Count down to Turkey day!

Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, but its a celebration that I enjoy food wise and of course, me originally being a Redcoat, people think it may bother me, but- if it wasn’t for that day- Oct 19th 1981, well I wouldn’t be here if my original country and planted the flag. So I celebrate Turkey day with open arms, I love the American flag, be it : The Stars and Stripes Old Glory The Star-Spangled Banner The Red, White and Blue I have it tattooed on my left elbow and the union Jack on the right, I guess you can call me an Anglo-American.

But, as it is almost upon us to share and eat the food that  Thanksgiving is based on, a harvest feast shared by the Wampanoag people and the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth in 1621. This event is known as the “First Thanksgiving”, though the term was not used at the time. It’s the most wonderful time of the year in the US – a time for food, family, friends, and being thankful for everything really.

As a kid I always wanted to be American, My Dad hated it and as I was into Rockabilly music, he used to say I looked like a Yank, I thanked him, much to his annoyance. I have a few special Turkey day sales on right now to say thank you to all my customers over the last 12 months and will be enjoying the Thursday gorging on all the lovely grub that my Girl will be cooking.

I am still trying to come to terms with the New website format, so forgive a few mistakes and placement of photos but just wanted to say that I hope that you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and Thank you for choosing me for all your parts for your Motorcycle, it means so much.

Back online after some glitches but all good

Well, what a frustrating few days that I have encountered, modern technology is great, until it takes a spiralling fall into the abyss. I have been pretty good on my computer over the years, with no training as such, I just worked my way through any problems and if I was stuck, my web guru Christian Riggs, would help me out.

But, I had no idea that Google changed servers and the site went down, so no way of knowing how to get the site back online, my mate was such a brilliant help and its up but as its new software, the whole blog and typing format is nothing like I am used to, so forgive any mistakes as I am learning as I hen peck at this keyboard.

Things are busy here at the shop and I am trying to get a few more parts available over these next few weeks as it will not be long until the Festive season begins and I am as Busy as Santa trying to get all the presents out the door.

So, thanks for bearing with me over the last week as it was quite the trip getting everything back on line, but persistence paid off and we are all rolling along now, yeah, the rear brake may be binding a bit but I will smooth things out on the format here.

If you need any help with anything on my website or a problem with your Motorcycle etc, just drop me a line carpy@carpyscaferacers.com I am here to help, and have been for almost 25 years now.

Up in the Barn for a little bit.

Well, I got the old Cold Lurgy, messed me right up last week to be honest, very similar to Covid, but tested and said negative, but im a weak right now and hoping to get my strength back as I have loads to do, I am more than willing to get some hard graft some but with no energy in your body, its like trying to ride long distance on a Motorcycle but you are already on reserve.

It’s the Weekend here at the Barn

I have no clue where the days go these days to be honest, I get so involved with what I do and achieve in a short amount of time, it seems that life is shooting by at over 100 Miles Per Hour for me, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.  Coming up towards 25 years in the Motorcycle industry here in Southern California is quite daunting to some extent, a quarter of a century already is almost upon me, but I have many more ideas and parts that I want to make and offer to everybody and a few more tricks up my sleeve, although that sleeve is turning into the size of Gandalf’s one lol.

But stay tuned to the website as I will always have a feature on anything new for you all to see, I have started to sell more things Like Handlebar grips, lights and electrical parts with more stuff continuing to increase as the year goes on. Something to pretty up your CB750 thats for sure.

I have a few builds that I need to sort out and build and will have a few blogs on what I am up too soon, I love all the correspondence that I receive and I thank you for that, if there is Anything I can help you with, feel free to email me at carpy@carpyscaferacers.com and I will do my utter best to help you go in the right direction.

Peace & Grease Everyone and, get out and Ride.

 

Hot this weekend that’s for sure in Southern California

Hot weather is still here and will continue for a couple of weeks I think, but 112 and 114 is a little too hot to be in the shed this weekend, plus I have stuff to do in our Garden with my Girl. so I have been out doing that, but tomorrow I have to fit some throttle cables to that K6 and tidy a few things up before I offer it for sale, its a great bike for the money with so many New parts.

I have many projects to get into later on, another 16 bikes to sort out but its fun doing it and doing it at home in my own time and do what ever I want to do, I love that feeling and always have a smile when I go in the Barn.  I love all machines and have a few different bikes to build but the platform I have loved is the inline four, always cool to see people on them.

Hope that some of you get time to get out on your machines this Summer, before it gets colder further North, lucky for me, we can ride most of the year round, I ride every single day and never tire of it to be honest.

I’m still busy with my parts and builds and more to come later but just wanted to say howdy and do a quick Blog as its been a while, but always check my daily emails and texts.

Have a great weekend and thank you for all your orders, I am here to help, next year is 25 years in business and its going to be exciting as ever.

 

 

Honda CB750K 1976 SOHC I have managed to revive.

Well, I thought I should at least out down on some what of a lost, the parts that I have either refurbished or replaced with New Old stock on this 1976 K6 Machine as its so easy to get lost in the many parts you need to sort out, to be able to ride a non running machine that had sat in a yard for many many years.

 

  1. Brand New 4 into 4 Exhaust system from Japan
  2. Brand New Exhaust clamps
  3. New Genuine Honda Horn
  4. New Genuine Honda Clutch cable
  5. New Genuine Honda Fuel tank rubber
  6. New Complete seat assembly
  7. New Genuine Handlebar Grips
  8. New Levers
  9. New Mirrors
  10. New Chrome Rear Shock Absorbers
  11. Powder Coated Rear Swing Arm
  12.  Chromed Stabilizer bar
  13. New Chain and Sprockets
  14.  Rear Hub rebuilt and polished
  15.  New Rear Rim and spokes
  16.  New rear Tire and tube
  17.  Polished brake hub with new brake shoes
  18.  New brake actuator arm
  19.  New brake rod and spring
  20.  Rechromed rear fender
  21.  NOS rear tail light assembly
  22.  New inner fender
  23.  New Battery
  24.  New Genuine Honda Coils
  25.  New Plug caps and plugs
  26.  New oil and filter
  27. Rebuilt and tuned carburettors
  28. New intake rubber boots
  29. New starter cover
  30.  New Clutch Cover
  31.  New OEM kick starter
  32.  New Oem Brake pedal
  33.  Rebuilt front caliper
  34. New exhaust spigots
  35. New fork tubes upper
  36.  Rebuilt lower forks and polished
  37. Stripped and Powder Coated Main stand with New Spring

I have a few more little things to do on the bike and then I can fire it up again, but I am glad that I persisted and continued to clean this big 4 machine up and its looking pretty cool as it stands right now.

She does sit at the right height now, as I have fitted the correct size tire in the rear, I need to clean up the gear shift cover and will do that this week, as well as the sprocket cover, this bike has many New parts on now, I would like to repaint the tank and side covers but no time at present and I have many other motorcycles to build, this is the original Candy Antares Red livery.

The exhaust system fitted really well, I am a dealer for this system and they come direct from Japan with the baffles included but not the heat shields, but I was super stocked at the fit of these and the chrome looks amazing.

I used New spigots and New flange clamps to set the pipes off, would seem sacrilegious to go any other way as the original ones were rusted and looking worse for wear, this is a nice fresh factory look i believe and super glad that I went this route. Not cheap by any standards, but chewap will not last so buy right and you will see the benefits further on in time compared with inferior copies of this system.

I have always loved the look of inline four machines and the Honda was such a popular choice back in the UK when I was a Teenager, I have had so many Honda’s in my life and continue to work or build them in my barn.

I did buy an aftermarket rear fender as the original was quite bad in the way of rusty deposits, but the aftermarket version that I paid $200 was utter rubbish and got my money back, so invest the $400 and  stripped and chromed the original fender and bought a New tail light assembly, sure looks nice now.

I have also fitted a New seat, the other one was ok but I wanted a fresh look and thought I may as well get another new unit to complete the bike and give it the right ride height, these bikes were a tall ride and have to be honest was surprised the Japanese Public could ride these as I am 5″11 and am tippy toed when sat upon this bike.

Sure, there are many more little things I can do to this machine but my plan was not to restore the bike to its New appearance in 1976, but to give it a fresh look from a sad and tired past of sitting in a garden to the elements for many years, but this will be for sale, I think $5000 is a fair price and, if I do more work, of course the price goes up, the exhaust system alone was $1600.

New Grips and Levers and cables etc help this old Lady become young again and of course I fitted stock mirrors for that 1970’s vibe and takes me back to my last years at school when I first saw a Red CB750K coming down the road.

The bike sits well and I removed the main stand and powder coated it and fitted brand New Genuine Honda hardware, I wanted to use the main stand as many have been removed over the years, plus it makes it so much easier to remove the rear wheel or chain etc.

The New tire and tube feels great, with New original DID rim and polished Hub with new internals and New brake shoes, Rod and actuator, this is a super set up and the New rear shock absorbers are the correct models for that ride height of 1976.

New footpegs and New Old Stock Brake pedal and New old Stock Kickstarter help clean this five hundred pound 2 wheeled Classic Thorobred up and give it a new lease of life, hoping that you are liking what I have accomplished on this 50 year old Motorcycle.

I took this out of the Original bag, cost me over $150 but its the Original and stoked that I located one not too far from me so there are some neat touches to this Motorcycle that you may enjoy looking at.

Now, the Carburettors are completely rebuilt, synchronized and are attached to genuine Honda NOS intake boots, I have old 1976 Velocity stacks on the bike but do have the original Airbox for the old girl. And also I fitted a New Clutch Cable and Covers too, Just have to fit a bolt in bottom points cover today.

The rear wheel is all rebuilt with New spokes and new bearings too, New chain and sprockets is a must and she really is a Classy looking bike, not yet found the title but am looking for it, I think the original owner has title and I have recently corresponded with him, so he may find it, if not I will sell with a Bill of sale as its been off the system for many years.

It does need a New front tire and I may fit another later on as I go along, but right now she looks really good and wanted to show the machine on my website as many people have been asking about the old girl.

Thanks for looking and I will continue playing with this CB750K until she sells, but of course, the More I work on it, the more the price will increase, but I do enjoy reviving these inline four beauties and hope you have enjoyed the pics and write up on this Japanese Iconic bike.

 

Honda cb750K 1976 Gets a work over

Well, the weather is now Hot as the inside of Gandhi’s Boxers, but I have been doing some work on the K6 Honda, I started to clean a few bits up as she had sat for many years in a back yard.  So I thought I would clean her up more before selling this inline four machine.

The bike had low miles but obviously the condition had deteriorated due to being sat out in California weather for many many years, but the more I cleaned up, the more I put into this 500 pound of Japanese machinery.

I removed the rear wheel and swingarm as the swingarm was in need of having the paint stripped off of it and then have it powder coated, so I just got it back from the coating company I use and fitted it right away, I had to drum sand where the shock bushings go and fitted new Genuine Honda steel Bushings. You can see the rusty main stand in the picture, Once I have this back on the floor, I shall remove it and powder coat that Black too.

So much to do, the wheel is all rebuilt and I polished the hub and fitted new bearings etc, new spokes and new tire, I fitted the Cush drives this afternoon and its now ready for the brake hub to be fitted as it was in a sorry state too.

As you can see from the photo, she is all there but I stripped it and polished the outer carrier and fitted new shoes and actuator etc as I want this to look nice, not restored from frame up, as I don’t have time and space right now, but just a nice looking K6.

As you can see, this is now taking shape, I wanted a fresh clean look on the rear end and I believe I shall achieve that with a few more hours work on this classic inline four bike

The safety guard for the rear sprocket has seen better days and as you cannot find nice ones anymore, I had to get the hammer out and clean the dents up from where the chain has caught etc, these always get abused but wanted to make sure I got this as nice as I could and then send it off to the chrome shop.

A really nice job and am more than happy with the finish as this was pretty torn up when I removed it from the rear wheel, so not time to start bolting it all back together.

You can see I took my time and also used Genuine Honda parts where ever I could, the Bushings for the shocks are factory ones and I also used a New rear brake rod as the old one was really bent up and rusty to repair, I also purchased new chain adjusters to clean the rear end up and set the wheel off.

It is coming together and took my time as it was so hot today and of course I was on my own and do not want to scratch anything, but as you can see this bike is looking nice, and even though not a show winning restoration, it will be all there and I shall be fitting brand new 4 into 4 exhausts to give it the factory look it had when it left the factory all them years ago,.

I chromed the rear brake Stabilizer bar as that was rusty and new hardware through out, looking so much better than when I dragged it home, fitted New shocks and put the new chain on and set the tension right.

It is missing the chain guard and hope to purchase a New one soon to finish that area off right but I am sure I can get on with many more things before I need to attach that part.

I did buy a repro rear guard as mine had rust on it, but, it was so far out of wack I bit the bullet and paid a few hundred dollars to chrome the original rear fender and sent the copy one back in disgust. I prefer Original parts anyway and the list goes on of what I am refurbishing to get this bike right.

I fitted the original back into the frame and a new Old stock inner fender to clean the underside up. I have chromed the rear light assembly and that is going on right now.

To keep with the clean look I splashed out on a New seat for this K6 and glad I did to be honest as the original had seen better days, this really is a good seat and fits super well.

I put the light assembly together, using New light and chroming bracket, this is now all together and will wire tomorrow as its getting late but thought I would share with you today to show you how I am getting on.

Happy 4th Of July everyone

I love having this day off, gives me time to reflect how lucky I am to live in such a great country, I have always loved living here and especially here in Southern California where the weather stays pretty constant and ideal for taking your motorcycle out and about.

I have much to catch up on and as my girl is heading back from the East coast, it will give me some time to try and sort the workshop out a little as I have way too many bikes in there that need attention, I dragged a few out of gardens and the K6 that I am working on never ran since the 80’s. I was just going to see if there was a chance I could get it running, but it has turned into a project that I should of left alone. But you know how that goes, when you think to yourself that you will just clean this up, change that etc, well I have done so much I should of ripped it down the frame and started fresh. But it should look nice when done and out of the way to give me a little room to start on another one.

The rear wheel I just could not clean up, due to the rust that had accumulated from sitting in a back yard with sprinklers that went off twice a day for years, so I had to pull the rim apart and located a new old stock 18 inch rear rim and purchased new spokes. Polished the hub and fitted new bearings.

Next up was the beaten up rear sprocket carrier, its seen better days but do not have a spare, I have a 78 one but the offset is different, so I will try and clean this up as best I can using my little buffer wheel and some compound, but it wont be too show polish as I am getting too pernickety with this and really just need to get it running well and of course riding well.

As you can see, the poor sprocket carrier has seen better days, bearing is fine and will repack with grease but need to clean it up a little before I attach that to the hub and then the sprocket as well as the Guard, but that is at the chrome shop as I am waiting on that.

Still a little more to do before I am happy with it but at least this is getting back together and I am now waiting on the rear swing arm I took out as I have sent that off to get powder coated as that too was rusty and needed attention from sitting for so many years. But will keep you updated as and when I work on this old girl, it will be fun to ride with all new parts and will be dead stock, I now have Brand New 4 into 4 exhausts for it that I purchased in Japan, so this will look pretty cool once done. I will ride it a little then offer it up for sale.

Have a great day and hope you enjoy what ever you are up to in the world, I thank you for all your orders too and if I can help just drop me a line. carpy@carpyscaferacers.com

 

 

 

 

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.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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.

Refurbishing the 1976 CB750K Honda Four

Here we are with another episode of tweaking that old 1976 CB750K Model Honda, she has been sat for so many years, I was initially just going to get her running and sell her, but I have grown attached to this machine and its my best year personally, so thought I would remove worn out parts and fit brand new ones. Still a ways to go and I shall blog as I go along but – Eventually this will start to look like it did when it came out from the factory. Except the paint as that’s a really expensive process these days but I may even have a go at that later who knows, so stay tuned….

I didnt like the patina on the footpegs, even though this particular machine only has 17,000 Original miles on her, she has sat many decades in a Back yard and the eliments have taken a toll on any of the parts and brightwork, you can actually see that the foot peg rubber has no wear at all, which is more validation of the low milage, but I wanted to fit some OEM parts and here is a set of New pegs that I will fit to the bike.

The same thing goes for the rear brake, it had heavy rust pits that even I could not be able to polish out, so I thought I would buy an OEM genuine Honda one and that will help clean up that area that does get neglected over the years on these machines.  Not cheap but rechroming would of been even more expensive, so this was the lesser of two evils.

 

The Original Kick starter also has pitting, so I managed to track down an original New Old Stock one and later on I shall probably get the original one stripped and chromed again but not right now.

The Honda should start to look like it originally did when it rolled out the door all them years ago and I am enjoying the time and effort to get this to where it really needs to be.

I removed the old clutch lever and thought I may as well address that issue with a New version and that will clean up the handlebar area somewhat as many people leave that part of the bike and I always notice that.

Now that looks a million times better and with NOS grips too I am more than happy to get on with another part of the bike now, I am in no rush at all with this k6 and when completed will offer it up for sale.

The poor headstock always gets left out, the steering stem nut and washer was begging to be replaced as well as the steering pinch bolt, I could not leave the bike with these parts like that.

I try to use as much Genuine Honda stuff as I can lay my hands on and this is the case right here, it is fantastic quality and you know not only will it fit, it will last many years too.

So, another job done and if I find anything I feel that needs sorting out I shall of course do it as I am on a roll now, although this is by means no restoration, just a revamp of tired parts.

The starter motor covers always rust as they are easily open to the elements, so I ordered a new one as this has seen better days, what do you think?

A big improvement and I could go on forever on the bike, just a few of the fundamentals needed to be addressed but I still need to rebuild a rear wheel as the original one is just too rusty to strip and re-use as its too dangerous to mess with stuff like that.  Next up is to fit the footpegs, a New old stock brake pedal and kickstarter to at least clean that side of the bike up and look more original now.

Looking very much like the bike it was originally at the factory and am pleased I went this route on this one, although still many more things I have to replace to get it to the standard I will be happy with, but each week that goes by I give this a nod of approval.

So, I will be working on removing the center stand and painting it as its looking a little weather beaten, its a big heavy part but I want to get that looking good, I may Powder coat it for long lasting life in all honesty, so stay tuned……