Restoration of UK CB750 K0 - one of the 36 UK ‘Transition’ K0’s

[philward]

This was my interim model bought it from Bill Smith Motors in Chester in 1971, it was my first CB750 and the one bike that I wished I still had, it had Irish plates.





Cheers

Dennis

That picture of you riding the bike Dennis is iconic of the late 60's & early 70's - suberb!

[JamesH]

This was my interim model bought it from Bill Smith Motors in Chester in 1971, it was my first CB750 and the one bike that I wished I still had, it had Irish plates.





Cheers

Dennis

Thanks for sharing Dennis. Bike looks awesome. Do you recall the engine / vin numbers??

I also see the bars on yours are relatively high. The only bars I can find in the pile of spares that I think are from this particular bike are of the low UK type...which is what I’m planning to use for the rebuild...

[JamesH]

Reunited the frame and engine this evening. Now the fun can begin building her back up.

Frame ready to accept the engine:



Engine sitting nice and square for dropping the frame ‘over’:



Et viola!:



Few more bits back from polishing ready for the next stage of rebuild:



Picked up a NOS rectifier for the build a few weeks ago:



Plan is to use the low UK type bars that I believe were fitted to this from new:



Note the additional ‘p’ position on the RH controls:

[SteveD CB500K0]

Much as I admire your bike building skills James, I see no violas.

Is there a special bracket or was it particular to the transition model?


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[JamesH]

Much as I admire your bike building skills James, I see no violas.

Is there a special bracket or was it particular to the transition model?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Auto-correct fail (that’s my excuse anyway).

[Spitfire]

Sadly James I do not have any more info on the bike and have only about a dozen photos of it, I sold it to buy a new K2 in 1972 but was most disappointed with the K2 it was so bland so I sold it and bought a K1 which was a great improvement.

Cheers

Dennis

[AshimotoK0]

The transition bike on eBay had high bars but may have been changed. If you can track down the restorer Mel Manning who restored it  he may know James. Or ChrisR perhaps?

Also ..interesting on the red kill switch knob because I got one NOS UK style one LpH  that came originally from Honda's Service Dept. in Nottingham and it had the black knob but the lower half was for the two throttle cable setup.

[K2-K6]

Unsure if anyone has a copy of the following

https://www.amazon.fr/CB-750-cylindres-r%C3%A9volutionn%C3%A9-moto/dp/2907051873

as it has quite some detail accompanied with photos of the early bikes.

[sprinta]

Sadly James I do not have any more info on the bike and have only about a dozen photos of it, I sold it to buy a new K2 in 1972 but was most disappointed with the K2 it was so bland so I sold it and bought a K1 which was a great improvement.

Cheers

Dennis

What did you feel at the time was lacking in the K2 that the K1 had over it, as apart from the exhaust, which did rob it of a few horses at the top end, they were very much the same bikes? Wonder if you would feel the same today?

[Spitfire]

The K2 was very bland it had no character, it was nice and refined, but at the time I was racing around with my hair on fire at ridiculous speeds, going from it and on to the K1 was a step change back to the CB750.
The K2 would probably fit in better with me now as I'm more refined now, old some might say.

Cheers

Dennis

[JamesH]

Some more progress on the build.

Have pretty much everything ready now to complete the build, minus the correct Honda UK spec push/pull throttle cables and clutch cable.

Some progress photos:

[Johnny4428]

Very nice job done so far! Good to see it taking shape.

[Laverda Dave]

Looking great so far James.  How long have you been collecting the NOS parts for prior to the build, you seem to have everything you need? My problem has always been resto's coming to a grinding halt mid way through whilst I try to source parts.  My Triton rebuild I thought would take 3-4 months, that was last October, it remains sitting on the bench to this day due to either a lack of spares, incorrectly made spare parts or waiting for outside suppliers to return parts.  Japanesse and even Italian bikes are much easier to restore!
Keep the progress photos coming.

[JamesH]

A little more progress yesterday evening.

Realised I've bought the wrong spec rear oval lens - so will need to source the correct UK spec lamp.

Rear indicators fitted, chain and sprockets installed, rear brake fully installed.

Moving ahead with the front end Thursday evening so more progress then.

 

[Andrew-S]

Looks stunning as usual James - whenever I have a dip in morale and need a little inspiration I read through your rebuilds.

Thanks,
Andrew