Been lurking for a while now, made a few posts, and realized that I've never properly introduced myself. How rude!
I've been around bikes all my life. My father had three bikes (at the same time) when I was growing up: An old Triumph Bonnie, A Kawasaki 750, and a Harley lowrider. The 750 was kitted out, and that was pretty much the only bike he wouldn't let me ride on the back of. The Triumph was stock and in mint condition. I don't know what year it was, but it was always my favorite. The Harley was the bike he rode the most, and also the one he worked on the most. He sold all three after he had a spill on the kawasaki. It wasn't that bad, but it shook him pretty fierce because it was the first time he ever fell on a bike (rode since he was 10), and it was one of those things that could have been a lot worse than it was. Selling the bikes was a decision he immediately regretted, by the way. He has since been riding Ducatis, until a mild stroke put a stop to that.
My mother, bless her heart, strictly forbade me from riding any bikes of my own as long as I lived in her house. Probably a good thing, because if I rode when I was younger, I'd probably be dead. And when I finally moved out at 18, I certainly couldn't afford a bike. Plus I was more concerned with getting drunk and getting laid at that age to worry about anything else. So I didn't actually start riding on the street until I was 30. My uncle owns a farm, and I rode dirt bikes and ATVs from the age of 12 or so, but we're talking small little 2-stroke thumpers.
Then I turn 30 and I realize that something's been missing from my life. So I got my license (only one that day to get a perfect score on the handling test! Thanks Uncle Bob!) and picked up the first bike I could afford. That happened to be a 1979 Honda CB750 L, which was the 10th anniversary edition. It looked great but needed a lot of work. After sorting the stock CV carbs and electrical mess out, I had a good runner for a couple of years.
But I wanted more out of it. The retro look was nice and all, but I knew it could be better. So last year I started to tear it down and turn it into the bike I really wanted: a clean, minimalist, well performing cafe racer. Unfortunately I'm stupid busy at work, and I'm still in the performance stage of the rebuild. Haven't even touched the aesthetics yet. But it is progressing... slowly...
In the meantime, I bought a decent running '81 CB900c to beat up while the 750 was on the stand in the garage. I thought I got a good deal on it at the time, but like all things Honda that are 30 years old, the problems didn't take long to surface. Hopefully I can fix the few issues I have without much effort. At the end of the day though, it still runs like a beast and has enough get up and go to get my heart racing when I open her up. So I'm happy with it overall. I'm just wishing I paid about $300 less so I could spend that on parts.
Ultimately my goal is to finish the 750 over winter. I'm taking a ton of inspiration from all the wonderful builds on this site, particularly the handful of beautiful DOHC CB750s I've seen. The dual cam 750s always seem to take a back seat to their older brothers from the 70s, but I think they still have great potential. I've got a lot of hot shit parts on the bike, and I plan on focusing on the performance and handling above all else before I even consider things like paint colors and seat design. I don't want to be one of those guys that slaps a set of clubmans and a bump stop seat on the bike and calls it done. It has to be reliable and perform.
I work in industrial automation (I program big yellow robots that build cars and what not) and I'm lucky enough to have a boss that will let me work on the bike in the shop. I think it's his way of getting me to come in on Saturdays. The advantage to that being that I have full access to milling machines and tools. Plus I can throw my parts in when we do a batch of anodizing or powder coating.
No build thread yet, but when I've got a minute, I'll start one. I'm afraid to document the process though, because then there will be a record of how monumentally long it's taking me to do anything.
Anyway, love the site and all of the resources on it! I'll probably be posting here more often as I really start to dig in to the bike.
I've been around bikes all my life. My father had three bikes (at the same time) when I was growing up: An old Triumph Bonnie, A Kawasaki 750, and a Harley lowrider. The 750 was kitted out, and that was pretty much the only bike he wouldn't let me ride on the back of. The Triumph was stock and in mint condition. I don't know what year it was, but it was always my favorite. The Harley was the bike he rode the most, and also the one he worked on the most. He sold all three after he had a spill on the kawasaki. It wasn't that bad, but it shook him pretty fierce because it was the first time he ever fell on a bike (rode since he was 10), and it was one of those things that could have been a lot worse than it was. Selling the bikes was a decision he immediately regretted, by the way. He has since been riding Ducatis, until a mild stroke put a stop to that.
My mother, bless her heart, strictly forbade me from riding any bikes of my own as long as I lived in her house. Probably a good thing, because if I rode when I was younger, I'd probably be dead. And when I finally moved out at 18, I certainly couldn't afford a bike. Plus I was more concerned with getting drunk and getting laid at that age to worry about anything else. So I didn't actually start riding on the street until I was 30. My uncle owns a farm, and I rode dirt bikes and ATVs from the age of 12 or so, but we're talking small little 2-stroke thumpers.
Then I turn 30 and I realize that something's been missing from my life. So I got my license (only one that day to get a perfect score on the handling test! Thanks Uncle Bob!) and picked up the first bike I could afford. That happened to be a 1979 Honda CB750 L, which was the 10th anniversary edition. It looked great but needed a lot of work. After sorting the stock CV carbs and electrical mess out, I had a good runner for a couple of years.
But I wanted more out of it. The retro look was nice and all, but I knew it could be better. So last year I started to tear it down and turn it into the bike I really wanted: a clean, minimalist, well performing cafe racer. Unfortunately I'm stupid busy at work, and I'm still in the performance stage of the rebuild. Haven't even touched the aesthetics yet. But it is progressing... slowly...
In the meantime, I bought a decent running '81 CB900c to beat up while the 750 was on the stand in the garage. I thought I got a good deal on it at the time, but like all things Honda that are 30 years old, the problems didn't take long to surface. Hopefully I can fix the few issues I have without much effort. At the end of the day though, it still runs like a beast and has enough get up and go to get my heart racing when I open her up. So I'm happy with it overall. I'm just wishing I paid about $300 less so I could spend that on parts.
Ultimately my goal is to finish the 750 over winter. I'm taking a ton of inspiration from all the wonderful builds on this site, particularly the handful of beautiful DOHC CB750s I've seen. The dual cam 750s always seem to take a back seat to their older brothers from the 70s, but I think they still have great potential. I've got a lot of hot shit parts on the bike, and I plan on focusing on the performance and handling above all else before I even consider things like paint colors and seat design. I don't want to be one of those guys that slaps a set of clubmans and a bump stop seat on the bike and calls it done. It has to be reliable and perform.
I work in industrial automation (I program big yellow robots that build cars and what not) and I'm lucky enough to have a boss that will let me work on the bike in the shop. I think it's his way of getting me to come in on Saturdays. The advantage to that being that I have full access to milling machines and tools. Plus I can throw my parts in when we do a batch of anodizing or powder coating.
No build thread yet, but when I've got a minute, I'll start one. I'm afraid to document the process though, because then there will be a record of how monumentally long it's taking me to do anything.
Anyway, love the site and all of the resources on it! I'll probably be posting here more often as I really start to dig in to the bike.
I've only worked with the FANUCs, but may have a chance to do some work on ABBs at some point. We also do a lot of work with Wittmann gantry robots and Epson SCARAs.
