Topic: Interesting early K-1 manual supplement

[CycleRanger]

I found this early copy of the K-1 manual supplement that's "in the white" so to speak.

The manual is slightly smaller compared to the later brown-cover editions and the cover is plain white paper and isn't the heavier card stock. (It's laid over a later brown-cover edition to compare.)

Internally it differs from the later editions slightly, it lacks the tool section of the later brown editions.
There may be other differences, I haven't studied it closely.
(Someone thoughtfully added "K1" to the front cover forever diminishing whatever potential value it may have.)
Has anyone ever seen an early K-1 manual supplement like this one?

[CycleRanger]

No one??  It's really that rare?
Come on, I know there's some of you out there who collect 750-related documents.

[ekpent]

Suprised member Hinomura has not commented yet,think he can be considered our historian Guru around here 
  Who knows maybe worth 'Sandcast' money on E-bay.

[CycleRanger]

Suprised member Hinomura has not commented yet,think he can be considered our historian Guru around here 
Who knows maybe worth 'Sandcast' money on E-bay.

Yes, agree if anyone would know, he would.

[bryanj]

Standard supplement supplied by Honda to all dealers, then there was a K2, K3, K4 etc supplement.

Some supplements came in a "batch" K2-K4 i think as there were no majour mods in hat time.

I have the UK dealer supplements scanned to CD along with the original CB750 and the F1

[Stev-o]

Now you have to buy a K1!

[Hinomaru]

CycleRanger,
Looks like you have a photocopy of the original since the pages are smaller and printed in plain white paper. This is pretty common as it’s done to preserve the original. Then the copy becomes the shop working reference for greasy fingerprints and note taking. This original supplement is probably what your white copy was made from:   

Front:



Back:



Back close up:

[CycleRanger]

Thanks for your replies but please guys give me a little more credit.
One, I know what it is and two no, this is not just a copy.
It's obviously printed and professionally bound.

If you read my first post you'll see that I have my own copy of the later brown-cover printing.
In fact I have a couple of them with different printing dates in 71 and 72.

It is interesting that Hino's copy has the same apparent printing date, but the numbers are different.

But perhaps I wasn't clear in my first post, this white copy is different internally from the later brown-cover versions in that it's missing the tool section and the table of contents reflects that.
There may be other differences, I haven't looked closely at it yet, maybe tonight I'll go through it more thoroughly.

Anyway, I'm just asking not because I'm looking for "sandcast money" or anything like that, I just enjoy collecting ephemera related to my interests.

I know there's other folks here like Hinomaru who apparently share the same interest and there's half a thousand others here who've seen more 750 stuff than I ever will so if no one here has ever seen this white version I can at least assume that it's a bit more rare than the more common brown cover printings.
Anyway, I'll post some scans later just to make sure and drive this topic all the way into the ground!

[Hinomaru]

Your last post clears things up. 

I have never seen a white copy shop supplement and do not have a reference for one. Yours is the first. Since it’s not a photocopy or reprint, that opens the door for numerous possibilities to it’s rarity. I would like know too!

[CycleRanger]

Here's a scan of the index of the white cover supplement just for the heck of it.
I went through it a little more closely and compared to the '71.2 printing of a brown cover edition that I have and it's lacking the aforementioned tool section and the Periodical Maintenance table in the very back. It also lacks the Honda "wing" logo on the back cover.
Otherwise it appears identical to the brown cover edition, even down to the typos. ("dumper rubber of rear wheel hub")

As I mentioned before, it's interesting that it has the same printing date as your copy, Hino.
Makes me wonder if the white copy was intended to be given away rather than sold perhaps?  Who knows, that's the fun of it!

Anyway, thanks everyone for your inputs. I guess that this bit of CB750 arcana isn't particularly interesting to anyone other than Hinomaru or myself.
Imho, collecting related documents, manuals, etc. is a sometimes overlooked part of this hobby.
If you run across any original Honda documentation I would advise grabbing it and hanging on to it.
Sure, Honda printed a ton of it and distributed it all over the world but you never know just how much is left.
You're helping preserve a bit of the CB750 story. 

[Hinomaru]

CycleRanger,

From my own observations ... I’ve noticed on the “Printed in Japan” manuals that the A-number seems to be relative to the printing run and/or time period. Your white K1 supplement has the lowest A-number I’ve seen to date. This would support a early edition as you already suspected. Notice how the A-number has gone up by the time the K4 manual was printed. I don’t know the significance of the letter A or the numbers, but it does provide a clue.

Pre-production?



Early



Later

[CycleRanger]

Yes, I had considered the same thing about those "A" numbers.
Except the K1 supplement I have dated '71.2 has an A 3000 number and the other one I have dated '71.5 is A 2000.
So while that "A" number could indeed be indicative of the number copies in the print run, they're apparently not indicative of the total number ever printed.
So the mystery continues and therein lies the fun!
I guess we just need more data and that means collecting more samples!!

Perhaps some of the other K1 supplement-owning members can report the dates & numbers from their manuals and we can use that data to flesh out your hypothesis!

For extra fun we can look at the green shop manuals too.


Whoops, oh wait, I just went and looked at the green manual I have dated '70.3 and it says "A1"  so I guess we're back to square one!
Heh.

[Hinomaru]

Well, looks like I hit a dead end.

Good thing you had those other supplements to compare the A-numbers with. I just don’t know what to make of your unusual and rare supplement, perhaps more information will come forward. And back to square one. 

[ekpent]

What do you guys think are the purpose of numbers at the bottom of the back page I believe on the left side as they appear to be quite different. Are the white ones close to the brown?

[Hinomaru]

Eric, good question. Those numbers seem to show up on the USA, Japanese and UK manuals that I have. I would assume that they mean something to the printing company and/or Honda, but I don’t know what (if any) the number connection would be.

(click on image for larger view)
 
UK


 
Japanese