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Jim's Chopper Diary
Home-made CB750 Forward Controls
February 2001 - Page 2

Just wanted to share some ideas with everyone about this part of the chopper project.

I decided that it would be better to make a set of pattern parts for the foot control arms from scratch rather than paying $400-$500 for a retail set. (seen to the left!)

Now, let me say FIRST, I have not yet actually MADE these yet, so I am not sure if I've got all the dimensions figured out correctly. So, use the drawings in this section as reference, not as a blueprint!

This morning I visited my local iron monger and welding services company to talk about making the forward controls from these drawings. Their plasma cutting machine will be able to make all the parts (once I finish up a design and give them an AutoCad file) out of either stainless or hot rolled 1/4" steel plate, and they could essentially then do a production run of parts if there is any interest from HondaChopper.com folk!

However, I am going to make the first set by hand to make sure they work...but would then be willing to have my local iron shop make the additional sets. The cost would be about $94 for steel and about $154 for stainless- JUST for the pieces (six piece total...two mounting brackets, two foot levers, and two smaller mounting brackets). You would still need to supply a brake and shifter peg, and foot pegs, as well as screws, nuts, linkage hardware, etc. Total cost for a complete set of stainless controls would still be under or right about $200 I think.

The hard part would be finding the pieces to fit over the brake and shifter serrated shafts on the bike itself. I have these pieces as they were included in the rear set kit from Cycle Re Cycle. I don't really plan to go into the forward controls manufacturing business...but once I have given the drawings to ACE Welding in Merrimack, NH, there would no more reason for them to charge for layout...so you folks might be able to benefit from that if you were inclined to make yourself a set out of stainless, for ex. A commercially available set is $300 to $450 easy.

I'll keep marching along and try to get the first set made, and let everyone know how it turns out. Mostly this is an experiment to see how it goes. Since I am cutting my set out on my bandsaw and grinder, the material cost is only going to be $10 for the steel and about $50 for the rearset from Cycle Re Cycle, so it keeps the total project cost of my chopper down to a reasonable range.

Forward Controls 101
The key to building forward controls for the CB750 chopper is to get the control devices in the same plane (front to back) as the attachment point on the engine and frame for the shifter and brake, respectively. This accounts for the difference in the dimensions for the left and right side forward control units.

Another obvious difference is the manner in which the left and right side mounting plates attach to the bike. I have included drawings here showing two potential mounting plate styles. I prefer to make the larger one (the "alternate" design), but I am not sure yet if it would interfere with the exhaust pipes.

I'll let y'all know how this turns out!

JIM in NH

BELOW are links to Jim's schematics and drawings..

Mounting Bracket Template- version 1

Forward Controls based on Cycle-Recycle Rear Set

Left & Right-side Bracket Template- version 2

German diagrams for CB750 C forward Controls