Alas, drained by last night's instrument-panel photo session, the battery is too weak to turn the engine over. No need to panic; World simply romps on the kickstarter. The engine sputters. World pops the number-two float bowl off--a five-second job with CB's quick-release clips--and cleans the idle jet. Kick, kick, vroom vroom. At 11:00 a.m., the bike fires on all four cylinders. It's alive!
Vacuum gauges are used to synchronize the carburetors, and then the airbox, side panels and fuel tank go on. Note the newly painted "wrinkle tank," another slice of CB750 minutiae. Its graceful lines were formed from steel pressings, and the process left ripples underneath. However, they're only visible after you pop the filler cap and peer through. Honda soon replaced that funky stamping machinery, turning these flawed examples into irreplaceable rarities.
The right kind of scratches display authentic parts in much the same way. "The chrome on '60s British bikes was always wonderful," World says. "Smooth, shiny, flawless. Honda was different: The company worried much more about cost. Where chrome parts are obvious, like the outside of the rear brake lever, the part was polished. The inside of the lever wasn't, so it retained its rough, as-cast finish. Other parts were quickly smoothed off with a sanding belt, which leaves parallel scratches. Look at the wheel rims, and you'll see those scratches running around the rim under the chrome. It took me a long time to duplicate this finish: I'd take the parts to the chrome platers, and they would always finish them off for me, polishing them to take the scratches out--precisely what I didn't want! I had to stand over them and watch until they got it right."
Exactly 24 hours after World started, he rolls the bike out, jumps on the starter just once, and the engine burbles to life. Dashing up the street, we see the tach needle hitting the halfway point, and a big grin spreading across his sleep-deprived face.
Short of time and tools, World gets the job done. And it's not just his vast stock of parts that does it. It's the knowledge, dedication and obsession necessary to track everything down and bolt it all together. It's getting every detail right. Power all that with World's sheer force of will, and success seems inevitable. It doesn't matter if he put this bike together with a grimace, three wrenches and a hammer. The outcome is as genuinely stunning as any CB750 that rolled out of a Honda showroom in '69.
What's next for World and his well-organized mountain of spare parts? More complete bikes, of course, which will be available to fans of original, sand-cast CB750s or anyone else with a desire to turn the clock back to '69 and own a rolling piece of motorcycle history. (Visit www.worldmotorcycles.com for pricing and availability.)
World is coy about how many he'll build. "Let's just say a handful," he says with a grin. But whether it's two or 12, one thing's for sure: World's gonna be a busy man once folks realize what he's up to.