T-ed - Honda CB750 F2X (2000)

After the success of EDie and the partial disappointment of Bedpan it was a while before, I, Dr Tigger took up the mantle of lone Resus Officer on a third ED Riders Resus project. Because of changing jobs and a lot of unused annual leave I had some time so I decided to tackle Ted (T-third, ED-EDriders, Ted obviously!) after finding him on eBay for sale for £1100 by a lovely bloke who could no longer ride because of a wrist injury. 

The making of one into many:

I was determined to be slowly slowly catchy monkey and really take my time with this project, photographing and labelling everything meticulously so after the first 2 days we were here...

But I discovered a beautiful triangular hole and decided to run with it! I had intended to keep the side panels to hide sparky stuff but on seeing the open frame I just had to try to keep it. As you can see I didn't go careful or photograph much which is likely to make reassembly more of a challenge especially because by then I won't remember any details of taking him apart thanks to my TBI (traumatic brain injury).

So I carried on regardless having a delightful spanner time disassembling Ted and putting all his bits in Tesco food bags until I ran out of bolts. As I'd decided to get his big bits powder coated everything needed to come apart so that would mean a lot of new bearings!

The making of many into one:

Previously Big Mac & I had tried to do everything ourselves but for this project, aiming for a better quality finish (no offence Big Mac), I decided to farm stuff out that I'm no good at or not very experienced with.

To this end I posted the forks to A.M. Philpot (Hard Chrome) ltd for rebuilding with new progressive springs, slider grinding and rechoming and bottom powder coating. The carbs went for refurbishment to Exeter engineering and the brake calipers went to Ragged Moto for refurb and ceramic coating. I also ordered Ohlins rear suspension from the Italy, a new full exhaust system called 'the smooth criminal' from Mad Exhausts in the Netherlands and a Paul Smart Ducati 1000 style fairing from MotoForza in the Czech Republic. 

I decided to start with Ted's swingarm as I'd done a reasonable job on Bedpan's previously adding a hugger. I'd wanted to mount the number plate on the swing arm then but I'd bottled it. I'd also need a hugger this time as the open frame triangle would mean the rear wheel throwing shite directly at the carb intakes. No-one makes a hugger for a CB750 so I got a second hand one off eBay from a CB900 Hornet and 'made' it fit.

Now before you see these pics I need to explain I'm a GP, not a welder. I'd bought a MIG welder recently and tried to teach myself how to weld so, understandably, my welding is terrible and worse than that at the start of the build. When we tried to weld Bedpan the exhaust mounts fell off on the first test run!

Next job seemed to be to chop the back and add a hoop. I was delighted to find a bloke on eBay who makes his own hoops with removable LED lights. This was welded on using an inner tube with plug welds and random metal spatter. I also welded on an undertray without giving enough though to if the electrics would fit. 

It was at this point I came up with the acronym FBF, 'Fugly But Functional'. This is the best my welding gets and, for now and this project, will have to do.

I've found one of the hardest things to get right given the nebulous look idea I think I'm going for is the seat. With EDie we again bottled our original idea of modifying the original seat to preserve the comfort for the easy option of a bought one. I started this way again with T-ed with a GRP seat base which looked OK but later on didn't really match the hoop curve and was never going to be long ride comfortable so I dug out my never used drunk Facebook ad purchase of a plastic wleding gun and went to town on the original seat. At this point the plan was to replicate a seat hump but in discussion with my future upholsterist we agreed this idea was stupid. I am, though, quite chuffed with my seat base mods and as you can see R.K. Leighton did a good job making and fitting a new cover to bring it all together. I basically cut a huge crescent out of the base and used the old sides to form the new back holding these together with a pop riveted metal plate. I made a new latch and bolted this in along with a few extra mounts to take my colossal bulk.

At last some of my refurbed bits and foreign goodies started to arrive but I completely forgot about Brexit and got royally butt humped with inport taxes and charges. Ooops.

So with various stuff and things arriving from all over Europe I started to roughly put parts in place to help start planning how I was ever going to make all the new and modified bits fits together. Yes there was no detail in any of my plans upto and include this stage and yes that is a cowling sitting on a head light sitting on packaging sitting on a child's booster care seat sitting on a caravan water bottle sitting on a box of medical school notes.

Next I welded a steel plate on the headstock to mount the new front sub-frame to and made a wooden wiring loom table to help me plan things out. I can't recall much of what happened next but a lot of wire was liberated and I looked chuffed enough with myself. After this I put T-ed in the back of the wife's horsebox and moved house. If you are thinking the headstock weld is a bit 'Pete Tong' you might be right; ready on.

Having moved house not a lot happened for about 4 months over the winter. Ted's front wheel got mounted in the bike lift and that was about it. It was not a winter for biking although I did still get 3 points on Babs (Ducati Multistrada 1200 pictured below) in the snow taking her to Worcester for a service and MOT. My stupidity never ceases to surprise and frustrate me let alone the, so far, unending mystery of my continuing existence.

The only way to get me going again was to wait for spring and get my muse, the great Shista of Stamford, the Big Mac himself down to give me a push in the right direction. Over the course of a weekend we made a rolling chassis and dropped it over the freshly painted engine that I had already ruined the paint work of in the move. Gently laying the rolling chassis down over the engine positioned on its side on the grass was definitely the right way to do it; if I had recalled removing the engine in the first place and the need to remove the sump. As it was we got the engine in and mounted with only a moderate amount of seriously upsetting scratching of the freshly powder coated frame and painted engine cooling fins. The invention and use of a dark ages sex swing was just a bonus although Rory wasn't amused.

Just before heading home Big Mac suggested turning T-ed over on the starter motor, 'Just a 5 min job' he said.....

Anyway with this pretty great start to the rebuild despite the damage to various bits of pristine paint Big Mac departed and left me to my own devices. Yes my heart sinks at the thought too; I know what happens next!

I did a bit in the middle, fitting the carbs and air filters, a bit at the front, fitting the light & clocks and a bit at the back, puttin the new hugger and plate mount/plate on. I was able to get a replacement VIN plate and put the original under the seat.

Bit by bit more and more parts got added including the wiring loom which didn't reveal its dark secrets initially.

The Dutch 'MAD' exhausts came back from ceramic coating and looked awesome. Again a few scratches during install but nothing too terrible. Getting the picture that I'm a ham fisted nincompoop yet? Who knew that you can't seem to buy black exhaust paint?

After this time I had to finally accept that the K&N air filters I had bought, reportedly suitble to this very model of bike according to K&N, did not fit because they overlapped by 1-2mm. Fortunately the much cheaper DNA ones did. I'd also chosen to loose the crank case and rocker cover breather tubes and unit and replaced with diddy little air filters. T-ed now had 6 air filters!

Alas I subsequently discovered the cheaper ait- filters bleach in the sun but hey-ho!

By this point I had become painfully aware that something was wrong electrically and I was at a loss how to figure it out on my own. Intermittent electrical faults, the devil's curse of automotive tinkering! So I test fitted a few body parts and called Big Mac for help. Any excuse for a Lisa and Rory cuddles.

So Uncle Rob turned up and together the electrical fault led us up the garden path for several ours until we finally tracked down a fault in a wire that we didn't know why it was there so we disconnected it and BOOM, the fault was gone. Alas my almost finished bike turned into this in the process.....

So for a glorius afternoon everything was awesome. Sucess bred excitement bred hope.

Yes all going well. Too well. We moved Ted back into the barn, Big Mac pushing the front with his gut and ping-boink, the front subframe mount weld partially cracked. My welding was crapper then than its crapness today clearly. Thank heavens this happened then and not when all finished and out and about. On inspection I could see where the weld wasn't good enough and I re-welded it and braced it using my new MIG welder with good results. I then went and checked every other weld to my satisfaction. New welder, new wire and more experience has made me a much better welder compared to the project start; even if i'm still very much in the FBF 'Fugly But Functional' category. After this Ted just needs to few little snaggy jobs done and a bloody good cleaning.

Now all we needed was to wait a week or so for an MOT booking and a sunny day for some 'end of build' photos. I'd never been so nervous about an MOT before so when the day came it was a relief. T-ed started and sounded good despite being caught in storm the day before soaking him and still having his little carb coughs at tick-over. We shot off the wrong way for the MOT test centre but had a nice 25mile run apart from discovering how horrible his fuelling was. About 15degree of throttle turn was all I could manage without him drowning and losing all power. Despite this we got there in time and just manged to notch up 60mph downhill. The terrible Herefordshire roads tested the welding thoroughly with concern and he handled well but the Ohlins rear suspension is set up a bit too firmly. The front progressive springs made braking much smoother and the the brakes themselves pulled really well. And...... Well...... HE PASSED without a single advisory!!!!

So now I needed to find an expert carb tuner as close as possible. I feared it was a bigger issue than just balancing; ?over-jetted? What do I know? Not a lot about carbs that's for sure but changing intake and exhaust has gotta need some tweaking.