Rocket Four

ROCKET FOUR

BSA meets Honda in the Ultimate Café Combo

SOMETIMES, ANGLOPHILES are a little touchy about mixing components from other lands with those of the Empire. Not the Brit lover who built this Honda CB750-powered BSA "Rocket 4." in fact, frame and fuel tank are the only bits that survive from the old Beezer Triple. Coolest part is English expat Larry Corby put this bike together back in the mid-Seventies, and recently took it out of mothballs for a rebirth.

The semi-retired advertising illustrator built the bike in 1973-74, and as usual it started while hangin’ out shootin’ the breeze with one of his mates.

“I had a Rocket 3, and 1 liked the handling a lot,” he says, “but the engine was awful. We’d taken it out of the frame and were about to throw the whole thing away. We w ere in the garage talking, and there was a Honda 750 motor sitting there. We tried it, and it fit great. All we had to do was make mounting plates at the back. The chain lined up-hell, it was easier to put the engine in the BSA than in the Honda frame it came out oil”

And so the product of two islands half a world away were brought together in a marriage of convenience.

“The CB750 is one of the best engines ever made, and I think it’s even lighter than the BSA ‘Cripple’!” he says with what you discover is typical Corby color.

Mikuni smoothbore carbs feed the Slice kitted engine, done up further with a hot cam and plenty of headwork. Corby’s pal George Cook made the custom exhaust system, a 4-2-1,

split around the downtubes.

While he does like the way the engine runs, that’s not the best part. “The handling is unbelievable,” says an enthusiastic Corby. “I mean, not up to today’s standard, but pretty amazing.”

Part of that prowess comes from the front end. Corby really wanted to get rid of the spindly British fork. Honda parts bin to the rescue again.

“The 500 Honda Four had exactly the same geometry as the BSA-triple-clamp offset, head angle, everything, and the top clamp was aluminum instead of cast-iron,” he explains.

Bonus number two was that Ceriani fork tubes fit the Honda triple-tree. “The hot thing in the day,” says Corby.

After a recent ride, he decided to upgrade the braking system, too (“The dual Honda setup almost killed me!”), with a single EBC disc out front, pressurized by a modern Triumph Nissin master cylinder. Gauges are vintage Honda, and the seat is Harley XR750 dirt-tracker style. Period Morris mags do the rolling, and a C&J swingarm sits out back.

The 62-year-old says his first motorcycle was a Rickman Triumph he bought here in the States from racer Skip Van Leeuwen in 1968.

You didn’t ride in the U.K.?

“%A& no! I’d rather have root canal than ride a bike in England. To go out there in that weather and ride.. .walking there is hard.”

Bike like this and California sunshine? Looks like it was a good move.

-Mark Hoyer