1974 Honda CB750 Four K4
Mechanical Service with some Cosmetics
Owner & Writer: Randy Creel, Jr., Owner & Restorer of Randy's Cycle Service & Restoration
Revitalize the Spirit & Beauty of your Classic Bike
Located in beautiful Central Virginia since 2001
8175 Black Walnut Run Road, Rhoadesville, VA 22542 USA
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COMMENTS: This page is an ongoing write-up of Randy's mechanical & cosmetic service to the bike he'll personally be riding starting the spring/summer 2010. Write ups - some technical some personal - will be posted along with pictures & a video of the progress. Notifications of new entries will appear on Facebook, so please join us on Facebook by clicking on the icon above.
Blog Entry 18: Posted March 24, 2011
Winter has been long here, for this far South and this late in the year. We’re looking at 40 degrees and a chance of snow showers in a couple days
as I write this near the end of March. To be fair, we have gotten a couple of
60-70 degree days as teasers, and while we didn’t get as much snow this year
as last, we still managed to turn 6 cords of firewood into about 3 small piles of
ashes due to the really cold temperatures. The roads have been slathered
with salt from the various ice/light snow storms this winter, and the very cold
temperatures took their toll on the asphalt.
Still with all this I am looking forward to another riding season and getting the Honda back on the road for more than a quick jaunt up the drive, or
around the block. Just a few days ago, the temps nudged near 75 degrees
and I pulled out my CB, and Ursulina’s 1987 Kawasaki 454 LTD to give them a
once over and first “official” ride of the season.
This past Fall, I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment, given that I figured with the early cold snap and my intolerance for freezing just to ride
that we wouldn’t be doing much more regular riding for the Winter. The
addition of Ethanol to gasoline has been a huge problem for us these days in
the vintage bike world. It doesn’t keep in storage situations, it isn’t kind to
painted surfaces, and it doesn’t perform as well as fuel used to. The folks who
use it in fiberglass tanked bikes are learning very quickly that it is very
destructive to the tanks and the rest of the fuel system too. So what to do?
It used to be that adding some stabilizer would keep the fuel from dying and
assure that the fuel system would be OK next season. Not so with E10, which
is 10% ethanol (Soon to be E15). Now you must use an ethanol specific fuel
stabilizer and Sta-bil and Star-Tron are two which come to mind. It has to say
that its compatible with ethanol to truly be effective. To see which one was
the preferred brand I decided that at the time of storage, I’d add Sta-Bil to
my bike and Star-Tron to Ursulina’s. Both bikes are carbureted, both are
electronic ignition equipped, and both would be parked approximately the
same length of time in an unheated, but closed garage. The fuel tanks were
both filled full and both bikes would be started on a regular basis even if not
ridden. Battery Tenders were installed and connected as well. Here is what I
found from my very informal experiment:
I filled both bikes on the same day at a local gas station with Mid-grade
unleaded, and then added the stabilizer and rode them both around 2-3 miles
to assure that the stabilizer reached the carburetors. Next, I simply rode into
the garage, turned off the fuel taps, parked the bikes on the centerstand,
connected the Battery Tenders, and walked away. The next time I went to
start them about a month and half later, I found that the Star-Tron equipped
Kawasaki started a little quicker and easier than my Sta-Bil laced CB 750.
Even more interesting was the fact that the Kawasaki usually takes a bit
longer to start anyway, given that it has a vacuum operated petcock with no
“Prime” setting. This same thing happened the next time I started the bikes.
And again the third time. Hardly a scientific controlled experiment, but nonetheless it seems to show there is some difference. To be fair, the Sta-Bil worked fine in terms of keeping the fuel from going bad and preventing my 750 from running at all as non-stabilized fuel will do, but quicker starts sound like a good thing to me, with less wear and tear on batteries and starter motors. With that, I think my personal choice from here on out will be to use the Star-Tron. I must add that the same gas that I filled both bikes with in November was still there when I went for my ride the other day.
Once the temps rose to a nice 70+ (yes, I am a bit soft that way) I pulled out both bikes, and decided to have a once-over, then a wash and ride. Both bikes got the tire pressures checked and I then discovered that both were low by nearly 10 pounds each from sitting over the Winter. Oil levels were OK, chain on the CB, belt on the Kawasaki was tight, and all the lights and controls functioned as normal. Off I went. Ursulina’s bike rode well and felt good and after a good 20 miles or so I stopped at the station to top off the tank. It was there I noticed that the bike didn’t want to roll as easily as usual and I smelled a faint hot smell coming from the front. Seems that sitting over the winter in the garage had caused the front brake to stay slightly applied. I need to dig into that and see what is going on, as it was functioning fine when it was put up for the season. Otherwise the ride went smoothly and no issues to report. The 750 also did well and got a good round trip of around 40 miles to makes sure all is up to snuff and ready for this year’s riding season. It seems to have stored well and was registering around 5,000 miles on the clock when all was said and done last season. The fuel with the Sta-Bil Marine Ethanol formula did its job and the bike performed the same as last year with last years’ gas in it. Overall, I am satisfied but I do think that next winter, I will be parking them both in the climate controlled shop for storage, just to see how that works out. It might have prevented the brake issue on the Kawasaki and the slightly harder starting of the 750 might be less of a problem if the temperature and humidity is stable.On another note relating to this ride: For everyone who is just pulling the bikes out and heading out onto the road for the first time of the season, please be careful! The roads are not in the condition I left them in last fall. Between the amount of salt/sand deposited on them and the freeze thaw cycles, there are some pretty poor conditions in some places. Intersections have some fairly large accumulations of loose sand and gravel, the edges of the roads are cracked and crumbling and the potholes in some places are just downright dangerous. The crews have been out repairing them as the weather permits so it is getting better, but keep a close eye out and ride carefully until you relearn this years’ routes.As for the nuts and bolts of this: All of the mods for the 750 I had planned as winter projects are still definitely in the works, just a little delayed as it was a busy winter in the shop and some other projects took precedence. By the next writing (which won’t be so long either!) I should have the ceramic coated exhaust installed. Its on its way to the coaters now, and should be ready in a couple of weeks to install eliminating the flaking paint problem. I also will be doing the dual disc front conversion at the same time and documenting the whole process with photos. The parts are all under my bench just waiting for me to get my bike on the lift and start installing them. I’ll keep everyone informed! Next Update: winter riding & winter projects
Photo taken August 2010
