I bought my CB 77 about 30 years ago and started a slow restoration starting with a bare frame and adding new parts along the way.
5 years ago, the bike was considered as finished except that a lot of smoke came out of one exhaust pipe...
After pulling the engine apart, I discovered that one piston was dead!
I was lucky to find a NOS piston block that was fitted with new OEM pistons.
Things became more complicated when I dropped the closing link of the OVH camshaft chain.
Not to worry, I pulled the oil pump out from underneath to recover the missing link.
As it had been there for 40 years or so, I slighly damaged the base plate of the oil pump when removing it.
The base beeing damaged, it had to be replaced and I went for a Cappellini pump.
Not cheap but available!
After getting the engine back in place, it idled fine but there was little power?
Suspecting the carbs, I noticed one of the float needles was in poor condition so I decided to change it and at the same time the float set and the bottom gasket.
As I was putting everything together, I noticed that both of my floats were set at 26.5 mm while the CB 77 manual states 22.5 mm?
Luckily in one of the posts on the site it was explained that the larger measure is for the CB 72.
That fixed I put the carbs back in place.
In the meantime, I also purchased a Lithium Ion Battery.
Far cheaper than a new kick start lever and the corresponding pinion!
Time to go for a ride.
I'll skip the start procedure that a fouled spark plug delayed a little.
Luckily, I remembered that my original CB 72 would foul the plugs rather easily if too much choke was applied...
Here are the riding impressions:
The clutch is quite heavy compared to more modern machinery.
There is a big gap between the second and third gear.
The rear shock absorbers have no compression damping at all.
A feature that Cycle World acclaimed in those days???
Beyond these small nuisances the charm appears quickly.
The engine revs smoothly to 6000 rpm ( my breaking in limit) the brakes are plenty powerfull and the bike seems on rails.
Amazingly, both the rev counter and speedometer work perfectly.
All in all a very pleasant surprise