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I have an oportunity to buy a winter project. My current steed is a 73 CL350 that I have cafe'd over the better part of this year. So I am thinking on passing it on to my wife, she wants to learn and be on her own machine. I have a choice between a 1978 Kaw 750 twin, and a 1972 CB750. Both need some work, and thee winter is long here in the Hoosier. I am leaning towards the CB, but figure I'd throw it out there and see what the masses say.
I'm going to play the devil's advocate. The KZ750 twin is extremely anemic. It has less power and more weight than the 650 counterpart, and parts are a bitch to find. The CB on the other hand is PLENTIFUL in parts. Yes, they are a 4, but a well running four is the superbike of its day. I am partial to them. The power to weight is there, the power delivery is there. Great bikes. That one is a K2. 3rd generation. All the kinks were worked out. Great bikes.
As much as I love Kawasaki's, I'd say pick the CB.
I know, I know. Blasphemy. In my defense, the kz twin was a bit of a dog. There have been some very cool builds based on them, but... The cb would be my choice.
I'm biased, I own a few... Because they're awesome bikes! Aftermarket support is key for me. If there isn't a lot of go fast goodies available I tend to shy away from whatever it may be.
Not to say there isn't anything available for the other bike, just not nearly as much.
CB750 all the way. There's a lot of them out there, sure... For good reason. Don't understand why them being a common bike would be a deterring factor, people bought them for a reason ;D
My baby is a 72 cb750. I've never had any crazy motor or carb issues and she's comPetent on the road without major motor work. Plus the parts! You could catalogue build it if you so chose.
I am a Kawasaki nut, but I would definetely shy away from the kz750 twin, it was a slug, probably a victum of the energy crisis. The cb on the other hand has plenty umph and lots of aftermarket goodies and support. or better yet find a kz650....like VonYinzer said there are a lot of cb750's out there.
Although the cb is a bit of a boat anchor, it does offer a few things like relatively low vibration at highway speeds. And it has no problem maintaining 75 on the interstate. In fact, in a spat of brotherly competition, my 75 cb750 easily spanked my brother's 79 shovel bored to 1300. He topped out about 125, me at 135. Granted, it takes a while to reach that speed, but its not exactly a new bike either.
Although id like to say the kz for the sake of having a different bike, it is rather dodgy on power. In my opinion (completely unprofessional) a good running cb will out perform a good running kz750. And you will still feel your hands at the end of the ride. A few special tools help on a cb tho. 4 carbs can be tricky to keep in tune, so a 50 dollar carb sync tool is great.
But, which one really, I mean really appeals to you? Either bike will be fun. I just happen to like Cb's enough that I bought a second. But that's just me.
If both run and are mechanically sound and come with Title's the CB. That KZ twin was heavy and slow and short of character - that's not to say you couldn't make a decent cafe out of the KZ if you are in to doing everything from scratch and like a challenge.
That said, the last CB750 I was given was stripped for useful parts like cylinder liners and the rest was recycled into beer cans or something more useful so I'm probably not the guy to ask.
I have a '78 cb750f, and most days I love it. It's a bit of a different bike than the '72 would be, though.
The question I have is, what do you want in your bike? Is performance the top priority for you? Personally, I love the way twins sound and feel. Also, I believe the kz750 has disc brakes all around, does it not? That's not such a bad thing to have.
Also, what look are you going for? If you want the see-through thing, the cb has the oil tank to contend with. Just tossing that out there.
100% CB 750. I can't believe any of you guys think they're hard to work on. More challenging then a cb350 but not hard, just different. It's a fantastic power plant with a ton of go fast parts in the after market. I'm working on one right now. Picking up a donor for parts later today. Once you wrap your head around it you'll understand. Don't be afraid of learning. You'll love it.
I've owned both...go with the CB. The Kaw's had a short production run, just about anything will out run them, they are heavy, handle like crap and you likely will have a hard time finding parts. The Honda has a very active cult following, you can get parts with one click of the mouse from dozen's of suppliers, the after market parts producers are still active and finally you can find someone to help with it in nearly every town in the US/Canada. The cons to the 750..they are on every street corner, but then again so are Honda 350s and 360s.
Rider
Just wanted to thank all that stopped by and gave their opinions! I really took all of them into consideration,but of course I was leaning towards the cb. I contacted the owner of the cb last nite and confirmed cost, directions, and the usual questions I asked 3 weeks ago,I wanted re confirmation. Stay tuned for that. So my morning began at 3:15AM, out the door by 3:45 and at his door step by 7:30 included in the drive time a stop at McD's. Big mistake! So 182 miles later with a truck that gets 18mpg on the x-way I get there. In the pouring rain I start inspecting the bike going over everything I could as fast as I could. Everything checks out till I compare vin#s.UGH. The numbers check out, the title is from 1987. This thing hasn't been reg. Since 87? WTH? So this guy has had the bike for 2 years,never bothered to retitle. Not only that there was a lein holder that signed off in 87 and the orig never bothered to date the title when he sold it. So I got 3 hundy off the price, cause I imagine I may have some explaning to do. I may ask my local dealership that I get my parts from do a vin check before the state police come to the house for the inspection and vin check. If it came down to it I may have to find a cb750 frame and do a complete resto. I'm long winded, sorry. I hope it was worth it. Please more input and opinions appreciated. I have tried to post pics, comp says pics are to big, I really wanna share! This thing has the CRAZIEST exhaust I have ever seen! Looks to me to be TOOOO close to the front tire. I love the bike and yes it is a park bench compared to my 350
I was looking at a R5 350 last month. A day late and a dollar short and another bike with a ........I'm gonna say it, another bike in Mich with a Damn title issue! I really liked that little bike, Orange and black,with expansion chambers. Very KEWL bike. This 750 is a tank. Really heavy compared to cl350
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