Real Classic - February 2021 - Preview

RIDING A SHED SURVIVOR

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WHATL

HONDA CB750 ...........................................

6

If you're in the market for a Japanese classic then there's an obvious option: the 750 superbike which started a roadgoing revolution. Mark Redfern argues that there are very good reasons why Honda's CB is still so popular, and highlights the absolute bargain of the bunch ...

TRIUMPH TlS .......................................... 22

Once derided as mere hacks, winter's worst can bring out the best in an unglamorous bike. Frank Westworth tries to convince himself ...

TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T120R ............... 46

Buying your first British bike can create some eye-opening moments. Tim Sykes swaps his sophisticated Honda 650 twin for a Triumph Bonneville , and boggles at the differences ...

HESKETH Vl000 ......................................

52

Merv Matthews bought a brand-new Hesketh back in the 1980s but by 2004 it had been off the road for more than a decade.

Challenged by the owners' club, he set about making the V1OOObetter than new ...

TOURING TRAUMA! ................................ 60

SUNBEAM 57 ...........................................

30

When BSAresurrected the Sunbeam marque , they built a sophisticated motorcycle suitable for the most refined riders. So naturally we asked Paul Miles, a definitely distinguished gentleman, for his opinion ...

MOTO GUZZI LE MANS ........................... 38

RC regular Nolan Woodbury owned this bike back in the day, when he transformed its appearance ... and then sold it. Four years ago, his son Alex bought it back and began its restoration

If at first you don 't succeed ... Marion Thirsk tries and tries again, by BSA. And then by Enfield . And then by BSAagain. And then the Enfield again. And then .. .

RIDING LIFE.............................................

66

My name is Alan. I am an addict. I have become hooked on Bultacos. This is the sordid tale of my downfall...

MAKING SPARKS FLY.............................. 72

The development of the ignition system, how it works, and a few maintenance tips .

Jacqueline Bickerstaff (aka PUB)explains the fizzicks behind sparking performance.

Magneto postscript: the much maligned but magical Maglita BUILDING A BIANCHl .............................. 76

Stu Thomson has a fascination with old Italian motorcycles. Before he starts stripping his latest acquisition, he delves into the history of the marque ...

Cambridge Vintage Auction The Saleground, Sutton, Ely, Cambs CB6 2QT

Saturday 24th April 2021

FURTHER CONSIGNMENTS INVITED

For advice on buying or selling please call 01353 777767 or email vintage@cheffins.co.uk Sales and valuations undertaken nationwide.

Writing about riding bikesis almostalwaysan entertainingprocess.It can alsobe challenging, especiallyif the bike isfunctionallyflawlessbut so civilisedthat apart from staggeringperformance there is little to actuallydescribethat could be in anyway helpful to anyonecontemplatinga freshacquisition.Modern- and mostly modern - motorcyclesare likethis.And this is not a complaint,nor is it a new thing.

Manyyearsago,I sharedseveralroad-testing expeditionswith anotherscribblychum,and in one of them we took out a pair of then-new middleweightJapanesefoursfor a couple of weeks,riding together and swappingbikesfrom time to time, somedaysriding over the same stretchof road severaltimes (the Cat& Fiddle Pass,in fact),and it wasconsiderablyremarkable how similarthey were.Onewas a Kawasaki750 Zephyr,and I think the other wasa Yamaha,but I'm not surenow.

Therewas nothing wrong with either machine.

Therewaslittle to distinguishbetweenthem dynamically,althoughthe riding positonswerea bit differentand they lookeddifferent- although not very different,truthfully.I likedthe Zephyr,and can'trecallthe other bike- which I think saysit all.

Both machinessold by the boatload - and why would they not, given that there was nothing wrong with them and they did what they claimed to do? Not an easystoryto write.

A few monthsafterthat, I wastreatedto a pair ofV-twins,one of them a Yamaha1100Virago,the other a 1200HarleySportster.Whata contrast!

Thatwasa great storyto write up,and a pairof greatbikesto ride - which I did asmuch asI could, both of them, becausethey were both remarkable.

I didn't like Harleysmuchat the time, and actively dislikedseveralof them in fact, but the Sportster, with its belt final drive,wasmuchimproved,while the Viragowasa completescreamof a machineto ride,completewith shaftdriveand morechrome than a chapcould everneed.Although it had almostno ground clearanceat all.

Neithermachineappealedto me asa bike I would actuallywant to own, but I could easilysee how other riderswould lust after them - both of them. An easyand enjoyablestory to write, even though if forced to choosebetweenthem I would probablyhavebought anotherYamaha- aV-Max,

which werealwayssimplyexhilaratingto ride and lookedexceptional- to my eyesat least.

Thesedays,the only new motorcyclesI ride arethose I'm consideringfor myself.I rarelywrite about them, although of courseI talk about them with friends.

Ridingbikeswhich aredecadesold and with thousandsof milesunderthem canalwaysbe an interestingchallenge,not leastbecausethey areonly very rarelyasthey left the factory,even more rarelyhavethey remainedunrestoredor bodged about by generationsof proud owners.

Sothere's alwayslots to talk about. But here'sa thing: riding a pair of newTriumph StreetTwins (for example)backto back revealsthat they are identical,certainlyasfar as my feeblepowersof observationcantell. But ride two 1975Norton CommandoRoadsters(for example)sideto side and they canbe asdifferent to eachother asthey arefrom a modernTriumph.

And whatevera writer writes, readerswill disagreewith it. Now readthe Letterspages,and you will seewhat I mean!

Ridesafely FrankWestworth Frank@realclassic.net

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RealClassic

If you're in the market for a Japanese classic then there's an obvious option: the 750 superbike which started a roadgoing revolution. Mark Redfern argues that there are very good reasons why Honda's CBis still so popular, and highlights the absolute bargain of the bunch •••

6 I FEBRUARY 2021

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. 1975 KS one of two CB750s introduced that year alongside The feature bike 1sa ' the new Gold Wing flagship

S

o much has been said and written about Honda's

legendary CB750 that it seems almost pointless to say it all again. Except perhaps it isn't.

Bear with me. You see, this is a personal view of'the one to have'from someone who likes just about every bike which came out of Japan in the 1970s. And quite a few British ones before that. So this was the hardest choice to make.

The CB's story is well known. A ground -breaking bike, based on a very capable in line four cylinder, 4-stroke motor, a bike which was brightly coloured, attractively designed, reliable and went about its business quietly when compared to the thumping twins of the time. It was a well-made , easy to ride bike which would tour, race with the best of the day or just commute without complaint. It wasn't unique in doing these things but it was very good. And it became an icon . The most famous Universal Japanese Motorcycle.

Why? When the CB came out, 750cc was a big machine. First seen in 1968, the CB750 was the first to be widely acclaimed as a superbike. Built under the direction of Soichiro Honda

himself, it put Honda ahead of the competition in terms of innovation and was a sales success right from the start.

The sohc motor was so good that they just kept on using it right up to the late 1970s, when it was tweaked slightly before being replaced altogether by the double overhead cam motor of the CB750K at the start of the 80s.

Through the years many of the changes were cosmetic, with just a few developments on the motor itself. That motor was very mildly tuned , producing a modest but adequate 67bhp. In return for a lessstressed motor you got reliability, tractability in traffic and reasonable fuel consumption. It's a bit of an allrounder, and the biggest differences through the years really come down to colour schemes ... and people really do notice if your bike isn't a standard colour for the year!

AVAILABILITY Any bike worthy of being called 'the one to have' must, in my opinion, be available to those who want one.

Examples are still available and most parts are typically easy to source. Even replacement four-into-four exhausts ~

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RealClassic

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can still be bought new as long as you are happy to sell your spare kidney.

When looking for CB750s you'll soon realise that most of them were built for the US market and have spent most of their lives there. Some people will only ever truly want a bike supplied to the British market which has been cosseted and cared for and has survived in great condition. These are plentiful, but only if you compare them with hens'teeth, unicorns'tears or rocking horse ... well, you get the idea. They are rare indeed.

What all the fuss wasabout. Honda'smighty Four

US imports differ very slightly in the details; stop lamps, height of the handlebars, etc, but so many UK registered bikes came from the States that the US spec has almost become the norm here too . When all is said and done, they are not British or US bikes;

Thisis the engine which changed the face of motorcycling worldwide. And in an understated

way,too

BY THENUMBERS

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Production years for the sohc CB750 models - although many of these will have been available at the tail end of the previous year, and road registrations were often delayed until subsequent years, so any specific 'year' can cover considerably more than 12 months ...

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they are all Japanese bikes. So why did those bikes survive there and not here? The received wisdom is that they survived in the 'dry' states such as California where the sun always shines. Except it's not like that at all, it

Thi$ bahy ,qs horniri Crud Pi'b:« nt1Jl\1ilion , frixi1wheel,5s,: hrnk. Fuw u1~"'t pc And l"Wfl 111rhc I I01i.h1~1ftb't uf f'O"~r ffld ~1.phnuci; 1y)(,tt11,1ffim.Oil pm, urc llsh1 I, ptt <1'i()t1..

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>- 1969: CB750K or CB750KO >- 1971: CB750K1 >-1972: >-1973: >-1974: >- 1975:

CB750K2 CB750K3 CB750K4 CB750KSI CB750F >-1976: CB750K6 I CB750F1 I CB750A >- 1977: CB750K7 I CB750F2 I CB750A1 >- 1978: CB750K8 I CB750F3 I CB750A2

8 I FEBRUARY2021

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,l for-i1.

Gas goes in; gas goes out again. The four original silencers made for a splendidly quiet motorcycle

couldn't be more different.

Let me explain.

You have to go diagonally across the US,

Valley and the riches of today's California.

Back in the 70s they were still surfing or busy being latter-day hippies hankering afterVW

roads from time to time. Many (and I say this with a heavy heart) have been adorned with

just about as far removed from California as you can in fact , to find where so many of them survived. The north-eastern states definitely do not have California's year-round sunshine. They have bone-crackingly cold winters and snow. Which is precisely why the bikes stayed in heated garages, not being

microbuses. The money was being made (and spent) in cities like Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh. The wheels of commerce funded the wheels of bike collections. And the private garages of owners kept them out of the weather.

Bikes are still out there, but in far less

handy if you're a gynaecologist but otherwise pointless in the UK. Yet strip this tinsel off the bikes and the original CB750 is there. And your smile will be the same as on a teenager after having their braces removed: under that extra metalwork there is perfection.

ridden until the sun reappeared and the bike season started up again. Which is when many of the bikes travelled their meagre distances for another year before being put away again.

But why were they bought there in the first place? Well, don't think about Silicon

numbers than in years gone by. Many bikes are actually going back to Japan now, to feed a market which wasn't allowed to buy the 'export only' models of the 1970s.

Surviving bikes in the US have often been kept in running order and have still seen

WHY BUY?

backrests and, even worse, highway pegs;

To choose 'the one to have' I've assumed I can only have one bike which has to do everything as well as possible. It therefore won't be the cheapest bike, but if you can only have one, then you put all your spare pennies into that. Walk into your building society, politely reject their offer of 0.00001 % interest and grab your cash, and invest it in something you can enjoy .

If you like bikes which break down and need constant attention then a CB750 probably isn't for you. A regular service is all it will need for the most part. Like all bikes, and especially classics,they like to be ridden regularly and can get a bit grumpy when ignored for too long . That said, a CB750 is far more likely to fire up and be eager to get down the road again than many other classics - which explains in part their enduring popularity.

It's also relatively easy to locate a CB. Hundreds of thousands were made, so

Several new features on the KS were aimed at improving safety, including the rubber tip to the sidestand. If the stand wasn't retracted before riding away, the tip would brush the tarmac and flip the stand out of harm's way

there are more examples left than for many bikes. Parts are still available , partly because so many were made. The CBswere well made and built to last. And I return to my contention that they do all things well, not necessarily the best at anything but a good all-rounder.

The only thing against CBs is their price nowadays. The more popular something is, given an unlimited supply, then the >-

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FEBRUARY 2021 I 9

RealClassic cheaper it is.The more popular something is, given a limited supply, then the more expensive it is. And supply is very limited! But if you're only having one motorcycle, a CB will be well worth the investment.

Engine

Air-cooledinlinefour

BoreI stroke

61mmx63mm

Capacity

736cc

Compression

9:1

AN OWNERSPEAKS

Power

67bhp @8000rpm

My own Honda CB750 is a 1975 model first supplied to the US,which makes it a KS.Not the most valuable of the breed, but I love it.

The KSwas being restored so I had a choice of colours; Planet Blue Metallic or Flake Apricot

Torque

60Nm@7000rpm

Lubrication

Drysump

Red. Not being able to make up my mind, I asked my wife. I thought that would be a good move tactically and would certainly garner brownie points. She said 'Well, as my favourite colour is blue, which one do you think I'd prefer?' And with that the ref took away my points and gave me a penalty for never listening to her. Live and learn eh?

The KS is still quite newly restored in terms of miles. That means the usual teething problems when getting a bike back into its groove. This included crud coming out of the tank into the carbs causing sputtering and unexpected stops at junctions, and the

Ignition

Coil,x2 contact breakers

Generator

21OWalternator

Clutch

Wet multiplate

Gearbox

Five-speedconstantmesh

Finaldrive

Chain

Frame

Doublecradletubular steel

Frontsuspension

35mm tele forks

Rearsuspension

Twin shock,swinging arm

Fronttyre

3.25X 19

Reartyre

4.00x 18

Wheelbase

1455mm

Seatheight

800mm

Dryweight

218kg

Topspeed

120mph

What makesthe Honda750 America'smost popularmotorcycle?

The new CBlSOFcafe racer was aimed squarelyat the EuropeanSuperSportsmarket and the new Gold Wingwas Honda'stop tourer for the USA. Whichmade the KS... what, exactly?

New-for-197S indicatorswere bigger than the old ones- not entirely surprisingbecausethey were borrowedfrom the all-new GL1OOO

headlamp switch cluster on UKmodelshad a central 'park' position which was absent from the US-specKS

A pleasantly unglamorousview of a motorcycle'slife

Another KS detail is the black front brake caliper. Sintered pads are a worthwhile upgrade, especially if you ride in the wet. The CBretained its drum rear brake until the Kl model, which is a blessing for owners of earlier machines who avoid the corrosion issues associated with the early disc

system

throttle sticking wide-open at inconvenient times (not that there's actually a convenient time). All those issues went away by simply riding it and getting everything used again. Nice way to fix things don't you think?

Having the CB restored meant consulting with my good mate Andy as to some options. The first was an obvious one: use a sprocket two teeth smaller than standard. These bikes will scream along using far more revs than that lovely tractable motor needs and reducing the gearing a little really does make all the difference.

The CB doesn't have a great reputation for agile handling, but can be improved by swapping worn head bearings with taper rollers. Check for worn swinging arm pivot bushes and replace dodgy old dampers with decent modern shocks

It needed new exhausts, so the second choice was all about how loud to make it.

Hmmm, tricky one! Do I go for quiet and muted, relaxing for long rides, or snarling and growling like a bear with a sore head to let people know I'm coming? I decided to go for a compromise, so it has less wadding in the silencers, which means it's still reasonably civilised but with a nice roar under throttle load. This choice is best made before your new pipes are full of burned carbon!

Tyres were another compromise. I like a modern tyre with a modern compound. It gives me a warm feeling of being able to handle corners quickly and stop sharply if I want to. That said, this is a 1970s Japanese bike so it will do neither of those things terribly well. And modern tyres do spoil the look of the bike in terms of originality. So a compromise was the way to go, with a modern compound but using a 70s style of tyre tread.

I like originality but only up to a point. I like old cottages but not old plumbing and wiring. I like old comedy shows but not watched on a 14" black and white television. There are limits on how authentic something has to be versus how usable it is. So my battery is a gel one, which means it actually still has charge in it after a month or two.

My warning lights are LED so I can actually see them in daylight indicator repeater excluded because it doesn't work that way.

So my CB is a compromise all the way but for the right reasons. And don't think that my head ruled my heart because I absolutely love my CB750. I was just lucky that the bike of my desires actually made sense. For me, that's quite an achievement.

PAYINGTHEPRICE

Big batteries are a good Idea when running a big old engine

The prices of CB750sfollow the typical trend of classic bikes. The earliest models are generally not as good as the later versions where the issues have been ironed out, yet they command much higher prices because of their age and place in the history books. The earlier the model, then the more expensive it will be now.

The first production bikes were the KOs,running up to the final K7.

If you want the absolute earliest bikes then you'll be looking for a 'sandcast' model which, as the name suggests, was made before the >-

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FEBRUARY 2021 I 11

RealClassic mass-production lines were up and running and crankcaseswere virtually hand-made. The value of these bikes has risen steadily in recent years, and prices of early sandcast models have become the stuff of legend, to the extent that they're out of sight for most mere mortals .

The F models command much lower values despite having the same motor and being from the same era. I like them as much as the K models but I'm in a small minority. F models don't have those lovely four silencers, I'll grant you , but they do come from the same mid-1970s period and they are much more rare. The final F2 model was competing against the far superior Suzuki GS750,which outperformed it in every sense.The GS750 is also an underrated bike in terms of values, which just shows that the technical ability of something doesn't directly relate to its desirability.

The real bargain among the Hondas is, in my opinion, the C8750K7.This bike was on sale during 1977 and 1978 and sported a few

changes from all the previous (8750 models.

They look a little bigger but that's probably due to the different tank styling, wider silencers (still four of them) and the indicators being mounted lower down the fork legs.They are cheaper - typically thousands of pounds

cheaper - than a bike of just a year or two earlier, yet they are just as good . Get a K7 while you still can for a relatively modest price.

Once we reach the dohc era of the early 1980s, prices fall off a cliff . The Honda C8750K (as opposed to the earlier CB750, which had lots of K variants - confused yet?) featured Honda's new and much better double overhead cam 750 motor. It went better, stopped better, was as reliable as its predecessor, and, of course, is nowhere near as desirable to collectors . They are available today for a fraction of the price of an earlier K

THINKINGOF BUYING?

series bike.

So there you have it, the Honda (8750: overexposed and overpriced. They are brilliant and as good to ride now as they were in the 1970s. If you find the right one which needs some TLC you can still get yourself a great investment. And if you can only have one classic bike in your life, then this is the one to have. It really is. Re

Mark runs Somerset Classic Motorcycles together with Andy Taylor, focusing on Japanese classics from the 1970s. They offer everything from newly found survivors, just waiting for a new owner to get them back on the road, right up to fully finished bikes which are as good or better than they were when new.

At the time of writing, they have a red 1975 CB750 in stock. It's been recently serviced with the carbs synced, fitted with new plugs, chain and electronic ignition. It does have a small oil leak and provides 'plenty of scope for improvement' so is priced accordingly at ÂŁ5495 .

Andy and Mark can arrange delivery across the UK. See somersetclassicmotorcycles.co.uk

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