Tuesday, April 25, 2017

When Super Hawks go rogue…

Most people think of the standard CB72-77 Super Hawk in conventional terms; a flat-bar machine with a dual seat, a 180 degree-firing crankshaft engine design, dual carburetors, a 4-speed transmission, stopped by 200mm DLS brakes and rolling on 18” wheels/tires. Honda made something over 137,000 Super Hawks for worldwide distribution from 1961 to 1967, in various guises; some of which have never been seen or are seldom seen, even to this day.  Even in the beginning of the 1961 production machines, there were exceptions to the conventional CB72-77 models.

Engines                                                                Frames                                                 Features
‘61 Type
CB72E - 110001 - 113443                CB72 - 10001 – 13443                      The first 366 units were prototypes
CB72E - 150001 - 151657                CB72 - 50001 – 51657                      Type 2
CB77E - 110001 - 111249                CB77 - 10001 – 11249                      US models
CB77E - 150001 - 150480                CB77 - 50001 – 50480                      Type 2
CP77E - 110001 - 110080                                 CP77 - 10001 – 10080                       Non-Police
‘62 Type
CB72E - 210001 - 211880                CB72 - 21001 – 21881                     
CB72E - 260001 - 263469                CB72 - 60001 – 63444                      Type 2
CB77E - 210001 - 210900                CB77 - 20001 – 20902                      US models
CB77E - 260001 - 260395                CB77 - 26001 – 60395                      Type 2 ? I own #474!
CP77E - 210001 - 210228                                 CP77 - 20001 – 20228                       Non-Police           
‘63 Type
CB72E - 310001 - 315446                CB72 - 310001 - 315446
CB77E - 310001 - 319222                CB77 - 310001 - 319222
CB77E - 340001 - 340015                CB77 - 340001 – 340015                  Type 2
CP77E - 310001 - 311094                                 CP77 - 310001 – 311094                  Non-Police
CP77E - 340001 - 342015                                 CP77 - 340001 – 342015                  Police Type 2, rotary gearbox
CP77E - 3100001- 3100100             CP77 - 3100001 - 3100100
‘64 Type (1)  Six digit starting with 1
CB72E - 100001 - 104165                CB72 - 100001 – 104165                 
CB77E - 100001 - 109755                CB77 - 100001 - 109755
CP77E - 1100001- 1100803             CP77 - 1100001 – 1100803              Non-Police
‘64 Type (2) 6 digit starting with 4
CB72E - 400001- 402754                                 CB72 - 400001 - 402707
CB77E - 400001- 403838                                 CB77 - 400001 - 403841
CP77E - 4000001 - 4001260            CP77 - 4000001 - 4001103
CP77E - 4900001 -4901223             CP77 - 4900001 – 4900641              Police Type 2, rotary gearbox

’65-67 “The machines which were discontinued the year of manufacture are as follows:”
CB72E -1000001 - 1006342            CB72-1000001 – 1010918                               Numbers don’t match up!
CB77E -1000001 - 1056494            CB77-1000001 - 1056432
CP77E -1000001 - 1002015             CP77 -1000001 – 1001966               Non-Police                                                                CP77E -1900001 - 1901540                CP77 -1900001 – 1901535               Police Type 2 Rotary gearbox

Totals, based upon this chart, (which has errors!) = 137,240! That’s a LOT of Super Hawks! But that’s not all!

What is not shown clearly on the Honda production chart above are these unusual versions:

CM72 models, primarily 1961 and some early 1962 editions. These bikes were a cross between a Dream and a Super Hawk; solo seat, luggage rack on the back, single-carburetor, 360 crankshaft, rotary gearbox, single Scrambler-type speedometer, sidestand, winkers, early tail light.

CBM72 models, standard 250 Super Hawks, which have Type 2 engines installed. I have owned at least one of them and have seen others.

The Type 2-powered bikes used a 360 crankshaft, left cam with different master spline location, Dream points/point camshaft, special mounted twin-lead coil/condenser and a TYPE 2 labeled point cover. The cam timing was normal CB series lift/duration and carburetion was normal to any other CB. While there were Type 2 engines installed in 250cc Scramblers, no Type 2 engines were used in 305cc form. However, the 305cc CYP77 Police models did have Type 2 crankshafts.

In 2002, I was able to rebuild a genuine CYP77 Police bike, but the original engine was missing. I did come up with some engine cases that were stamped CP77, but the second digit (9) was not present, because they were for a non-Police application. I purchased a new Dream crankshaft for the 360 firing order. I ground off one of the splines on the left camshaft, which allowed the correct 360 degree firing. Fortunately, a genuine Type 2 ignition coil and condenser was available from a source in Canada to complete the installation, as close to original as possible. Because the Police bike rotary gearbox components were not available to me, I used a conventional CB77 gearbox with X’d gears in the transmission. The bike turned out well, with good low-end power and strong mid-range, too.

The oft-mentioned 1962 Type 2 CB77, currently in the stable of bikes, was built in the early 1990s and was treated to the then-available CYB racing parts, including the alloy rear fender, shift lever/rod, fork crown, clip-on handlebars, special fork cover clamps, hydraulic steering damper, steering stop and the factory racing seat.

I can’t recall exactly how I came upon the chassis in the beginning, as it was definitely not a US spec model. Following the domestic Japanese frame numbering system used in the first few years, the year is stamped in the middle of the frame number, so the frame is CB77-62-260474, where the 6 denotes a Type 2 engine that year. Honda used 4, 5, 6 and 9 as designators for Type 2 engine models through the years, although the 9 also designates a CYP77 Police model.

Honda stamped CP77 on both Police and non-Police versions, calling the Police model a CYP77 in the parts books (282 product code). The regular CP77 (281 product code) was a standard Super Hawk equipped with high handlebars, winkers, side stand, solid footpegs and the early style tail lights only seen in the US on 1961 CB77s. CP77s used that same tail light through 1965-66, while the rest of the export models used the more conventional CB72 generic tail light assembly from 1963-66. 1967 model bikes received the oval tail light treatment, along with some chrome fenders on the last 200 machines built.

Some sources report that many of the CYP77 Police models were used by the Army in Malaysia or Indonesia, back in the 1960s. There is ONE bike in Norway and perhaps TWO in the UK. Very few have ever come up for sale or even in photos. My CYP77 came out of Canada, where they did bring in a limited quantity of bikes and stocked parts for them briefly. There are several Facebook pages for vintage model Hondas, including a couple for the 250-305 Super Hawks. Recently a CYP77 was revealed in as-found condition down in SE Asia, but that is a rare occurrence these days.


Super Hawks are celebrating their 56th year anniversary of their release. While really good originals or even carefully restored bikes are becoming more scarce, you can see that there were many, many bikes produced and a good 68,000+ were sold right here in the US.  I got mine… go find yours!

1962 CB77 Type 2 cafe' racer version with CYB72 racing parts installed.



                                                 
                                         Honda CM72 image from a show in Thailand




2 comments:

  1. Hello Mr Silver, working on a 65 cb77...I'll probably will have a few questions, I will greatly appreciate any advice.

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  2. I have restoration guides available for the CB72-77s. Check for details on my website... www.vintagehonda.com Let me know how I can help.

    ReplyDelete