Sorry

This is going to be a long work in progress. My work took me to Dubai in 2008 and then to Hong Kong in 2010. The Honda is in storage, awaiting my return.

I will update the web site in due course.

Introduction

I bought my then four year old CB750 in 1976 at the tender age of 17 for the princely sum of £625. It is the only motorcycle that I have ever bought from a dealer. At that time, I was earning £25 per week as a technical apprentice so this was a heavy investment. Back in 76 the CB750 was still high in the league of superbikes, arguably bettered only by Kawasaki's Z1 900.

I had been totally bike mad from the age of 12, when I started to dabble with the rebuild of a, very poor state, NSU quickly moped. I couldn't wait to upgrade from my FS1-E and didn't want to be limited to 250cc, which was the limit for learner riders at the time. So, I took and passed my motorcycle test as soon as I could. At that time, the test consisted of the inspector standing on a corner and watching you ride round the block a few times. I took my test on a Yamaha AS1, 125 twin. This was one of a fair collection of bikes that I had built up in secret from my parents and kept in a rented lock up. They did not approve of bikes (hence the 125) and went mad when they, inevitably, found out. I was in the dog house for a short time but the discovery and their reluctant acceptance opened the door for me to openly use bigger bikes and buy the Honda. I must have been forgiven because my dad acted as guarantor for the loan. At its peak, my collection consisted of 11 bikes. The bikes were mostly British, in various states of repair, a couple of which would now be worth a small fortune but were not thought much of at the time.

Unfortunately I have very few photographs of my late teens and early twenties I was never one for photographs until I became a dad. I can only assume that any photographs of that era became the property of, my now long forgotten, girlfriend. After a trawl through my late parents' photograph collection I came across only one very faded photograph of one of my favourite bikes of the collection; a 1962 AJS twin, I have owned several similar machines.

I was drawn to the Honda by a very flash custom paint job. It's a pity I can't find any pictures of the bike when I first got it, because I couldn't give justice to a written description. The tank and panels were purple, blue and green metallic, which all blended into one another. It had a clear coat that had a frosted feathered effect. I have no idea how to replicate this. The bike looked great until 1979 when the custom paint flaked off and the bike ended up with a plain black tank and side panels.

I was made redundant in 1978 and became a full time student. In those days I received a grant from the local authority so things were not as hard as they would be today with student loans, fees, etc but money was still tight. My peers, who still had jobs or well off families, were able to invest in better bikes but I had to make do. As more powerful bikes became available, the old Honda was struggling to keep up. One day I managed to kettle the motor trying not to get left too far behind. The motor failed because of an oiling weakness to the top end; a common weakness on early CB 750s.

I was studying engineering and had access to all the equipment and most of the materials that I needed to do a little improvement to the motor to get a few horsepower more out of it. The motor was out and in bits so I set to work with a few minor mods. This became a bit of an obsession for me. Over the next few years the motor developments continued using donor motors. Not all of my efforts were successful and I made some expensive errors on the way resulting in scrap parts but in the end the successes resulted in the bike out performing even the newest of superbikes.

The bike went like a rocket and revved cleanly well passed 11000 rpm but with the unmodified frame and brakes, it didn't stop very well or go round corners.Looking back it was downright dangerous.

In 1980, I managed to loose my licence when I, inadvertently, outpaced a police bike. This was my first offence but it still, deservedly, cost me the princely sum of £94.50 and a three month ban. The loss of my licence devastated me and I lost interest in iding the bike. It didn't go back on the road immediately when I regained my licence but the engine mods continued.

Over the next few years, my fortunes changed from one extreme to another. When I had some spare cash, I invested it all into a nice shiny XJ6. The Jag gets a mention here only because I still own it and it's going to the big car park in the sky to make room for the restoration. In 1985, after a few hard lessons from the school of hard knocks, particularly about the depreciation of the resale value of gas guzzling cars, the Honda made a short return to the road. The dyno report shown is from this short period. Back then the dyno reports were not as sophisticated as today's. Just, a scrap of paper that resembled a till receipt but that was state of the art at the time. The print out is now a bit faded but there we go; a maximum measured 110 bhp at an equivalent road speed of 160 mph. Not a bad improvement over Honda's stated 67bhp. So Far I've only seen one better - 138 bhp but that was with 998cc my efforts kept the capacity below 750cc. I don't know how accurate the dyno was but the report made me feel good at least. There is no way that the bike could have handled the kind of speeds that the dyno indicated it was capable of, even if I had been brave/stupid enough to try. It would have wobbled all over the place with its bendy frame.

I don't know how I managed not to do myself serious damage I used to ride the thing as hard as I could. The souped up motor continued to be strong but the frame and brakes remained unmodified. I never did many miles on the highest powered motor. I doubt if it would last very long, but it was fun at the time. The last run of the bike was during its short 1985 resurrection, when the head stock failed through a fatigue crack. Luckily for me I didn't come off the bike. I've not heard of other bikes failing, on the move, like this but there does appear to be a weakness in the top yoke. I have bought several used replacements to discover cracks when the paintwork was removed.

Anyway, the bike was again relegated to the back of the garage and there it stayed until 2008, when I decided to restore it back to it's original, as built, glory; complete with its original motor and standard replacement parts. So, it's back to 67bhp. This website documents the bikes restoration. I may add a page about its former engine mods at a later date (there wasn't much to it really).

It will be joining my now modest collection of bikes; a 1948, Royal Enfield, Model G and a 1980, Motor Guzzi, La Mans II. The collection has remained unaltered for many years. This photograph looks to have been taken in the late 80s, shortly after I had restored the Enfield. By this time, my hard earned Jag, which can just be seen in the background had been relegated to the role of a toolbox.

Still no pictures of the Honda. That was squeezed up at the end of the garage, with it's broken top yolk.

At the moment I am in parts acquisition mode and the bike is a sorry state. I couldn't start work proper until the Jag went (Thursday 22 May 2008 - 18:00) and I had some irrational difficulty parting with it. The web site will develop as the restoration progresses.