Honda-SOHC

I couldn't find the replica on the DS site but now that I've been pointed in the right direction, that'll be my fall back position. I would prefer OE if possible because I'm strange that way but better a replica than a 'custom' job. I also had more success searching, when I stopped using 'top yoke' and started using 'triple tree'. I'm going to collect the offender tomorrow and will post a picture, just for interest.

Nice pictures Julie, thanks. I said that it would be 'old hat' to regulars. Question for AshimotoKO, why mot drill the front blade and fix the number plate as they were when I was a boy. I'm still looking for the one I took off my CB250 in 1975, so that I can stick in onto my CB750, when I find the time to finish it. I suspect that my tidy mother threw it away though.

On the subject of 'bacon slicers' , I think the date that you could remove them was late 1975.  I bought a new CB250 G5 at Easter and it came with a front number plate. HLH477N , where are you now. It's the bike in the avatar. A few months later a friend of mine and I were messing about with the bikes on the beach at Fleetwood, when a Traffic PC on a bike stopped us. Not for riding on the beach but to give Derek a warning about having removed his 'bacon slicer' a few weeks before the law went into force.  Goody two shoes still had his fitted. I took it off on the date in became law and my Dad put it in his desk. Just in case.  It was still there a few years ago but has since disappeared because I thought of putting it onto my restoration or originality.

Thanks for that, this fork strip is getting better and better. On my old CB550 it was such a simple matter but if I do this correctly, it won't need doing again before they stop making petrol. I have just been out to the garage and taken a couple of pictures of the cir-clips. They measure up at 50mm with a thickness of 0.0496 of an inch (Sorry but I still think in Imperial) which equates to 0.125984 mm. (Odd number). Thanks for your help, it will assist me in getting this right and thanks for the link. I hope the pictures are displayed. this is bit like giving a baby a machine gun!

It's always dangerous to give an old fool too much information. Now I'm confused, especially as I've had time to think. Were Honda running two fork systems in parallel or is this diversity due to their famous continuous development? My bike is March 1970 and starts 1029***, so if there was a change in production, do we know when it took place? Giving the old fool time to think resulted in me wondering if there is also two sizes of fork seal? I've only seen one on DSS and Yamiya but there again, I was only looking for one. I'll measure the old clips tomorrow and may even go beyond my pay-scale and try to publish them. Thanks for the help and advice, I own a bench grinder, so it could get really dangerous!

Please work on the basis that you're dealing with an idiot and this will go better for all concerned. I have a March 1970 CB750 and have recently stripped the front forks, which had been assembled by an ape with a hammer. As a result, I need all the usual, including new oil seal cir-clips. The old ones, despite being recently rebuilt (sic) were paper thin with rust. I was lucky to get them out. I can’t find any on the DSS web-site, so I checked Yamiya. Problem: They show Honda originals at 50mm (also at 100 Yen each, which must be typo) and Yamiya aftermarket at 47mm and 2000 Yen a pair. The price isn’t really relevant and if possible I prefer OE. I want what is best and correct for the bike but Yamiya don’t usually screw up, so what’s best and why the difference?

Is this problem exclusive to DSS?  I have just bought a set of 300 pipes from DSS but they're made by Yamiya. I've bought them long before I need them, as I had the cash and fear the exchange rate going bonkers in the near future. Plans to reunite engine and frame have gone awry, so they haven't been checked yet.

Don't stop doing what you enjoy because of parasites. They're part of life. Be suspicious and careful, do your research and most of all never believe that this is the chance of a lifetime. If there's one now, there'll be more in the future.  I do all of this and still get caught out because whatever you do it involves other people and some of them are greedy and amoral. I got well and truly had over on my CB750 but Julie and Trigger saved the engine and parts and advice from a very tolerant Jamesh_Sussex have enabled me to head in the correct direction. That's the other side of the coin.