M
I fitted my CB1100 with RLETS almost from the first moment that I'd got it. It was obligatory. I HAD to do it.
However (as Bill Burr says!)... I did NOT remember black RLETS on my original CB750 back in 1972. My photos from that time are unclear, but my memory was that the level ends were covered in a clear, yellowy hard plastic, as if they'd been "dipped" - definitely NOT black rubber removable/replaceable RLETS.
This has been nagging away at me from the very beginning, but I just put it on the back burner. But I have now bestirred myself to ask my chum, who had his 1974 CB750 when I had mine, to see if he can recall what the end of his bike's levers were like and if he has any photos.
No photos, I'm afraid, but... he has confirmed my memory of a clear/yellowy plastic dip on his Lever-ends too. He says
"No photos unfortunately. Definitely not black rubber ends. I do remember the entire lever having a clear coating of something though. Prevent corrosion perhaps?"
So... that's made my mind easier, but alters nothing! All I can say is that CB750s imported into the UK in 1972 and 1974 did not have removable black RLETS, but were dipped in some kind of clear-ish plastic.
There you go, cat... into the pigeons you go!!