“Are you ready for a real bike?”
Robb projected his question over the growl of The Mrs’ Honda CM400 as I pulled up to the open door at BlueCat Motors. Out front was my green Honda CB750.
Buying a nearly three decades-old Honda Goldwing is not an easy decision to explain. I wonder about it myself sometimes.
The iconic motor. The iconic bike. The iconic brand. Gorgeous.
Saw this wine-colored little sprinter in the parking ramp yesterday. There’s something charmingly simple about a Honda ST1300. It’s unassuming, but I bet it’s a rocket. I’ve ridden Goldwings both old and new and they’re way more fun than they ought to be. I can only imagine how quick and nimble the smaller, lighter ST1300 is. Very curious about that V4 motor as well. It’s not on my buy list yet, but I’d definitely ride one.
In our initial repair session with my 1974 Honda CB450 Supersport, Jeff and I were confident (if incorrect) that the engine had avoided disaster during it’s timing chain misadventures. Good compression and correct cam timing meant we were that much closer to getting the old pony running. In a follow-up session, we’d sorted out the control wiring and the front brakes and now it was time to take care of the last couple of adjustments the engine would need before …
On day two of resurrecting my 1981 Honda CB750 Custom, things were going well. The carbs were cleaned out, rebuilt and bench tested. Though I’d already done most of the work myself, by the end of our previous session Jeff, my Moto Dojo sensei, had turned me loose completely on the CB750.
It was late May when Jeff and I first investigated the internal engine health of my 1974 Honda CB450 Supersport resuscitation project. Good compression readings had us confident that the internals of the engine were probably okay. The bike was far from ready to run, though. The carburetors needed to be rebuilt. Parts of the front brake line system had to be replaced. The handlebar controls needed to be re-wired and re-cabled. Worst of all, my CB450 was missing its …
If I’ve learned anything from working on motorcycles, it’s that only fools make plans. That is, at least where scheduling is concerned. Having a plan of what you’re doing and when you’d like to get it accomplished is good project management. However, what I’ve learned over and over is that making specific, scheduled plans for a motorcycle that doesn’t run is usually a recipe for disappointment.