candy store" thing for me, ha ha! Anyway, we yacked for awhile and drank some beer, then after he politely refused a ride on my bike, we decided to see if it'd go again.
It took awhile to fire up, and "conked out" again, then finally started, and we both decided it was a fuel issue, so I gingerly rode off, but it didn't give me anymore trouble on the 25 mile ride home, but then "conked out" in my driveway again. Tomorrow I'll take the tank off and clean out the petcock, and replace the fuel lines. (like Andy suggested when I bought the bike back in March.............)
Apart from that minor issue and of course, the bugs, (I've gotta hide that open face helmet somewhere so that I'll never find it again) the bike ran magnificently. I need to change the exhaust gaskets as they're leaking quite badly, and of course clean out the tank and petcock, and replace one blinker globe, but apart from that, it was a great ride, I did around 125 miles, and Hondaman's ignition seems to be working perfectly, allowing the engine to happily rev to 10,000 RPM on at least one occasion, with no ill effects.
I saw 80 MPH in third gear at one stage, and the bike was very well behaved at that speed, although the rear shocks feel pretty useless, allowing the centre stand to scrape on the left side at only conservative lean angles. On the plus side, it's getting close to 48 miles per imperial gallon, or 39 miles per US gallon, which I think is pretty good, about what I remember getting from other CB750's over the years. I took some roads I've never seen before, and the scenery was quite beautiful, so next trip I'll take my camera! Cheers, Terry.
