78' CB750F Super Sport

[ambiguous]

Hey all,

I'd like to say that I'm now a proud owner of a 78' 750f supersport. It is my first bike and I am excited to have such a cool and classic bike! But my plans are to cafe the bike. I had a couple questions as far as how to go along with the process. She is running, has the top end oil leak through the headers. Any quick fixes or things to worry about? Also the airbox/plastic is super old and doesn't seem to fit right. At high temps does this cause the bike to idle weird? Anyone have experience with this? I was thinking of putting the pods on, but I read briefly that they are no good? I will read through that thread, but for now anyone got a quick answer?

Since the bike is relatively old, but running, should i be checking up on any things? The PO said all the fluids have been changed. Any mechanical things I should think about or go over?

As far as the cafe look goes, all I am really concerned about right now is the body and the ugly seat currently on the bike. I love the look of the speed hump on the tail. Anyone know what will be needed to fit a seat? I've been on roccitycafe.com and those look great. Is there a writeup or maybe even a DIY for cafe seats? I saw the aluminum writeup, but are there any others?? Any info would be appreciated.

Lastly, I am a pretty small rider, 5'4", 155 lbs. the bike doesn't seem to big but are there any steps i can do to maybe get the bike lower to the ground? I have a hookup at Racetech suspension, would that be the first step? Swap out forks?

I have yet to look through all the forum. And I know some answers will probably be hidden in the threads, But I have gone through the whole 37 pages "F" thread, some nice looking bikes that I am drawing inspiration from! If you could please get me started and answer my questions specifically pertaining to me that would be great. Cheers from Cali.

 

[surffly]

The 77-79 CB750F bikes have larger valves, but suffer from early valve wear. At about 35k miles is when bikes start smoking, and the guides need to be replace.

SOHC4 Hondas HATE pods, and the emgo ones are cheap junk and not worth anything.
Check out the sohc4.net board, they have an anti pod set up if you must. But a K&N drop in filter with some small airbox mods will increase performance. Pods decrease performance

If the idle changes when hot you might have an air leak on the carb manifolds.

An old bike will give you plenty of chances to wrench so dont go looking for projects.
Get the factory manual, you can download them. Read the manual, it will walk you through any tune up process. Might be a good idea to go over the manual and check yourself that everything is in spec. It will also help you learn the ins and outs of the bike.

To some cafes are more then just a look.
Before you start thinking about low bars think about a few things. With out rearsets you lose a ton of leverage on the bars, and make the bike a massively uncomfortable. This can lead to a dangerous bike for a small and new rider. Carpy makes a seat for the F, as does airtech. The F has a longer frame then the K bikes and takes some doing to make a bump seat work. There are a few DYI seat threads here an other places on the interwebs. I know guys try and save money, but a good seat costs $100 and you are done. To me its cheaper that way, rather then spending money to just have something that looks like it was a first time attempt

Dont lower the bike.
It only makes things handle worse. If it really becomes to large of a bike, you might want to think about selling it and buying a 550 or something that will fit you better.

Keep things simple (dont take the whole freaking bike apart) and look at things as systems, and how they work. Try to make actual improvements to how the bike functions and the look will follow.

Not a perfect bike, but the negatives truly are nitpicks

 

[BobaChris]

Head over to the cb1100f forum to get the manuals for your bike. A lot of info on the DOHC motor on there as well.
Congrats on the bike and have fun with modding. I'm still in the process of mine.

 

[surffly]

Head over to the cb1100f forum to get the manuals for your bike. A lot of info on the DOHC motor on there as well.
Congrats on the bike and have fun with modding. I'm still in the process of mine.

78 is a SOHC bike, not a DOHC

 

[BobaChris]

Ur right. Momentary lapse it seems while reading the forums at work. Guess I shouldn't try and multi-task so much.

 

[ambiguous]

So first things first I want to fit a seat on her. Any seats that are known to be narrower?

Another thing I want to fix is the handlebars and add rearsets? Any guidance on those also? I was thinking of putting clubmans on, will the biltwell ones fit? Also Joker Machines makes universal rearsets, will that work on my F?

Just want her in an okay position for me to ride her in, surrfly I know you said to not lower, but I feel super high off the ground, I think even an inch or 2 will help out a lot.

 

[surffly]

Hot set up for a SOHC is one in UP in the back.
No way around it, lowering has a negative effect on the handling. Guys do it all the time just for a look, some know better, some follow.
If the bike is to big then its to big, honda made millions of bikes so the right size is not hard to find

Clubmans are a hard fit as most are not wide enough to get the right angle. I mean that the middle horse shoe is to small.
I think raask makes bolt on rearsets for the F2/3, they run $300-400
That is the only bolt on option that I know of, all the universal set ups will require some welding and fab work to get right