Got it from a pal that bought it in much better shape, albeit not running. He did a good bit of work and got it running. Then a friend of his laid it down within hours of it being back on the road... So it sat for a few years in a tin shed with no doors. The wiring was a nightmare, front brake frozen, 4 into 2 drag pipes, 16" hog rim on the rear. It felt like it wanted to fall to the right when parked on the side stand. Because someone "repositioned" its frame mount and blew holes in the tubing in the welding process. So I went with a K4 frame I had.
Left shock mount thread was broken. New bit was fabricated by Hugh's Handbuilt in Asheville, NC when my shop was still stationed there. Blasted and painted it, the swing arm, and steel chassis parts.
On to the engine. Long time rainwater collection in the oil tank and engine at the missing oil pressure switch made me decide to go the "easier" route of building a K5 mill that'd been sitting in the engine room for several years. At the very least, I knew it had run at one point.
Wondered why the cam chain seemed so noisy all them years ago.
Decided to do mild porting, or rather port matching as well as removing casting anomalies in the combustion chambers. Mike Rieck at JMR Porting in Mass. checked my work and oversaw the Serdi valve job with new Vesrah valves while the jugs were off getting punched to 836cc.
In the meantime, I opened up the cases and stripped 'em bare. Replaced a few tranny gears that were pitted, tightened up the tolerances on the main and rod bearings with lightly used parts, bead blasted the rods, and cleaned the hell outta the cases before repainting them. All roller bearings were replaced as well.
So, back to the hog (16" drop center) rim... I cannot wrap my brain around why this was a popular mod in the 70's and early 80's for stock framed Hondas. In my eyes it sure doesn't improve the esthetics, and it certainly doesn't improve the handling. So I found me a nice, original 18" rim and bought some spokes. Replaced front and back wheel bearings at the same time.
I, unfortunately, didn't take photos as this was rectified:
Suffice to say a roll of Scotch 333 tape, a good bit of solder, and some new connectors later the harness will now work as engineered and looks pretty good, to boot. Lame K3 and later clutch/ neutral lockout circuit was eliminated. Gonna upgrade to a blade-type fuse block soon. The roller- post frame bead blast, paint, fork rebuild with new seals, tapered steering bearing and bronze swing arm bushing install- sorta shows the harness in progress. The Candy Gold K1 bucket and fork ears match the NOS Gran Turismo grips nicely.
Jugs and head assembled. APE heavy duty cylinder studs, bead blasted valve springs, MLS base gasket. Not pictured: K0 cam, Tsubaki HD chain, APE sprocket.
As it sits now, with rebuilt master cylinder, caliper, and braided stainless steel lines from Slingshot Cycle.
