HONDA CB750 50TH
It’s half a century since the Honda CB750 Four was launched in the seaside town, and that original bike still exists. John Nutting records its story
John Nutting recalls the first UK 750.
British bike fans got their first look at Honda’s fabulous CB750 Four at the Brighton Show 50 years ago this month. It was a momentous occasion, with anticipation fuelled by reports from Japan and America that the machine would establish the superbike era with a combination of performance and reliability previously thought unattainable. A few months earlier, Bsa-triumph’s 750cc triples and Norton’s 750cc Commando twin had made their debut. The CB750, however, a prototype of which had appeared at the Tokyo Show six months earlier, was in a different league, featuring an overhead-camshaft four-cylinder five speed engine, self-starting and a hydraulic disc brake, all of which made the British bikes seem ancient in comparison. Talk was that the new Honda had a top speed of 125mph and unparalleled refinement. By the time the CB750 appeared at Brighton, demand for it was almost at fever pitch. Yet it had been less than two years since the Honda factory had quit Grand Prix racing, and company president Soichiro Honda had decided to capture the glory of its racing bikes and offer a similar road bike. Honda’s biggest road bike at the time was its CB450 DOHC twin, which, although capable of giving the mostly British 650cc twins sold in the US a run for their money, was nonetheless regarded as a bit of a toy. The CB450 wasn’t a ‘big bike’. Yoshiro Harada, who was put in charge of the development project and had visited the US on a fact-finding tour in the summer of 1967, decided to develop a bigger model after local dealers called for a big bike and ‘the bigger the better’. Harada wasn’t quite sure how big, but it was clinched when he found out that Triumph was developing a 750cc triple, and that Kawasaki had a project for a big bike. So by October 1967 its capacity was decided. It would be 750cc. Its power was influenced by Harley-davidson’s 1200cc V-twins. They turned out 66bhp, so the 750cc Honda would have more. The target would be 67bhp. A 20-strong team of engineers was mustered and development began in February 1968. A number of different prototype machines were produced and by the end of the summer the style was established
with the 736cc engine having four carburettors and two silencers sweeping up each side of the machine. With the launch of the CB750 at the Tokyo Show approaching, the design of the disc brake hadn’t been finalised by Harada. So he asked Soichiro Honda for advice. “We’ve designed two separate specifications having different braking systems,” Harada told the president. “One uses conventional drum brakes and the other had disc brakes. Of the two, the disc brake specification had only recently been developed, so it will need more tests. If disc brakes are adopted, we aren't sure we can meet next spring's completion target.” The president’s reply was direct: “Well, of course we’ll have to go with disc brakes.” Before the CB750’S commercial, launch a number of problems, including the wear rate of pads and noise in use, needed to be solved to meet the target to ‘achieve higher power while maintaining safety’. It’s clear, however, that even as the CB750 Four was shown for the first time at Tokyo to an awestruck motorcycle world, development was continuing. Although development machines similar to the Tokyo Show bike were being tested in the California desert, and Cycle Guide pictured one of its editors riding a similar machine, bikes with details closer to the final production versions were being prepared. These were shown at Honda’s first US dealer convention held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January 1969. This had been organised to motivate sales, which had been in decline since 1966. As a strategic move prior to the coming spring season, the meeting was also attended by company representatives from Japan, including Soichiro Honda himself. Harada recalls that American Honda’s president Kihachiro Kawashima announced that the retail price of the CB750 Four would be $1495. “All the 2000 dealers burst into thunderous applause when they heard the price,” said Harada. “Large bikes were selling for between $2800 and $4000 at the time.” The Brighton Bike at the H&H auction.
Honda was deluged with orders from the US. When production started in Japan at the Saitama and Hamamatsu factories, making the engine and chassis respectively, the initial target of 1500 units a year was woefully inadequate, and this figure was made the monthly target. Even that wasn’t enough and was later doubled. With Honda concentrating on the US market, dealers in Europe had to make do with the crumbs from the table. Ian Catford, Honda UK publicity manager at the time, remembers the situation. “We had a scrabble to get the bike from the US for the Brighton show,” he recalls, saying that the first time magazine editors saw the bike was in the boardroom at Honda UK in Chiswick, in advance of the show. “I rode the bike for the pictures used in our literature and it was amazing, with a lovely sound from the four pipes.” Even so, it was said that just 12 production bikes would be reaching the UK that year. The CB750 Four shown at Brighton was one of a handful of machines built for publicity purposes by the factory in advance of the production lines starting in Japan. The so-called ‘pre-production’ machine was tested by the Press at Brands Hatch and featured in magazine articles, including Motorcycle Mechanics. It was also tested by weekly paper Motor Cycle’s ace tester David Dixon at the twisty Nurburgring in Germany, and featured in an
“We had a scrabble to get the bike from the USA to the Brighton Show. I rode the bike and it was amazing.”
article in July 1969. Commenting on the CB750’S performance, Dixon said: “Tucking in as best I could in a Barbour suit, foiled to some extent by the high-level handlebar, I let the revs soar into the red at 8500 before notching top. On a slight depression, the needle moved swiftly to 8000rpm – equivalent to 118mph – before dropping back to a steady 7800 (116mph). Under dry conditions, when I could have discarded the bulky suit, the lower drag may have given a speed over the 125 mark. For a machine of its bulk, the Honda handled well. Cornering was extremely steady, with the model leeching to whatever line I chose. The Honda ranks as one of the most outstanding machines I have ever ridden.” Praise indeed from a rider with racing experience. Soon after, Dixon competed in a one-hour production race in Sweden, finishing sixth on a 650cc Triumph ahead of local ace Bo Granath on the first CB750 Four to be imported into the country. While Dixon’s machine was Boyer tuned and the best of British production race tackle, the Honda was bog standard. Honda itself couldn’t stay away from racing, and in August 1969 a team from its R&D department competed in the Suzuki 10-hour race, dominating the event with a one-two finish. Honda’s top brass, however, was initially reluctant to enter the prestigious Daytona 200 early in 1970, despite being encouraged by US national service manager Bob Hansen. It was only after Yoshiro Harada asked Hansen what top speed would be required to win, that four special CR750 fours were prepared, three entered by the factory and the fourth by Hansen. Hansen’s bike won, but only after veteran racer Dick Mann nursed the bike across the line on three cylinders. A win was a win, however, and demand for the CB750 intensified. The Brighton show bike, with engine number CB750E-2110, still exists. The bike’s story is that in September 1969, it was registered as CGU 7H and reportedly sold to Lord ‘Rollo’ Denbigh (though he didn’t appear on the logbook), a friend of Honda UK’S managing director Eric Sulley. Rollo, who at the time was president of the Motorcycle Industry Association, had earlier used the opportunity to be interviewed about the CB750 Four for a BBC television programme at his country house. The bike passed through a couple of owners before being acquired in the 1990s by collector David Ayesthorpe of Tewkesbury. David died early in 2018 and his collection of machines was sold, the CB750 being put up for auction by H&H. Expectations for a six-figure sum were high because another of the pre-production machines, with engine number CB750E-2113, had been found in the US about five years ago and restored by Vic World, a California-based Honda specialist since the 1990s. Sold on ebay, it reached a bid equivalent to £90,000 and is now part of a US collection. Amazingly, and despite needing some attention, having parts missing and dents in the fuel tank, bidding for the Brighton show bike reached £161,000 including the seller’s premium, a record for a Honda road machine. Since then, new owner Tony Brown from Lancashire has been bringing the CB750 Four back to its original condition, and showed it at the 50th anniversary meeting organised by Dave Silver, of David Silver Spares fame, last October. The bike differs from the later production versions of the CB750 Four in a number of details that fans of the marque discuss at great length. As such, it’s a key part of Honda’s history. cmm