Honda CB750 Super Sport Classic Cafe

I recently came across some old CD’s that I had tucked away in a drawer, glad I took some pics of some of the motorcycles that I have created, they say if you put them on the internet, it’s there forever, but that’s incorrect as I had quite a few bikes on there and cannot find them anywhere, so I was stoked to at least find a couple I had created and thought that I would share with you.

The bike started out as a stock 1978 machine that had seen better days and been neglected for a few decades, this was a good platform to use as I knew the Motor would at least kick over but not fire, so, with that in mind I set about pulling the bike apart and going a little out there with the color, the reasoning for this? Well I loved the old Yellow on the 400 -4 Super Sports ad thought I would go with that color ad it would stand out in the California Sun.

Taking apart in my old garage, where space was not infinite.

The Bike belonged to a Customer and he wanted me to go way out there and make this a head turning machine, if I remember correctly he was a Rocket Scientist, so I had to come up with something that would Blast Off!!!

Everything apart and now its time to see what to do, I started with the frame first, as that needed to be cleaned up then stripped before I could get it ready for any sort of paint.

Happy with this now, I have to media blast the frame to remove old paint and of course any rust etc, file any bad welds and spot weld back to good again, then it will be time to take to Powder coater and get some Sunrise Yellow on this to make a big statement in chassis color.

As you can see, this really is a bold statement- I really wanted this to turn a few heads for my Client and he has let me go ahead with what I ever i feel this machine may need to give it a wow factor, remember, this was about 2006.

Motor stripped and rebuilt with New cam Chains, belt slider and clutch etc, this will be like a New Machine when all back together, but- A long way to go as yet.

Like a Jewel now and ready to go back in the frame when I have completed it to a rolling chassis.

So, the Motor is now all painted and polished and awaits me to lift this 230 pounds of aluminum and throw it into the Duplex Cradle frame of the SOHC, but I still have to get that frame rolling, what I need to do is finish the chassis so its a roller, then I can get this lump back in the place it originally was placed in 1978.

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I rebuilt the rear shocks with all new stainless steel hardware as I don’t want this to rust like it had done previously, and will take my time getting this together on my own.

I went another route this time as the 1978 Forks were in really bad shape, so I used a 1976 CB750F front fork set up, polished the lowers and fitted new tubes and completely revamped these with Progressive springs etc, this is a nice set up and very clean compared to what was on there.

Frame is back together, using an old 1976 front wheel to make it a roller as I shall be building new wheels for this bike, I also put pipe insulation on the frame so I don’t scratch the paint when I am fitting the motor.

She is now a rolling chassis, with this I got the bike off the bench and onto the floor then into the driveway, I used a 1976 rear wheel to fit in the back until I have made new rims up, but now is the time to see if I can fit this engine and that’s the last of the heavy lifting.

The Motor is now in, with the help from my trusty cat, I also fitted vintage speed equipment parts on the bike for that added bling, as well as new switches on the Ace bars and GT grips for that Nostalgic look and feel.

Fuel tank was a different matter, this time I wanted to fit an earlier K series fuel tank, so used 2 gas tank and sectioned them as I wanted a 5″ stretch for a long road race style petrol tank of back in the day, took a long time but sure looked great when completed.

It took quite a few weeks to get it right and I had another supersport frame I could use for a mock up so I didnt scratch the paint on the chassis.

Once that was all sorted I had to do the body work right here at home still as I worked in my garage all the time, lucky my neighbors are out all day so can bang, grind and sand with no interruptions at all.

Final fit of the gas tank and i like the stretch, not too much but just enough and an extra 2 gallons capacity is always good right?

 

I do not like 1977-1978 carbs and wanted to fit earlier versions, I only had old snotty ones in boxes that I had picked up at swap meets and yard sales, so a full rebuild was needed to get these to how I wanted them.

All cleaned up and synchronized and looking forward to fitting these to the motor and way easier and faster to tune than the flat tops.

I polished the original wheel hubs and used stainless spokes and attached them to CB750 Automatic rims as they are aluminum, bunged on some classic tread rubber and these look like they were from the factory.

This time I went with my CR style seat base and added a rear fender, fitted a Yoshimura exhaust of mine to give this machine more bark.

The bike is sitting well on those Automatic rims and glad that I made the choice to change to that as I have never like the 4 spoke set up that came on the 77 and 78 models, the Comstars as they were called were tin looking and I think, very weak.

Making parts fit that were not available for this bike always takes time and of course many failures, but I persisted and got the bike to where I wanted it so everything flowed.

I had an original Dunstall front fender that used to be hanging on the wall, I wanted to use it as it was from back home and very fitting it looks to.

I used the old Honda Super Sport gas tank decals from an old 400-4 as thats the color I chose for it and very cool it looks too, the bike was a hoot to ride with tons of low end torque.

It was a learning curve and I enjoyed the challenge on this bike, this was many years ago and I would change a few things now but this was a fun creation that was fun to ride.

You cannot lose sight of this in a parking lot, the color is loud and proud and the Customer loved it, a great stance to the bike too with that big long tank too its just smooth.

It may not be your style but I was super stoked to have a go at changing the sad tired original bike and give it a brand new life as well as a brand new look too.

I just wanted to share a few pics of this bike as I had lost them many moons ago and glad that I could load them up on my website for you to have a look at.

Thanks for taking your time to read my Blog on this Super Sport, of course I still make and sell parts and build Motorcycles, I always will as its a passion still for me.

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Steve Carpenter

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