Hi, All,
I just rejoined the ranks of sohc CB750 owners after...ehem...a few years’ absence.
My last sohc was a candy gold 750 K2. It was the summer of 1977, Chicago, when I bought it. I had a first date on that straight-stock bike, riding double into Michigan with the woman who now is still my wife. I had to sell that beauty after the first snowfall that year to pay college bills, but I can still hear its grumble to this day.
Well, look what I found last month:
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1972 CB750 K2, candy gold, 99% stock, 19,000 miles.
The bike was waiting for me in a driveway, looking like a long-lost friend.
Its second owner had pulled it out of its hibernation in his garage, where it had sat unused for 25 years. Now he just wanted to see it in understanding hands.
I noticed it had a few dents, a broken clutch-lever fitting, no center stand, the tank paint slightly faded. There was mirky funk in the tank--a semi-liquid mash of deceased gasoline, a scum of lacquer and a thin layer of rust.
But we were neither of us young anymore were we?
So my sons and I had no choice but to settle that nagging question: Can you tuck a CB750 into an Odyssey? (That's my eldest son's face, my butt.):
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Back home, I took a better look. No gunk at all in the carb bowl I opened up and the float needles move freely.
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The engine turns over, and the rubber is still in remarkably good shape.
Things to fix:
-New seals, gaskets, brake master, tires, lots more.
-Find a center stand.
-Replace smashed points cover.
-Replace cut-off petcock lever (anyone got a lever to spare?).
-Replace broken left-hand switch/clutch-lever fitting.
-And those beehives have
got to go:
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But it's all coming back as I pore over this bike, like looking into an old photo album at an old close friend.
You see, this is my 4th CB750.
-#3 was that K2 back in ’77.
-#2 was a K0/K1/K2/K3 Frankencycle I built in ‘75. I couldn’t afford even a used 750—I was in high school in Tokyo. So I started with an engine a friend sold me for $10 and built up a hybrid from parts I bought cheap off junked bikes I found in the back lots of Tokyo motorcycle shops.
The end result, bike and owner, in the summer of '75:
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I had to sell that cobbled-together beauty to fly to the U.S. for college.
-#1 was one of those Tamiya plastic models, a golden CB750 K0 I glued together as a 9th grader after seeing the real things on the streets and not being able to wait until I was 16.
I feel like I'm back there again.
Thanks in advance for all the help I suspect I'll find on this site as I revive this bike to its original rideable beauty. First step is to rebuild carbs and clean the tank as I plan how to test out the engine and look for used parts to replace the broken and missing ones.
Cheers,
Steve
