I bought one back in 1993 with the hope of restoring one of these wonderful machines and spend copious amopunts of money the bikes restoration before deciding to move to the United Kingdom in 1994, forever giving up my dream of owning one of the worlds most interesting landmark motorcycles!

The Honda CB750, with its 4-cylinder 736cubic centimetrer Single Overhead Cam produced a whopping 67bhp at max revs using all of the five speed gearbox. Building up to a claimed top end speed of 115mph it would require every bit of stopping power that the great single front disc and what I still believe was a lack lustre rear drum brake. The racy chrome-plated four pipes and silencers truly helped this new breed of motorcycle make its mark on the British and American population.

The Honda CB750

Taken from a wonderful book by Mac McDiarmid.
Prior to 1969, the word 'Superbike' simply didn't exist. Then Honda's seminal 750-four came along, opening up a whole new lexicon of jargon, and a revolution in motorcycle design. Almost every Japanese superbike - and many not so super - can trace its ancestry back to this one machine. Honda's coup - even more than winning Daytona with the four in 1970 - was in putting such a device into mass production. Engine technology, far from being at the cutting edge, was fairly old hat. Honda already made twin-cam roadsters (CB450), but the 750 made do with one. They were at the sharp end of pent-roof combustion chamber development, but the 750 used hemispherical heads. They pioneered four valves per cylinder, but the 750 had just two. To an engineer, there was really nothing remarkable about the CB750 - except that it was a four, and it was in the shops.

No, what you got was a neat and surprisingly compact transverse four, with eight valves, one chain-driven overhead camshaft and - unlike most of its descendants - dry sump lubrication. Bore and stroke were slightly undersquare at 61 x 63mm. Primary drive was by duplex chain, and a five speed gearbox fed a peak of 67bhp to the rear wheel. It had four 28mm Keihin carbs and - above all - four brilliant chrome exhaust pipes. 'Look at me', it screamed at the world.

Like all performance machines, exaggerated claims were made for the Honda's performance. 1 I5mph was the true potential. A good Norton twin was its equal, and a decent Triumph or BSA triple its better - especially when the bends arrived. What the Honda had was gentility in abundance; scarcely a single rough edge had made it into production. With minimal vibration, no oil leaks, reliability and super-light throttle and clutch actions, the Honda mollycoddled anyone fortunate enough to step on board. On the other hand, the hydraulic disc front brake - the first on a production motorcycle - requires considerable pre underwhelming effect.

The handling is mixed. Early examples in particular, topple into corners at town speeds - in contrast to the sublime neutrality of best of the British. Otherwise, it offers impeccable walking pace balance, and effortless 40 to 80mph cruising. Press it some more, however, and it we wobbles like no British bike with sporting pretensions. None of the CB750's handling deficit primarily due to a lack of frame stiffness, although the chassis could boast half as many tub exhaust, it might handle better. The problem is distinctly limp damping mated to stiffness and skinny forks. The truth was that in principal market - the USA - pedigree handling was not a selling point. So why waste money designing it in? The Honda cost little more than the price of a traditional twin ( £680 ) in 1970.

The Above Excert was scanned from Classic Superbikes from arournd the world. Written by Mac McDiarmaid

My Final Words

The Honda CB750 had its true success in its remarkable styling for the day. Vast amounts of chrome, revolutionary front disc brakes and stylish for exhaust pipes made the bike look and sound great. Twins ruled the streets and they had the speed and power, but twins were aggressive and lacked fineness, reliability and looks! Power was on tap from the lowest of revs, not something you could do with a 2-stroke! The K0 started production in 1969 and stayed in production until late 1978 with the K7 running up an impressive tally of just under 1 million units! Yes, that's right, one million units. The Honda CB750 K0 is indisputably the first of the modern generation of Superbikes. The very bike that changed the history of the motorcycle forever. It's not all about speed when it comes to the next big thing in biking and the humble K0 proves that!