Food for thought.
Mr. HONDA had a want to be #1 with the MC market and used the best engineers and design ideas to get there.
Lets say you were there and to your pleasure the bikes you offered at first were VERY Successful and sales were good. As good as expected and even better. All classes.
Just using a number. Order parts "RFP" for 2000 CB72 bikes.
As we know when they got to the world market they Sold Quickly!
Question now is "knowing the CB77 was on the way" how many bikes to order parts for including for the new CB77 bikes.
I assure you that HONDA sent "RFP" quotes to several companies knowing they will expect a lower price but the same quality parts.
How many this time???????????
HONDA did have MANY different bikes on the market but some didn't sell near the numbers at the time the C/CB/CL bikes were selling.
A run from 1961 to 1967 for the design was I feel sure pleased MR. HONDA.
As for the carbs I'd say you are correct and the carbs for that should be "OVAL" (per HONDA) bowl and be Power Jet type.
To say the Square bowl carb wasn't around in 1962 is to ignore the CL72 carb which was Square Bowl but not Power Jet.
The brake shoes for the CB77 have 3 issues. 000/010/020 so they were ordered more thqn one time as were many other parts. ...............................lm
DJM wrote:I've never owned a really early bike either back then or now so can't comment from personal experience.
However, we all know and accept that most electrical components, starter motors, alternators, points, switchgear etc. came from at least two manufacturers at the same period. Parts from either manufacturer can be found on seemingly identical bikes and there was no reason to detail the changes in the parts books as both parts were completely interchangeable.
Who's to say that the same thing didn't happen with brakes, fenders and maybe other parts too?
In general it seems that changes to part numbers only happened when the part in question needed to be changed in combination with one or more other parts, if a single part could be substituted in isolation there would be no need to change the part number.
Biggest enigma I've come across to date is on a CB72 owned by a guy I met a couple of years ago. It is a '61 or 62 model supplied by a local dealer and the guy has owned it from new. The carbs fitted (which the guy is adamant are the originals) are the flat side versions which all common wisdom says didn't come in until at least two years later, and they aren't even mentioned in my 1963 Parts Book, truly every day is a school day.