- Joined
- Sep 22, 2025
- Messages
- 110
Over the years when I have visited my cousin and always took time to peek at this bike being weathered inside the backyard shed. A few weeks ago we decided to pull it out and try to start it. It's been in the shed for about 25 years. Before that his ex wife had it and rode it. Last registration was in 2001 when their son was a baby.
With some not too old fuel that had oil in it I got it to start after a few kicks. It immediately stalled and fuel poured out everywhere from the carb. Knowing it had good compression and would run my cousin decided he wanted to put some money into it and get it running.
At this point he has a decision to make. A full concours restoration is not in my DNA. I have seen plenty of them and it's just not me. Not to mention I would not have the patience to tackle it. Thankfully he had the same idea as me. Just get it ridable so his son can take it out and have some fun.
OEM parts are near impossible to find so I very carefully started to tear it down and make a list of parts. Here is the mind blower. Upon close inspection I have determined this bike has less than 15 hours on it!!!
The hardest part was finding carb rubber and the float valve assembly. Float valve is the old design with the rubber in the female port. Jets are standard and I kept them stock size. Only thing I did was raise the needle one clip to maintain the integrity of engine.
The air filter disintegrated at first touch. it was never touched since the factory. This was to be expected. Being a simple piston port design means no reed valves. Everything else is easy peasy.
Went on Rocky Mountain, Amazon and Ebay. I got pretty much everything except air filter. UNI Filter manufacturing is near me so I went there and they had the air filter in stock.
Naturally I will be using Sunoco 100 at the pump and Maxima 927 for this bike.
We have spent less than 500 bucks. I am not going down the full restore/upgrade suspension rabbit hole.
Here are some pictures of the bike and date code on the tires. Date code matches up with bike being the 40th week of 1976. The absolute mind blower is the fact Factory Honda used 2 rim locks on the rear tire. I have never in my life seen this. I always have to drill and add an additional rim lock.
The brakes are virtually brand new from the factory!! Sprockets have zero wear and chain is a stiff rust belt!!
With some not too old fuel that had oil in it I got it to start after a few kicks. It immediately stalled and fuel poured out everywhere from the carb. Knowing it had good compression and would run my cousin decided he wanted to put some money into it and get it running.
At this point he has a decision to make. A full concours restoration is not in my DNA. I have seen plenty of them and it's just not me. Not to mention I would not have the patience to tackle it. Thankfully he had the same idea as me. Just get it ridable so his son can take it out and have some fun.
OEM parts are near impossible to find so I very carefully started to tear it down and make a list of parts. Here is the mind blower. Upon close inspection I have determined this bike has less than 15 hours on it!!!
The hardest part was finding carb rubber and the float valve assembly. Float valve is the old design with the rubber in the female port. Jets are standard and I kept them stock size. Only thing I did was raise the needle one clip to maintain the integrity of engine.
The air filter disintegrated at first touch. it was never touched since the factory. This was to be expected. Being a simple piston port design means no reed valves. Everything else is easy peasy.
Went on Rocky Mountain, Amazon and Ebay. I got pretty much everything except air filter. UNI Filter manufacturing is near me so I went there and they had the air filter in stock.
Naturally I will be using Sunoco 100 at the pump and Maxima 927 for this bike.
We have spent less than 500 bucks. I am not going down the full restore/upgrade suspension rabbit hole.
Here are some pictures of the bike and date code on the tires. Date code matches up with bike being the 40th week of 1976. The absolute mind blower is the fact Factory Honda used 2 rim locks on the rear tire. I have never in my life seen this. I always have to drill and add an additional rim lock.
The brakes are virtually brand new from the factory!! Sprockets have zero wear and chain is a stiff rust belt!!
