Steering head bearings

[MBellRacing]

Well the bike was re-VINned so the number is the long type, as would be appropriate for a 1963 bike.

[e3steve]

Ah, physically re-VINned; gottit. In that case, just the seat mounts. What's your engine number? '61 motors had a breather 'tower' on the top/rear of the upper crankcase. '62> had the breather removed to the cyl head top plate.

I have some printed matter VJMC data; I'll dig it out.

[e3steve]

Various items could have been changed, but the frame, if unmodified, remains the same.

'61 model year ('62> in parenthesis)

• Footpeg brackets thinner -- about 8mm-thick cast alloy with +/-10mm edge
  (10mm-thick with +/-12mm edge)
  
  Instrument cluster shows no manufacturer
  ('Nippon Seiki' printed at the bottom of the face)
  
  Top steering yoke had a hoop for mounting the instrument cluster
  (Mounted in the h/lamp bucket with two M4 screws)
  
  Small taillight
  (Stanley D-2R used, except Canada)
  
  Black control cables -- but not all markets(?)
  (Changed to grey)
  
  SLS front brake -- changed during '61 production(?)
  (TLS)

Other items are motor related.

Here's an image of a genuine, restored '61 CB72:

[MBellRacing]

Man that's a sexy bike.......

Now that I look closer, I don't think I have the rear frame seat mounting bit as you described. When I talked to my neighbor, he seemed to have a brain fart about it. Maybe I DO have a '63? The world may never know..............

Thanks for your help, you are just filled to the brim with useful knowledge!

Here is my frame:



You can see the rear seat mountings. The thing that really threw my neighbor off was that the VIN is slightly askew. He said it was extremely rare for this to happen from the factory and that most of them that were like this were stolen and re-stamped. He also mentioned something about my headlight bucket, but then moved on... oh well!!!

Here's my old speedo:

Looks like it says Nippon Series in the bottom. Isn't that the Japanese word for Japan? Where would it say Denso? Ignore the 3 lights that the previous owner installed... weirdo.

[e3steve]

Hey, no worries; all knowledge is shareable, and lots of it is thanks to our Ed Moore (LOUD MOUSE).

I'll post pics of my '61 and '65 frames' aft seat mounting slots later this week for comparison.

Sorry, I meant 'Nippon Seiki', not 'Denso' (that's me!).

Corrected.

[e3steve]

Just seen your pics; your frame has the seat slot lugs welded over the tube ends, so it's '62>.

Frame numbers aren't always absolutely parallel to the steering head's axis! And I fail to see why a stolen-recovered would have its identity changed!! Unless it got changed by the scallywags, in which case I would have thought it would be scrapped as it would always be a falsehood.

If it was given an already-issued VIN then that would be a clone (in UK known as a 'ringer' [as in 'dead-ringer']) and would be seized by the authorities.

[MBellRacing]

Well I'm not sure what the neighbor said is true or not. All he said is that he used to see that a lot back in the 60's and that "that sh*t used to be commonplace" because the "system was so f**ked up". Whoooo knows! He's a funny old guy. Used to race CR's at Daytona and races (just the other day once again) at Bonneville. I don't want to give him away, but he was just the co-topic of an article in a vintage moto magazine titled "A Tale of Two Geezers".

Thanks again for the info!