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Honda CB’s – 1969 Honda CB750K0
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1969 Honda CB750K0
1969 CB750K0: THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE FOUR-CYLINDER IS BORN
For those who didn’t personally experience the revolution that Honda launched with the 1969 CB750, it’s difficult to fully comprehend the impact of this landmark motorcycle. In 1969 Honda had been in America for only 10 years, and at that time European bikes–especially British–defined the parameters of high performance. In one deft move, Honda instantly elevated the entire motorcycle industry to a new and higher plane. Suddenly, the heretofore contradictory elements of jaw-dropping performance, engineering sophistication and mechanical reliability would become interwoven into a seamless whole, thanks to the CB750K0.
Here was modern motorcycling’s first large inline four-cylinder production bike, a SOHC 736cc marvel of engineering that introduced power and civility as flip sides of the same coin. Just as significant was the CB750’s disc brake, the very first to be fitted on a production motorcycle, plus a new level of all-around competence. With more than 400,000 CB750s sold during its nine-year life, this bike single-handedly shifted the center of the high-performance motorcycling world from England to Japan, and ushered in a whole new level of expectation on the part of discerning motorcyclists.
