Shiny's 1980 CB750 F...happy with pods.

[shinyribs]

I like it.

It's a totally different machine than my SOHC. It's gonna take some getting used to but it's a fun bike.

This bike was built on a '80 frame. Supposedly there is supposed to be a difference in this year model concerning the placement of the steering neck that the builder really likes. I don't have a clue. Forks are 1000 CBR deals. Rear susp. is all stock,just raised. You can see the new shock mounts in the pic. Rims are 17'' off a Hurricane and brakes all around are 600 CBR. The ride is stupid plush compared to the WB and I'm really digging the height of the bike and the seating position.The stock seat needs a cover but is oh,so comfy!Rear brake kinda sucks right now. I think it might be a loss of leverage concerning the stock pedal assy being used with the CBR stuff. Works fine,and will slide the tire,just requires very strong pedal effort. Front brakes are awesome. At first I was disappointed as they felt no better than a dual disc conversion on a SOHC. After all,these rotors are 278mm just like a SOHC. But there is a difference somewhere. They feel as good as the WB under normal conditions,but once you really squeeze they will haul you down in a hurry. Very little nose dive under hard braking.

The motor is a 823 (Wiseco) with 900 rods. You can see a spacer under the jugs to correct for the added rod length. 750 head ported with stock valves,HD springs and titanium retainers. Cams are stock 900 pieces. Transmission and clutch are 900's. Clutch is Barnett-plates & springs. Carbs are 900 "Euro" units. Clutch pull is crazy long as it has to come all the way to the grip to disengage. May need adjusting?? Effort is not too bad with the  Barnett springs,but the long pull does work on you. I prefer the quick,snappy clutch of my SOHC in a big way! Gearbox is smooth as silk.

It's running pods right now and stock pipes. And it runs awful anywhere above 7 grand. PO swore it was still tuned to run with the open 4-1 he was racing it with. he said the stock pipes had it choked and told me it would do that. If i close the choke it takes off like a rocket,so it seems lean. Might be all BS on the tune,so I have an airbox waiting to go back on. Power down low was really unexpected. It's a very torquey bike! Rolling on the throttle at 60 mph in 5th gear accelerates way stronger then my old bike.You're at 80 mph in just a couple moments. I'm very anxious to get this bike tuned properly to see what she's actually capable of. As it is right now the WB would tear it a new one,but it definitely doesn't have the bottom end power of this bike. I'm dying to get it tuned,but kinda dreading messing with these carbs. Gotta do whatcha gotta do......

Overall it's a clean bike. The only scratches on the powdercoated frame are at the chain adjusters. pretty much expected. The bottoms of the side covers are scuffed from riding boots,but I'm not gonna worry about it. The wiring harness is completely unmolested with no cuts or splices anywhere. Fuse box has been relocated up front next to the horns,but the PO did a nice,clean job of mounting it. Worst part about the bike are the several dings in the tank. He wasn't worried about them because it was built as a track bike,but why lay new paint and decals over top of those?!?! Also,not gonna worry about those.It had these HUGE VFR turns signals which absolutely had to go. Swapped those for some little BM el-cheapo's.The bars on the bike were completely flat,so traded those for some black Euro bars. They're kinda tall,but they feel perfect. I put on Pirelli Diablo Rosso tires,new sprockets and a chain. After all that, and the paper work at the DMV, Im right at $2k in the bike. Considering that moderate to fair condition stockers go for $1,200-$1,500 in my area I'm real happy with the price.

Anyway,enough blahblahblah...pics:




Got a little red paint showing around the edges. So irritating. Gotta touch that up.

Raising brackets for the shocks.

Bike had USD's at one point. Dents in the tank were for clearance on those forks.

Soooo comfy. Like sitting on a bag of marshmallows.Glued together tears?...not so cool.


Love the fuel doors on these bikes. I'ma gonna wreck ogling that thing going down the road one day.


I actually took Crys for a ride on this bike today. She had a blast and I could hear her giggling back there. I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I honestly don't know if I can take her out again or not.On the highway or Parkway,maybe,but never again in the mountains.She leaned well and didn't affect me at all at stops or intersections,but everytime I hit the brakes I could feel her falling into me.HARD!

"Torso babe, use your torso!"
"Huh?"
"...nevermind...you're soft...."

[TOOLS1]

The red on the rims is COOL, but the front fender is NOT! As for Crystal sliding into you when braking, have you noticed that the seat is going downhill?
TOOLS
P.S. It's about time you took her for a ride! If she was my daughter/sister I would have told her to dump your no riding, knuckle dragging butt a long time ago.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Haha, holy cow dude,give me a little credit! I cant take her on WB since there's no back seat. The first day I get my new bike home(that has a back seat) I take her for a ride.

It wasn't her sliding in to me that bothered me,it was the fact that her upper body was falling into my shoulders. Causing me to put a lot of pressure on the bars. If it was just her hips or whatever sliding on the seat,that's OK, but she just sat back there like a limp rag falling in to me whenever I braked.

Took this bike out a little this evening. I'm reeeeeeally liking it and disappointed at the same time. I'm getting used to the chassis and am able to run a little harder now. I can carry an extra 5-10 mph in every corner compared to my old bike.Without even trying or noticing that I am. Some of the corners with rougher pavement I can run as much as 15 mph faster due to the suspension. The rear just soaks up bumps rather than skipping the rear tire and eventually sliding out. Which I've gotten pretty used to accommodating.Going up Route 43 to the parkway I used to( Water Buffalo) run in 5th gear at ~55-60 mph. Towards the top,where it gets steeper,I'd drop down to 4th to maintain that same speed.In the turns I never dropped below 35-40 for the tight ones,now I'm running those at 45 without even working hard. Plenty of throttle effort before. Now, 5th gear will carry me to the top at 70 mph and I find myself letting off to corner and just rolling back on-no downshifting. And therein lies the disappointment. As crazy as it may sound...it's just too easy to go fast on this bike. Honestly,it's no fun! I used to have to man-handle the WB to do what I can do on this bike without even trying. I can't even find a situation to man-handle this bike. It's just falls in to a turn and powers through it with ease.  I've put less than 75 miles on this bike and I'm already running on the middle lean-marker on the side of the Rosso's. Not trying to brag,but that's something that a lot of guys on modern sportbikes don't even want to do on the street. This bike does it with ease,even with my fat,non-riding self holding the bars.And I'm still learning what the bike likes. Something solid hit the ground during one turn and I just now realized I forgot to check on that. I betcha it was the center stand.

But I will say this:this bike is nervous on the interstate. At 65+ mph it just feels twitchy. It's stable,but the least amount of road irregularity or cross wind disturbs the bike. Nothing major,but you do have to pay attention closely or you'll find the bike wandering around. I'm not really crazy about that. I might take a look at the steering bearings and see if all is good. Or maybe even invest in a steering stabilizer.  

P.S.- Just for future reference (for myself,mostly) the odometer was showing 9,965 miles on the clock. Let's see how much a can turn those numbers...

[motogrady]

Congrats guy, really sweet bike, for a killer price.
Pretty much everything you say is how I feel about my F model.
Well, I'd like a bit more low end, maybe that's where the 900ccs come in.
But all in all, it's a great bike.

Man, it would be cool if we could all hook up for a day, 15 or 20 of us, all on inline 4s.

[shinyribs]

Right on Grado. I'd love to have some sort of meet-up someday. If we could figure out the logistics I think it'd be a whole lot of fun. We need to figure this out.

[TOOLS1]

Everybody can come over to the Toolshed. I'll grill hotdogs, and Toolbabe will make potato salad.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

You know I will. IIRC, it's about 1,500 miles from me to your place. I'll bring the peanut M&M's.

[motogrady]

Were's the ToolCave?

I'd take a weekend to hang out for a few hours with some fellow Hondaheads,
see what a few other guys have going on.

[TOOLS1]

The proximity of it's location is at the bottom of my every post.
TOOLS

[free2ride]

motogrady wrote

Were's the ToolCave?

ToolCave. I like it.

now all we need is a theme song

[Hoosier Daddy]

Hell of a bike there Shiney, somebody put some time and effort into that one!

[shinyribs]

Thanks Hooiser, I'm liking it more and more. I wish I could take the credit for this bike,but I'm just happy tp have it. Having a back seat is killing me since I can't go anywhere by myself anymore.  I've got decent gear for Crys to wear,but she is gonna keep riding we're gonna have to invest in better stuff.

[TOOLS1]

I forgot to tell you, that thing where Chrystal sort of falls forward on you while on the bike. That's totally normal. It's called "swooning."
TOOLS

[motogrady]

It's a good time to check and make sure you havn't forgotten or lost your wallet too.

[shinyribs]

 Making my lady swoon! That's a first

[Lucky 1]

That seems to have your favorite color of frame too!

[shinyribs]

Very true,Lucky! If it weren't for that blue frame I doubt I would have even stopped and looked at the bike. I had my heart set on a black F with the red and orange stripes. But the colors on this bike really grabbed me. Still gotta do something about that front fender.

[shinyribs]

Well,I think I've mentioned it here before,but this bike has been handling a little funny. Twitchy at highway speeds, "death wobble" if I put my feet on the passenger pegs, turns left like a champ but is unstable in hard right handers...crazy stuff.

So i decided to give it a good looking at and pulled some strings tonight. Turns out the rear tire is off-center 11.5 mm. That's right. Not a typo. NOT 1.5mm, but 11.5mm !

So I made some new axle spacers and got that sorted out. Front rim measured centered in the forks so I took it all out of the rear.  

Moral of the story: If you didn't build it, measure it before you ride.

[Beekeeper]

What did that do to your spocket alignment?  I would think you would have been getting some real grinding from the chain with  almost a half inch misaligned.

[Hoko]

 I'm glad you caught that before it caused you some real problems!
What's up with that front fender man?  Is there a reason they made it that way? That thing is hideous.