Topic: Steering Stops and turning radius

[powereng1]

Hi, I have a 1973 CB750K3 and the turning radius is much shorter than a 1978 CB750 I also have. It appears that there is an additional tab welded on the frame to prevent sharper turning radius. Has anybody else encountered this? I am considering grinding this off but always a bit of caution. Picture attached.---Note: new to this forum--excellent site.

[MauiK3]

What will happen is your fork ears will hit and dent your tank.

[bryanj]

Thats not additional its standard

[Little_Phil]

The arc of material welded to the headstock was one piece of material. Looks like yours is two. Maybe a PO put the extra bit there because of some damage. But as said, remove too much and you will impact the tank. Is the left/right movement the same?

[powereng1]

Thanks for the info folks. I'm on the right track. I just measured--1973CB750K3--1.5 inch clearance between fork ears and tank on both sides when hard against the stops. My 1978 CB750K8 has 1/2 inch clearance between forks and tank. I will probably grind off the correct amount this winter to give me 1/2 inch clearance. I can manage with it the way it is but I can't pull a u-turn on a country road without backing up which can be a hazard in itself. Again--Thanks for the info folks.

[Mantree]

I'm going to guess that it might have had a fairing. I bought a bike with a wind jammer once and at full lock the handlebars would hit the fairing.

[Don R]

  When riding the later frames feel bigger to me, I think it's the offset difference between the neck and fork tubes. That said, I think Mantree is correct, we used to change handlebars or install setback brackets when installing a windjammer it's very possible someone added to the stops.

[powereng1]

The Windjammer theory makes a whole lot of sense. I am doing a lot of guessing on this bike. Lots of modifications to this beauty. The 48 year old bike has 12000 miles on it, 1975 Super-Sport Comcast Wheels with twin front disk brakes, single rear brake rotor, progressive suspension all around, 836 Big Bore kit, Vance & Hines Super sport 4 into 1 exhaust, not sure on porting of head or if it is original cam. It goes like a wildcat and stops on a dime. Thanks for the comments. It gets my old brain working.

[HondaMan]

The "F" bikes have different steering geometry (called "trail" or "caster") from the earlier bikes. This led to several steering changes.
Also, the early bikes (pre-F series frames)  came with 3 different widths of gas tanks and seats, so the steering stops were...less than generous. Many were also broken off when someone dropped the bike over on the bars, breaking off the stops (and denting the tanks and fork ears), after which they got "welded back on" (who knows where?). When 'fixing' several cafe' bikes some years ago I had to install setscrews into the stops to reduce the steering even more, in order to prevent Carpy tanks (among others) from being hit by clip-ons.

[754]

More likely it was hitting a cafe tank