A friend and his wife recently let me know he had a project bike for a chopper build. Unfortunately he won't be riding anymore, as I met them after he was in a very bad motorcycle wreck. He is being medically retired from the Marines and didn't want to move the bike back across the country and offered it to me. Not wanting to take advantage of his misfortune, I offered to trade for it instead of just picking it up. Saturday I took a Fender 12-string guitar and one of my custom cigar box guitars to their house and picked up the bike parts he had. He threw in some Harley take-off parts, mainly some pipes and heat guards, but I left the quick release parts for Harleys as they could sell those quickly.
What he had was a torn down Honda CB750. While many of the smaller parts were left at their long-term home by the military movers, the main parts are all there. Tight 1976 single overhead cam engine, frame, front forks with wheel and tire, rear tire and sprocket and a few other pieces! Since the rear swingarm and shock weren't included, the first order of business will be either replacing that or getting a weld on hardtail to make it a "roller".
So the bottom line is I own a cruiser again after a month or so of not having one but it's in parts in my storage shed. The plan is to finish restoring the 1994 Connie while riding Miss Swail, my 1986 Connie while planning what the first version of the CB 750 will be and accumulating parts. Next winter I'll assemble the chopper at least to a street legal and running bike, then sort out what to make it into. Initially I'm planning on my standard black rattle can paint job, wrapped pipes and no frills.
I'm guessing it will cost me about another $1000 to get to that point, meaning I'll still be under $1500 since the 12-string was a Craigslist find and the cigar box guitar was probably only $50 in parts or less to make.
Let's get choppin'!
