Motorcycles Sometimes Have Much More Interesting Histories Than Cars Do. This Perhaps

Motorcycles sometimes have much more interesting histories than cars do. This perhaps for several reasons: they live longer lives, their owners make them far more personal property, you can do a lot more with them, and cars are often little more than appliances.

I have been riding since 1974. My first bike was a 1972 CB450 Honda. In 1976 I got my first job and promptly purchased 1 new 1976 CB750F Honda (which I still have).

In 1981 the DOHC CB750F had been out 2 years and was, to me, a better bike in a number of ways. It had dual disks, a bit more horsepower, better suspension and an extra 1000 rpm power band.

I had also gotten tired of street riding, at least for purposes of going like hell, and was looking to go roadracing (less cops, curbs, potholes and cars). I was living in Maine and it was a doable trip to Loudon Raceway in New Hampshire (about 18 miles). While I considered riding the SOHC 750, it was really not a good choice. So I bought a used 1979 CB 750F from Waterville Honda, where I had gotten the ’76. I was the third owner and it had been used hard. A valve job got it back in shape.

Loudon supported once-a-month amateur roadracing for an outfit called AAMRR out of Connecticut. Entry fees were about $25 a race and they ran a pretty safety conscious ship. I started racing in the Novice class in 1982 and quickly learned how much difference there was between streets and tracks. This was the “old” Loudon and had a lot of very tight turns as well as some hills. Hitting 100 mph was a real challenge. The real was not going fast but going through corners fast. Lines, lean angle, brakes and technique were much more important than sheer horsepower. 1000 cc bikes rarely had the top lap times. A GPZ 550 Kawi was a near optimal street based bike.

The first year the bike and I did a lot of learning and pursued the #1 goal of every novice: don’t finish last! We never did. One race comes to mind. I was about midway in the pack. It was October, the sun was out and the bike in front of me was out of reach as was the bike behind me. So I was having this delightful ride around Loudon by myself for all intensive purposes. The bike had stock exhaust (I ran in the Production class) so it was pretty quiet. About Lap #8 I was all of a sudden startled to the point of damned near falling off the bike in the corner I was in. A Ducati with open pipes was lapping me, in all its glorious thunder. Snuck right up on me!! Scared the shit out of me!!

In 1983 I continued to learn and got progressively better, a little at a time. One problem: Honda had come out with the all new V45 Interceptor. This was a true generation ahead of the CB750F in many ways: V4 motor for far more cornering clearance, another 1000 rpm power band, lots of midrange, a 16” front wheel, better suspension and a little less weight. Also a small fairing and awesome appearance.

I am a born tinkerer so this was the excuse to move to Modified Production and start changing the CB750F in any possible way I could. First I got rid of anything I could: starter motor, anything nonfunctional etc. Put a lightweight drilled rotor in back and drilled the rotors in front (216 painstaking holes that took forever). Got an Ontario Mototech exhaust system. Removed the alternator. Beveled the ignition cover. Went to a 749cc piston kit from Wiseco that bumped up the compression to 13:1. When done the bike was about 50 pounds lighter and had noticeably more midrange torque. I also raised up the rear end by extending the rear shock mounts up and had reinforcing bracing welded to the swingarm. This resulted in a lot more ground clearance, important at Loudon.

The first weekend I used it, I did very well for me, coming in second place and hitting lap times of 1:21.

The next weekend it rained so in July I headed back determined to get serious and be competitive. I got to ride near the legendary Canadian Yvonne DuHamel in practice as there were some professional classes mixed in the weekend (his son races today). Sunday I went out for the Formula One race which allowed modified 750s. While I was a rider of modest talent, for some reason I could get off to terrific starts when the flag fell. This day was no different. I was almost instantly in first place by 150 feet. The PA guy even commented. I went through Turn One in good shape and was looking forward to the enjoyable S curves when things went bad. The tires were not warm and the rear end slid out while I was completely leaned over. Off the bike I went and the bike slid down the track. This happened often in those days and probably still does, whenever you reach the limits of lean angle and tire. You get up, dust off , go find the bike and see what damage you have done to the side covers and so on. In the next few seconds, two things happened that changed my motorcycling life forever. The bike, instead of sliding to a halt, caught a small pothole and flew up in the air 10’, landing upside down and then on its side. Since I was in first place, everyone was of course behind me, going like hell. Just as I was going to get up, a rider on a small Suzuki caught my left elbow with his front wheel. He probably never noticed.

The bike was a total disaster. The frame was bent, the handcrafted swingarm tweaked, the engine cases broken and so on.

My elbow was also a disaster. The end of the arm bone (the “radial head”) was shattered into a zillion pieces. The elbow was dislocated. I got hauled off to Loudon hospital and then went back to Maine for 4 hours of surgery. I finished rehab 4 months later and it works pretty well today although the joint does not quite straighten. Coulda been a lot worse!! My neck was not far from his wheel and I could have ended up a quadriplegic.

End of roadracing. My wife helped haul the poor 750 home. I could not bring myself to scrap it. I had hundreds of hours handcrafting components, fine tuning the motor (cam timing and all that). So I got into CycleNews and found a frame on LongIsland and bought it. I had removed all the street parts so they were still good. The wheels were fine as were the brakes. Dug up a seat. But the motor would be a longer project. The cases were broken on one end and the head would tolerate no more valve jobs, the valves being sunk too far into it for any shims to work.

Wishing no legalities I took the VIN plate off of one frame and transplanted it to the new one, mounting it over the stamped VIN Honda also provided.

The summer of 1985 came and the motor was still a problem. I was riding the ’76 on the street so motorcycling was still alive. One day I was at the local Honda dealership where I bought it. The owner said “Hey John, Honda is selling its inventory of motors of older bikes and they have one for yours. You oughta buy it.” A whole, new motor ?? Wow! how much? $398 plus shipping. . . . Who do I pay? So it came in a crate and there was a perfect, new motor. Starter, oil filter, plugs, covers. No carbs. A 16 valve job would cost that much (Honda’s valves were never cheap). Oh ya… the motor had a brand new 630 Oring chain attached. Endless. I still have it in the plastic bag - never used it.

So the ’79 CB750F had a second life. I registered it with no insurance and I could then go riding with bikeless friends. It needed some body work (the usual cracked side covers) but was a nice and fast bike. This was now 1986.

In 1993 I moved to Massachusetts where I grew up. A couple of years later I sold the bike to my stepson as I really did not need two bikes. He and his wife did a lot of street riding and he knew the history of the bike, having worked corners at Loudon when he was younger. The bike looked stock but had a few telltale marks like the drilled disks, safety wiring here and there, and a Vanson Leathers decal on the tank (if you won a race and had a Vanson sticker you got something from them…don’t remember what). He paid me $750, and the bike and I parted company.

By 2001 I was in Maine and was very saddened to find the CB750F behind his house, outdoors, uncovered in the winter, essentially abandoned. His life had hit some downturns and a lot of things were beyond control. Soon after I decided that somehow, someday I would get it back from him. He did bring it inside the next summer but it was a wreck from the outdoors.

My patience paid off in 2004 when he needed some fast cash. I paid him $500 for the bike, more than it appeared worth to anyone. But I knew two things about it: its history as a part of my life, and the fact it had a very low mileage motor (maybe 5000 miles tops). Ebay had long come along by then and parts were easy to come by for cheap.

In May of 2005, my good friend Mike, a trailer , my Springer Spaniel Annie and I went to Maine and drug the ol’ racebike home and put it into my heated workshop.

There I learned some good things: the front brakes, having been rebuilt in 1983 with DOT 5 brake fluid, worked perfectly. (the rear, with DOT 3, were junk). The motor turned over fine and exhibited plenty of compression.

The poor tank, being empty, was a lost cause. It was full of surface rust. The seat was a disaster from sun and rain. The striping had long faded away. Details. I found a new tail section, one side cover and a decent tank on Ebay. One side cover had stayed indoors and was perfect. The other was cracked and useless. The exhaust system was junk but I had a mint condition one from Ebay from a guy who put a 4-1 on and stashed his stocker in the attic. About $275.

The carbs were the biggest challenge. It took me awhile to discover the channel under those little black plugs that must be cleaned out. I bought 4 carb kits that took over 6 months to arrive. By the spring of 2007 it was running well. I then set out to restore it.

Of all things the little coupling that gets the speedo to the odometer had gotten lost and was near impossible to find a replacement for. I finally bought some junk gauges and got one out of them. The entire rear brake assembly (master cylinder and caliper) got tossed and replaced with Ebay items that I then rebuilt. They work fine now. The electrics never suffered a bit and have survived 30 years just fine. It now has Continental tires.

The tank was a challenge. I am just finishing it now. I stripped one, filled any little imperfections and painted it with Krylon gloss black. I then wet sanded with 1000, 2000 and 3000 paper and then polished it with 3 grades of compound from an auto restoration outfit. The result is near glass like. I got repro vinyl decals and am just at the point of finding someone to put a couple coats of urethane on it to protect everything.

The engine covers need polishing and buffing. In the best of situations I will dismantle it and have the frame stripped and painted. But as it sits, it looks and runs better than when I bought it in 1982. So it can move on to it’s fourth life.

I still have my 1976 CB750F which is also very close to completely restored. The original tank looks good but is quite faded from about 80,000 some odd miles. It is mostly stock but has a ported head and Shelby-Dowd wheels.

Between the two of them, I have turned a lot of wrenches in 33 years and enjoyed a lot of motorcycling. Now to find one of those V45 Interceptors…