Hi all, I'm a newbie, my name is Mick Taylor, I live in Ivychurch, Kent, in the UK.
I've had an interest in vintage Japanese bikes for the best part of 30 years, all sorts of bikes, all Japanese, currently including three Suzuki GT750 kettles, an RE5 rotary, a Kawasaki Z1, Yamaha XS2 and an early '72 Honda CB750K2 (1,300m from new)
It is my latest acquisition that sparked my request to join this forum though, a bike I have wanted for a long while and I finally got to buy it. The bike is a CB750, chassis number 1010369. Not a sandcast, but an interesting bike all the same; those into numbers wouldn't take too long to confirm that this chassis number belongs to the first CB750 off the production line destined for sale in the UK. That makes it the first UK Japanese four cylinder bike, first disc braked etc etc, a little piece of motorcycling history in it's own right, manufactured 22nd October 1969 and sold in the UK in January 1970.
OK, it's not a sandcast!.....no, but I really needed to join this forum; I love the depth and breadth of knowledge that surfaces here, and I have to say, this forum is something special, there is so much discussion around seemingly microscopic detail that simply can't be found anywhere else and that is priceless.
My K0 is not a sandcast, but with the exception of the engine casings it has way more similarities to the sandcast bikes than to anything else in the CB750 range; so much of the detail on your bikes is pertinent to mine....and if it isn't then I need to learn and there is no better place to do that.
I took the K0 out for a first spin a couple of days back, it's a hoot, I can't remember the last time I found a bike quite so unexpectedly exciting.......so different to the rather anodyne Z1 which I think is living on borrowed time in my garage......I would quite happily dispense with that and hunt down a sandcast.....probably will.
Before the K0 the two best rides in my garage were the RE5 rotary (yes really) and the CB750K2, but they both moved down one notch now.
Mick..............kettle738
