1974 Honda CB750 K4 [visit 22 of 31]

Honda's CB750. Arguably, the motorcycle that changed everything!

It was such a pleasure to meet Russ and see his terrific 1974 Honda CB750 K4. It's a great story and captured in Russ' words below..

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From Russ:
Sometimes, motorcycles just find us, even when we’re not looking for them. Such is the case with the Orange CB750. I was just cruising on Ebay one day and there it was. Posted with a reserve and coming to the final countdown. I submitted my bid, less than the reserve and then the posting ended. Oh well, I said to myself, next time I guess. A day later, the bike reappeared with no reserve. I said ok, now I’m gonna go for it. At the time my daughter and her husband and their two kids lived in Arizona. If I was the lucky winner I thought, what a great excuse to pick up the bike and visit her and the grandkids! As fate would have it, I was the highest bidder! The seller had just purchased a Goldwing and “Mama” said he’d have to sell something. The 750 had a new owner, me!

We were living in California at the time near Silicon Valley. A good friend of my mine had a pick up and I asked him if he wanted to take a road trip to bring the bike home. I’d cover the gas expense and help with the driving. When we arrived at Chris’s garage to load the bike, I noticed the epoxied floor of his garage with the “fleck finish” and all his tools on the pegboard outlined with a “sharpie.” And then….. I saw the bike. It was even better than the posted Ebay pictures! That just reassured me of how well the bike had been cared for. A quick start up to hear it idle and it sounded good! We loaded her up and spent the night visiting the kids, grandkids and in-laws.

Back home, I had time to sort out the bike. I took it to “Charlie’s Place" in San Francisco. He’s a specialist for vintage Honda’s and is quite well known among Honda enthusiasts. A tune-up, oil change and carb sync were in order. Also the petcock was rebuilt since it had a slight drip. Chris had the wheels re-spoked with fresh Dunlop Spitfire tires back in Arizona. He also had the cases and hubs polished, but not overly done.

I’ve owned the 750 for just about 10 years now. It had 23k miles when I bought it and now has 33k. Still a youngster as they say. Honda did such a great design on this motor that it should go at least 60-100k miles depending on the owner’s care of the bike. This Honda has taken me to different points of interest throughout the BayArea. Mt. Diablo, Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside, Ca, down the coast highway, Stanford University and many points beyond. The bike is mostly stock with the 4 exhaust pipes and the paint on the tank is original, not a repaint! I get asked all the time when I take the bike out.

The production run for the Honda CB750 bikes was from 1969 to approximately 1977. For my year being a 1974 K4, 60,000 were were made. I wonder where they all are now??

Many manufacturers before Honda had made inline fours. Honda was the first to introduce an OHC design, 4 carbs, 4 pipes, 5 speed transmission, and a front disk brake for a mass produced bike for even less than its competition. The other companies at the time had to "answer the call.”

Many of today’s bikes (inline fours) still retain the basic architecture along with all the high tech improvements. That says a lot of Honda’s design.