Hello from Aberdeenshire

[garyjpaterson]

Thought i better do the mandatory introduction before i get in trouble.

I'm a fairly new rider, in my 20s (though not for long...), and late 60s/early 70s Honda's are what I see in my head when you picture the word "motorcycle", they are the quintessential, imo.
I have a 1971 CB350 twin, which I adore. Its not perfect, its been poorly painted in the past but its good enough for me.



The K0-K6 CB750 is more or less a dream bike, but I tend to fall on the cheap side so of course I picked up the roughest one available.
I'm afraid to even show it, but here it is, after its maiden test ride a few days ago.



Bought sight unseen from ebay as a non runner, I'm sure some of you have seen it floating around before. Had extended forks, tall bars, strange seat, horrible graphics painted on the side covers, tank smoothed over and painted black, double width chain and sprockets, the works. (I'll be (trying to) sell all of those parts, if anyone wants. The extended forks came with early style lowers, that seem decent)
Also a lot of stuff has been sadly poorly chromed, and the cylinder/heads been painted black. The new seat came with it. I like it, but it seems to sit a little squint, as if it needs some shims or something on the hinges.

My priority is to get it running (check), and road legal (still working on it), on somewhat of a budget if possible! I'll then get the tank/covers/badges done later. Same with the exhaust, and i'd like to get an 18 inch rear wheel too.

Been good fun going through it and getting it to run. The lack of spark was simply dead condensers, crusty points, ignition wire unplugged (security measure?). Carbs were of course all caked in dirt, but once cleaned it fired into life with surprising ease. Needs tuned, but for now my attention has moved towards getting it road worthy.
There were quite a lot of electrical issues, though I think I have everything working now, just missing indicators. Rebuilt the master cylinder and caliper. Forks need doing, and the steering head bearing is as bad as I can imagine one ever getting, was like riding a bike via the arrow keys!

I could go on, but you get the idea. Everything needs going over, and will get done, but over time.

Here's a bonus pic from the sale. The way I see it is I'm saving it... someone had to do it anyway!

[Nurse Julie]

Welcome to the forum Gary. Get her safe, that's the most important thing.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Welcome Gary loads of tips & expertice here.

[SteveD CB500K0]

Cool.

You have a forest in your back garden?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[philward]

Welcome Gary - got a 350 and 750 myself, but the reverse to you - the 750's are finished and the 350 is a work in progress. Enjoy the forum

[Johnny4428]

Hi Gary, welcome to this very helpful and useful forum, even good just for the banter 😂 Plenty of people on here that do know what they are talking about. Nice choice of bikes there.

[Oddjob]

Post a pic of the underside of the seat, it sounds like a copy and they are known not to sit properly. It may be possible however, if it is a copy, to alter it so it sits on the frame better.

Prefer the 350 to the 750 myself. Personal choice.

[taysidedragon]

Welcome to the forum. It looks like you live in a field!
Good bikes though. 👍

[Matt_Harrington]

Welcome, Gary!

[Scottish Badger]

Welcome Gary, love the little 350. I'm not too far along the road from you, just the other side of Elgin. Currently working on my old 400/4 for the summer.

[andy120t]

Welcome aboard! The 350 looks nice! What is the exhaust link pipe in the 750...Looks like rubber tubing ?

[Orcade-Ian]

Welcome to the fun factory Gary,
Love the 350 (I only had a 250 - should have kept.....yeah, yeah!) Not old enough yet for a 750 though.  Unbelievable amount of knowledge and help is available here on Steve's excellent forum.
That picture with those tall stick things reminds of my Sisters place in Kincas - not far away I suppose.  A bit short of those up here.

Ian

[Johnny4428]

Welcome to the fun factory Gary,
Love the 350 (I only had a 250 - should have kept.....yeah, yeah!) Not old enough yet for a 750 though.  Unbelievable amount of knowledge and help is available here on Steve's excellent forum.
That picture with those tall stick things reminds of my Sisters place in Kincas - not far away I suppose.  A bit short of those up here.

Ian

Can’t remember if the reindeer ate them or were they chopped down for building, fuel etc. it was a few thousand year ago!🤣🤣

[garyjpaterson]

Thanks for the well wishes folks

Post a pic of the underside of the seat, it sounds like a copy and they are known not to sit properly. It may be possible however, if it is a copy, to alter it so it sits on the frame better.

Yeah its a copy, was included with the bike. Was tough to get it to even tilt up. Here's what it looks like atm, you can see it sits high on the latch side, in fact it doesn't even rest on the rubbers.
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Prefer the 350 to the 750 myself. Personal choice.

I prefer the 350 too, as things stand! It goes, stops and turns properly. I'll re-evaluate once the 750 does those things too

Welcome aboard! The 350 looks nice! What is the exhaust link pipe in the 750...Looks like rubber tubing ?

I'm not sure tbh, just seems like creased metal tubing, painted a strange finish. Needless to say I'm not keen on the exhaust as a whole, I think I'll probably end up with a Delkevic one, as I haven't seen any others similarly priced. I'd of course love a proper 4 into 4 set, but I can't see myself spending 1k+ on one!


Lastly, for now - steering head bearings. I'm seeing different kits come with different spacers/washers, and wondering if there is a "known good" set out there, for a k3?

[Oddjob]

There is an alternative Gary, see if you can buy a genuine seat pan, so long as it's not too rusty, seat cover is immaterial, the worse the better as they tend to be going cheap then. When you get the seat  remove the pan and foam, get the pan powder coated and then swap the cover and maybe foam over from the copy seat. That way it will look ok, last far longer as the pan is almost rust proof then and best of all it will fit perfectly.

Something like this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353201039245?hash=item523c6c278d:g:EDsAAOSwVYBgbCYf&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4GuaDMFq03sa0i5d54Q1Xp7iFTJUbOOzg62fhM5ENNRL5TNTzFcYUit8at7%2FJ7FzhqMsD%2FmigChSaP4pmR38WYT3IANHVJd39Agmd9iTIsqb4CFiK3QEmmbmPEMQVWb4z0P6PG7c%2FOKtVDaGtgj8xKNHTXQ%2BsYN1BhGupbiMYlIlymH4PgTZOTEQUDyTrGvOggQHolVy%2FqaBWHi%2Fv%2FTMyFg1DnLXtboVUBuY%2FfnOfqm360gtCVCG2Xwm3Nf1A5x4qtPbLmvNSWnavXruV%2FOKdjZLc7PVwQf2FNYbDf19L7Rr%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR76r0czZYQ

Or this.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353869126685?hash=item52643e5c1d:g:~DQAAOSwpa9h6uRw&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwIG5nRj1Ejkze%2BEpN01MQoepNAwQDpvCeyjtd%2FR2x6Rv442ZoH%2B3dx335l2rRQH0yySyi37FVliBO%2F%2FgwA%2F0Y8aRueyIEiOTHDAqnsIwZ263qwZzNJzhPvFCcqYlByLWSnuQUyJwZLuttPP4Z2ScaB%2B%2FhNM7nVhvXrWD88jBya19JAQJxek3RsXjVizi%2B537UHF158WzooLmlWYgxJhCKkqH0vZvwqG1O2QTuy6mgKrrw%2BP7C6%2FgxJdREzQia2bsvQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7yr0czZYQ