Hi all, usual story here, long time lurker first time topic starter.
As per the thread subject, this is going to take me a while to complete for 3 simple reasons; 1. I am not the greatest mechanic around (I always discribe myself as 'mechanically-challenged'), 2. money is a big player in the decision making and actual building process and 3. my awesome kids take up a lot of my time (daughter is 2 and son is 7months so they can't help dad just yet).
I was trying to decide if I should wait until I have made some decent progress before starting a thread or if I should just get something going and update where and when I can... Decided to get the ball rolling so long. And you never know, someone might find the pics interesting here and there.
Heads up, here's the boring bit you can skip
Ok, short background: I live in Centurion which is in South Africa (winter atm) and work for a software company. My first ride (and what learnt to ride on) was a K2 CB750 which belonged to my dad (he still has it and is busy restoring it). I rode it for a few years through school and college, pranged it a few times, dropped it once or twice and absolutely loved every KM on it. I stopped riding for a while but got back into it with a Suzuki 750 bandit, then tried my hand at offroad riding (CRF 250X) but missed tarmac and couldn't do both, went back to road bikes with a 2006 Buell XB9SX. I ended up selling the Buell to buy a Honda CB1000R (09) which i rode for a while only to sell it and buy another Buell XB9SX. The CB1R was awesome but I didn't need to do 250km/h and missed the grunt and fun-factor of the Buell. I still have my XB and will not part with it easily.
I've always loved classic bikes and due to the CB being my first bike it has always been high up on my list of favourite bikes. Now, even though I am not mechanical and can't weld or paint or do much of anything that will help with this project, I loved the idea of building/restoring something myself.
My brother had a '76 CB550 that he crashed, didn't have money to fix (or the desire to) so he left it at my old man's place and forgot about it. Over the years my dad has moved house a few times and every time he would make a plan and move the 550 along with his 750 even though neither was close to running. A couple months ago he came up to visit and I asked if I could take it off his hands, done. The bike hasn't been ridden or even had the motor turned over in about 10yrs and is pretty stuffed (see pics).
So, the plan is to fix and Cafe the bike but wow does it feel like a mamoth task right now.
Here is what it looked like when my ol' man dragged it out from the garage before bring it up to me.
As per the thread subject, this is going to take me a while to complete for 3 simple reasons; 1. I am not the greatest mechanic around (I always discribe myself as 'mechanically-challenged'), 2. money is a big player in the decision making and actual building process and 3. my awesome kids take up a lot of my time (daughter is 2 and son is 7months so they can't help dad just yet).
I was trying to decide if I should wait until I have made some decent progress before starting a thread or if I should just get something going and update where and when I can... Decided to get the ball rolling so long. And you never know, someone might find the pics interesting here and there.
Heads up, here's the boring bit you can skip
Ok, short background: I live in Centurion which is in South Africa (winter atm) and work for a software company. My first ride (and what learnt to ride on) was a K2 CB750 which belonged to my dad (he still has it and is busy restoring it). I rode it for a few years through school and college, pranged it a few times, dropped it once or twice and absolutely loved every KM on it. I stopped riding for a while but got back into it with a Suzuki 750 bandit, then tried my hand at offroad riding (CRF 250X) but missed tarmac and couldn't do both, went back to road bikes with a 2006 Buell XB9SX. I ended up selling the Buell to buy a Honda CB1000R (09) which i rode for a while only to sell it and buy another Buell XB9SX. The CB1R was awesome but I didn't need to do 250km/h and missed the grunt and fun-factor of the Buell. I still have my XB and will not part with it easily.
I've always loved classic bikes and due to the CB being my first bike it has always been high up on my list of favourite bikes. Now, even though I am not mechanical and can't weld or paint or do much of anything that will help with this project, I loved the idea of building/restoring something myself.
My brother had a '76 CB550 that he crashed, didn't have money to fix (or the desire to) so he left it at my old man's place and forgot about it. Over the years my dad has moved house a few times and every time he would make a plan and move the 550 along with his 750 even though neither was close to running. A couple months ago he came up to visit and I asked if I could take it off his hands, done. The bike hasn't been ridden or even had the motor turned over in about 10yrs and is pretty stuffed (see pics).
So, the plan is to fix and Cafe the bike but wow does it feel like a mamoth task right now.
Here is what it looked like when my ol' man dragged it out from the garage before bring it up to me.
