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Messages - kettle738
16
« on: October 30, 2019, 08:58:05 AM »
RGP750 on here was planning to repro the rare 'double hex at one end rear axle spanner' ... not sure how far he got with it. Rich borrowed one of mine to copy ..... my memory is dreadful, but I think he made some perfect copies... Mick.
17
« on: October 25, 2019, 03:04:24 PM »
18
« on: October 25, 2019, 01:19:35 PM »
I vaguely remember seeing them when i used to pdi in the late 70's but i think it was just 1 sticker per tool kit not every tool. That would explain why I took just the one photo....my memory says they were on all the spanners, but my memory is not to be trusted and I sold the bomber a few years ago. Nice thing to have though for your perfect tool kt. Mick.
19
« on: October 25, 2019, 08:31:18 AM »
That is a nice looking set of spanners......are you buying them?
Re the quality control stickers, I had seen them once or twice, but in such poor condition I didn't realise what they were, it was only when I bought this bomber with it's unused tool kit that the penny dropped.....I don't know how long they were present on Honda tools, or even if it was just one supplier that put stickers on their tools, but to an anorak (me) it's interesting stuff.
Mick.
20
« on: October 22, 2019, 06:59:53 AM »
You could try Piki on here for those stickers. He made the DID stickers for my wheel rims on the CB250RS and did a great job. I'll do that, I've only ever seen a few tools with their original stickers....unsurprisingly.....so I guess most won't even be aware they were ever there. Thanks.........Mick.
21
« on: October 21, 2019, 09:25:42 AM »
Fantastic photos, wonderful era.....but that particular group of 'bikers' were probably unlike most at the time.
Incidentally.....tomorrow is a significant day for me and for Ash, our first batch CB750s turn 50 years old, manufactured on the 22nd October 1969. Yours (Ash) is only a couple of numbers from mine, so they would have been made on the same day.
The specific date was supplied by Honda when Eamon (last owner of mine) was researching the history, it's somewhere in the file and if I can find it, I'll drag it out....but the file is well over a foot thick, Eamon was an unbelievably prolific letter writer and if he wanted to know something, he just persisted until every possible line of enquiry was exhausted.
The letters file is a who's who of 1960s through 1970s motorcycling, loads of famous names, racers, authors, journalists, companies that he wrote to seeking information, and every one retained....many with the envelopes.
Eamon was very well known and highly regarded within motorcycling circles so I suspect he probably elicited replies and information more readily than most would have done, but the main thing was his sheer persistence.
On another note, does anyone reproduce these quality control stickers?
Mick.
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22
« on: October 21, 2019, 08:18:52 AM »
I have a foot in both camps here......Bombers and CB750, here is a photo I guess many have seen, Lord Lichfield and his mate Rollo Feilding, Earl of Denbigh and their respective Bombers. This photo came about after I bought the 'Denbigh' bomber from a chap in Canterbury for the princely sum of £300 (it was a while ago, but even then it was not to be missed).... The bike had not been used for a long time and was amazingly original, the tool kit looked brand new, all the tools still had their quality control stickers intact.
The original green log book was with the bike, showing all its early history and that it was supplied by Tippets of Surbiton. I knew through the VJMC that Dave Jupp had a good relationship with Tippets, so I asked him if they kept any archives, he very kindly trawled through their old paperwork and came up with this amazing photo, which was simply priceless to me at the time.
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Rollo Feilding also has a CB750 connection, he was chairman of the motor trades association (or whatever it was called back then) which made him an extremely influential man.....he clearly had some clout within Honda UK as he became the first owner of the gold pre production 'Brighton' CB750, which had been due to be returned to Japan and might have been lost but for his intervention.
Mick.
23
« on: October 01, 2019, 10:29:49 AM »
It's not one of the prototypes......if you look carefully it has a rubber top brake hose, it also has metal shrouded plug caps, a finned oil filter housing, horn on the right side and as mentioned, the UK rear light unit.....it certainly looks like a UK bike, all the first ones got the high handlebars....... it also has the later style Honda mirrors, not the 'nutted' version usually fitted to early CB750s.
If it's a UK bike it can't be June 1969 though because UK versions didn't exist then.
The first UK market bike was manufactured on the 22nd October 1969 (fifty years old this month) and was on the road in the UK in January 1970, so my guess is, he is one year out and it's the 1970 TT. I wonder why the clocks were missing..
In the bottom right hand corner is another bike with a metal shrouded fork leg in what looks like brown....I don't know the range well enough, but that might date it.
Mick.
24
« on: July 05, 2019, 04:46:23 PM »
Can you fit a grease nipple using a drilled and tapped bolt? (if you have one of the correct thread)....... a grease gun will shift stuck caliper pistons that have defied everything else with contemptuous ease, the pressure they put out is amazing.... and it's damage free force......that said, if it does manage to damage anything, it was never going to move anyway.
Mick.
25
« on: April 07, 2019, 07:01:46 AM »
I had the same situation with a CB400f that had been off the road since 1978, it came with just the old style blue and white log book. I took a good quality colour photocopy and sent that off to the DVLA together with an application for a V5C and a covering letter explaining that I was reluctant to send the original in the post as it was my only proof of entitlement to the registration mark, but offering to do so if they insisted.
The upshot was, they wanted the bike to be inspected, which wasn't a problem, the chap who did it barely knew the front from the back of a bike and had no clue where to find the numbers, but he took a few snaps after they were pointed out to him and a short while later a new V5C landed on the mat. They never asked for the old style log book.
Mick.
26
« on: March 31, 2019, 10:27:53 AM »
Re the leaking carb, it's not always float adjustment or a suspect valve......when you have the float bowl off, take a very careful look at the thin brass overflow pipe, they have a habit of splitting along their length, it can be quite hard to see......it took me a while to find it on my K0, but when it happened to another carb it was the same thing.
Clean it up with a fibreglass brush or similar and a tiny amount of solder, just enough to fill the crack will fix it......(low temp modelling solder was very easy to use) ......permanently thus far, and mine was repaired about four or five years ago....check the overflow is still clear and you're good to go.
No idea if the F1 has clip on float bowls, but if so, it beats taking the carbs off......
Mick.
27
« on: February 21, 2019, 07:37:15 AM »
I have used Newman Cams several times; the first occasion was for a pair of 450K1 cams and followers back in the early eighties.....at the time, he told me the 450 cam was the hardest he had ever seen according to his Rockwell tester.
That said, they did a superb job and I have been back several times since then, they are one of those rare niche engineering companies that are so invaluable......I'm always grateful to see they are still open when I occasionally drive past.....your cams are in very good hands.
Mick.
28
« on: October 10, 2018, 08:55:30 PM »
There's a picture of one in a classic bike book which displays the registration DVG 159 G. That will be an import with an age related plate......there are lots of them about now.. Mick.
29
« on: October 09, 2018, 01:46:24 PM »
From the old boy Honda dealer network, the first UK K0's were most defiantly supplied to Bill Smith motorcycles  Bill Smith may well have had some from the first batch....but certainly not all of them as mine was supplied new by Ken Ives and Ash's from a dealer in York......and they are both from the first batch. Mick.
30
« on: October 02, 2018, 07:05:08 AM »
YLY 70H's VIN is 1015262 so just under 5000 VIN's after ours Mick. I got this info from the Bonhams auction catalogue. I have 1015280 (AYO 63H) and 1015278 (AYO 64H) - both sold from the same dealership and I suspect part of the batch that the press bike came across with.. On the face of it, from a batch with sequential numbers; it would make perfect sense to produce small batches for limited markets such as the UK all at the same time in terms of organising state specific parts, particularly if they briefly interrupted production of much larger quantities destined for elsewhere. Mick.
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