1961 CB72 Project

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:12 am

Graham, what did you do to your thumb?

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:31 am

Sara

I was off to a meeting recently and during a brief OCD phase had to come back to the house twice to pick up my phone and my laptop....

On the second time I managed to shut my own thumb in the car door..... Ouch!!

I'll try not to do that again!

G

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:23 am

Just to show the power of the Honda305 Forum I was introduced to Ray Weissbrot at this years Classic and Motorcycle Mechanics show. Ray is the owner of the first Honda CB72 to arrive in England.

The bike was registered by Honda Dealer George Leigh in April 1961 and, fitted with a Peel fairing, was entered in the 1961 250cc TT at the Isle of Man. The rider was Fred Stevens, a mechanic at Leigh's shop.

The little Honda was the first ever electric-start bike to compete in the TT and Fred brought it home in 13th position in a field of genuine race bikes including 4-cylinder Honda GP bikes.

Honda used pictures of the bike in their advertising after it had been campaigned by Leigh and Stevens to win the 250cc class of the Silverstone 1000km race in 1962. You can see from the pictures that the bike was running the SLS brake which must have made racing agains those genuine race bikes a little tricky.

Ray bought the bike in 1967, sold it then bought it back again in 1984. It has taken part in Honda's 50th anniversary at the TT in 1998.

An amazing bike with an amazing story. Thanks for sharing the information, Ray!

G

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:45 am

I found some +0.25 "010" pistons at Harpers of Cowley near Oxford and they only had three left. It's a good job that I bought all three as one of them was a later "030" lower compression version.

G

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Sun Nov 09, 2014 6:32 pm

Not much physical progress on the project as I have been in the US on business. I did pick up a few parts from my friends house this afternoon.

First was the 10mm plug head from LM. This is in really nice shape and will just need a little bit of work before I assemble it with a set of good valves and camshaft.

Also one of those early 6 "petal" steering damper springs turned up at Ohio Cycle with a matching nut which is much smaller than the later ones.

I'm hoping to get a bit of assembly done when I get home but have one or two more work trips in the offing so we'll have to see.

G

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Sun Nov 09, 2014 10:05 pm

That head does look nice!!! LM is gold mine, I luv him!

smccrory · Post by **smccrory** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 11:05 am

Someone appears to be damned good at media blasting old parts - that head looks great!