Motorcyclists are often superstitious creatures. Some riders put guardian bells on their bikes, others won?t ride green motorcycles, and some regard dropping a helmet as bad luck. ICON even sews tiny St. Christopher medallions into the pockets of its jackets.
So goodness knows what the Federal Moto crew made of this Honda CB750K. If ever there was a bike that should have been parked in Tutankhamen?s tomb, this is it.

?This bike was a curse for us,? says shop owner Shaun Brandt. ?It was our ‘Dark Passenger’ that always seemed to be there, never going away. Anyone who’s ever tinkered with bikes knows how the story starts: You buy a cool old bike, probably over-pay for it, and ride it for awhile until it inevitably starts to have problems.? In the case of this CB750K, the engine literally blew up. The cam ate up the head, so the bike sat around while Shaun and lead builder Peter Müller grew their business.

?We’d work on it every once in awhile, but couldn’t find the time to give it a proper treatment. About a year went by with the engine untouched.? And the deeper the Federal crew went into it, the worse the problems became. The previous owner had attempted a cafe build, but screwed up almost every part on the bike.
?We decided that the best way to get the bike running again was to turn it over to a local mechanic and let him deal with it, because we were too busy with our client builds.

?Unfortunately, we picked the wrong mechanic. The b...