Cb750 cafe build

[nateb]

Hello all. I’m Nate, I’ve been kicking around here for a year or so. My first street bike was a 80 cb750. I bought it last January and quickly went to work on it-It turned out ok, it was fast, loud, looked clean, I rode it 200 miles and thought I would like a bike to have my girl ride with. So I sold it and bought a nice older Goldwing and had money to spend. My second (keeper) bike (my girls bike) is a 75 cb550f. It’s my girlfriends bike because I had “too many” (3 others for trade stock) at the time. If you’re wondering how you go from 1-4 bikes in a couple of months just ask me how. The obsession is real. I couldn’t pass up the 550f. So I called it hers. It turned out even nicer than the first one. I read and read and read on here, other forums and the Facebook places. I’ve decided to do a build thread. I do like the company here and the suggestions, and Do The Ton feels like home to me. I’m posting a couple of pics to validate the last two...So moving forward, like the title says this build is a 76 cb750. I acquired the bike through fb marketplace. The add said two Honda motorcycles for sale. The first pic was a cb750 roller, no motor or tank. Second pic was a complete 73 cb750. I called the guy and he was in liquidation mode, he had the two cbs, two cx500 motors, four or five tanks and a serious uhaul open trailer load to take he explained. So the question was...how much? He said $400 and I ‘bout had a stroke. I get off the phone the next words out of my mouth were “babe, get in the truck we’re going for a drive.” And we brought it all home. So I had two rollers, the complete 73 was w/o papers. The Vermont trick does not work in Washington state sadly. The 76 frame is titled so she’s the keeper. I decided that I would use what I needed and trade or sell everything else. It slowly morphed into the realization that I’m in this thing damn cheap and after trading or selling what I’m not using, I’m into it even better. Like the guy paid me to haul it off even better. He thought he blew up the motor by running low on oil. He did not. He had the carbs rebuilt and said I wouldnt need to even look at those. Well the motor wasn’t blown up, yes the oil tank was a little low but I could see oil in it. The bike had 10k mi on it...so I pulled the carbs and when I looked in the bowls he was right, they had been freshly rebuilt. But- one of the floats was bent and no 3 wasn’t filling up. They go back on and a quick plug change noticed two oil fouled, remedied the carbs and plugs and she went bang. Runs freaking great. I even rode it. Kinda scary with 45 year old tires but I’m sure it was all grins! Anyways, the purpose of this build is to make a decent cafe. Time for the tear down then...


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[nateb]

I decided to sell the pipes. I put them up for sale on fb cb750 site and they were on there for about 2 1/2 weeks. They had some rot on the seams but all the bad was not showing so they might be valuable to someone. One fella contacted me and asked if I was interested in any trading? I said yep! Well we were trying to get a deal pounded out and he said he was going to think about it. He needed my #3 pipe to complete a set. I wasn’t going to break the set up. He offered $500 for the one pipe. I stood my ground. Mind you, $500 was about what I had into this whole endeavor after trailer rental and fuel. The next day I get a close to full price offer on eBay. I called the guy who I’m getting the trade going with and said you need to shit or get off the pot. He said ok let’s do it! I traded the pipes, a 18” factory d.i.d. rear wheel, the collars for the exhaust, and the rear foot pegs for a gorgeous tank, a 4/1 header, some velocity stacks, exhaust collars, and he accidentally dropped a sandcast badge in the box too!


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[nateb]

Time for the obligatory cb frame vs. cut off wheel pics...


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[nateb]

Through the sale of the headlight ears, seat, gauges, front wheel and hub, seat lock, rear shocks, fork gators, brake light, front fender I was able to finance these...so I can run this!! A 2001 gsxr 1000 front end I had sitting in the corner waiting for glory.


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[nateb]

A new sticker for my tool box came in the mail today!


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[nateb]

At this point I am literally even on this build money wise. No shit. I had a front end from a previous deal sitting here, I traded and sold my way to where I’m at with the new parts. So I have a titled 76 cb runner, rebuilt gsxr frontend with conversion stem and bearings, 40 hole hub, really really nice tank, velocity stacks, dyna ignition and exhaust for $0. I ordered motogadget m unit to wire the bike, also some rear shocks.


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[nateb]

I decided that I’m going to use 17” aluminum wheels. This build has kinda taken on a let’s see how cheap I can build it aura about it. So with that in mind I’m using 17” \ 2.50 wheels from either an old goldwing or a cb750 hondamatic. I acquired both wheels shipped to my door for less than $200. Not bad. Now to wait for the spokes from Buchanan so I can drill the nipple holes before they get powdered.
* note- I only needed to buy front spokes as the rear hub of the cb750A has 17” wheel so I’m cleaning up the rear spokes and reusing them.

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[slikwilli420]

Yeah that rear is not going to work on the front. Your spoke angles will be way off. The front hub is so much smaller than the rear they won't line up and you will have spoke nipples that do not match the holes they are going in.

 

[coyote13]

Yeah that rear is not going to work on the front. Your spoke angles will be way off. The front hub is so much smaller than the rear they won't line up and you will have spoke nipples that do not match the holes they are going in.

Even if he's using the Cognito GSXR conversion hub?

 

[nateb]

Angel at Buchanan says they built a spoke for Cognito because someone has ran it before. Im gonna try it. I called him up, told him what hub and what wheel I was using. And then he gave me two different options for spokes. He said option one was I think he said a 5/6? No drilling required but kinda a sloppy fit, option two was 7/8? Bigger gauge spoke and nipple but have to drill. He said option two builds a stronger wheel but a little more labor..shouldn’t take that long. I might have the numbers backwards regarding the spoke gauges now that I read that. But does this conversation make sense?


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[nateb]

The last couple days I had a chance to get my frame painted and a bit of polishing knocked out. I told my painter friend that did the tanks and sidecovers on my last two bikes about wanting to do this one myself. He said sand the frame where I cut stuff off and where there were surface rust blisters with 180 sand paper until it was all feathered out. Then spray it with Jasco paint prep... Some kinda voodoo acid that etches the metal and kills all remaining rust areas. Let it sit over night then rub it down after it’s dry with a red scruffy pad. Then I wiped it all down with lacquer thinner. Then he said go get this van sickle gloss enamel tractor paint. He said if I do the prep just like he said and I used this paint I would be golden. So that’s what I did. He said that would take a couple days to harden up so I put it aside to dry and had some time to get some polishing done! I kinda have a polishing fetish. I really dig watching that metal come to life. So this is where I’m at on this project waiting for spokes, hub and stem conversion to show up. I’m starting to feel it note: that valve cover was another one that I had from the original purchase...I got a whole 750 engine in a couple of boxes in the deal too.


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[nateb]

I love the look of a polished valve cover and stacks...so those stay. But regarding the rest of the motor, should I repaint it silver, or paint it black with some silver edged fins and polished cases? Or just paint the head black? The header is getting wrapped with the light colored wrap. Should I leave it crusty? It’s not really dirty, remember it only had 10k miles on it. So any ideas on motor looks are welcomed-also I’ve been kicking around the idea of painting the fork black. Is it too much gold? The tank has the gold stripe and I think I’ll run a gold chain to tie it all together. But don’t know what to do on the motor yet.


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[canyoncarver]

Looks like fun. That little orange 550 is a sweetie too.

 

[nateb]

Thank you!- it really is a dime piece. It found me one night. I have search terms saved in my phone and I received a notification from CL. That was at 10:30 one night, well it was very hard to not call the dude before 7:00 am the next morning. Well I got the bike as a promise that is was for my girlfriend. I went to work like a madman on that and the restoration/modification virus that we catch started to really get going good. Lol. My girl thinks I’m crazy because I am really into Hondas now-but she got a damn sweet bike! Here are some before pics on that one. Also it is technically still a one owner because I haven’t transferred the title yet. I will put it in both of our names but it came with original paperwork including the sales invoice. And the pink slip is really Pink! He paid $1695 for that bike new and sold it to me 42 years later almost to the day for $1000 no questioned asked! We are going to license that with the original plate. I was able to remove all the year tabs down to the very first one. It has 14992 miles on it. John, the original owner, wanted a blue one but they were sold out. So he bought the orange bike and had it painted blue a week later! I’ve been offered what I think is serious coin for this bike but she’s not for sale. It will stay here because it’s mamas. https://www.facebook.com/groups/40322702454/permalink/10155003761887455/


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[slikwilli420]

It's all about spoke angles. If the cognito hub is similar to the stock rear it might work fine. I missed the different hub up front. Will look cool if it works.

 

[nateb]

Motogadget basic and m button showed up today- should make wiring a breeze


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[nateb]

It's all about spoke angles. If the cognito hub is similar to the stock rear it might work fine. I missed the different hub up front. Will look cool if it works.

I hope it will work, if not I’ll have to get a different wheel and spokes. But those guys at Buchanan seem to know their stuff. They ask everything. They ask you what wheels you’re using where, and what hub you are using on what wheels. They knew about having to drill that wheel on the front to use their bigger spokes. They pretty much got me schooled up. He said the best part about the wheels I chose is that there is no offset. (?) I think than meant he didn’t have to do any magic bending with the spokes to get my wheels centered? That was by accident, I just wanted to get ahold of cheap aluminum 17” wheels. And even better if it was a Honda part originally! But I definitely got the impression from those guys by the time we were done that if that wheel woundnt work he would’ve said something.


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[nateb]

The spokes showed up, just waiting on the front hub from Cognito to see if this is going to work. I guess I shall drill out the nipple holes while I wait....


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[nateb]

The spokes showed up, just waiting on the front hub from Cognito to see if this is going to work. I guess I shall drill out the nipple holes while I wait....


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It took me longer to put a battery in the calipers and find the right drill bit than it did to hog the holes out. That took 5 min. Cmon hub.



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[nateb]

The Cognito stem conversion came in with the All Balls bearings and races. Joe is my welder friend that welds gas tanks that leak for me. Well he is also very into vintage bikes. He races vintage trials on his fleet of Pentons. So he is definitely super cool in my book! Joe helped me with the pressing of the races and bearings.


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