Time to Fire Up The Superhawk

Smithers · Post by **Smithers** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:43 am

The last time I can remember riding this motorcycle was back in 1993 when I was in high school. I rode it a few times and then did a light restoration on it which involved just stripping down the black (which was worn and old looking) and painting it blue and silver just like I had always seen in pictures but never in person. I admit that the blue doesn't match the Honda blue exactly but only a collector would care. Everyone loves the way it looks. The thing that put it in storage was the fact that the starter clutch had broken and there is no way to repair it besides replacing the part. That really wasn't an option back then since parts were so hard to find and there wasn't any information about that stuff on the internet back then. I had a million other things to do and I was working on all sorts of cars and motorcycles so I put the ol Honda CB72 under a cover.

One big mistake I made was taking off the kick starter. The shape of the cb72 kick starter is very strange. To use it you have to flip it out and kick it forward! It's the weirdest thing and a big pain in the ass. The electric start worked fine until the little clutch broke. The kickstarter shaft splines were in bad shape and I didn't want to damage them anymore so I never bothered to put the kicker back on. Now I can't find it. I'm pretty sad but I'm sure it will turn up one day when I move some old boxes around.

Fast forward to the present. I want to ride this thing now. I'm sure glad I removed the fuel from the bike way back then! The tank is in great shape and I just took the fuel bowls off to check them. Well as I removed the bowls the gaskets instantly turned to dust and I had to order some new ones. I just got them in the mail yesterday.

Now I need to make sure the fuel petcock has a good seal and replace the fuel lines as well. I have two good batteries for the Honda CA95 and the 160 so I might be able to use one of those for now just to start it. I know the battery exchange guy in town can order one for the CB and have it here in 2-3 days so I'll probably be talking to him soon. For today I plan on taking care of the fuel delivery system and maybe firing her up.

Smithers · Post by **Smithers** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:54 pm

Alright! Now we're making progress. I JUST finished up repairing and servicing the starter motor. I plan on riding this bike a lot (more on the plans for my road trip soon&#33

so I'm making double sure that I do a good job so I don't get stranded anywhere.

So I put in the new bowl gaskets as shown in the above picture. I made sure to adjust the bowl retaining spring so they are nice and tight. If yours are loose just remove them and give em a little bend back into shape. Being how they are nearly 50 years old they might need a little tune up.

I'm assuming the float levels are correct but I'll be checking them soon. It will just take a couple more days to get around to those boring details but I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate seeing how they should be checked.

It feels great to know that the fuel system has been serviced up and is holding fuel without one drip of a leak. The fuel petcock is also a winner. Rebuilding the CA95 petcock was a nightmare so I was going to cry if this one started leaking as well. Although fuel doesn't flow through it too quickly... hmmm I should probably check the fuel screen inside it just to be sure. Here are the new fuel lines. They are 3/16" Motion Pro brand black fuel line and the florescent line is another brand that I found at my local lawn mower shop. It is smaller than the other fuel lines and obviously is the overflow for the carburetor bowls.