1973 HONDA CB175 K7 SURVIVOR PURCHASED!

1973 HONDA CB175 K7 SURVIVOR PURCHASED!

Today I found a guy that was coming into town with a 1973 Honda CB175 in the back of his truck to sell.  I have been looking for a smaller CC project for part of my collection and thought this might be a good chance to snag one for a decent price.  His asking price was already pretty attractive but it did need some work, so I made him an offer and we did "the dance" of finding something we could both agree on.  Even though it runs great I was able to work out a deal for him to drop it off at my apartment rather than having to drive out to pick it up in Anaheim and ride it home, and then go back to get my car later in the day.  All in all, it worked out perfectly.  

The good: the bike had title, was registered on Non-Op until November, ran great, was delivered to my door and is all original (including paint).  The bad: it needs a new seat cover, side covers, new rear shocks, as well as a new drive chain at minimum.  This wasn't enough to deter me from buying it because fixing it up is half the fun.

Today I put in quite a few hours cleaning up the undercarriage and scrubbing some surface rust off the exhaust pipes, wheels and front fender.  I also went online and found as many parts on EBAY as I could for what I'll be needing in the months ahead.  I haven't ordered anything yet, but little by little it will get freshened up.  

The newbie has been welcomed into my Honda Family with open arms!  Below is my starting line-up.  Gentlemen, start your engines!

UPDATES ON THE 1981 HONDA CB650 FOR 6/7

UPDATES ON THE 1981 HONDA CB650 FOR 6/7

Today I had the CB650 in the shop (apartment) for a few bits of work I needed to get done on her.  Actually, for the past two weeks it's been off the road because I discovered that gasoline was leaking through the patch work done on the bottom of the gas tank after it was lined and repaired.  As you can imagine I was not happy about this because I spent about $300 dollars on that beautiful paint job, which is not longer beautiful underneath around the petcock spout.  I'm a strong advocate of doing things right the first time around so that things like this can be avoided but I guess not everyone lives by this policy.  There wasn't much I could do once I realized what had happened but take it back to Dave at La Habra Radiator to fix.  It won't be leaking again but I now have to decide whether to pay to have the bottom re-painted or just leave it as-is.  I'll most likely have it touched up down the line unless I can find another tank in better condition. 

The front left brake caliper was also leaking, which was enough to set me off because these were rebuilt less than a month ago.  Yet somehow, fluid was dribbling out where the brake pads were so I had a new rubber O-Ring installed and it seems to be okay now.  Eventually, I will need to invest in new brake calipers but I'd really like to avoid spending more money on those until I can get some money saved up.  I should've just ran new ones from the get-go rather than salvaging the ones that came on the bike, but they seemed fine back when I first started driving it.

After long consideration, I decided that the front fender was a bit out of place so I had it chopped down and painted black to match the rest of the bike.  I took 4 inches off the back and 3 inches off the front.  I'm really happy with how it turned out and it definitely gives the bike more character.  I've seen several other builders do this and liked how it looked so I gave it a try.  I wasn't 100% happy with my paint choice, so I may pull it off and strip it back down and use a higher gloss paint.  I do like that it kind of matches the front forks though so I may leave it.  That's the beauty of doing this stuff yourself.

The next thing I accomplished today was installing the black 7" rock guard on the headlight.  I did this same thing with my CB360 Cafe Racer and really liked how it turned out so I used it again here.  It's pretty easy to install with a little patience.  You just need some thin metal wire to run through the cracks of the headlight to hold the guard in place.  The brackets that come with the rock guard do not work for this application and aren't made for CB headlights, so you kind of have to jerry rig it.  Below is a picture of the headlight bracket and the front fender with the updates from above.

Here is an overhead view to help give you a better idea.

Overall, I'm happy with the work I accomplished today.  There is still more in store for this build and the work just never seems to end with these Cafe Racers, but that's part of the fun, right?

Thanks for stopping by.

HB CONCOURS VINTAGE BIKE & CAR SHOW + HARLEY NIGHT AT COSTA MESA SPEEDWAY

HB CONCOURS VINTAGE BIKE & CAR SHOW 

It seems like forever since I've posted on here, so I apologize about that.  I've just been busy with work and trying to find some new projects and ideas that inspire me to create something new and different.  Over the weekend I attended a couple really fun events so I figured I'd post about them this morning while I had a minute free.  The first event I attended was the 2014 Huntington Beach Concours Vintage Car and Bike show.  It is a two-day event here in HB that has taken place every year for the past 29 years!!  I only just heard about it this year so I decided to enter my 1975 Honda CL360 Cafe Racer into the competition not knowing what to expect.  The event is going on today (Sun. June 1st) as well, but I had a prior commitment so I was only able to attend yesterday.

Setup for the event was supposed to take place at 8am yesterday, however I ended up running late and didn't arrive until 9:10 am.  The event had started at 9:00.  Oops.  Fortunately, they still let me in and just wanted to make sure I had paid the entrance fees and what not before they put me in the judging. After talking to a couple of the judges, they got me and another bike builder in, who was also running late for the event that morning.  The bike you see in the picture above is the one I'm referring to.  The guys who built it were from their own company called O.C.D Coachworks.  Mark Maul and Robert Telfer were really nice guys and they did some incredible work on their CB750 Cafe.  I was happy to share the afternoon picking their brain along with a lot of people who came to the show.  I will definitely look to them for assistance with any future projects I have that requires work outside of my wheelhouse.  It's also nice that they are right down the street from me!  Not sure how I've never seen them before, but I definitely want to do my part in spreading the word about them:  

O.C.D Coachworks

15541 Producer Lane, Unit G.

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

www.ocdcoachworks.com

Mark Maul: 714-661-9424

Robert Telfer: 818-209-2913

I stayed at the event until they announced the winners at 2:00pm.  There weren't a lot of motorcycles in the competition so I knew I had a pretty good chance of taking something home.  During the event I even got asked to help out next year with recruiting more cafe racer owners who might be interested in putting theirs into the competition.  I will look forward to that next year!

They actually kicked off the announcement with the cafe bikes and I was the first name they called for the day with a 2nd in Class award for my Honda!  It felt pretty good to be honored for the hard work I'd put into the build but even more so to be respected by other builders and collectors that have been doing this for far more years than myself.

HARLEY NIGHT AT COSTA MESA SPEEDWAY

Later in the evening I met up at the Harley-Davidson Dealership in Huntington Beach to ride over to the Costa Mesa Speedway with about 60-70 other bikers.  It was awesome!  I've never been to the speedway before but it's basically a dirt track (see below) that flat trackers and side cars race on.  The bikes they use are one gear and just rip around the track.  I can't wait to go again.

The crashes make it even more exciting and luckily no one got hurt too bad, but as you can see in the picture below, there is one rider that ate it hard.  You can see as he is losing control and is headed straight for the wall on the right hand side.  He walked away from it.  They definitely make it look easy but I am sure that is not the case whatsoever.

 I sat with my buddy Chad Williams and his son Owen, and several other of his buddies.  They are a really nice bunch of people and it feels good to finally have some familiar faces in Orange county with similar interests.  Back in Los Angeles, I didn't have a lot of close friends that were into motorcycles.  The Costa Mesa Speedway is definitely one place I will be visiting again!

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon for more adventures!