Almost ready for the road..

[DaveB]

Hi all. Recently I took the plunge and bought a bike sight un-seen except for photos and video. The bike showed up here in the back of a furniture van (an ideal way to transport it) a couple of weeks later and was excatly what I expected and was as described. Since then I've started to get it ready for SA rego.
The front end had a raked tripple tree, 12" over forks and tall ape hangers, see pic 1. Since then the tripple tree has been swapped for a stock one and the forks shortened to get inside the 550 rule. The apes also have been swapped for lower rabbit ear style bars with taller risers. Other changes include rolling the rear guard forward to mount it better to the frame, removal of the pillion seat and swapping the mustang tank for the super cool pin striped prism tank on it now. See pics 3 & 3.
There are a couple of little issues to sort out like the front brake master cylider and a leak in the oil tank but its coming together nicely.

Still needed for rego is a front mudguard and some baffles to quiet it down a bit.

Summer cruising is almost here!

Cheers.
Dave.


Pic 1


Pic 2


pic 3

[Prof]

Great to see the chopper resurrected and getting ready for the road.

Good thing you got rid of the raked triple trees as they are downright dangerous because they reduce or in your case probably got rid of positive trail. You can buy 12" long baffles that will fit straight in those drag pipes. They may pull the noise back enough. Some fibre glass may be needed. What year is the bike? If pre Oct 74, you may be able to claim pre ADR and not be restricted. Make sure everything looks very tidy (wiring, welds, brackets). If it looks well built and maintained it will pass much easier.

Presumably it comes without Qld registration history. In which case you will need a number check (which also includes a basic roadworthy).

As nothing has been structurally changed, it is important that you present the bike as being in original form (ie been ridden that way for 40 years), just cleaned up ready for riding.

If you can get it checked by a country station, it could be a much simpler process.

Don't get tricked into it needing to be a current build.

There is a vent at the centre rear of the gearbox. This MUST to be routed into a breather in the oil tank. Some builders forgot to do this and you get oil going everywhere.

All the best. Bring it on a CA ride so we can all enjoy it. We have a number of CB750 choppers in SA.

[DaveB]

Hi Prof.

Your'e right there is no previous rego history at all, or at least not paper evidence of it. It is a '71 engine so should be able to get it inspected as being pre ADR's.
As you say country inspection stations can be a little loose on the details when checking things. Unfortunatley this bike will be inspected in Mt Gambier which is notoriously tough on everything.....

I'll check the gearbox breather, not sure if it has anything on it or not?

I have spoken to the main man at Regency park and his advise is that if it looks to be a early built frame and in good condition(which it is) then they will inspect it as being built the year of the engine number. I have his name written down and he is happy to talk to our local inspectors should any problems come up during the inspection.

At this point the bike will go through inspection as a solo. Once it has has done a couple of proper shakedown runs the pillion seat will go back on, then a mounting point for pegs and a chain guard will be made.

[Prof]

I understand that in SA there is no designation for solo versus dual passenger. Only difference is that if dual, chain guard must be fitted.

Very good that the Regency guy was so helpful.

[Youngblood]

Love the bike, looks real cool, put the passenger seat back on and it'll look even better.

[Prof]

Just looking at your chopper again. Might be an idea to mount the head light a bit lower so the forks don't seem so long. Less radical it looks for regio the better.

[DaveB]

My understanding on the solo/two seat is the same as yours, if there is a pillion seat there also must be pillion pegs and a chain guard. I'm not exactly sure how the pegs will mount or where so for the time being the back half of the seat will stay off.

Lowering the headlight is something I hadn't given a lot of thought to, but sounds like a good sugestion. Keeping it looking tame for the inspectors can't hurt.

[Prof]

When do you expect to put it through regio?

[DaveB]

In the next few weeks with luck.
Just need to sort the front brakes, baffle the exhaust and fit a front mudguard.

Biggest issue is the broken bones in my left foot that make it a bit tricky to change gears....

Here it is last Saturday at a local show'n'shine.

[Bearcx]

Great bike, Dave. Lots of good gear available for CB models, and plenty of mods been done in the past, so info is spread all over the internet.
Hope you get it through rego, no probs. Good to see another old bike saved from the scrap heap.

[DaveB]

Well, it was a long time coming but The 750 Chop finally got on the road all legal and inspected. The inspection its self wasn't too much of a problem, the inspector was great and once he gave it a check over and made sure the numbers were right had no issue signing the paperwork for registration.

A few short local shake down runs and all seemed OK, a little bit of mix and match to get the handlebar and riser combo feeling right and all was good.
On a run into town one morning the engine began to rattle badly and by the time I stopped the damage was already done. The base gasket had disintegrated and blocked up the oil pickup in the sump. So, to cut the story short, engine out, .5 bore, new pistons, faced head, valves all checked, new gaskets top to bottom, and a thorough clean out later the engine is now sitting on a bench ready to get some paint clean up and detail work then go back in.

Once it's all back together I'll take a few better pics and post them here.

[DaveB]

Ok, it seems that Photobucket now want to charge 400 odd $ per year to be able to third party host pictures. Stuff that...

This is what the bike looks like now. The flat bars were on it to keep it low for the inspector. Once it was registered I messed around with a couple of different bar and riser combinations, the stock 750 bars and the low risers are the best combo for now. A set of risers with a couple of inches of pull back would be ideal I think as it is still quite a stretched out riding position.

[DaveB]

Here's a bit of a time line in pictures.

As purchased, 12" over, raked trees, 14' apes, super cool but not legal...


Starting to swap parts. Change tank, change bars, stock tree, forks slid up, tall risers, coolest bars in the world.




Wasn't sure what to do with rear pegs so went for a single seat for a short time.


Made chain guard and rear peg brackets.



Pillion seat back on. Change of tail light here too.





At about this stage things came to a grinding halt. A fall at work put me out of action for a couple of months, plus my Father being ill and passing away, then closing my business down and starting a job on wages for the first time since 1989 all combined to make Chopper projects get pushed to the back corner of the shed while some higher priority's took over.
Once things settled down the covers came off the bike and some more progress. Front brakes now working, change of risers and bars, and ready for inspection.

The bike was inspected and registered exactly as it sits here. I got rid of the tall risers and had a fork brace made to fit on the top of the forks with the risers mounted from the brace. A much cleaner look than other risers. The down side was that the pull back style bars were now up at eye level and the brake line, throttle cable and wires were now sticking up and flopping around in the breeze. No a good look and the bars at eye level wasn't great either. Hence the drag bars. Other advantage is that it looked low and neat for inspection.


Once registered a few sets of bars and risers were tried, best fit was stock 750 bars. I don't have a good shot of the top fork brace/riser set up but will take a pic this weekend. A few short shakedown runs to make sure the bike would be reliable seemed to be going well. It's unknown how long it's been since the bike was last on the road and ridden so it was always a punt on how good the engine would be.



The weekend after these pics were taken while on a ride into town the engine started to rattle, there was lots of fume coming out of the breather. By the time I stopped the damage was done. The base gasket had disintegrated and blocked the mesh screen on the oil pick up in the sump...
The engine had to come out...
With help and guidance from a good mate in town it was torn down, barrel rebored 0.5mm over to get rid of the scores in the bores, new pistons, head faced, valves lapped in, new gaskets and seals from top to bottom. It's now on the floor in the shed ready to be put back in the frame. Hopefully that will be this weekends job.

[El Skitzo]

That looks awesome, well done!! Absolutely love it!!

[Prof]

Definitely nice. Looks like a ride to Mt Gambier to go for a cruise with you!