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The Honda Dream CB750 Four, which hit the market in July 1969 |
Honda succeeds again. The Dream CB750 Four hits the market.
Slaps it in the face is more like it. Under development for only a year, the CB750 offered two unprecedented features, a front disc brake and a transverse straight-4 engine with an overhead cam, neither of which was previously available on a mainstream, affordable production bike. These two features alone were brain-rattling but, with the introductory price of only $1,495 it gave the CB750 a considerable advantage over its competition, particularly British rivals, i.e. Triumph, Norton and BSA.
On July 18, even the somewhat snotty Cycle magazine called the CB750 "the most sophisticated production bike ever" upon its introduction. Then, not to be left out, Cycle World called it a masterpiece, highlighting Honda's painstaking durability testing, the bike's 120 mph top speed, the fade-free performance of the braking, the comfortable ride and easy to read gauges.
The CB750 was the first modern four-cylinder machine from a mainstream manufacturer, and the term superbike was coined to describe it. The bike offered other important features that gave you a twitching in your loins: an electric start, kill switch, dual mirrors, flashing turn signals, easily maintained valves and overall smoothness and freedom from vibration both underway and at a standing. It seemed the biggest complaints were that the bike was difficult to get on its center stand (so don't use it) and it had a habit of spitting chain oil onto the muffler (carry a rag like the rest of us).
The Dream CB750 model is included in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame of Classic Bikes, the Discovery Channel's "Greatest Motorcycles Ever," and was in The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition, and is in the UK National Motor Museum.
In fact, it gave birth to a new category known in Japan as "Nanahan" (Nanahan meaning 750 in Japanese, the term was used by the development staff to maintain the confidentiality of their new model).
Meanwhile on the racing circuit...
The in-house racing team at Honda R&D brought their CB750 Fours to compete in the Suzuka 10-Hour Endurance Race scheduled to be held in August 1969, soon after the model's commercial launch. Honda dominated the race with a one-two finish by Blue Helmet MSC. The team of Morio Sumiya and Tetsuya Hishiki took first place, while the pairing of Yoichi Oguma and Minoru Sato came in a close second.
Veteran rider Dick Mann, meanwhile, streaked to victory on his CB750 Four at the AMA Daytona 200-Mile Race in March 1970. It was a ride that sent customers throughout the States running to their Honda dealers.
