Win a Restored 1971 Honda CB750

VVMC CB750
You can win this 1971 Honda CB750 by entering the VVMC’s raffle. Seen with the blast from the past is Shannon Sweeney of SS Cycles who orchestrated the project with the support of several VVMC members and sponsors.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic Honda CB750, and the Venice Vintage Motorcycle Club in Venice, California (just west of Los Angeles), is honoring the occasion by giving one away.

Since the original ’69 models are going for their weight in gold, VVMC’s Shannon Sweeney of SS Classics has orchestrated a ground-up cloning restoration replicating the 1969 Honda based around a 1971 CB750. The project included a complete motor rebuild, new powder coat from Safeway Sandblasters, period correct 1969 Candy Ruby Red paint, new rims and stainless spokes, polished hubs and engine cases, new K0 seat, and lots of new and restored bits, making this bike ready for one lucky winner to ride home.

Honda CB750
The Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally takes place Saturday, September 22, 2018.

The raffle and giveaway will take place Saturday, September 22, at the 11th annual Venice Vintage Motorcycle Club Rally, 2150 Dell Ave. Venice, California. Tickets are only $10 each and you need not be present to win. Click here for details and to purchase tickets.

CB750
The build includes a super rare original ’69 rear fender and tail light…and those rare-as-dragon’s-teeth mufflers are also the real deal, as are the minty gauges.
Honda CB750
A few details will be completed and then with a push of the button, or a kick of the starter lever, a lucky winner will ride off with a very nice piece of history…and all for ten bucks.

CB750 History

In 1969, you could visit your “Meet the Nicest People…” dealership and ride off on a CB750 for around $1,495. In the bargain, you got a transverse-mounted, 67-horsepower, air-cooled, SOHC, four-cylinder engine, a 5-speed tranny, electric start, a front disc brake and about 125mph at a twist of the throttle…not to mention comfort and dependability.

To say the CB750 was a hit with the public would be an understatement. During the initial 9-year production run (designated K0 through K8), more than 400,000 were sold. Variations of the CB750 continued until 2003, the evolution spanning both SOHC and DOHC models. In 1976, there was even an automatic version (the CB750A) for some reason. The “Nighthawk” name crept into the line-up in 1982. In 2007, Honda brought out at a retro CB750 Special Edition for the Japanese market.

So how did their value depreciate—or appreciate—in the decades following their introduction? This coming January marks the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Honda CB750. Back in February 2014, a Candy Blue/Green ’68 Honda CB750, one of four factory pre-production models originally sent to dealers as a teaser, was offered on eBay with an opening bid of $1,969. At the auction’s end, seven days later, bidding topped out at $148,100. This past March, at the H&D’s National Motorcycle Museum in the U.K., another of the near-legendary pre-production CB750s, this one appropriately enough painted Candy Gold, sailed off the auction block at $223,000!

As for the production CB750, the rest is motorcycle history. The first so-named “superbike” was first offered to the public in 1969, Honda producing only 7,414 in that first run and each featuring the now-legendary “sand-cast” cases. Not quite as rare as the First Four, the “sand casts” in top original condition now also garner big bucks.

The good news is that there’s a bunch of CB750s of various years still out there for reasonable money and suitable for restoration or all kinds of “customization” from mild to wild. Here are a few we’ve found:

Honda CB750
This way to the event registration…. A very tidy stock pre-1979 CB750 arrives for the Clematis Street bike rally in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Honda CB750
Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, thousands of CB750s were transformed into choppers by home and professional builders. This example is a more recent take on the theme, complete with apehangers and a rear sissy bar. Kickstarter indicates pre-1979 as the SOHC ’78 CB750 was the last to include a kicker along with the electric start button. 1979 also saw the switch from SOHC to DOHC.
Honda CB750
“Best Café” Award Winner – 2017 Willow Springs Corsa MotoClassica Event #22. Mike Stafford added an extended swingarm, vintage pipe, reworked frame, seat, fender and more, then built it in only 19 days. Yes, it still has the kickstarter along with the electric button, so it’s a pre-1979 CB750.
Honda CB750
Yoshi Kosaka of the Garage Co. takes the first ride aboard this resurrected Tony Foale TF750 road racer, as originally flogged in the 1970s around the famous British race tracks like Brooklands, Thruxton, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Engine was nudged into classic Foale frame kit while Garage Co. did the restoration in 2011 for owner Jay Reeves.
Honda CB750
A couple shows up for the Santa Monica, California, 2014 screening of the 88-minute documentary “Greasy Hands Preachers,” a cinematic ode to the soul-nurturing value of getting your hands dirty doing what you love, in this case building custom motorcycles. The movie saw the participation of several of the world’s leading bike builders.
Honda CB750
Builder Adam Gaspic gives the thumbs-up to his Gasser Customs Honda CB750.
Honda CB750
Honda CB750 dressed all in hand-hammered aluminum, a masterwork by Shinya Kimura. He sums up the motivation behind his designs as “balancing the technical and the aesthetic and the powerful draw on us by the vulnerability and the thrill of motorcycling.”
Honda CB750
L.A. County firefighter Brian Kane usually works on custom Triumphs, as does his dad, but in this case he went for a stellar spin on a CB750 café racer as shown at one of the VVMC events.
Honda CB750
When showing up for a special pancake breakfast rally at L.A.’s Petersen Automotive Museum, Drew Newman got rave reviews for his 1978 CB750 Café, complete with clasic Kerker pipe.
Honda CB750
Chris and Natalie are six months into riding their stock ’79 CB750. Says Chris, “It’s the best…and the CB is the reason Natalie is dating me.”
Honda CB750
Don showed up on his take of the 750 as café racer at one of the frequent Deus ex Machina shop events in Venice, California.
Honda CB750
Ken Peltcher and Jenny Jenewein from Temple City, California, carry on the CB750 tradition after Ken’s father, who bought the F2 Super Sport model in 1978, then gave it to Ken back in 1998. He’s been riding it ever since, now celebrating his own 20th anniversary on the bike having clocked over 100,000 miles. Says Ken, “This is the first motorcycle I’ve owned and I learned how to ride on it. My father and my mother were riding it before I even existed.”
Honda CB750
No, it’s not a CB750…it’s a 2014 CB1100, the last year it was available in black, and it has a story to tell. The bike belongs to Wes and Kimberly Osburn, who just arrived in L.A. from their previous home in Houston. Wes “rescued” the bike from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey after finding it in 8 feet of water and buried in mud, then brought it back to rip-roaring life.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Hat’s off to the what is thought to be one of the original “superbikes” in the US. Hey…you can actually see the engine. My compliments to the gearheads who put in countless hours to bring these wonderful old bikes back to life & keep them running. So pardon me while I go downstairs & try again to get my old cb900f back together.

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