Hello from eastern Washington / Oregon!

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:33 pm

Just wanted to start by saying hello to everyone, and thank you for what you do! I probably wouldn't be willing to take on half the crazy projects I do (whether boat building or engine polishing) if I couldn't count on thousands of online friends willing to share their "lessons learned."

My first streetbike years ago was a 1983 CB550SC and I still rank it among my favorites. Since I'm beginning to feel a bit old for sportbikes I decided I should start looking at some classics and when a 1980 CB900C popped up on craigslist just 5 miles away for cheap I decided to go take a look. For just $500 I picked up this little (ok, big and heavy) gem.

It had been sitting for about a year but ran ok (kinda rough and undpowered with some backfiring). With just a bit of carb cleaner and an in-line fuel filter it's running much better. I have plans to repaint and modify it a bit in the coming months with some minor cafe styling cues and a brown paint theme similar to this beauty.

I always love reading about people's builds and find them useful so I've already been taking pictures of everything I do to it. Assuming my motivation sticks around I'll have another thread elsewhere up on it soon.

And if anyone wants to go for a ride this summer, let me know! Cheers.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:41 pm

check valve clearances first, get it running 100% before you go too far

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:24 pm

Thanks, I'll do my best. I've never done a valve adjustment before but there seems to be lots of resources on here and I saw LOTS of posts recommending it so I'll get that done. Also have an electrical issue I need to get sorted (probably more on that in a technical post in the next couple days). And I need to clean out the carbs and probably kit them as well, though I'm intimidated. Did it on a couple past bikes and had a helluva time getting everything back to running fine. The guide posted by SeanG gives me a bit more confidence there too.

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:19 am

Welcome to the site Margahm ... Smile

Carb kits are generally a waste . Proper cleaning and replacement rubber are usually enough . Seang sells o rings very reasonably priced .

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:58 am

Welcome to here wave

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:01 am

Good to know, thanks.

I assume I can find a thread here with a list of seals, gaskets, etc to go that way instead of the kit...

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:38 am

Check this, it's the carb rebuild link in my sig. :

http://www.cb750c.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=13611

Other than Randakk's, there are stock parts at Honda dealers, and we have some online vendors in the helpful links section.

Check stickies in the tips and tricks section for some resources... and tech help.

http://www.cb750c.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9513

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:13 am

hi welcome.

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 7:21 pm

same color scheme as the one i got this last weekend. why are the sidecovers always missing from these bikes?

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:19 pm

easy to sell?

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:28 am

I bought new ones (that is, old faded ones) off of ebay for about $30 each, but many were going for a lot more. I didn't care too much about finish or color, as I'll be painting them anyway. They do have a tendency to break if you don't take them off carefully....

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:00 am

Welcome from the Wet Side!

Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:50 pm

I thought folks might like an update on where I'm at. At least I know I always enjoy watching projects in progress here!

First I got the electrics sorted out, which was a small nightmare discussed in the tech forums. Then pulled apart the carbs and got those in good working order. (In the same week I did the carbs on the CB400; felt like I knew what I was doing by the time I finished! lol)

I was happy to find it runs awesome, purrs and idles perfectly, everything functional. I'm currently waffling on whether to adjust the valves...people on here definitely seem to recommend that, but as it already runs so well I'm hesitant to make any changes.

Anyway, with everything working it was time to tear it apart. I got two faded burgandy side covers cheap off ebay and took them, a very-corroded headlight bucket, the tank and a brand new Philadelphia Eagles helmet (normally $130, on closeout for $18--apparently no one likes the Eagles) to my friendly local body shop. They're currently all getting a chocolate brown with light brown rally-stripe treatment.

In the meantime, I put on wide-than-avearge clubman bars to fit around those wide forks and started work on the seat.

The vinyl was dried and cracked and coming apart at the seams, but it could certainly have been worse for a bike that obviously spent some years outside.

Since I'm going for cafe-ish styling I wanted a seat both shorter and thinner than stock so I cut both the foam and the pan. (So far the only things I've cut rather than removed or replaced; depending on how the tail works out hopefully they'll be the only things.)

A hacksaw made quick work of the foam; after briefly trying a hacksaw blade in a jigsaw, I went back to the hacksaw to deal with the seat pan.

I've got some good closed-cell foam I'll be building the seat back with, but I didn't want to have to carve the bottom of my new foam to match the seat pan so I left just enough foam there to avoid that work. Also found some light brown marine vinyl with leather texture to match my rally stripes. I'll be breaking out the old sewing machine and going to town on that in the coming week and hopefully have it mostly done by the time the body shop calls. That is, if I don't get too tempted into going out on the river all weekend! lol

Still have to figure out what to do with the exhaust, though that can come later. The only thing I really need to get finished that I haven't decided on yet is what to do about the rear lighting...