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That seventies vibe
Living in the seventies has its joys and
challenges
(Travels with Guido number 374, Jan 2024, Guy 'Guido'
Allen)
Just at the moment, I'm a little sore.
And no I didn't fall off anything. However muggins has
spent much of the last couple of days crawling over,
around and under assorted transports of delight,
attending to their needs.
That time has been spent on three out of the six
seventies motorcycles currently in the shed: The 1971
Honda CB750-Four K1, 1975 Norton 850 Commando MkIII and
1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing.
Though I'll never be mistaken for a mechanic, I'm kind
of comfortable working on Japanese motorcycles of this
era, having started off on a seventies Kawasaki 400 and
then progressing up the capacity ranks across a few
different Nippon brands.
Across the decade I've owned it, the
CB750 has been the least demanding of the seventies
machines, though it may surprise you to learn that my
1975 T160 Triumph has given it a solid run for its money
on that score over a similar period of time.
The CeeBee is like pulling on an old shoe. A second-hand
K2 was my first 'big' motorcycle around four decades
ago, something which yours-truly rode fast though not
necessarily well, blew up and rebuilt with an upgraded
motor. Yep, with a screaming 812cc Yoshimura kit. Hot
stuff! (Or so it seemed at the time...)
If you'd told me then that I'd now be
getting a kick out of riding an even older example (an
unimaginable four decades down the track) you would have
been advised to sod off and do a reality-check.
In the meantime, the tally so far with the K1 has been
to rebuild the front brakes (master cylinder seals,
lines, front caliper seals), and a bit of general
servicing. That's it. I know I can walk up after a
couple of weeks, pump up the front tyre (which has an
irritating slow leak), turn on the fuel and hit the
starter. It always goes.
So this weekend was a simple oil and
filter change, with a brake fluid freshen-up. Easy.
A little more fraught has been the
relationship with the Norton, though I can't entirely
blame the motorcycle.
It has that annoying Commando habit of wet-sumping what
is supposed to be a dry sump motor. The CB750 does it as
well, but happily pumps the oil back into the tank on
start-up. Not so the Commando, which is more likely to
spit oil out of every available orifice, but mostly the
breather – not pretty.
Thanks to that little habit, you have to drain the
crankcase before getting too excited about going for a
ride. You can get a one-way oil return valve to tackle
this, but I'm told that has its own risk of causing a
blow-up when it fails.
The 850 also has an electric starter
system that is only just capable of carrying out the
task, so the smart thing to do is turn it over with the
kick-starter to loosen it up, then hit the button. Of
course it helps enormously if you have a whacking great
lithium battery under the seat, which seems to remove or
at least reduce the risk of the starter getting tired
and emotional.
Yes, I could just kick-start it but see no reason why I
should. If or when the electric leg croaks, it will be
replaced with a readily-available upgrade.
Because it's a bit of a faff to get going, I tend to
leave the lovely Norton longer than ideal which of
course makes the situation worse. This time around the
gap has been months rather than weeks and, thanks to
incredibly wet weather and blanketing humidity, helped
no doubt by old fuel, the carburetor slides have seized.
No matter, we're in the throes of recommisioning the
thing, with a promise to get it out more often.
As for the Gold Wing, this is the second that has graced
the shed in quick succession. You're no doubt familiar
with the idea of selling a motorcycle and almost
instantly regretting the decision – this time I was able
to do something about it.
A similar 1975 GL1000 (the first model
of the series) went through our hands some months ago.
It had undergone a significant rebuild and I continued
on the work to bring it back closer to stock. Moments
after I got it running very nicely, it was on the
market. There may have been a good reason at the time,
though I'm buggered if I can recall what it was.
Moving on a year or so, another pops up via TT Motorcycles
in Mornington (Vic). Ringmaster Brian Browne also
sold me the CB750-Four, so it seems we should establish
a BB corner in shed, perhaps with a Joey Dunlop statue
and a bottle of crisp Pinot in case of emergencies.
Back to the Wing, we got it on the
road after some running around – a story for another day
– and it's been a bit of fun. I've given it a
precautionary end-to-end fluid change, its second in
recent months, as it had been sitting a long time before
Brian and Co recommissioned it.
Gold Wings of this era are a bit of an eye-opener. The
architecture and layout is unusual (okay, seriously
weird) for the seventies but it works. Though hardly the
most nimble of devices, it handles okay if you're
assertive at the tiller and is surprisingly quick (for
its day) in a straight line. Forget the famous 'Lead
Wing' tag, despite the weight it is/was a quick piece of
machinery for the period.
See our
previous first-model Gold Wing
Here's a little aside: All three machines are running
old-style points ignition and I have no desire to change
that. Points are pretty good to work with once you get
your head around them, particularly if you're riding for
fun instead of relying on or hammering them for
day-to-day transport.
There have been times when I've threatened to offload
all the seventies machines because they're more
demanding of my time than much of the later gear. But
then you eyeball one of them, take it for a spin, and
all is forgiven.
Our other seventies bikes:
More Travels with Guido columns
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