Topic: My project, "an updated CR750", far from being done... pics

[isred]

Peter looks good so far. It reminded me of the RCB750 that Honda made in 1975. Honda used the 750 frame and such I believe but then used a Cb500 bottom with a gear driven twin cam head. Don't know if Honda ever raced that bike but  in 1976 they did race a RCB1000 and that had the CB750 bottom end that had been dry sumped, and fitted with a twin cam head.  Made for European endurance racing they are not talked about much but you might want to do some investigating for pics.  Anyways great looking project and good luck. Brent

[motomotard]

great pictures,  i wish I could make pics of my bike look that good

[PhotoGeek]

Thanks for the recommendation and compliment Brent, I'll look those up after I finish this post. They sound rad though, do you think they just used the early bottom end because it bolted straight up to the frame? Hmm...

Haha, motomotrard, spend 4 years going to college for Commercial Advertising Photography, all of high school, and the a couple of years after college pretty much sleeping with a camera and you too can make it happen! Thanks dude.

Still trying to find a motor, I've received a couple of interesting emails and offers, but nothing solid or realistic yet. I'd like to have one sorted out by Thanksgiving, but we'll see.

Thanks again guys, later,
-peter

[paulages]

Thanks for the recommendation and compliment Brent, I'll look those up after I finish this post. They sound rad though, do you think they just used the early bottom end because it bolted straight up to the frame? Hmm...

Haha, motomotrard, spend 4 years going to college for Commercial Advertising Photography, all of high school, and the a couple of years after college pretty much sleeping with a camera and you too can make it happen! Thanks dude.

Still trying to find a motor, I've received a couple of interesting emails and offers, but nothing solid or realistic yet. I'd like to have one sorted out by Thanksgiving, but we'll see.

Thanks again guys, later,
-peter

i sold my '79 DOHC to a guy who was building a CR750.. the engine had 600 miles on it new when i got it. it had been sitting in a dealership warehouse for 20 years when the P.O. blew the old engine.

[Short Round]

these are what Brent was refering to.  Great looking bikes.  I really like the 750................Chris

[PhotoGeek]

Be nice to find one of those Paul!! Haha, I may also be looking for a CB900 motor instead, just more bore and stroke than the 750, kind of like what I was originally planning on doing to the SOHC, but with 95hp instead of 72.

Thanks Chris, I had actually seen those before, I just hadn't read the name, haha, oops. I like the 750 a lot better than the 1000 myself.

Still on the hunt for the motor, I've called several motorcycle salvage yards with no luck, posted on craigslist and several other boards as well.
-peter

[bigsherm]

Hey Pete-

     Amazing!  I've been planning my modern CR750 over the past few months, and ordering parts to get busy on when I get home from Afghanistan at the new year.  You and I have taken a lot of similar approaches!

     I bought an '06 1000rr front end, too, but with 954rr triples because they have no holes in the top triple for the Honda electronic steering damper (I think it'll look modern vintage when polished), and they offer trail that I think I'll like better, too.  I'm using the 1000rr brakes, with the 320mm 954 discs.  I'll need the 5mm spacers under the calipers, too.

My question is regarding the steering stem swap- I know the CB750 bearings are sized right for the CBR stem, why did you have to use a modded CB750 stem?  Was the CBR stem too short?

Did the thicker CBR triple clamps dictate the need for lengthening the CB750 stem?

Even our swingarm approaches are nearly identical!  I have a beefy FZ-1 aluminum swinger that I plan on shortening at the front end and converting to twin shock mounts.  It looks nearly identical to yours, Haha!  I'm going with spoke wheels, though, I have new Excel rims in 5.5 and 3.5 x 18 with stainless spokes from Buchanan's.  Thinking of making them black.

I have TA Baker alloy fuel and oil tanks, Tarozzi clipons, a Swarbick's CR750 replica exhaust kit to work with, Hagon shocks, an alloy front fender, and CR carbs.  I plan on making a simple aluminum seat cowl, and adapting some GSXR footpegs.  Considering bracing the frame at the steering neck and near the seat, like Patrick Bodden did in Motorcyclist magazine's Big Benly project.

For a while, I was obsessed with the look of no oil tank, too, and called John Williams at the Tank Shop(thetankshop.com) in Scotland.  He was working on getting a CB750 frame so he could use it to model alloy fuel tanks with the oil tanks concealed underneath.  This would allow you to have the clean, no oil tank look with the SOHC motor if you decide to go that route.  His prices are less than any other tank builder I've found, too.  Nice guy, call and call and call until you get him.  He even makes classic Ducati 900ss fairings in alloy.  Talk about sweet!

Anyway, while you've been building, all I could do was research, plan, order parts, and spend money in whatever free time I've found here.  I'm ready to jump into it when I get home!

Thanks for the help with the specifics on the steering stem.
Sherm

[eimkeith]

Haha!  I stay off these forums for months and look what happens...

Sherm, I am also making a modernized CR750 - on a '73 frame, with 954 forks, triples, brakes and wheels (to be replaced with spokes in V2).  I've got a FG tank and seat pan for mockup, but will be going with aluminum tank and oil tank when I'm able to source those (perhaps you can advise me on that?)  Clip ons are 954 items, gauges will be from the '73.

I haven't even thought about the exhaust, yet - I'd love to see pictures of your solution.

As it is, I've had a custom stem machined (the CB stem is too short) to mount the 954 front end on the CB, but still need to mock-assemble the bike for frame geometery analysis to determine whether modification to the steering neck will be necessary to make a good-handling bike out of this collection of parts, lol.

We should all populate Pete's thread, as it is hard to find CR50 projects like ours right now.

[eimkeith]

baby steps:

[KB02]

Very Nice... One step at a time. That's how I'm doing mine, too... 

[Sam Green Racing]

This thread has been dead for 21 months but Peter was on line yesterday.

Welcome back Pete.

Sam.

[Hush]

Compelling reading, nope he goes on with the project to finish, think he said earlier he had to go to Japland then move somewhere else in US so perhaps once settled we'll get more updates.

[Terry in Australia]

Peter looks good so far. It reminded me of the RCB750 that Honda made in 1975. Honda used the 750 frame and such I believe but then used a Cb500 bottom with a gear driven twin cam head. Don't know if Honda ever raced that bike but  in 1976 they did race a RCB1000 and that had the CB750 bottom end that had been dry sumped, and fitted with a twin cam head.  Made for European endurance racing they are not talked about much but you might want to do some investigating for pics.  Anyways great looking project and good luck. Brent

Rex Wolfendon (TRex Racing) has an RCB1000 I believe, he was a Honda dealer involved with HRC, (his brother Clyde managed HRC's team in Oz, and later, a Moto GP team for awhile) and when Honda pulled out of racing, left 2 RCB's with Rex and Clyde. Rex is currently racing one of them, but I'm not sure what happened to the other one.

While the DOHC 750/900/1100F engine would be a fairly simple installation, the reason that there are not many around now is because they were "fragile", with a weak bottom end and a silly 2 cam chain arrangement that was largely ignored by inexperienced owners, resulting in many premature engine failures.

Cheap HP gains over a stock CB750 SOHC engine, but not robust enough for anything more than the "Pose" value, in my humble opinion. Cheers, Terry.  

[voxonda]

Have ridden a CB900 for years and tuned and experimented with it, it is not so much the camchain arrangement but more of the tensioners that are the real 'bastards'. Counts for the primary too.
When tuned, they are as fast, if not faster, then anything out there but more fragile.

Always had a 'love-hate' relationship with it.

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I agree Rob, they were fast, but couldn't compare to a Suzuki GS or Kawasaki Z for sheer "grunt", and didn't have the capability for additional stress via big bore kits, bigger cams, etc.

If you pampered them they were fine, and I'd kill for a CB1100R, but the "F"s were nothing special. I only had my Bol Dor 900 for a year or so, and even though it was a well cared for one owner bike, it had more rattles than any other bike I'd owned. Cheers, Terry.  

[Retro Rocket]

Thats a nice Rollador Vox. I had a 900 F2, red and white one, loved the look of it but it handled like a pig. I have been toying with the idea of building a CBX 750 RC 17 Honda with Boldor tank and bodywork. The CBX 750 has a lot of chains as well, even the alternator runs on a chain, but they are a small compact engine and go very well too. End of off topic rant....

Mick

[PhotoGeek]

Hahaha, yeah, I'm around, I'm down here in San Diego now, Japan"land" was a blast!

I'll post later, off to assist on a photo gig with DC shoes, later,
-peter

[PhotoGeek]

OK,  sorry about the delay there guys...

By the way, eimkeith, great start, now I want to see those passenger pegs gone! you build race cars for pete's sake, you've got to have a grinder around there somewhere! haha

Alright, so my turn... yeah, haha, everything's shelved right now as I'm working on getting my SV650 back on the road, had a bit of an incident that concluded with me lowsiding the bike or running into a large 6 series BMW that decided my lane was better than his around the blind corner we both on. haha, oh well, now I get to rip into the SV again, which is a budget bike compared to what this project has morphed into.

So basically... there's no more CB parts on the bike, haha, sorry guys, it's going to be a custom trellis framed abomination with a VFR800 (non-vtec, hopefully a 2001, still trying to find a good low miles donor motor, got one? haha), still the same basic bodywork as I was planning before (a combination of CR750 and Whitehouse RCB1000 style carbon lower's, with the Dick Mann style tail, with some duc and tritan thrown in there for good measure), and also the same basic suspension (re-built, wp springs, etc, '0'5/6 CBR1000RR forks and a Custom built WP rear shock for the CBR600RR swingarm with self contain shock).

The motor's going to get a slight going through, head work, larger valves, new higher compression pistons, larger throttle bodies, a huge airbox and lots and lots of dyno time, etc. Weight is basically the name of the game after that, trying to keep everything as minimal, bust still rideable, as possible.

So basically it's going to take me awhile. haha

This is what I'm thinking it will look like in the end though... mind that nothings really truly to 100% scale and it's a bit long at this point...



OK, I've got to do some work, later folks, someday I'll have a little SOHC, just not with this project,
-peter

[bigsherm]

Hey Pete!

Dibs on the steering stem!

Seriously, are you planning on keeping the modified stering stem you had made?  I need it and you need the cash for your project, and repairs to your sweet SV!

If you are planning on keeping it, can you let me know how much you had to lengthen it?

Too bad your CB project is no more, though.
Sherm

[PhotoGeek]

Haha, PM'd you back man.
-peter

[DarkRider]

hate to break it to you i believe the last non VTec VFRs were in 2000. Been awhile since i checked since i was looking for a newer VFR at one point.

Oops..i was wrong..it was 01 the 6th gens came online in 02.

[PhotoGeek]

Haha, No worries man.

They upped the power slightly in the 01's and that's why I would like one, and it being the latest, truthfully I'll settle for anything from '98-01 as it's going to get taken apart anyhow, just the lower miles, the less I have to do when it comes apart, haha.
-peter

[DarkRider]

Either way im gonna keep tabs on what you do with the VFR based project.

[PhotoGeek]

I'm excited to get started again on it, hopefully this summer will give me some extra bucks to spend on it.
-peter

[eimkeith]

ok, so I got my CR750 fuel tank and oil tank, both in aluminum now.  How the hell does the original CR750 oil tank mount?!?

- NOT intuitive.  Anyone have good photos of this?

Thanks!!