Rev 1.0 |Pic 1 | July 7, 1976. My 17th birthday and the day I bought it. The sissy bar got tossed later that day and the high bars were replaced with Superbike Bars a couple of days later. Please disregard the doofus on the bike. I mean, give me a break, it was 1976...

Rev 2.0 |Pic 1 | Winter '77/'78 rework. Mainly cosmetic, I added custom Imron paint, a Tracey front fender, Rickman clubman bars, and a Dunstall 1/2 fairing, all color-matched in black and 3 shades of candy red and outlined in hand painted pinstripes. The paint scheme is a little dated, but it still looks pretty sweet 26 or so years later. Notice also the special order Dunlop K91 redline tires. I don't remember exact;y why I had to have them, but I just did.

Rev 2.2 |Pic 1 | Summer '79. The pic was taken on Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway where I spent a few days sport touring on the hotrod 750 on the way to Virginia Beach and North Carolina's Outer Banks. Before the trip I was hooked up with a used Pacifico full fairing by Charlie Scholeno, one of the owners of the Honda/Kawasaki/Triumph dealership where I worked while going to school. Charlie was (and likely still is) a role model for any number of young motorhead miscreants (myself included) who worked at or just hung around the shop. He had a bunch of cool stuff, including a cherry Ford Pantera, a basement full of restored factory race bikes and remote control airplanes, and a big house in the country. Oh yeah, did I mention he was a partner in a moto shop? Did I also mention the Pantera had it's own climate-controlled house? Jeeesh, talk about knowing how to live..

I mention this because whenever somebody gives unmitigated crap about my excessive "recreational vehicle" collection (six motos, seven or eight mountain bikes, 9 sailboards... and counting) I usually just laugh and tell them that since I didn't have any furniture, I had to fill the house up somehow. I think it's perfectly normal to have a bike for every occasion, but deep in the back of my mind I realize I'm not right. I also know who's really responsible for it....

By the way, Charlie. thanks. I mean that. You saved me from a life of Martha Stewart Living.

Sorry, I digress... Back to Rev 2.2: Why hang a big touring fairing on a cafe racer? Well, it's not hard to imagine that after a couple of hours the clubman bars made saddle time pretty unbearable. I wanted comfort, dammmit, and a way to look respectable to the interstate cops. The Pacifico was just the ticket. It only took a couple of hours to swap fairings and toss on the Superbike bars, but it was well worth it for 500+ mile days. The big bore motor made plenty of power for high speed touring, and actually got better mileage than stock. It was and remains reliable as a brick. Not bad for something built in 1969.

Rev 3.0 |Pic 1 | Summer '79 rework. Carlson talked (shamed, actually) me into buying his extra Rickman 3/4 fairing and ordering a solo seat from Racer's Supply. By this time I had another CB750, this one a cherry '72 CB750K2 that was essentially stock and was doing commuter/girlfriend transport duty. This revision got me me fully into full race repica lust and the planning of Rev 4.0 was set into motion.

Rev 4.0 |Pic 1 | Winter '80/'81 rework. The bike got it's usual full winter teardown and rebuild, but this particular winter I went a little farther. A little insane, actually. The bike got stripped to the bare frame, everything got painted, polished, or drilled out. I added a Termignoni hand bent pipe, dual drilled front disc, Crucietta tank and tail, DID gold anodized rims with Michelin S41 rain tires, Racer's Supply Dunstall rearsets, and a bunch of custom bits that escape me right now. It now looked as good as it ran.

My other 750 got a major update at the same time. 811cc big bore kit, cam, hand-me-down Kerker, black & candy red bodywork, rearsets, a new quarter fairing, and other assorted bits & pieces. It was still my commuter, but with big upgrades & enough juice to get me nailed at 111MPH in a 45 on the road next to my college apartment complex. I didn't even see the cop until he pulled into the parking lot of the Courtney Arms Apartments and Refrigerator BioTerrorism Research Center and parked right behind me. He actually let me off with a warning, accompanied by 20 minute lecture. I was pretty damn happy, but couldn't believe I didn't get slammed with a very ugly ticket. I mean, cops generally take a very dim view of running 66MPH over the speed limit. I wrote it off to dumb luck. A year later after switching dealerships and working in the local Suzuki dealership's service dept, I finally understood how and why my license survived that day when Officer Orso rolled up on a breathed-on GS1000.

Rev 4.5 |Pic 1 | Pic 2 | Summer '83 mods. Stopping better became a priority as I got into my mid twenties and decided that maybe that teenage bulletproof aura I'd been dragging around with me wasn't going to last forever. I added another disc up front, and personally drilled 108 holes in each rotor with a crappy "add-a-drill" drill press that consisted of a flexy Chinese steel frame and a 3/8" Black and Decker hand drill. Let's just say I went through as many drill bits as I did Molson Goldens cutting through that 1/4" stainless steel. I never, never want to do that again.

Rev 5.0 |Pic 1 | Pic 2 | Pic 3| Pic 4 Fall '04 rework in process. I've been hanging onto this bike (not ridden since '87), and although I've made a couple of half-assed attempts at getting it rolling again, I've just never been into it the way I used to be. I found it pretty strange that the old red ride just couldn't get me motivated, particularly when I consider how much time I spent riding and wrenching on this beast back in the day. More than one old girlfriend accused me of preferring the bike to her. Of course, in most cases she was right on point, but that's another discussion entirely. My lack of motivation came down to the fact that although she still looked pretty good, she handled like crap and barely stopped, my dual disc mod notwithstanding. I needed to make some major changes if I was going to ride this thing again and enjoy myself, so Rev 5.0 went into motion. I added a complete CBR600F3 front end off an FT500 AFM race bike that has had the full Race Tech internal mods done. The 41mm forks are worlds stiffer than the stockers, and the F3 brakes w/ EBC pads and Goodrich braided steel lines add some serious whoa! The 17" front wheel allowed me run modern sportbike rubber and forget about the hassle of searching for a decent 19" front tire. At the rear I found the F3 rear wheel slipped right into the stock swingarm, and gave me the added benefits of modern rubber and a rear disc brake. I still have some minor spacing issues to work out and need to build a mount and linkage for the rear master cylinder, but overall the swap is pretty straightforward. There are still a few cosmetic issues that need to be addressed. The front fender needs paint. The wheels need to be stripped and powdercoated (I'm leaning towards gold or black), and the whole bike could really use a paint job, but them's just details.

Oh yeah, she still fires right up and the Termignoni just screams, and that's a good thing.