Ryan Winterfield's 1981 Honda CB750

In Ryan's Words:

In July 2014, I came across a beat-up 1981 CB750 that was in need of some major repair. Although surprisingly the bike did start, every other part on it was heavily rusted and it was essentially falling apart. I decided to make this bike my personal garage project. From the start, my vision was to give this bike a more vintage style than the original 80’s look. This proved to be a very long, but extremely rewarding process.

The necessary first step with a bike in this state of disrepair was to fully strip it down to its frame and clean it up. There wasn’t a single part or bolt that was not removed from this bike including the engine and its inner components. Many pieces I scrubbed by hand with water and a wire brush. However, for the painted parts, elbow grease wouldn’t cut it.  For these, I purchased an inexpensive small sand blasting cabinet. This proved invaluable for giving these chipped and faded components a fresh look. Once properly cleaned, I set up a rough spray paint booth in my garage and gave the parts a new coat of paint.  

Not only did I re-work the entire frame and tank, I also completely rebuilt the engine. I really wanted to do a Honda DOHC instead of an SOHC as it seems to be not as popular. The motor, which was seriously tired and worn-out at 100,000 km, was bored out to 823cc and then topped off with 110 Web Cams and stainless steel valves.  Wiring... have no fear Motogadget is here! This is where Revival really helped me with the products and support on what can seem to be a daunting task. The Motogadget m-Unit brain is Albert Einstein in a little box. This device proved to be invaluable for the wiring process. You can see how easy it makes things in the Tech Talk Videos section on Revival's web site.  Although there were many other tasks involved in this year-long project, I will move on now to some of the design details that evolved as the bike took shape. In the end, I was able to achieve the look I had envisioned with the redesign of the seat and tank, with rim modifications, etc.  This required the artistic support of some crazy talented people in the industry including:

Ginger McCabe of New Church Moto (Seat)
Bevin Finlay of Bevan Finlay Artistry & Design (Tank)
Jerry Swanson of Moto Synthesis (Rim Modification)
Mike & Cody of Steel Dragon Performance (Air Box)
Brian of Ultimate Cycles (Tech Support)
Revival Cycles (Parts and Support: mirrors, grips, lighting and electrical components)

Other than a few parts that required special equipment to be refinished, all of the work was done at my own “shop” (home garage).  This meant that a lot of improvisation had to occur to create the parts I had envisioned in my head. I am extremely happy with the end result. I don’t necessarily feel that the bike is ground-breaking in design, however, some of the subtle finishes and details give it the retro look I was hoping to achieve.  

One thing I learned from this build project is that there are tons of passionate and knowledgeable bike enthusiasts out there that are always willing to share their knowledge if you hit a roadblock or if you just need some ideas to keep your build going. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos of this bike (Mad Goose) as much as I will enjoy riding it.

Motorcycle Build Parts:

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