Studio Motor's Honda CB750

By guest writer Ian Lee.

I went for my first ride in a tuk tuk this week. Do you think I was in Singapore? Nope. Laos? Not even close. Thailand? No siree… I was actually in a workshop on the outskirts of Sydney. I got the idea of it though, garishly decorated and loud, a simple means to get around. Hailing from the same part of the world, comes a bike that is the healthy opposite to the idea of a tuk tuk. Well thought out aesthetics, the note of 736cc of Honda quad cylinder power, and a race fairing beat out of galvanised plate come together to show (once again) the talents of Donny Ariyanto at Studio Motor. If only as much thought went into tuk tuk design as went into this. 

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Honda CB750 K7 Café Racer

The value of a vintage bike is usually calculated by how common that bike is in that particular country. It's the basic laws of supply and demand. For instance, in America there's still quite a lot of Honda CB750's for sale - so they still offer pretty good value for money. However in a country like Greece, these Honda CB's are extremely rare. So when Aris Pavlidis from Adrenaline Junkies in Greece found one laying in the back yard of a carpenters workshop, he couldn't believe his luck. "It was in very bad shape but due to the rarity of this bike in Greece, I immediately went nuts about it, my mind started to make crazy plans for it" says Aris. So the next day, after a bit of haggling he bought it for $600 usd and got busy on his new found project.  

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Evolution Motorsports 1976 Honda CB750

If having your handy work plastered up here on the pages of Tube de Temp Rouge earned you some sort of shiny golden statuette of a stylised, airborne motorbike with a windswept pilot barely managing to hold on while his rattly steed heads for the heart of the sun, then the boys at Evolution Motorsports would be kicking back right now, feet up, staring at four of the things up there on their greasy, old spark plug infested mantle piece. Undoubtedly the initial honour of owning one will have worn off by now, and the first spate of polishing and dusting and showing it to everyone who entered the shop will have subsided, now replaced with casual comedic additions to them including a beer bottle cap as a hat, some racing numbers added with a sharpie, and even a stupendous appendage grafted onto trophy number 2 using some used pink gum. But why? Because of late they have had something else to occupy their crafty, talented minds. What have they been cutting their fingers on and greasing up their cuticles with, you ask? This is what.

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Honda CB750 Café Racer

I stumbled upon this thing of beauty on a blog called Anatomy of a Cafe Racer. The bike was built by a talented young guy from Kansas called Pete (AKA Pistol Pete). After building it over a two year period, he finally finished it last week. I wanted to find out more about this classy CB café racer, so I got in contact with Pete and asked him a couple of questions:

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Pete Moyer, I'm 28 and live in Kansas. I work in healthcare and I am married, but have no children. Ever since I can remember I have been practically obsessed with anything on wheels. I slept with hotwheels instead of teddy bears. Growing up I lived on a farm, so I had the opportunity to ride lots of dirtbikes and fourwheelers. In highschool I got more into hotrods and fast cars. I would fix up a car and sell it for in order to acquire a faster one. I frequently could be found at the local dragstrip racing my cars. I then went off to college and had only time to study. I did tinker around on a CB500 during my summer breaks, but it was a real hack job (and probably not very safe!). After graduation I moved into a house with a tiny garage. My only choice was to work on bikes, often doing so on my back porch. I built several and went a little overboard on the last one (or so my wife says). 

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1971 Honda CB750 Café Racer

There's no denying that the Portland café racer scene is alive and well. Especially when we keep coming across stunning bikes like this 1971 CB750, owned and built by Portland local Phil G. It has been his project and obsession for the last 2 1/2 years but doesn't want to take all the glory. "I would like to sit here and tell you that I did it all myself but i have to give credit were credit is due" says Phil. While the overall concept and design of the bike was all Phil, there are a few very important elements that would not have been possible without the help from his very talented friends. "I have to say thanks to Sam Hill for welding the custom oil tank and the 5" stretch into the fuel tank, also to Sean Smith for laying down the beautiful black paint, Paul Burdette for the stage 3 port job and general engine building help, Ginger McCabe of New Church Customs for the seat pad, and to Deon Staffelbach for the awesome photography. Other than that I pretty much did everything myself." I asked Phil why there's so many custom bikes coming out of Portland and he replied "maybe it's the long wet winters, plenty of time to build, not a lot of time to ride." With winter approaching over there, we look forward to seeing more impressive builds after they come out of hibernation. 

Spec list:
Engine bored out to 850
Stage three ported head
Super flow valves
Webcam 63a grind
Cyclex super rods
Balanced and lightened crank and rotor
Under cut tranny
All new bearings and chains inside
CR 29 carbs
Custom aluminum oil tank
Stock fuel tank stretched 5" with knee dents
Custom rear sets (modeled after dunstall rear sets from the 70's)
Custom s.s. muffler

Honda CB750 Dunstall

We always love receiving motorcycles from our readers in far away places. This Honda CB750 café racer was built by engineering student Ilkka Töyli from Finland. The bike has an original Dunstall racing tank, clubman bars, Suzuki GT front end /w dual disc brakes, Dunstall rear sets, chromed swingarm and a seat built by Ilkka himself. "I also designed the Dunstall logo on the tank purposely to resemble the old Ducati double-line logo" he says. The bike took around 10 months to build and is Ilkka first ever bike – not bad for a poor engineering student.

 

Joe's V Cycle Café Racers

Joe from Joe's V Cycle was employed in the airline industry for most of his career as a Lead Aircraft Technician. After numerous years maintaining and rebuilding Boeing and Airbus engines, Joe now spends his time building and restoring classic motorcycles. These beautiful bikes are just a taste of his recent handy work. The stunning blue Ducati is a 1966 Monza 250 and the green Honda is a 1972 cb750. "The Ducati and the CB750 were built this winter over about a 6 month period. Both were total overhauls with both engine and frame suspension plus all the custom work and parts. All the work was done in house except for powder coating and cad plating" says Joe. It's definitely worth checking out Joe's custom and restoration galleries. 

Honda CB750 Café Racer

It's almost been a year since we featured the CB750F Bobber created by Chris Tragert from Venice Choppers. Chris has again choosen to use the CB750F as the donor bike, but this time creating a mean looking CB750F café racer. "A 'proper' café racer is fine for nipping down to the pub for a pint, but the streets of L.A. are no tea party" says Chris. "The starting point was a 78 CB750F, chosen for it's potent black lump. The Comstar wheels, and bodywork, however, stood in the way of the desired 'rocker' look, so a little reverse engineering was in order. Stripped bare, and shaved, the frame is fitted with forks, swingarm, wheels, and pegs from a 69 CB750. The rear subframe was modified to hold the battery and electrical components, which are concealed beneath a custom fitted tailpiece. Knee cut-outs on the 69 tank flow into the tuck and roll seat, to create a narrow cockpit. The lowered stance comes from cut down forks in front, with 11" shocks, and a 135/15 radial in the rear. The engines racer intentions are broadcast through a repro Yoshimura pipe, fueled by round-top carbs with machined stacks, and ignited by a Russ Collins bevel drive spinning a Vertex magneto. Rounding out the package are a high capacity oil tank, and headlight bucket with integrated speedo". The oil tank and headlight are from BCR and that distinctive tailpiece and pipes are clearly from Carpy. Overall the bike is a well balanced mix of classic and street – the only thing missing are the clip-ons. 

1975 Honda CB750F

Chris Sharon is the proud owner and builder of this immaculate CB750F. Based in Seattle, he is also a member of a vintage motorcycle club called the Knuckle Busters. "The love of old bikes and working on them brings us all together. We're a fairly new club but we are coming on strong" Chris tells us. "This 1975 CB750F was my first complete frame up with every nut, bolt, and what not completely restored or replaced. The basis for my bike was that old hot rod look". To get a few extra ponies, the heads were ported and polished, 849cc big bore with stage three cam and chrome 4 into 1 exhaust. The frame was powder coated in flat black paint with hand laid pin stripes. Chris also created a simple but effective custom seat pan using the stock rear cowl. Some of the other specs include: nitrogen reservoir rear shocks and progressive springs up front, drilled disc’s and Dyna ignition and coils. "This set up pulls like a train and I’ve since had to retool the seat to keep me from sliding back too far" he says. Chris loves this bike so much that he has built another stunning CB750 which we will feature soon.