Topic: Original owners!!

[Prospect]

The only old picture I could find from 1974 I think. We were on our way to roadraces at Bryar in NH. That's me checking out my bike just after I had tossed it flat tracking around a corner on that gravel road.

Are those four cb750's?  It's true I guess - those bikes were everywhere!

[ekpent]

Frostyboy, no the emblem is correct. Alloy rims and Works Performance shocks....and it's not raining!

EDIT,  I had forgotten and had to go check the emblem to be sure, but you're absolutely right I do have a left emblem on that right cover. I recall now having my sidecovers stolen around 91. I had extra covers but only left side small emblems. Good eye man.

I had noticed that backward jewel also and also noted that the 750 four emblems on the sidecovers aren't the 73 variety but are the 71-72 script.Nice bike and great story on it.

[KCbarsos]

I bought my 750K3 in 73 (18 yrs old)for $1600 at Honda City in Montreal were I worked as a mechanic. I roadraced it, drag raced it, travelled everywhere with it and never ever has it left me stranded. It has been my only street bike in all these thirty eight years. We don't add up the miles like we used to so are only at 96000. 
great pic, rad thread!




The only old picture I could find from 1974 I think. We were on our way to roadraces at Bryar in NH. That's me checking out my bike just after I had tossed it flat tracking around a corner on that gravel road.

[CrankyOldGuy]

bump

[City Boy]

Hi gang.I bought my new ruby red K0 from my employer Nelson Motorcycles in April of '70 for $1350 Cdn.Took it out of the crate and put on flat bars and K81's before it turned a wheel as well as off with the turn signals.Couple years later added Yosh 812,rods,and Daytona cam.Couple years later scrapped Yosh and switched to RC1000,golden rods,Webbers,970 c/r gearbox,970 forks,Morris 18" front and rear alum,dual disc/970 caliper holder and 970 m/c.Chromed frame and swing arm for flash and added Marsochcie shocks and Tomaselli h/l holders.100/100 Marchal to see you better.Tuning issue led me to deal the Webbers.Oops!Was the ignition.On with a Martek 440 and Smoothbores.Not as fast but driveability better.A decade ago it started to knock for a millisecond on cold startup so it was parked to save innards.That's how it sits now waiting for refurbishment while I make due with a 1100F Cdn model.
   Merry Christmas to all

[SHELLFISH]

I am the original owner of my 1976 550F.
The 1976 550K I was given two years ago.
Here is a picture of me and the F on Daytona Florida beach in 1978.
I sill have the bike but I no longer have the hair!

[SHELLFISH]

Just for kicks if anyone in interested I bought a 1975 Chevy Luv truck new in 1975.
I also still have that! I don't get rid of anything!
I got rid of the four cylinder motor and drpped in a 327 small block two years after I bought it.
My father thought I was nutz!
Here is a picture of my Luv also on Daytona Beach Forida in 1978.

[Simpson]

This is a great thread.
My cb750 k0 is a few years older than me, so not original owner.
 
Although strangely, I do feel like the original owner.

[dhall57]

Simpson I know what you mean. I've had my 750K6 since 2009 and my KO May of this year, but I feel like they have always belonged to me and me only, I wish they had. The nearest I came to being the ORIGINAL OWNER of a sohc4 was in 1976 when I bought a 76 CB550 off a dealers showroom floor. The original owner had kept it only a short time and put very few miles on it (can't remember how many, but I think it was under 1000) and decided to trade it in on a CB750. I kept that 550 until right before I got married in 1980 and now of course I kick myself for letting it go and I think I sold it for $650 

 

[dhall57]

Hi gang.I bought my new ruby red K0 from my employer Nelson Motorcycles in April of '70 for $1350 Cdn.Took it out of the crate and put on flat bars and K81's before it turned a wheel as well as off with the turn signals.Couple years later added Yosh 812,rods,and Daytona cam.Couple years later scrapped Yosh and switched to RC1000,golden rods,Webbers,970 c/r gearbox,970 forks,Morris 18" front and rear alum,dual disc/970 caliper holder and 970 m/c.Chromed frame and swing arm for flash and added Marsochcie shocks and Tomaselli h/l holders.100/100 Marchal to see you better.Tuning issue led me to deal the Webbers.Oops!Was the ignition.On with a Martek 440 and Smoothbores.Not as fast but driveability better.A decade ago it started to knock for a millisecond on cold startup so it was parked to save innards.That's how it sits now waiting for refurbishment while I make due with a 1100F Cdn model.
   Merry Christmas to all

Fantastic story about your KO City Boy. Would love to see some past and current pictures.
thanks
dhall

[dhall57]

I am the original owner of my 1976 550F.
The 1976 550K I was given two years ago.
Here is a picture of me and the F on Daytona Florida beach in 1978.
I sill have the bike but I no longer have the hair!

thanks for posting info and pics of your original CB550f and also your Luv truck.
I'm sorry though that you couldn't hold on to your hair like you did your sohc4

[dhall57]

Don't stop,keep it coming all OO's. I've noticed several replies of your prize possession but with no pictures. If you weren't able on your first replied  go back in and add them later.

We all love pictures

[MrGardman]

I bought my first CB750 in 1971 from the dealership that I worked for. That's only the start of the story though. I sold that bike to a friend of mine in '73 to buy a new 750, which I did. After some years had passed and numerous motorcycles had come and gone through my hands, I had a chance to buy a  1970 750 from a guy locally. I took a look at it and man it was a rough unit, engine case support section in the front broken, bad seat, broken covers, rusty tank and etc, etc. We have all been there.

But my friend that I sold the '71 to heard that I was looking for another bike and wanted to know if I was interested in buying my original one back. I went to his house and  found out it had been parked in his barn for a LONG time, uncovered. My beautiful red 750 had now been turned into a General Motors blue 750. But it still had the original pipes and all the other stuff. So we arrived at a price and I brought it back home where it now resides never to leave my possession again. That was 12 years ago. So now its back to red with a derusted tank. Numerous carb cleanings...LOL. Polished the fork lowers, new fork seals, new fork gaiters. New carb mounts, new air cleaner tubes. New seat, rims, spokes, tires, tubes. New brakes front and rear. Rebuilt the caliper and master cyl. Still has the original pipes and meters though.

One of these years  I will get the engine out  to clean up some oil leaks, but I just have too much fun riding it to do that yet.

[bwaller]

Are those four cb750's?  It's true I guess - those bikes were everywhere!

Prospect, not everyone was in that pic. There were seven CB750's and an H2. It's true they were everywhere.

[Old Scrambler]

Merry Christmas everyone! Yes, as Johnie mentioned, I have had my CB750 since new, in early 1973.  It has been customized to a cafe style and returned to stock and now has about 70,000 miles with a recent top end job.  It shows its age up close but looks pretty good for an unrestored bike.  It has been to 38 states and 5 Canadian Provinces with more than 20,000 miles of two-up riding. 



I took this phot near Cascade WI, my home, in 1973 after I added the sissy-bar.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Count me in too    Back in '75 I had a smokin' job that paid well, ~ $7 per hour. I was rich! I had to buy that new car and I still had money left over that I needed to do something with. The stereo system was completed. What was left a single 24 year old guy could use?! I just received my March '75 issue of Cycle magazine. Lo and behold! A new CB750 with more modern styling and MUCH better performance than the detuned CB750K, at least so they said. My thought - W O W. Now I won't have to buy that Kamakazi. Off to the local Honda dealer, Evans Honda in Paducah, KY. Old Man Evans used to #$%* and complain when I took my ragged old '68 CB350 in for service back in the day. "I shouldn't have to work on this. You need to buy a new bike". I no longer had the old bike and it was in fact time for that new one. Off to Evan's I headed armed with 18 one hundred dollar bills. Spring fever  "Yes, we have one but it won't get put together for another week. I won't take anything less than $1900". "I want one today for $1800 cash". I counted out the $$ for him. I reminded him of his rants that I needed to buy a new bike and that is why I was there. I warned him that I knew another dealer that had them put together and would sell me one for $1800. No dice. I thought, of course, at this point - #$%*. And off I went! I gave him a chance cash in hand. I headed to Pug Vickers Honda in Huntingdon, TN, advertised as the world's largest Honda dealer. He must've had 15 - 20 put together. As I rode by Evan's Honda that afternoon on the first and only rideable CB750F in Paducah I honked the horn and saluted Old Man Evans. He immediately put one together and in the window that day.

My baby has always been with me through thick and thin. Rich and poor. Married and single. Rideable and unrideable. Blew it up in '76 at Daytona while there for the races. This is when I began the journey to shade tree mechanicdom. It was going to cost me half of what I paid for the bike to repair it. Figured I'd have to do it myself. Always say that if I have to get inside something it will go back together better. Half assed pieced it together with a Yoshi 812 kit and had Old Man Evans bored the cylinders for me  . It ran once again. Enter the next 30+ years and it's still with me through poverty and spouses. My initial building experience was rookie at best. It's been reincarnated a few times. I've always wanted to do it right just one time and now that I have another rider in the garage, cash and time that is just what I'm doing! It is currently in the midst of a full restore and rebuild. The bike is  getting restored and the engine is getting "rebuilt" (definitely not stock). I have been collecting new and NOS parts for ~ 4 years. 9 countries. Probably 85% + of the bike will be new. I'll have somewhere in the neighorborhood of $15,000 in it this one last time with ~ $7,000+ in the engine. Yes folks, you can spend this kind of money on an old bike IF YOU ARE CRAZY ENOUGH TO DO IT  On top of this I have almost enough good take off parts to build another complete bike so..... I now have another frame but I must decide on using a stock engine in it or a 1000 in it. Think I'll do one blue and the other orange  This is how it looked before I went crazy and took it apart.



Gotta run for now. Out to the garage. For what you ask? Why of course to complete the monster EXPENSIVE 900 rebuild. This shade tree mechanic must now learn to degree a Megacycle 125-75 cam. Just plopped the Yoshi Daytona cam in "back in the day". Getting techie I guess.

[cameron]

omg

[dhall57]

This is all good stuff!! You can tell by reading what the these Original Owners write about there special machines and what both of them have been through over all those years good and not so good at times that these sohc4's have become part of them in every since of the word. Nothing is fake or made up and it comes from deep inside them. I applaud everyone of you guys for not selling when you though maybe you should just because you just weren't riding it as much as you use to or going through some tough times and could of used the extra money, but you held on to it anyway and managed to get by some other way, or if you did sell it like MrGardman you were able to get it back years later. Many more years and miles of riding to come on that one unique bike 

[78 k550]

I bought my 750K3 in 73 (18 yrs old)for $1600 at Honda City in Montreal were I worked as a mechanic. I roadraced it, drag raced it, travelled everywhere with it and never ever has it left me stranded. It has been my only street bike in all these thirty eight years. We don't add up the miles like we used to so are only at 96000. 





The only old picture I could find from 1974 I think. We were on our way to roadraces at Bryar in NH. That's me checking out my bike just after I had tossed it flat tracking around a corner on that gravel road.

That rear rim looks like the rims on my Bultaco's are they Akron's?

Paul

[dhall57]

Quite a few Original Owners responded here with photos and a some history about there life together. Thanks I know everybody here has enjoyed it. I still think there is some more of this unique group of owners out there. Let us here from you!!

[japscrap]

I may not be the first to own my bikes, but, I will be the last. none of my bikes will ever leave my ownership,until I give them away or I die, whichever comes first.

[grcamna2]

I bought my 750K3 in 73 (18 yrs old)for $1600 at Honda City in Montreal were I worked as a mechanic. I roadraced it, drag raced it, travelled everywhere with it and never ever has it left me stranded. It has been my only street bike in all these thirty eight years. We don't add up the miles like we used to so are only at 96000. 





The only old picture I could find from 1974 I think. We were on our way to roadraces at Bryar in NH. That's me checking out my bike just after I had tossed it flat tracking around a corner on that gravel road.

bwaller, That's a GREAT looking K3 ! please tell me about the bike a little...as far as the mods do you have an 18" front & is that a Yamaha front MC(nice low profile unit!) ? What are your rims and rear shocks ? and what type of mods have you done to your front suspension ? Does she handle like a lighter bike ?

[bwaller]

Just home & half in the bag so Happy New Year.  It's a great old bike, but has been on the sidelines the last couple years while I focused on my race bike. I like to keep it CB750 recognizable, front wheel is still 19" laced to an Excel, m/c is 14mm Nissin. Rear rim is an old Akront, SS spokes all around. Shocks are Works Performance but front suspension is all Honda and rides like a tank, but is very familiar after all these years. It's due... actually we're both due for a re-fit. 

[dave500]

great old photos,and a great thread.

[grcamna2]

Just home & half in the bag so Happy New Year.  It's a great old bike, but has been on the sidelines the last couple years while I focused on my race bike. I like to keep it CB750 recognizable, front wheel is still 19" laced to an Excel, m/c is 14mm Nissin. Rear rim is an old Akront, SS spokes all around. Shocks are Works Performance but front suspension is all Honda and rides like a tank, but is very familiar after all these years. It's due... actually we're both due for a re-fit. 

It's nice to see it w/ the correct width tires front & rear...it keeps the handling sharp & precise;what are your plans for the front suspension ?