Topic: 50 years of the CB750.

[ofreen]

its almost as if these older bikes are better than the new models and Honda are embarrassed about it?

I’ve thought these last many years that Honda may have wrought better than they knew with the CB750.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

It will be interesting to see how much Honda itself gives a damn about it.

IIRC, Jerry tried to get Honda involved in the first relay, without much success...

I did. They were going to have a kick off reception of Godzilla at their booth in the parking lot of Daytona Speedway but I "think" the weather created problems for them and our rider. I MAY still have contact names??

[RAFster122s]

Jerry,
Would be nice to have...
Pm or email them to me if you could and run across them.
Thanks!
David
P.S. how's the new place or have you gone to the island yet?

[Tim2005]

So is anyone here going to the DSS event tomorrow?  I see 75 750s are on the list

[Tim2005]

The DSS event was really good- 80+CB750s there, a gallery of some of them is below- lots of interesting modifications to see too as well as standard bikes


http://s1154.photobucket.com/user/tim012012/slideshow/DSS%20CB750%20Event%2029%209%2018

[Sam Green Racing]

Tim, it's sad that they didn't show a picture of Eric's CR750, I caught a glimpse of it in the background of picture #3.

[Tim2005]

Sorry Sam, I didn't get a pic of it, lots of people about so it was quite tricky to get a clear photo of anything ( and the phone I took these with isn't the easiest thing to use in daylight), plus lots of people to chat with too

[Sam Green Racing]

Sorry Tim, I didn't know it was your photographic work.

[pmanning]

I've followed the fifty year anniversary discussion with a lot of interest as I remember well the introduction of the bike in 1969. I was twenty and not financially well off enough to have one of the first copies though I was desperate to get one.  I made some lifestyle adjustments to make that happen and I've had one to ride since 1970.

Twenty-five years ago it seemed right to me that some entity, perhaps even Honda, might on the 750s twenty-fifth anniversary acknowledge the impact the bike had on the motorcycling world not to mention the success it was for Honda. If that happened I missed it.

I wrote an article (attached here) noting that anniversary with the intent of perhaps getting some interested party to publish it. However I couldn't decide what party might be interested nor did there seem to be much public interest in the bike at the time.  The file has quietly resided as a word processor document on a zip disc since then.  The discussion here prompted me to pull it up and reread it all these years later.

I'll be the first critic by admitting it is long winded and idiosyncratic to my riding interests and general outlook.  Also by now it is quite dated. I won't be offended by anyone who calls it rubbish. On the other hand it reflects some of the remarks I've read in the various posts here and speaks to the regard (or lack thereof) held for the bike twenty-five years ago.

[Don R]

 When I was 16 my big brother was at work at the Oldsmobile garage and a guy rode in on the first cb750 sold in the area. He was friends with the lube guy and wanted to show it off. All of the mechanics stopped to check it out with the 4 cylinders and disc brake.
 50 years later I own that same bike, the guy that assembled it owns the second one and going by the 4,000 serial number split, we think I have the third one.

[Don R]

 The guy that assembled my bike and owns the second one mentioned in the post above helped me with gl1000 carbs today and is riding his 750 to Mid Ohio. 

[robbie-box]

Here in the UK I remember the motorcycling world being stunned by the unveiling of the Honda CB750 at the Brighton Show in 1969.
One of the first of four sandcast machines Reg. CGH 7H. became known as The Brighton Bike" was purchased by The Earl of Denbigh and was actually sold in March 2018 for £157.000.
Amazing piece of history.

[Shtonecb500]

Im riding my 550 from Detroit to vintage days....Cant wait to buy inventory for projects 

[HondaMan]

When I was 16 my big brother was at work at the Oldsmobile garage and a guy rode in on the first cb750 sold in the area. He was friends with the lube guy and wanted to show it off. All of the mechanics stopped to check it out with the 4 cylinders and disc brake.
 50 years later I own that same bike, the guy that assembled it owns the second one and going by the 4,000 serial number split, we think I have the third one.

Wow, that's cool!

[754]

 51 Years of CB 750 now...

[bill440cars]

        I had posted early on, on this thread about one of our guys, at Misawa AFB, where I was stationed, having ordered a 750 in, because (of course, they didn't sell them over there) and when he had it ready to ride, he took it out and the locals had never seen one before and the size of it, made most all of the people nearby, stop and stare at that 750. Have ti saw, I stopped  and staring too, a it was quite a sight, at that. Closest I ever got to one, was a CB650C. But, I definitely enjoy seeing those on the Forum and the different builds.       

[PW1211464]

I don’t know how these forums work, but I was wondering if it is possible to flip the cylinders around, to be backward in order to run cold air intake, along with a custom exhaust

[HondaMan]

I don’t know how these forums work, but I was wondering if it is possible to flip the cylinders around, to be backward in order to run cold air intake, along with a custom exhaust

Nope. It's been tried: the exhaust side overheated on the first ride for lack of airflow, circa 1975-ish IIRC. It was going to be a Bonneville runner, never made it that far. The pistons scored the bore on the exhaust side in just 40 minutes of run time. Midget racers I worked with in the early 70s spent a great deal of effort to cool the exhaust side of this engine when the tranny was cut off and it was put into their midget cars. But then, those guys ran between 12k and 16k RPM in them, too.

[HondaMan]

51 Years of CB 750 now...

Reaching 52...

The 50th birthday of my K2 comes up in November, according to its nameplate: 11/71 build. I bought it in January of 1972, rode it home (Peoria, IL to Macomb) in February - 80 miles of Illinois winter in January was a bit much that year!