Honda 350 Rat Café

Interesting beast, this. Cobbled together from several years of 350 parts, the owners brought it to me to hammer out the final details. Rebuilt master cylinder and caliper, replaced chain and sprockets, rebuilt forks, full tune up, cleaned and set up carbs, replaced cracked top triple clamp. Who knew a CB500T tank could fit so well on a 350? I, again, wish I was more cognizant of taking photos before and during work performed, but the phone that takes the pics also provides the jams that power work performed. So there. (?) Suffice to say this lil' bugger now screams the 20+ mile round trip from Folly Beach to downtown Charleston several times a week.

Motörhen

'Nuff said.

Too Late To Not Ride Coat Tails Now, I Suppose...

Seems I've been forced into updating this thing. Further seems trying to maintain a level of anonymity for my (for real) rock star landlords may be at an end, but a nod is in order.  I'll give it a go: left to right surnames rhyme with "Bent" and "Burst", which also used to describe the CB500T ("Brown Thunder") they own pictured at left. When purchased a couple years ago, I got it running and safe and soon after split Charleston to chase a dream. When I returned that bike had fallen in disrepair 'cause they are constantly out chasing theirs on the road. In the brief periods of the band whose third word rhymes with "Hope"'s down time this summer we've made it a reliable runner. And got to be friends. They provided me with a place to turn wrenches on these old beasts, and I'm grateful for both.

Breaking in the Johnny Cash CB750

Above was taken midway through my hastily thought out "break-in trip". Lemme 'splain: After working out the final few details, I decided the quickest (not to mention smartest) way to coax all the new pieces into playing together nicely would be to make a quick Charleston-Asheville round trip. I further reasoned that not setting new Bridgestone Spitfire S11 tread to I-26 would not only alleviate boredom, but would also: make use of a wider range of revs, bed in the new brake pads, and start an ass groove into the amazing condition K3 seat that found me a few days prior.  So... a mere 600 miles in two days (and a hundred prior around town and a few weeks of no posts) later I'm here to report that, aside from a clutch lifter adjustment on the way home, this bike is a scream. An absolute joy. Oil was changed prior and upon return along with "500 mile" tune up.

Who really needs GPS? 

 I still have yet to install the Kerker, which must happen soon as the Mac drags on sharp turns. 

Johnny Cash CB750 pt. 2

Exhaust studs finally showed up today so I could get my old Mac 4 into 1 mounted and cross my fingers as I try to light it up. Carbs were already bench synced. Dialed in the gap and timing of the NOS TEC points, installed oil pressure gauge, topped up the 20w50 and went for it. Fired 2nd kick and idles perfectly. Sounds beastly when the throttle's opened. Uh... hell yeah. Gotta make up a shorter length push throttle cable (stock is TOO long for superbike bars), lose the K&N pods and install the stock airbox, blast, paint, and install the period Kerker 4 into 1 I scored last week, and decide which tires to order. I'll post detailed photos as I take care of that and cosmetics.

Ta-Winnz-uh...

As I don't see a ton of /5's running around Charleston, I couldn't resist throwing these photos out there. Foreground depicts the April, 1971 R75 on loan to me, from my benevolent friend Chef Ondo, 'till my current CB750 project is done. In the back is T.C.'s December, '70 from previous post (both are titled '71), ready for the action. Carbs cleaned, new o-rings and such installed, and synced. New filters, points and condenser. Brakes adjusted. Fresh juice everywhere. Heads torqued, valves adjusted (lash and axial play). A few little details attended to... Not much competes with the feeling of having a bike I've never heard run dropped off at the shop and having it leave purring.

The Johnny Cash CB750

I've been working on this build for myself. Been calling it "Johnny Cash" as his "One Piece At A Time" jam gets stuck in my head when I get to wrenching on it. Read on; should become apparent why. Goal: Sleeper daily rider on the cheap focused on function over form. Started with this K3:

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.