Seeley 519 CB750

surffly

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Seeley Intro

Well as some of you know I have a Seeley Honda that I am going to start building.

I have been playing around in the hobby for a while now. Started my first SOHC CB750 over ten years ago and that bike still isn’t finished!
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Can see the unfinished CB750F behind the Seeley.
Have learned a lot about bikes, projects and how to have fun over the years. My main focus has always been vintage Honda motorcycles. My one bike has followed me from working at a florist to becoming a professional mechanic (aircraft and boats), to returning to school to get my engineering degree and finally to a full time job in the robotics industry. Well now I am living in Albany and trying not to wear out my welcome at a local friends garage. Funny that before I had a two-car garage before, but little time/money, now I can get the time, but don’t have my own place to wrench on…..

I very much enjoy the hunt for rare and interesting stuff. My main passion has been for old race bits for the CB750, but this thrill of the hunt extends to other hobbies too. Some claim that I have ADD with “stuff” but I find it soothing to learn about stuff and then become involved with people that know more about it.

Background on Seeley:
Colin Seeley was a racer and frame builder. Most know him more for his Norton framed bikes, but in May of 1975 he started making frames for the Honda CB750. The basic idea was you could buy his frame, tank, seat and a few other parts and swap everything else from your standard SOHC in. Bikes were sold complete as well. I’m actually unsure as to what option was more prevalent. Many say that the Seeley frame was one of the stiffest of the “specials”. By the time Seeley stopped making SOHC Honda frames just over 300 where made.

Background on the project:
Over the summer in 2014 the parts of this project were listed on SOHC4. I was thrilled to see something so interesting for sale. It had been a while since I had seen any special frames listed anywhere for years. Was even more shocked to find out it was within a two-hour radius of me! Well as always the asking price was well outside of my price range, but then again I might just be to cheap for my own good. I talked to the owner and offered some help in finding a person that would be interested in it. The project got listed on CL and NYCVinMoto. I assumed that the next time I saw it the bike would be in amazing shape and parked next to a Seeley Norton at NYCNorton.
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Seriously, how sexy is that thing? I farted near it once. And a good friend became violently ill after seeing it. Unsure if that reaction was that he was overcome with the beauty or the Jamaican beef paddies that he had 5 of on top of a case of IPA…..Either way there is still a stain in the middle of a tollbooth.
But without getting to sappy and using lines like “as fate would have it” the bike didn’t get the attention I thought it would and the seller hopped it would get. I made an offer and we agreed on it. Took the drive out and found out how much cool you could pack into a VW CC.
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Drove everything to the wonderful motorcycle show at Works Engineering in Brooklyn and tried to enter into the show for fun...
After that it unfortunately sat in my basement for a little bit. I finished my degree and started a new adult life in NY’s capital. Spent most of this winter shuttling junk from Long Island here, setting up a new tool box and trying to beg borrow and steal shop space to work.

Well I am finally at a point that I will start turning wrenches on the bike so figured a thread was in order.

Will update with details on the project and goals latter.
 
Re: Seeley 519

Seems like an great project in the making I will be watching. That Norton is bloody ace!
 
The start of the project:

I was lucky enough that the base of this project came with most of the Seeley pieces in order to build this up. The frame is straight and doesn’t show any signs of being wrecked, rusted, smashed or any other issues. At some point the side stand was removed, unsure as to why or what I will need to do to put on back on the bike. The frame came with a correct alloy tank, a seat and the motor mounts. Interesting that the motor mounts are stamped with the frame number, as is the swing arm.
You can see what the basic parts where that Seeley made.
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I am missing a few bits though.
-Rear axle adjustors and swing arm caps.
-Rearset plate and pegs
Neither seen to be a massive hurdle to overcome but will need to be dwelt with.

My bike is number 519 or the 19th bike to be built. I assume that it was built in May or June of 1975. No date stamp on the frame. SH7-519 is the only stampings that I can see. Originally I had thought that the frame was a race bike, as it was not nickel-plated. Any of the road bikes I had ever seen where pated frames, the race bikes were painted. I have learned that the race bikes used an “S” suffix; mine does not have this so I guess it was a street bike? Doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, just trying to learn more about the history. Odd that the swing arm is plated. I will dig deeper into the frame, but I really do not think the paint is hiding plating.

I feel that I have enough of the “special” parts to get this bike back on the road with the help of a good parts bike. I have already acquired most of the parts needed to mock the bike up and see what’s what. I am working on the idea that the hard part of building a bike like this is tracking down the special parts. Once that hurdle is jumped the rest should fall into place in much the same way as a stock bike restoration would. Well that might be easier said then done, but we will see. For myself the challenge of tracking down rare parts, learning about the history of them and meeting the people along the way is very appealing.

Plan is to get the bike back on the road in “as found” condition. While I have no provenance with the bike, the back-story was that it had been brought over from the other side of the pond and at some point wound up in a large collection of bikes in PA. No idea who owned it, what they did with it, or how it ended up like it did. While it would be fun to know more about it, it is still going to be fun to take care of it now.
 
I believe you are wrong, I should think many will find this very interesting. Please just don't take 10 years to do it.
 
cxman said:
have you listed yours here

http://www.seeley-register.org/


The person that ran that list is no longer with us. Have a new one running on the sohc4 board.
 
I don't think I've seen a Seeley Honda before but I had this Seeley Suzuki pic in my inspiration folder when I buit my 500.
 

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Before owning mine the only ones I was ever around are the NYCNorton ones.

With only 302 Honda SOHC CB750 frames built, and not many of them here in the states it's not surprising.
 
Part of the fun, at least for me, is learning more about the bike you are working on. They did a two volume book on Colin Seeley and his bikes. Volume one is out of print and SILLY expensive anyplace I can find it. But lucky for me volume two is what covers the years he was making the Honda based bikes. My girlfriends parents bought it for my 30 birthday. Yup in the end of January I turned 30, freaking old. Like sitting around after work drinking some Mount Gay and reading books about old motorcycles old.
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So far I have just skimmed it, but it seems to have some interesting stories in it. Was hoping that bike 519 (mine) was to be featured and I would be regaled with stories about how it was Colin Seeley’s personal bike…but alas I was not that lucky.
 
I'll follow along for this. Like others have said, just make it quicker than 10 years! haha
 
Meh, none of them are ever done.
But so far this one is actually moving along fairly well.
More to follow
 
Got some wheels for the bike. Well if you are quick on your feet you will see that these wheels are in the introduction post. Some stuff is going a little out of order, but should still be fun.
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When I was back home for thanksgiving I was cruising the local CL and stumbled across some Lester wheels for a SOHC CB750. I am not only a HUGE fan of these wheels, but had really wanted to find a set for the Seeley as many of the bikes that were built used them. Was able to find out that Seeley offered Lester wheels, and a few other “options” when buying parts/bikes from him.

For those that don’t know Lester was a wheel maker “back in the day” they offered mag wheels for a number of different bikes. While I do not know production numbers for sure, it does seem that they made more wheels then say Henry Abe, Shelby, or the like. They are not full race wheels like Haytashi or Kimtab, instead they were more or a performance street wheel. My plan is to actually weigh them to see if there is any savings or not. To be honest I just really like the look. Lester made 19in and 18in front wheels. Would love to run a 18in front, but those don’t come up often. For the rear the option was an 18in or a more chopper like 16in rear wheel. The 18 inch rear is much more sought after. These are OEM replacement wheels and were produced for the K bikes with a rear drum and the F bikes with a rear disk. If you come across a rear drum wheel check the casting for the number 20200, that indicates a SOHC CB750 fitment. The size will be stamped into one of the spokes.

Front wheels are different for the K and F bikes in the same way the OEM wheels are. All factory brake parts bolt directly to the Lester wheels in the same manor as the original wheels. You need to make sure you get the right wheel for your application.

The 69-76 K bikes run a 6 bolt front rotor and can be seen in this Lester.
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The 77-78 SuperSports have a 5 bolt front rotor. You can not run a 6 bolt wheel on a 5 bolt bike or the other way around.
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I will be running dual discs on the Seeley. This conversion is done exactly the same as if I was running the stock wheels.

Because it is fun to place parts near each other and pretend it is a whole motorcycle
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I really do like these wheels, have used them a few times.
My CB/CR750 project has a set. These are the latter wheels with triple discs.
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Had a K1 project that I was doing a few years ago. Told you it was fun to pile junk near stuff to make it look like a bike.
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Then the same bike pretending to be a drag racer. Sadly the K1 never really got finished. Parted out some stuff when I ran out of space at the inn. Then traded what was left for a large lathe.
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Great find on a set of Lesters. In the 80s, the Lester factory was half way between my house and where I worked. They use to put piles of "cosmetic seconds" out on the lawn and sell them for $10 each. I bought several sets over a four year period. I wish I had kept a set for my 750, but hindsight is 20/20.
Rider
 
Rider52 said:
Great find on a set of Lesters. In the 80s, the Lester factory was half way between my house and where I worked. They use to put piles of "cosmetic seconds" out on the lawn and sell them for $10 each. I bought several sets over a four year period. I wish I had kept a set for my 750, but hindsight is 20/20.
Rider

Thats crazy!
 
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