I had previously owned a Honda CD175, a CB450 Black Bomber (the first, fast four speed model) and a CB500 four. So you can see that I was a Honda fan, well prepared to enjoy owning a CB750. I hated it. But it had its good points too; they were just sometimes hard to remember.
When I went to buy the bike I was told it was a K1 model but after I sold it I discovered it was, in fact, the much rarer K0 model. My first surprise on sitting on the bike was that someone appeared to have stolen the ground. The seat was so high and wide that there was no way that I could touch the ground on both sides and even by putting only one foot down and leaning the bike over, I could get no more than my toes on the deck. The guy selling the bike told me he had the same trouble, so he gave me a lower seat made by Two Four accessories which made the height almost bearable. The original seat I gave away - an original K0 seat alone is now worth a tidy sum of money - and I gave one away.
The next surprise was that the starter motor worked. I have now owned a great many bikes and very few of them have had starter motors that have been even vaguely reliable. True to form, the 750/4 starter motor soon gave up the ghost, but at least it was working for a few weeks.
Now to ride the thing. The controls were well laid out and easy to use. The clocks were big and clear. The clutch was light enough to be not tiring but stiff enough to have a good feel. So snick the gearbox into first and... nothing. Kick the gearbox into first and... nothing. Belt the gear lever as hard as possible into first and after that the gear selection went OK.
You could never get away with being firm with the lever, you needed to smack it into place with gusto. But, having said that, the gearbox was positive in action and never slipped out of gear once engaged. Nor were there false neutrals anywhere in the box. Even to the extent that locating the real neutral required a reasonable amount of skill but, once mastered, was usually possible.
First gear is much too low and the bike pulled away just as well in second. Indeed, one up, the bike would pull away in third. Actually, first gear is always too low on Japanese machines so I was well used to this design quirk. The engine is the real masterpiece of the 750 with massive reserves of torque throughout the rev range. It is so good that there is no power band at all. Just power all the way from 1000 to 8000rpm with no trace of a flat spot or being cammy at all.
The 500/4 had a rather annoying power step that entails changing down a gear for overtaking - my friend’s 400/4 was even worse, the power band on that was so narrow that dropping two gears was necessary. Of course, you never know how awkward a narrow power band is until you’ve ridden a machine with a wide spread of power. If you have never sampled a Norton, Triumph, XS650, SR500 or CB450, you won't really understand the problem or the solution.
Once on the open road, give the 750/4 some throttle and acceleration is good, very good. Lovely and responsive for a four as well. Not as responsive as a good twin, of course, but capable of supplying a satisfying forward urge. What'll it do, mister? Well, the top speed seems to be between 115 and 120 by the very accurate speedo, so at least a genuine 115mph. A whisker faster than the 450 or the 500, so I’m happy enough with that.
What I’m not at all happy with is the seating position. The foot-pegs are a few inches too far forward and as for the handlebars - someone at Honda ought to be shot for those monstrosities attached to the top of the forks. I’ve been told that they are meant to be handlebars but I reckon they must have been joking.
The early models came standard with very silly ape-hanger type bars that made cruising at anything over 70mph a real pain. In fact, it was about this time that I started getting bad back pains. So much so that I thought that I was getting too old and maybe I should give up the whole idea of motorcycle riding.
It was only in a final desperate move that I threw the high bars away and fitted a straight set patterned on the Norton Dominator or Vincent shape. The effect was amazing, a definite improvement in handling, top speed and fuel economy, even if these improvements were somewhat small, but the best thing was that my bad back cured itself immediately. I strongly recommend fitting flat bars, they do make a useful difference to all types of riding.
The front brake is really pretty good in the dry and isn’t far from being adequate in the rain. The now well known wet disc lag effect does occur on the 750, but for some reason it is much worse on the smaller Hondas than on the big ones. In the dry, the braking is almost right and whilst a little more retardation would be desirable, there is never any great need for a second disc. The engine braking is good for a four (but poor compared with a twin) and the rear drum is rather excellent, especially in the wet.
Apart from the handlebars, the main drawback to using the bike as a touring tool is the vibration. Yes, that’s right, vibration. Not the low down chunks of shaking that you get from a parallel twin or big single, but a nasty high frequency tingle through the bars that produce white fingers after only 100 miles. I found this much more annoying than low frequency vibes and perhaps shows why Honda soon introduced the Gold Wing for serious touring.
If the vibration makes it sound rather British, then the next bit will confirm the impression. Oil leaks. Oh yes, the Big H was a distinct gusher in the vicinity of the oil tank. I never traced the problem, I just mopped up the spillage from time to time. Interestingly, the oil leak only started after the engine seized. The other way round would make more sense. But no, the motor was running perfectly right up until when the main bearings failed - right in some remote part of Cornwall.
Could I get the bike mended down there? Could I hell. The local garage had never even seen a Honda before, let alone knew how to mend one. I had to hire a van to get the beast home where I fitted a complete new engine into it. Despite the oil tank not being touched it started to pour out oil. I never could understand why on earth they didn’t give the engine a wet sump, it would have been so much easier for everyone concerned.
Back to a happier subject. The spread of torque was such that the bike only needed three gears, four gears was a luxury, but five was just plain silly. Once, in Gloucestershire, the bike suffered a gearbox problem, which was minor and could have been fixed in a few minutes if I’d realised. But, as the bike was running, I decided to leave well alone until I could get hold of a decent toolbox. That toolbox was over a hundred miles away. The problem was that once on the move I could not change gear. I selected third for the journey home. The bike would pull away from rest, even uphill, and also manage 70mph easily enough - all of the while loaded with camping gear. The engine never missed a beat. Shows just how unnecessary are a multiplicity of gears.
For the nitty gritty freaks, I’m afraid I can’t tell you tyre mileages as they were sufficiently long for me not to bother worrying over them. The bike averaged 55mpg on two star and until the oil leak started consumed no oil between changes. The camchain tensioner is not automatic and, like most manually adjusted tensioners, is totally reliable. Honda only got into camchain problems when they insisted on trying to make things automatic.
The primary chain made lots of loud rattling noises but this is apparently quite normal for a 750/4 so don’t let it worry you - something else in the engine/ gearbox goes long before the primary chain. The brake pads and shoes never seem to wear out, although I do tend to use engine braking to slow down, which might explain this. The quality of paint and chrome was really very good except for the exhaust system which was replaced with a British made four into two of equally poor quality but far cheaper price. Honda genuine spares are so over-priced that it ceases to be at all funny.
You will have noticed that, so far, this report has been less vitriolic than my introduction intimated. That’s because I’ve yet to mention the handling. It didn’t. Handle, that is. Not at all. No, that’s a little unfair. Let’s examine the good points. The frame and swinging arm are very strong and nicely rigid. The forks are really perfectly adequate for the job. My tyres were Avon Roadrunners which are among the best tyres ever made, in my opinion. The rear shocks were Girling oil shock replacements, so no problem there. A good ride, a bit firm by modern Jap standards, but I prefer it that way. The forks were stiffened by using thicker fork oil.
All of this gives a lovely touring set-up, the big 19" wheel makes the bike wonderfully stable and keeps it nicely controllable in the more gentle corners. Lovely slow steering, not anything like these horrible modern 16" wheels that tuck in so much on bends that it’s so easy to e out of control.
So what’s the trouble with the Honda? Well, huge amounts of weight mounted too high in the frame make the beast totally uncontrollable at low speed, such as in town. The low bars gave a slight improvement by bringing the rider’s mass nearer to the ground. That said, for most of the time, the thing is stable enough to be flung into bends and not go off course if you simply make allowance for the huge mass you're trying to hurl around. But, for christ’s sake don’t actually try it or you will be reading the next copy of the UMG in hospital.
The secret phase here is ground clearance. Honda never gave any to the 750. There was loads of clearance on the early 450 twin and the later 400 four, it’s just the 750 that tries to kill the rider. A very strange quirk that I did not find at all funny. The angle of lean on the right hand side was almost good enough for the most craven of slow riders, but for any serious riding it was low enough to be dangerous. On the other side there was no ground clearance at all. None. The thing would not lean over to the left more than a few degrees.
So how do you get around left hand corners? There are two possibilities - either remove centrestand and side stand and accept the fact of the peg folding up, or get off the bike and push it around. By the way, the centrestand was impossible to use unless you were a weight lifter high on drugs.
So why do I hate the Honda? Because that lack of left hand ground clearance damn near killed me one evening. And also the fact that the earlier 450 was simply a better bike. The 750 was the start of Honda’s slide when the marketing men became more important than the bikers who rode them or the engineers who designed the older bikes up to a quality, not down to a price.
All in all, a big blocker with fairly good reliability, but no truly endearing points. The later Kawasaki Z650 handled better and was little slower and equally reliable, the Tiger, Bonneville and Commando 850 were all more practical (sure, sure - Ed) and the Trident or Z1 were a lot faster, even if the T150 was as fragile as glass inside its engine and the Z1 was grossly overweight and just as bad a handler as the CB750.
Postscript: The later models from K1 to K7 were very similar but the engine and gearbox became a bit nicer to use, whilst top speed and acceleration was milder. The F1 model featured the same engine in a more sporting set of clothes, the improved suspension helping the handling. A new exhaust system and removal of the centrestand converts the F1 into a very nice piece of road kit, and is perhaps the best buy of all the SOHC fours. The F2 had more power and an unreliable engine and lost the torquey motor of the earlier machines and was for people who like power bands. All in all, the F2 was OK but it was an attempt to turn a staid tourer into a race replica. There was also a F3 model that was never imported into this country, thus the 750 SOHC model ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
Elvis Evans