cb750k7 Front Fork Help

Posted by cpratt on
URL: http://vintage-and-classic-hondas.81.s1.nabble.com/cb750k7-Front-Fork-Help-tp4046664.html

Greetings all, long time stalker of great info here, first time poster.

This summer I picked up a '77 cb750k to be a long term project and summer driver, and I'm a newb with these bikes.  The more I'm looking into this bike I'm finding things that don't appear stock, but are close.  16" rear spoke rim for example (think it's supposed to be a 17?) and a few other small things.

Anyways, to get to the point, I feel like the front forks are either not stock, or something else is going on.  This is simply a hunch by looking at photo's of other bikes, but the distance between the top of the shock to the headlight, or honda emblem, looks much longer on mine.  I want to say the tubes are still stock, but without fully dismantling them I'm not sure how to measure.  The chrome seems to have pitting that matches the rest of the pitting on the bike, only reason why I think they may be stock.

Part of me is wondering whether they just need a good rebuild or if there is something else going on.  I can hold the front brake and compress them, getting 3 or 4 inches of travel; without taking any weight off the bike, the forks appear to be topped out, fully extended, even when I sit on the bike.  Could it be an issue with oil in the shocks, wrong springs? or do the tubes always sit topped out like this?

Does anyone perhaps have a measurement from eye to top of fork for this year?

Ultimately I'd like to give it a mild cafe look, not necessarily looking to do anything crazy, but at lest would like to rebuild the front with some progressive springs and just get a good solid ride.

Perhaps you can tell me if I'm crazy from the pic's?

Thanks!  Look forward to a healthy discussion.