BUMP!
Go ahead & point out how it's an old thread - without ARCHIVES, we might as well be using the chat type groups on FACEBOOK - a lot of people already are - and why? PHOTO HOSTING. The Botophucket thing seems to have sparked a lot of activity over on crackbook, but how good of a FORUM is it over there? I suppose plenty of members around here are already accustomed to only reading what's new anyhow - But the real GEMS are buried in the ARCHIVED threads!
Some fantastic pics on this thread, even despite the botophucket ransom! Gotta boost my pics to a new host so I can show my basic 1/2" plate brackets - The P.O. did 'em with cheesy looking (imho) Tarozzi non-folding pegs, and I've made a couple of new sets with different ergonomics -
I'd seen the Bimota brackets for the CB400F and had borrowed something of their style to rework the shape of my own brackets - Well I hadn't realized Bimota had MADE a bolt-up kit for the 750!
I figure a simple alloy plate is the best place to start being that you're gonna have to modify 'em to fit unless it's the EXACT same model they were intended for - there are all sorts of folding pegs available
What I'm not cool with are the double-linkage double-pivot overly complex bell-crank times bell-crank pedals, such as Tarozzi offered with their "full" kit!
For drums, a cable would be best though a new reworked rod could suffice - direct from the pedal to the drum's own arm. For the DISC rear brakes you'll want a rear master with the bell-crank INTEGRAL - period-correct stuff was available from BREMBO, found on Guzzi & Ducati - the stuff with the integral reservoir limits your orientation however. As such, there's a period-correct LOOKING unit from "MIKE'S XS650" - that way your pedals no matter their type or their location, can be connected directly to the master - with a PULL type actuation rather than pushing. This way, the master needn't be reoriented to suit a new peg position.
But perhaps the simplest way to mod 'em, would be a shorter PEDAL whether that's a weld-up mod or another pedal which fits the same spline, or even a new shaft & pedal together just shimmed into the existing pivot hole, there are a TON of ways this could be done.
If you REALLY like the double-link thing as a mockery slash homage of the period-correct magazine-classifieds STREET-bike way of doing things? There's a Tarozzi style lug available from VF750F's etc, the ones with the pedal integral to the pivot shaft ie no visible joint on the external face of the pedal itself - THAT thing will fit up to a GL1200 pivot shaft, I know that much.
There's a certain OEM look to a separate pedal & folding pegs - it can't be beat - the "racing pretensions" of the bike then become "STEALTH" or "SLEEPER" - nothing but a win/win in MY book.
I've grabbed a CB1100R alloy pedal for my DOHC-4 projects, and it turns out it fit the splines of the '82 North American style forward-peg type pivot shaft - But I've got a lot further & modded my pivot shaft to be shorter & hollow & to have a shorter actuator arm on the back side, and I've adapted some DOHC-4 sport-kit style CB750K (drum brake) type passenger-peg brackets, by reaming out the pivot hole - which is the rear-most located pivot hole of any of the OEM brackets for DOHC-4.
But in the "final" or semi-final analysis I found I like the look of a WELDED shortened OEM pedal better than the alloy unit, which is nigh Unobtainium & as such some trick kit for DOHC-4 in it's own right - I think I'll use the CB1100R pedal with a DRUM brake, on the "featherweight" 750 I'm building next, for my daughter to upgrade from the "KZ440LOL"....
Possibly the worst crap to look at on modified SOHC-4 "STARBUCKS RACERS", even worse than the USD forks or the 17" wheels, floating rotors or weird little ass-hanging-off-a-cliff's-edge SEATS people throw at these bikes just to see what'll stick ... would have to be the crotch-rocket REAR-SETS which they've borrowed from the '90s-Y2K+ junkpile.
It's nothing to do with the pegs & pedals, it's the way they always keep those fugly BRACKETS just like they are, and drill & weld crap all over the original frame or sometimes they'll make an additional bracket for the new brackets to bolt up to, sometimes they'll weld the new brackets to the new donor materials, so as to position 'em in some usable position - All of this NONSENSE just to keep the direct-push MASTER they come with, and probably so they don't have to carve something out of alloy & get truly creative in a design state - a true "blank slate" in a 3D sense, being that you've gotta consider the edge treatment as well.
There's just no NEED for that crap. It's about the rear master with the bell-crank integral to it's body, with a tiny lil' alloy lever which you could replace with a hunk of scrap carved with a nail-file while you watched the bube-toob -
Think of the WEIGHT it'd save!
As for mounting stuff to the frame, I'm also bothered by all the stuff wrapped around the swing-arm pivot. Better best to weld up small steel lugs onto the rear frame rail itself, for the brackets to bolt to rather than involving all of this other stuff - Even a shaft with both ends threaded, is gonna be a pain in the EH to remove those brackets. Leave 'em on their OWN mounts, so you don't have to mess with engine hangers let alone the swinger pivot - then you can remove 'em, replace 'em to change the ergonomics etc. Think of the weight THAT'LL save!
I've also got some passenger brackets cut from an early SOHC-4, wanting to revert the style to a "retro-fried" bit of revisionist history, give the DOHC-4 something more of a late '60s vibe along with it's wire-spoke wheels.
Turns out they weigh less than half that of the alloy brackets alone, despite being made from steel! Guess that's proof positive that newer isn't always better!
The one saving grace about the alloy brackets from the '78 'F2 & the DOHC-4 Super-Sports, is you can drill a hole in 'em and stick a peg wherever you LIKE, no need to replace 'em with any aftermarket or even OEM "Sport-Kit" nonsense.
Check out the DUCK Super-Sport sometime. Just like the CB72/CB77 Hawk/SuperHawk, they've got a hirth-spline mounting point for their pegs, so as to rotate 'em through a whole sweeping range of positions AND there's an additional hirth-spline point welded to the frame itself, so as to relocate 'em to this new spot and sweep through a whole additional range. The HONDA twins had three positions, one originally intended for passengers, so as to accomodate some truly extreme peg positions - all using the original parts which came with the bike!
THAT'S the kinda stuff we need to be building in. Forget about "BOLT-UP" kits - I think most SOHC-ers mean to say "TURN-KEY" when they say that - Grab a damned WELDER - whether by the handle end or grab the welder PERSON by the ARM - the peg mounting lugs should definitely be welded professionally just to be sure they're about the strongest point on the whole damn frame. Barring THAT, I suppose the plates over the swinger bolts etc offer a huge degree of freedom in ergonomic adjustment no matter HOW they're attached to the frame you'll want a "blank slate" to draw upon.
As for the cable actuated drums, there are braze-on & bolt-up cable mounting lugs available from the BICYCLE shops - I'm sure they'd be happy to install 'em onto your frame too, if people don't wanna weld 'em - But the best point to add the front end is the brake LIGHT SWITCH mounting point, imho - whereas the drum itself could easily have a mounting point plugged into a threaded hole that you've drilled through the shoe-plate - at which point you'll either need a cable from an existing model OR a "build your own cable" kit - a good idea in any case, when you're lowering the bars etc.
All of that stuff just gets it right back to where it was when we all caught the whiff of "Sanctuary" & "Bull Dock" STARBUCKS RACER CROTCH-ROCKETRY, some ten or fifteen years ago - Given how things have developed since then, I've gotta ask just how much more complicated WAS the original period-correct way of doing things? People really seem to think they've reinvented the wheel, but squint a lil' harder at some of these "dream" bikes you're ogling on those bike-pron blogs. A whole lot of unpolishable turds, these days.
The best bike-porn to be found on the 'net has gotta be the original trackside pics of original RACE-bikes, slowly trickling down through the four-ums 'f-orums & other forums.
That is, IF they've survived the Botophucket ransom?
Goes to show you though, the value of what few pics survive on this thread - we've all gotta do what we can to find new hosts for those old pics, and re-post 'em to these four-ums with some sort of link here in our personal info such that readers can FIND what's now missing from these threads.
A whole lotta old-timers in the "hobby" who are getting old, being hauled off to a home & their daughters' new boyfriends will pilfer their garage to make new art-school reject repaint "design exercise" STARBUCKS RACERS - If we don't jump on restoring what's been lost due to all these dead old photo links SOON, well there won't BE any time left to do it all over again ... yet again! Ha-ha. Not all of the GOOD shit anyhow.
Not when nobody's asking 'em the right questions, 'cause all of the noobs just wanna copy the trendy "new" look from their bike-pron feeds.
Let's see a return to the OLD'S-COOL methods, can't we? 'Cause we're fast approaching the tipping point where these STARBUCKS RACERS will be stuck back in the garage just like the choppers of old, to wait another generation before somebody else must go to great lengths to undo all of the damage which has been done all in the name of so-called "performance". Like the choppers, there'll always be some throwback moron who "digs the Frisco style" etc - but the majority of 'em won't be able to find a rider - Not unless they're dressing up like 2010 HIPSTERS for some future generation high-school's Halloween Dance?
BAH!
Like I say - there are simple fixes to the rear-sets ergonomics question, which needn't involve a '90s-Y2K+ Crotch-Rocket after all.
BUT - neither must they involve a "TURN-KEY" kit from a vintage aftermarket supplier - to whit, "UNOBTAINIUM" in the extreme. Nice if you've GOT it, or can GET it. It's this very scarcity which drove people to such lengths & feats of crotch-rocketry in the first place!
FABRICATION! After all, a lot of the period aftermarket stuff wasn't crapped out by a CNC robot in the first place now, was it?
Even the CHOPPA-HEADS have something to teach us - THEY'RE all about the WELDING, the FABRICATION, and the DIY design ethos - however derivative their designs might ultimately be! For every welded hard-tail conversion they've done, WE should be doing something equally radical to UN-hobble our chassis. Or perhaps we just need to lobby PAUGHCO etc, to manufacture those EGLI-HONDA, PSS, RAU etc, spine-tube backbone frame kits?
If we'd avoided this side-detour into yet another FASHION VICTIM-HOOD phenomenon, perhaps all of this new interest in Classic Superbikes of the past ten-fifteen years, might have accomplished THAT, instead???
-Sigh.