I thought I'd share a couple stories on CR750 parts from my days in the mid-late '70s as a parts man at some Honda dealers in L.A. I happened upon a black exhaust pipe/muffler hanging on the rafters, way in the back one day. I was curious, so I climbed up, and brought it down. It was incredibly light - couldn't have been more than a pound or two - less than some burritos I've had.
The "muffler" section was empty, and had the CB750's contour. My recollection was that it was made in 2 halves, with a welded seam, but can't be positive. I looked at the tag, and it was something like 18400-300-970, and I knew from the 970 number it was a CR part. I looked up the price - a couple hundred I believe. It was a lot at the time, and I had no use for it, so I hung it back up.
A while later, I came across another 970 part, a forged aluminum rear brake pedal. I asked the parts manager about these 2 parts, and he said I could have the brake pedal. They'll never sell it, but the boss would notice if the pipe was missing. I ended up giving it to a friend who was amassing a collection of other rare CR singles and twins, and he used it on one of his CR71 restorations.
At another dealer, Bill Robertson & Sons, I came across a box of transmission parts in a dusty box on the top of a dusty shelf during a spring cleaning assignment. No one knew what it was or wanted it (no, not a CR750 trans), so I took it home to learn about transmissions. It had 5 gears on each shaft, but they were poorly fitted, tight in some areas, so needed some sanding/filing to get things spinning.
Turned out later it was a race kit 5-speed for the 250/305 Superhawk/Scrambler. One of the sons, Bill Jr., along with Dave Ekins, had been the first to ride solo from Tijuana to La Paz, Mexico, on their very stock 250 Scramblers.
The last story is back to CR750 parts. Before the internet, before Craigslist, there was a local free-ad paper called the Recycler. One day, I found a listing for a CB750 gas tank, new in a factory box - aluminum. I called up, and he gave me the part number on the box, 17500-300-000, early-early number, no color code. Not a 970 number.
So I went to take a look at it, and yes, it was an exact replica of a CB750 tank, painted in red with the gold striping. I'm pretty sure it had a flip up aluminum cap, with a little tab off to the side for safety wire, but not positive. The owner had stumbled across it in a warehouse or something, but he wanted $1000, a huge sum back in the '80s. I walked away, and later tried to call him and make an offer, but got no response.
Bob Hansen was a So Cal local, and I met up with him at one of the motorcycle swap meets. I asked him about the tank, and he said, yes, they had 10 tanks made, just in case the AMA wouldn't let them race with the long tanks. So there were 10 unused tanks floating around somewhere.....
Thanks for reading/listening.
