1962 CB77 Mild-Cafe Resto-mod.

[MBellRacing]

So I figure it's time to publicly document the project I've been working on for the past few months. I didn't even post this on the Honda305 forum for fear that I would be told I've done it "the wrong way". I'm posting here because the wrong way is often the right way in the cafe world!

So I started by buying a 1962 Honda 305cc Superhawk from a nice guy in Berkeley. I did my research and learned what I was getting and figured I would clean it up, get it running decent, and have it as a fun rusty toy. I put some fuel and oil in it and got it putting around. I rode it for about 100 miles before an apparently cracked ring finally gave out and I lost quite a bit of compression in one cylinder. Since the engine is a stressed member of the CB77's frame (the first to do this, in fact) I decided to actually get my hands dirty. The owner before the fellow from which I bought the bike did some odd little modifications. Since the pristine original design had already been ruined I decided I was going to do a semi-cafe racer resto-mod instead of a true concourse restoration.

First step... disassembly!

It was dirty, but most of the parts were in pretty good condition...

Most of the chrome is pretty pitted and dented, but all the rubber on the bike is astonishingly good...

Electrics are ugly, but all functional...

Awful mystery goo from the fork...

The very rare CB77 mufflers are in decent shape, only one solid dent on one pipe...

This was a big moment for me......

...This was not...

FRAME OFF!!!!...

 

[MBellRacing]

Next step: The Motor...

All SORTS of fun goo to try and clean off!...

While things were generally still together, I checked out all the advance and wear on the cam. All looked good!...

Head off-- looks VERY coked up...

I had my Superhawk-Guru/neighbor come check out the crank to make sure it was as it should be so I wouldn't have to remove it...

Rebuild #1. Yes, there's a number there. As in I've done it numerous times. So here's how it all went down: I bought myself some neat vintage racing high-top, high-compression Kenig pistons. Not too expensive, but they're not exactly easy to find anymore. I also purchased some modern valves from a company called Apex Cycle (more on that in a moment). At the recommendation of my neighbor, I had my block's oil return passages drilled out slightly and had installed some slightly higher-tension valve springs so my motor could see higher revs.

Everything looked great, right? Well I checked the piston-valve clearance, did all my precautions, got it running, and started the break in. I do it as I do my race car motors: idling for 10-15 minutes, then slow revs between idle and about 1500-2000rpm. It sounded like this...

Cb77 First Start

...moments later (ironically as I turned off the camera on my phone) the engine made a nice, healthy, *clack clack clack-- PING*. I checked it out, and it seemed that a valve had dropped and been crushed against the piston, destroying the top of those nice vintage pieces I had just bought. The wreckage looked like this:

Fine. I've blown up engines before. For my professional opinion, I dropped off the engine with a good friend of mine who runs a drag/stock car motor building shop. He said that the valves are "sh*t China valves". I told him that the next best option would be NOS stuff or custom stuff. Ohio Cycle seemed to be out of the NOS, and the customs were going to cost me quite a bit. I asked the engine builder if he thought it was a bad batch and he said that he doubted a company would sell valves that break more than one like this, so yes, possibly just a bad batch.

I started over again, this time opting for better Weisco pistons and new barrels, valve guides, valve retainers, etc. I made the unfortunate decision to use the same brand valves from Apex Cycle. I put the motor together fairly quickly and got it running in under a day. Thing fired up on the first touch of the starter and was running great...

CB77 running AGAIN!

I broke it in in the garage and even got it riding around the block. It was doing pretty well, if a bit rich. I rode it back into the garage to set the carb. Put new jets in it and reset the idle. As soon as it hit 800rpm-- *clack clack clack PING*... yup. New motor #2 down. The latest news on the motor is that I bought all new pistons (again) and dropped the whole kit off with Charley of Charley's Place in San Francisco. He'll be putting in NOS valves and ensuring everything else is as it should be.

 

[Jared]

Nice work on the bike mate! Sorry to hear that she required almost three rebuilds.

 

[Big R]

+1

Breaks my heart a little to see that piston. Great bike though- gotta love that frame.

 

[MBellRacing]

Subsequent step: New parts and reassembly.

So during the engine debacle, I had been restoring a number of parts, cleaning up the ones I don't replace/restore. I started out by sending the frame, the swingarm, and the center stand all went out for some black powdercoat. I borrowed my race shop's sonic cleaner and started dumping as many parts that would fit in there as possible.

20 minutes in the parts washer...

I also decided that the original paper air filters weren't going to cut it. I bought some UNI Filter foam, some acetone, some dental picks, and some nice epoxy...

Good as new... BETTER than new. These things flow significantly better than the paper stuff and still filter out particulates quite well...

Once all the parts were all cleaned or restored, I decided to put them all back together. As mentioned previously, these steps were taken during the different engine builds, so once upon a time, my Hawk had a motor in that powdercoated frame!

It was about this time in the rebuild that my painted parts came back from Garage Inc. I saw a new Prius (forgive me...) rolling down the highway and the color in the sunlight looked outstanding. I decided my bike too needed that Toyota Magnetic Grey.

I also bought some tapered bearings for the steering head. SUCH a big help. They are beautifully smooth and super easy to install. They can be fitted so well that I even got the original steering lock to work again!...

The previous owner also installed some odd-looking extra lights on the headlight bucket. I decided to make the best of this and make one a neutral light, one a shift light (with a Summit Racing RPM switch), and one a light switch indicator. I also took out the incandescent parking lamp in the headlight and replaced it with a more efficient LED. It's been wired it to a separate switch that runs off the ignition so I can appease the California state law of needing a headlight at all times while being able to charge the battery (which the Superhawk does not do with the headlight on).

So this is how the bike sat right before I took the motor back out to send to Charley's Place. Updates of it RUNNING hopefully soon!!!

 

[cafefighterpdx]

So beautiful and so sad all at the same time.

 

[swan]

Nice work, but I would investigate the valve failure more thoroughly to determine what happened and why. Did the valve collets not hold the new valve correctly, were the new valve springs causing problems, clearance issue, timing problem etc.?

You seem to know your way around a shop and are experienced, but Honda motors should not throw a valve so easily. Do you have the factory service manual for this bike? If so, follow Honda's specifications.


Hopefully third time is a charm, but price of tuition is steep. Good luck!

 

[surffly]

sorry to hear about the motor.
i really liked the look of the blue and was worried about changing it but i really love the color of the tins on the frame. really looking good.


im looking for a 60s honda to do the giro events on

 

[Goggles Pizano]

You're doing it wrong!

Looks great so far. I've always wanted to see one in all black (or at least close to black like yours) since most of the the CB77's always have the silver trim.

As for Apex, you should have searched their name out on the 305 forum. Tons of bad reviews. Ones about bad valves especially. I believe the same thing happened to another owner that bought valves from them after he had invested a ton into his engine rebuild. Didn't figure it was the valves until he rebuilt it again and the same thing happened and he did some more research. Come to think of it, that might have been you. How long ago was that?

There's a list of trusted and feared parts suppliers at the top of the superhawk section there. Hopefully there's a link to a shop that has good valves.

 

[Maritime]

Nice build, better than a resto in my opinion. Hope the motor woes get resolved for you.

Cheers,

Maritime

 

[MBellRacing]

So the valves were breaking at the stem where the retainers clip in. Jim Rieger took a look at it and told me that they are way over heat treated and have become quite brittle. Apex either needs to change material or change manufacturing.

Goggles-- I think that was me! It seems like my story...

I contacted Apex about the fact that I've broken two engines due to the retainer grooves breaking, even informed them of Rieger's opinion. I never asked for compensation, just said that maybe they should take them off the market since the vintage Honda crowd doesn't need a place to waste money. My response back was, "Why don't you go f**k yourself?"

Good business, right? If I had a place for BBB to go knocking on doors, I would inform them, but it's not worth my time and Apex works out of a PO Box... wonder why?...

Thanks for all the kind words on the build. It's really done its job of taking my mind off the stress of everything that goes on day to day. I had so much fun, gathered so many compliments when it was running that I can't wait to hop on again! I hope I've built something that a purist can respect and the average bystander can enjoy, but really it's all about the guy holding on, I just wanna get it done so I can RIDE it!

 

[swan]

It is not the BBB, but use the buyer/seller review section of this forum to warn others to avoid Apex so others do not suffer the same fate. http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?board=39.0

 

[MBellRacing]

So my project has taken an interesting turn while I've been waiting for this motor to come back. I researched a bit not only on the CYB (aka Yoshimura) brand but also the idea behind the "Sport Racer" scene around the CB72/77. There happens to be an outstanding upholsterer building a few replica CYB seats and I have one on order. To match the look, I want to get some new fenders that fit the look. The rear fender is fine (since options are slim) and I've ordered another used one to just cut it back a bit, get rid of the big wrap-around bottom. After asking the experts, I've also found some options for the front fender. This has bothered me for quite some time on my bike. The stock part looks decent when painted the pale silver color, but if you try and get rid of the tri-color look and paint it body color, it looks large, out of place, and misfitted. Apparently the S90 and CB100/125/160/175 all use a really similar chrome front fender which looks astonishingly like the original CR77 part. The best part: replica small-CB front fenders (read: fenders I don' t mind cutting up) are EVERYWHERE in Thailand.

I'm also planning on making some clip-ons that look to match the taper of the stock headlight ears. This way it will have the racer clip-on look, but a more factory/Sport Racer feel. As I said, this is basically what the CYB catalog was all about!

I've already started by ordering an as undamaged set of used headlight ears as possible. I plan on measuring the dimensions of the tube down to the actual headlight mounting point, cutting them down to there (with reinforcement, of course), and machining a matching-taper steel part that will attach to the fork stem in the headlight ears' place. The clip-on bars will be welded to the new tapered tubes and the whole part will be painted my frame's shade of black. I'd even love to go so far as to machine out some chrome rings that match the ones on the bottom of the headlight ears for placement under my clip-ons to really complete the illusion.

Here's my fork to show a bit what I'm talking about...

 

[Swapmeet Louie]

Love this bike... Beautiful!

Great Job man.

 

[VonYinzer]

Wow man. VERY COOL. The grey is perfect.

 

[MBellRacing]

Thanks on all the compliments. I just posted a buyer complaint in the appropriate section here about Apex Cycle. I just heard back from Charley of Charley's Place in SF. He took apart my engine and said it looks pretty ugly. Apparently, despite the engine only idling at about 800rpm, the valve was bent at an odd angle that broke both the valve guide and the boss in the head that holds it. This will require some welding to repair the head and I won't see it back for at least 2.5 weeks. Oh well... lesson learned, buy the right valves. You would think it's hard to mess up something so simple, but Apex Cycle has found a way, and is somehow still in business.

It seems most of this project is involving waiting around. The seat I'm having made won't be in for 3 weeks, my motor, as I've mentioned, won't be back for probably about the same time, the S90 front fender is in Thailand and won't be in for about 2 weeks, my taillight to fit the cut rear fender is back ordered, so likely a couple weeks there. EVENTUALLY I'll get some work done on this thing and get back to riding!!! I'll be getting pretty busy with another race coming up in about a week but know it'll be excruciating once I'm back with nothing to do, just waiting for stuff to happen!

 

[MBellRacing]

Update time...

NO new parts. EVERYTHING is a still delayed. I did get the bike together, running, and have spent some time tuning it a bit. I let my brother take it for a ride in the parking lot, likely unwisely. He opened it up a couple times for video's sake. Enjoy.

CB77 Running MUCH Better!

 

[surffly]

sounds good

 

[VonYinzer]

Lookin' good. Tell that man to put some long pants on! Haha

 

[MBellRacing]

Thanks!

And yeah, I've already given a hard time for the stuff he rides in. I was more concerned about my bike than my brother at that point...