Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen – She Lives!!!

I've posted my build on SOHC4, but never got around to adding it here also. Since I've learned so much here, I figured that I would keep you all posted as well.

Introduction
My name is Sam. I've been on this site for a few years and I decided that now was as good of a time as any to finally make a build tread. I wanted to build my own custom bike. In the past I have only ridden sport bikes (I currently own a Ducati 1198). I was going to buy a cruiser and customize it, but I wanted something a little different. One day I stumbled across Cafe Racer TV and fell in love with cafe racers. Therefore, I decided to go this route. After reading this forum and other sites on the internet, I found a couple of bikes that I have used for my inspiration.

Inspiration
These are two of my favorite bikes. But I have also borrowed ideas from many other places. The first bike belongs to another member (I don't remember his name) and I love the look of it. I wanted to make a bike similar to this one.

I also like this bike...well some parts of it.


The journey begins
I'm in the military, so I spend a lot of time traveling and deployed. While I was stationed in Newport, RI, I found a farmer in Maine who was selling a 1976 CB750F for about $700. I bought the 750 on accident. As you will find, the build so far has been a road of mistakes and hard lessons learned. Not knowing much about cafe racers, I bought the 750 thinking that it was the same as a 550, just with a bigger engine. 1st mistake.

Here is my baby. She appeared to be in good shape. The owner cranked her for me and she ran pretty good. The only problem was that it was sitting for about 3 years, so the brakes didn't work. I didn't get a chance to ride it.



I said that buying the 750 was my first mistake, I don't think so now. At the time I wanted a clean middle section like on my inspiration bike. I didn't know that the 750 had a separate oil tank in the center of the frame. My first goal was to figure out how to get the middle section clean. After doing a little research, I contacted Benjie's Cafe Racer and asked them to build me a tank with the oil tank inside. Here is the tank and seat section that they built for me.




My second goal was to upgrade the suspension. I like the GSXR forks that a lot of other members used, so I decided to go that route. I found a guy who made custom triple trees. They looked awesome, so I decided to start disassembling my bike.

What's cool about these triple trees is that they have the same rake and trail as the 750.


Started the mock up. Here is my bike with the new triple tree, GSXR forks, and a V-Rod headlight.


Next, I got my wheels laced. I used the harley front hub and my original rear hub. I have something special planned for the rear wheel. The wheels are both 18 inch Sun Rims anodized black. This is how my bike look after my mock up. I wasn't 100% satisfied with the look, but you will get an idea of what it is going to look like.

For the rear, I got the widest 18in tire that I could find. I have a AVON Roadrider 150/70-18 on the rear. I also got a rear swingarm from a 78 CB750, which is wider. I didn't want to run into any issues with rear wheel clearance later.

It should be a fun project.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I did things a little backwards than most. I installed a Gordon's Frame kit before removing the engine. Since I'm doing most of the work in my garage on my free time, I figured that this would be the easies way.


I will be running an oil cooler. I found a pretty cool way to mount it. It's from a CB650


I am going to move the kickstand. I ordered TC Bros' kickstand.




I found a rear brake from at 2000 Ducati Monster. The rear brake arm is the exact same diameter as the 750's rear axle. My local machine shop was able to fabricate a rear brake carrier and now I have a pretty sweet set up for my rear wheel.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I ended up getting rid of the rear shocks that I found on ebay and had some custom shocks made from YSS. I really like the quality of these shocks.


I bought a set of rear shock mounts from Dime City Cycles. I plan on having the complete mount redone.


I also bought a set of rear swingarm spools so I can put my bike up on motorcycle stands.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

My Gauge

This is one of my favorite custom pieces so far. I wanted to keep my original tachometer, but I also wanted to update it. The first thing I did was buy a Motogadge mini speedo, new gauge decals, and mini LED lights.

I modified the faceplate




I ended up damaging the first face plate that I used and had to start over. This time I decided to use a black face plate. I painted the cases satin black and ran all of the wiring. To finish it off, I used the gauge rings from Joker Machine




I really like the way it turned out.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I started to take my engine out of the frame. I have big plans for the engine! My first disappointment was splitting the engine case and finding this.

The previous owner saw that the engine case was cracked and used JB weld to hold it together. Apparently it worked pretty well. The rest of the engine internals looked great and it was well oiled.


I ended up buying a new case on ebay. I cleaned it and painted it already. I sent the crank, transmission, and other parts off to CycleX to have them reworked. I'm waiting on them to send it back so I can start reassembling the lower case.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Frame Mods
I found a great shop here in San Diego to help me with my welding, since I can't do it. Sal at SC Welding and Metalworks has a lot of experience restoring old bikes and was able to do everything I wanted for my bike. One of my first issues was with the way my tank fitted. No offense to Benjies, but the tank's fit was horrible. I had to have a lot of work done to get it to fit properly on the frame. If you look at the first photo of my mock up, the tank rides really low in the front and there is a huge gap from the tank and the steering head. I hated the way it looked. I also had the frame braced.

Here is it's current fitment. I like this a lot better! ;D

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Frame

I got the frame powdercoated satin black. It looks awesome. I even got a new frame VIN plate



For the swingarm, I installed bronze bushings and had the zerk fitting upgraded.


The shocks and turn signals are installed. They came out great!


I got rid of the original triple trees that I had bought and replaced them with a set from Cognito Moto. I think it looks a lot better. Plus, it got ride of that horrible gap that I was talking about earlier.


I bought these forks on ebay. After I did the mock up and rested the full weight of the bike on the front end, the forks leaked bad. I had to send them off to get them rebuilt. At least I know know that they will be solid.


I changed my mind about the V-Rod headlight and decided to go with a more traditional round headlight.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I painted the rotors and installed them.


Front wheel installed. This is overkill. Since I had a Brembo on the rear, I decided to use Brembos up front. I found a set on ebay and painted them black.


Here is my rear disc carrier painted and the rear brake arm modified.




Here is the Ducati rear brake rotor installed on the carrier. You are looking at the rear side.




Rear wheel installed with rear brake arm

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I got my gauge mounted and it looks awesome!


Freshly painted oil cooler


I wanted to go with leather grips and a leather seat. I like the old vintage look of leather. If I don't like it later, I can easily change it. I wrapped the grips myself. Not bad!


We have a roller
I have the bike assembled and this is all that I can do right now. I'm still waiting on the engine to come back from CycleX. Then I have to send the cylinder block and cylinder head off to get machined. I love the stance and I am happy with the way it is turning out.


I will post updates as I get them. My goal is to have this bike up and running before May 2015. Wish me luck and thanks for checking out my build. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sam

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I received my crank from Cycle X. I got the Pork Chop version and it is gorgeous. I received a bunch of other goodies like my lighted and balanced alternator, super gasket kit, manual primary chain adjuster, race cut transmission, Cycle X heavy duty primary chain, cam chain, Cycle X heavy duty case studs, etc.....



Here are my Carrillo Rods and they are pretty!


Transmission and Cycle X primary chain adjuster installed

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Now comes all the fun. I bought Hondaman's book, I have the shop manual, and I watched assembly videos online. I felt pretty good putting the crankcase back together. This bastard was a pain in the a$$! Nothing went together like it did in the videos. But I managed to get everything installed and I used Hondabond 4 to seal the case.



I'm glad that this part is over. The next headache was turning the engine over and reinstalling the oil drain plug. This is where I find out that it was stripped. I can't believe that I had missed this. I unscrewed it and it looked fine when I was breaking the engine down. So I sent the oil pan and a bunch of other parts off to get powdercoated. What to do now? So I ordered a Time-Sert Kit online. I did some research and this was the best option that I found. The kit looked pretty good and was very simple to retap the hole and install the kit's insert.





The kit was kind of expensive, but it worked like a charm and is better than new!

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

And now the fun really begins. After fixing and reinstalling the oil pan, I decided to work on the gear shifting mechanism. Everything went together just fine. That's when I noticed that the main bolt that holds most of the shifter parts was bent. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it is definitely bent. I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle and ordered another one off of ebay.



With the gear shift section on hold, I decided to get my neighbor to help me drop the crankcase into the frame. It went in pretty easy and the swingarm spools that I installed worked like a charm.









I received my gear shift parts in the mail and decided to work on that piece. I put my wrench on the bolt and it snapped off like a toothpick. WTF!!! I barely even applied pressure to it and now I have to deal with this!


Now this part is on hold again. I contacted the guy who helped me with all of my welding on the frame. He is going to try to help me get the bolt out. The only problem is that I have to put my bike up on my trailer and take it to his shop about 15 miles away. I hope he can fix it. I'm worried about it, but he is not. Wish me luck and I'll post updates as the come!

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

I was able to put my bike on the trailer and haul it to my buddy's shop. He was able to get the broken bolt out in no time. Now my project is back on track.


- Pay no attention to the license plate. It's not mounted, just loosely hanging in place.




- Gear shift parts are installed and good to go!

I hope that Cycle X gets their 915cc kits back in stock soon. Until then, my bike is on hold until I can get the block bored and cylinder head done.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Very nice bike happening here. I like that you are throwing nice bits at it, it'll be a sweet ride.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

were the cognito moto triple trees setup for correct trail and such for the 750 like the first set you got?

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

focusinprogress said:

were the cognito moto triple trees setup for correct trail and such for the 750 like the first set you got?

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I don't believe so. I think that it uses the GSXR. Cognito's setup uses the gsxr's lower triple tree with their custom stem pressed into it.

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Nice build! I really like the Motogadget Mini in the tach.

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

B-EZ said:

Nice build! I really like the Motogadget Mini in the tach.

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Thank you very much. I can't wait to actually see it work. All the idiot lights and the gauge lights work. I'm hoping that there is nothing funky about the gauge because I will be pissed if I have installed it upside down. :-\

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

Beautiful work man! It's refreshing to see a quality build. The Carillos are stunning. Too bad once the motor is built you can't see them.

Keep the photos coming!

Re: Bigsam302's 76 CB750F w/GSXR Forks: Project Helen - Project back on track

XVRacer said:

Beautiful work man! It's refreshing to see a quality build. The Carillos are stunning. Too bad once the motor is built you can't see them.

Keep the photos coming!

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Thank you very much! That's the same thing that I said about my Carrillos and the crank.