Last September I found this 77 750F on Craig's list. The bike looked a little tired it had a very ugly seat, needed a new set of tires, and the clutch was difficult to pull. Otherwise the bike ran very strong. Since these bikes are hard to find near me (Southwestern, Connecticut) I bit the bullet and paid $1,100 for this bike with a little over 20,000 miles.
The bike had some nice add on parts, like the Kerker, braided stainless brake lines in front, napoleon mirrors, air fork setup and lower bars.
The first thing I tried to do was adjust the clutch; that resulted in a broken cable. When I replaced the cable I found this:
The cable replacement made a huge difference you could now operate the clutch lever with two fingers.
By now it was the first week of October, and I had to go into the hospital for a kidney transplant, so that pretty much put all bike renovation on hold until the spring. However, by the second week of November 2007 I took the bike out for a spin around the neighborhood - the Transplant Surgeon said I could ride after a month, so I did.
In early April I moved the bike back into the garage from the shed and I started pulling it apart. My plan was to accomplish the following:
1. Sand blast and paint the exhaust
2. Replace the brakes
3. Rebuild the rear master cylinder
4. Repaint the bike - tank, side covers, tail piece
5. Replace the tires
6. Replace the ignition with a Dyna S
7. Paint the engine
8. Full tune up
9. Remove deep scratches from the alternator cover
10. Repair the leak from the shifter seal
11. Repaint the transmission cover
12. Replace the chain (sprockets were new - replaced by PO)
13. Front fork seal
I planned to be done with this project by the second week of June 2008. I ended up being finished during the first week of August. Most of the delay was due to the fact that the rear tire was on backorder for about six weeks (Dennis Kirk).
Here are some photos of the project:
In the garage.
On the lift.
Elevated and exhaust removed.
Tank stripping - Interesting to note that it did not look like Honda used any kind of primer when they originally painted the bike.
Kerker painted with Duplicolor high temp exhaust paint.
Sand Blasted Muffler
Painted Muffler (by the way does anyone know where I can buy another one of those things, it looks ok on the bike but it's still dented)
Tank fully stripped and dents identified. I ended up bringing the tank to a local auto body shop and he pulled the dents by welding pins on to the tank and pulling on the pins to remove the dents. He charged me only $40.
Dents filled - I only needed spot putty
Primed with etching primer
A few notes about paint - I used DuPont Hot Hues paint and the associated primers and clear coat. These are excellent products and excellent results can be obtained if you follow the manufacturers instructions.
Painted tank with clear - Just a few notes about this. After I primed the tank I got a little too aggressive sanding the epoxy primer, in fact I sanded it too thin. By doing that when I sprayed the base coat over the primer it dried and I had this really ugly raised spider web pattern on the side of the tank. I brought the tank to my paint supplier and he suggested that I sand and re-prime the tank then repaint. That little error ended up costing me about $80 in materials.
Let's re assemble this thing.
I saw a post from another SOHC 4 member about resurfacing rotors. They looked cool, and the rear rotor was really scored so I sent them to Portland Engine Re-builder and they came out great.
In case anyone wants to know, the harbor freight tire changer works pretty good for bike tires. The way I see it, the third bike tire I change it pays for itself.
Putting my old IV pole to use during the final tune up stages.
Finally with the bar end mirrors on. My technical advisor Bennett is in the picture.
I will take some better final pictures this weekend and update this post.
I still have more work to do on this, but nothing I need to worry about right now. In the future I will do the following:
1. New bolt kit for the engine
2. Change out the front stainless braided for some new ones from z1 the chrome ends on the lines and banjo bolts are rusted.
3. I would like to see if I can find an air box for the bike - I think the bike can run even better than it does.
4. It has Koni shocks on the rear, I might ditch them for some new Hagons. I have those on my 550 and that bike handles great. This bike handles really nice as well but the Hagons may be an improvement.
5. A new muffler would be nice but I can't seem to find a replacement, that Kerker thing is pretty loud.
I will say that in my case the blue bike is faster. The red 550 I finished last year is a much more "civilized ride" than the 750, but the extra power and weight of the 750 make this bike a more comfortable highway ride.
