Honda CB750 F1 - The CB Sunset

Since 1968, the Honda cb750 had cast a huge shadow over motorcycling playing its part in transforming powered two wheelers while helping to mould the concept of the “superbike”. By 1976 the sharks had circled and attacked with Kawasaki’s Z1 adding a second camshaft to trump the SOHC Honda while Yamaha debuted a DOHC shaft drive triple with shaft drive and cast alloy wheels.

Honda effectively pushed the cb750 towards a more sporting role with the F1 given that they had wowed the world with the GL1000 Goldwing tourer in 1975. So, did the old war horse rise to the challenge and did Honda do enough to keep the SOHC 736cc legend relevant as glam rock merged into punk rock? In short, yes… but only just.

Sporting a colour coordinated “tail” piece to the rear (complete with storage module), the cb750-F1 gained some much-needed acceleration by lowering the overall final drive ratio while domed pistons upped the compression slightly to counter the ever more stringent regulations. A 4-into-1 exhaust plus simple mono-tone paint schemes defined the F1 along with the adoption of a rear disc brake with twin piston caliper (even if the front was still a single piston design).

Honda stuck with the dry sump layout with the oil header tank hidden behind a colour coded side panel but did alter the steering angle and other minor elements of the chassis to gain agility while maintaining stability.

In a world that was rapidly changing, the wire spoked wheels, single front brake caliper and old-style instruments were perhaps a sign that Honda were happy the soldier on with the F1 while they refined its eventual DOHC successor – and to be fair, the CB was so far ahead of its time that it was still a worthy purchase choice in 1976.

The eventual F2 version adopted Comstar wheels and a black painted engine leaving the F1 as somewhat of a bargain for restorers. CMS have shelves groaning under the weight of cb750 spares so find yourself a tidy F1 and let us help you enjoy the SOHC sunset...