Honda CB750

Franksx

XS650 Member
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Toronto
I'm a long time BMW airhead rider - 25 years with 1976 R90 and 1981 R100. A year before my retirement 10 years ago, I was practically gifted my brother in law's Planet Blue 1975 cb750. It was a much different riding experience and more exciting. After all the years, the BMW felt like my wife, while the Honda felt like a mistress. (I can only imagine.) I planned a solo motorcycle ride around the US (from near Toronto) to mark my retirement, and while the R100 was the logical choice, I decided to do it on the Honda. 30 days, 9,000miles/14,000kms - it was great! After the trip, I sold that Honda because I needed to cut down on the number of bikes and the weight of maintaining them. I kept the BMW R100.

10 years of BMW R100 riding later, I still felt a yearning for that CB750, so last summer I jumped on a 1974 model that had just been advertised on FB Marketplace for a really good price - $1500Cdn. I picked it up the next day from the original owner. He bought it from a local dealership in Toronto (McBrides), rode it for a few years putting 22,00lms on it. When they moved out of Toronto to a smaller town, he parked it in his walkout basement for 30 years. It sat untouched for so long on its cenre stand that the weight of the bike caused a significant notch in the steering head bearing race which I had to replace. The time was also not kind to the gas in the tank and carbs which I had to clean. Luckily the original airbox was still there. Unluckily the original 4 into 4 exhaust had been replaced with a Jardine 4 into 2 system, and one of those mufflers had a hole in it that would keep it from passing a safety check. I bought a 1974 parts cb750 for its 4 into 1 exhaust which turned out to be a Russ Colins system. (I have a bunch of extra cb750 parts now including a spare motor.) New fork seals and tires installed, and it was good to go.

I can only afford to insure 1 bike for the road so it came off the R100 and onto the CB750, which I rode the remainder of last summer and all of this riding season. (At the end of last summer I had to replace the regulator and rectifier with a new combo unit.) Just a few weeks ago I sold the BMW because I've been there and done that, and because I bought a couple of other new to me bikes I'd like to experience - a 1972 Suzuki T500 2 stroke, and a 1972 Yamaha XS2 650. I now have my 3 iconic classic bikes that will see me through to the end.

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