« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2006, 11:56:52 AM »
Ted,
Have you looked at the information on www.sohc4.net about this bike? Can you read Japanese? Would you care to comment on the information in that article and the pictures and can I post your comments to the web site to go with that prototype article? I was sent this information by Joe Broussard a long time ago and then, years later, had a message from someone in Germany who told me that this was not the prototype bike, but never elaborated. What you have written here is great. You will also see that I have some early articles on the CB750 that show early examples on the test track. These are also in the 750 section and were received very recently from an SOHC/4 member with a large collection of old bike mags.
Glenn
Glenn,
My Japanese is in the high school level but I spent my early childhood in Japan. I started riding motorcycles in 1971 here in the United States and became very interested in Honda CB750s because they often showed up in Japanese comics. In early 1972, I was visiting the Honda shop in Las Vegas when I noticed that they were having a dealer conference and I met a Japanese gentleman who spoke no English but noted that I was checking out the 1972 CB750. When he found out that I spoke Japanese, he and I spoke for about 30 minutes before I had to go back to school from my lunch break. When I asked him about the prototypes, he told me that he was one of the test riders who rode the disguised early production CB750 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and one was disguised with black CB450 tank and mufflers were painted black also. If the blue CB750 with CB450 tank has a frame number 1000035 and engine number 1000037, this could be one of them. As a standard Honda practice, none of the CB750s had two Honda wing emblems in each side so to be accurate, either the tank emblem or the remade side cover emblem (which is too large and wing emblem is off center) has to go. Regretfully I did not asked for the Japanese gentleman's name and I never saw him again but in 1981 and 1982, I was vitising my home town in Japan while assigned in USAF when I met another man in the nearby Honda shop who knew a lot about CB750 prototypes. He said that there were four prototype bikes and 7 prototype engines. The black and white photo with drum brake you see looks like the same one Mr. Bob Hansen had and it was colored in cloud silver, the same color CL77 carried, not the candy gold that one might think, and there are too many details for me to list but I took some of that information and printed a short CB750 identification guide in my Tigers of Terra V2#4 comic book issue that was published about a dozen years ago and recently reprinted in the Angels 750 comic book series. You can find both titles in Googles, Amazon or even Ebay. I need to make an update though because I'm currently making two CB750 prototype replicas, complete with two different side covers. I'm also building what I believe to be a genuine CB750 K0 (1969 and 1970 models with single throttle cable is a CB750, not CB750K0 as American Honda misidentifies. They only made about 121 CB750K0s, which were an intermidiate model between CB750 and CB750K1. It had the CB750 engine and body (mostly in candly gold color) with CB750K1 throttle links and also had a black K1 type taillight bracket. Most were shipped to England. Interestingly I also have a completely stock brown 1972 CB750K2 which I bought over a dpzen years ago from the same dealer in Las Vegas. I also discovered that one of the early CB750s I bought turned out to be a former CR750 converted to a drag bike! I'm in a process of reconverting back to CR750 specs, complete with Dick Mann colored fairing but since that'll be very expensive, I may have to cut corners to complete them earlier. I can always get genuine parts later, if they're available. I still would like to get more information about the CB750 prototypes so I can build a third replica.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2006, 12:41:03 PM by Ted Nomura »
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1969 Honda CB750, two 1970 CB750, two 1972 CB750K2, 1971 CB500, 1975 CB550, 1976 CB400F, 1968 CL450, 1973 CL450, 1974 CB450, 1970 1/2 SL350K1, 1971 SL350K1, 1972 SL350K2, 1972 CL350, 1972 CB350, 1983 CB1000C, 1976 Kawasaki KZ900A4, 1976 KH500A8, 1979 KZ400B, 1983 ZN1300, and so on and so on...
