looking for ideas and guidance with my 1980 CB750F

Man, that was awesome. I really appricate the time and effort you put into helping me get the bike I want out of the bike I have. I am 5'7" so I am gonna have to do the forks and springs anyways, other than that, it seems like I've got a big shopping list and it's only getting bigger. "Surffly" thanks again for the wisdom.
 
OMFG! Those handlebars are an atrocity! :eek:

Your bike looks like it's in a remarkable good condition, I'd say keep it that way and put on the kind of handlebars it was designed to have, not the stupid kind the sales people think the US market must have.

Search for CB900F handlebars from 79-80, they also had the 35mm fork, its a clip-on type meant to be mounted on top of the triple tree and slightly raised
090514CB900F24.JPG


You'll find them on the Entire-World-Except-North-America models.

If you want to do the wheel upgrade, the easiest way is to use CBR600 F2 wheels and a CBR600 F1 fork complete with brake system and axle. The rear wheel needs to have new bearings put in to use the 16mm axle from the 750 (not sure if it's 16, but bearings are available whatever you have).

Use the 750 steering stem with a 10mm spacer at the bottom, most Hondas use the same steering head bearings.
If you use a F3 front wheel you loose the speedometer output but it will fit, however you need to replace the rotors. An entire F2 front could be fitted with some additional adjustments.
Note, the F1 fork is 37mm so you need handles as well, CB900F 81-82 will provide.

The difference between the old skinny tyres and modern wide radials is enormous, this upgrade is well worth considering and shouldn't really alter the bikes appearance if done properly.

While you're fixing things, check if your bike has the plastic bushings for the swing arm. In that case change them for needle roller bearings! Your life might depend on those bushings one day and I'd take no offers on them beeing 1980 vintage as well. And throw those pods away, those carbs are notoriously difficult to get to work properly without the box.

All in all, a very nice Super Sport. Not many of them left
 
Yeah it does.
Normally I would lace into that bike, but DTT is a happier place then others...

Like I've said in other threads, it all depends on what you want to do with the bike.
Some just really want to take pictures of bikes....others want something that functions.
 
chucklump said:
I guess this has all the don'ts
Click to expand...
Sometimes you don't have the greatest base to start from. Take my GS750 for example. Sat behind a shed for 3 years and went through 2 floods. There is no way in hell I am going to spend time and money restoring it to near stock. It will end up looking somewhere like a generic "cafè" bike but hopefully anyone that looks at it will notice the upgrades I have put on it.

Matt has a great base to start from, it would be insane to rip it apart and turn it into a "cafè" bike. Usually performance upgrades get overlooked because of the cost, as owners want their bike on pipeburn rather than the road.
 
chucklump said:
I guess this has all the don'ts
Click to expand...
Definitely.

But, as Brodie says, we don't know anything about how that build started.

If it was anything like my first bike it would have been a blessing to mankind to have it turned into a Latte racer.

My current bike is a CB900F, I have the CBR forks and are looking for an aluminium braced swing, but I'll try to keep appearances as close to original as I can.

If you want to build, try to build out of junk. It's more fun, I promise you! And the result will be unique.
358c8pg.jpg


Misspelled by Samsung
 
mattie said:
I've got a line on a great running CM400T, what are your thoughts on making that a cafe?
Click to expand...

About the right size engine for a Cafe, also a parallel twin which is good. The only downside is the subframe, as they are a "cruiser" style bike they will require a bit of work to get a cafe style seat to fit.

With that said I will just leave these pictures here and let you decide if you want to go through with all the work required.

CM400-caferacer.jpeg


index.php


And yes, that is the same bike. http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=45376.0
 
mattie said:
I've got a line on a great running CM400T, what are your thoughts on making that a cafe?
Click to expand...

You can play dress up with it, but in my eyes will be little more then that ever.
Play to a bikes strengths, performance ain't a hawks strength.
 
Bah! Interesting to see how much folks have gotten hung up on the semantics, as though there's any REAL difference between a "Superbike" and a "Café Racer"!

(((I'd repeat my whole argument as to why the term "Superbike" is simply an Americanization of the Anglicized "Café Racer" which comes from the Japanese term "MOTORCYCLE" ha-ha - But I've written a several pages long treatise/thesis on the subject over at www.cb1100f.net literally ages ago, maybe ten years ago I dunno - the site's founder Glenn & I had a hilarious exchange of YouTube salvoes vis-à-vis what was then known as a "Frankenbike" and what has just here been once again called "dressing up" by ShoeFlyShoe - Surely if it were written TODAY, the likes of Daryl Walking-Dead Dixon's fake-kickstart Nighthawk would make for an obvious third category, with rich allegory as to crap falling off of dead bikes both fresh and ripe, but at the TIME I drew the parallel between the "FRANKEN" bikes, and (not that I've ever been a fan of any other Vampire AFTER Mr. Lugosi's original portrayal), the well-dressed dude with the old's-cool class the chrome & the ruby red candy paint etc. etc.....

ANYWAY, the gist of it went like this:
I thought I was being very clever posting thusly -
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pVYPHx59JfA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVYPHx59JfA
But then without skipping a beat, within seconds Glenn quips back with
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w1FLZPFI3jc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FLZPFI3jc
Truly ridiculous. What's more, there's just way too much "Don't" in these responses, with very little "DO: ___" that makes any more sense than what the O.P. wanted to do with his bike.

However what I do find refreshing is the perspective that a "Near Mint CB750F" is actually VALUED by a non-DOHC forum! Ha-ha. Seriously, too many years where these bikes were shit-canned, people holding the attitude "if it ain't a SOHC then who cares?" When the one thing that's happened since then to change people's attitude towards these bikes, is that people have MADE a lot of Caffienated 'F-bikes!

What's a total pain in the butt though, is how freely advice flows about "changes to the rear suspension" (READ: mono-shock it!) and sticking 17" three-spoke cast-mag wheels and USD forks and crap like that. What I've come to term an "OREO build" meaning all of the cream is in the middle - Look around at all of the Ducati Diavel inspired Gixxer-wannabe Oreo book-end "Café Racer" or "Superbike" crap that's out there, seems to have been inspired by the "Bull Dock" stuff out of Japan around Y2K which would be speaking generously, but probably has more to do with cheap bits from wrecked/dead '90s-Y2K+ running gear off of local craigslist/eBay etc, mixed with the All Balls Racing site having the automated scroll-down fork-swap menu for ordering ready-to-fit steering neck bearings etc. And the fact that it really doesn't matter WHAT sort of parts you're using just so long as they're all bedazzled with plenty of gold & purple anodized CNC-routed billet (KILL IT) shite, that the brake rotors ring around a posie of snow-web spiderflake carriers (anybody notice that most of those CBR rotors are the same diameter as the DOHC-series' own 296mm CB1100R/GL1100A/CBX-prolink etc rotors or for that matter the early SOHC CB750K single rotors ie dual-disc on CR750 - and that using the upgraded caliper-hangers from such so as to allow the spiderflake rotors puts your calipers & brake-pads at the same radius from the axle anyhow, even if you DO squeeze in the 310mm rotors? At which point, all of that extra rotor diameter, so lauded as the next best thing since sliced bread on the SOHC & DOHC four-ums, is just dead weight hanging outside of the WORKING area of the brake! Seriously, the majority of CBR discs are the same damn size as the older stuff and don't go up to 310mm until around midway through the CBR929RR or CBR954RR era, plus a lot of 'em are just as heavy if not heavier than the older stuff - Never mind what's going on with the 17" cast-mag wheels not only in terms of total mass but in terms of weight distribution - With the smaller lighter hubs on SOME of the later era wheels, comes a greater proportion of weight which is right out at the outer circumference of the wheel - Not just a bigger tire per se, but the cast rims themselves have a far far thicker cross-section than does an extruded hoop-bent and butt-welded alloy rim from say a wire-spoke or for that matter a COMSTAR wheel!

Damn though it's the mono-shock stuff that REALLY makes a Superbike look gross, IMHO. Otherwise, folks would value the GPZ 's a lot more than the early KZ's, but they don't do they? And why? 'Cause the monoshock rear end just makes the whole damn thing FUGLY.

Well hopefully my "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" will make the anti-Café crowd STFU for a while, or at least noobs will be able to see that one CAN "have their cake and eat it", that these bikes can have the upgraded running gear & top-shelf components WHILE looking classy & retro-fried.
 
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