Honda CB 350-450-450-500-550-750: Books - History and Types

Honda CB350 & 400 Fours 1972-78

Brooklands Portfolio book about the Honda CB350 and 400 Four motorcycles from the years 1972-78. Describes the Honda CB350F, CB400F, F2 and Super Sport.

• The articles, taken from contemporary British and American motorcycle magazines, provide much information about history, model changes and technology.
• Also driving impressions, tests, comparison tests, technical specifications, etc.

▶  More information on the Brooklands Portfolio books

Honda CB500 & 550 Fours (1971-1977)

Brooklands Portfolio book about the Honda CB500 and 550 Four motorcycles from the years 1971-1977. Describes the Honda Super Sport, CB500, 500K2, CG550, 550F and F2, 550K and K3, 550F-77.

• The 29 articles, taken from contemporary British and American motorcycle magazines, provide much information about history, model changes and technology.
• Also driving impressions, tests, comparison tests, technical specifications, etc.

▶  More information on the Brooklands Portfolio books

Original Honda CB750 - The Restorer's Guide to K & F Series 750 SOHC Models, 1968-1978

Although the Japanese companies had effectively changed the face of motorcycling in Europe and the USA in the years up to 1968 with a multitude of well-engineered models, their success had been in the main achieved through a painstaking process of improving and elaborating on the traditional outline of the motorcycle as laid down long before by the established makers of Italy and Britain.

The CB750 changed all that. This was no careful, uprated, well- made variation on an antique theme. It was well made, all right, but overwhelmingly it was new. Revolutionary, some people said - and it is easy even today to see what they meant.
It had a four-cylinder engine as big as a small cars and more powerful, disc braking, a 120-130mph top speed - and above all there was the sheer impressive size and weight of it. As was soon revealed, it also had amazing, car-like reliability.

The author of this book, raised on British bikes, came to the CB750 35 years ago. His first ride caused him to adjust his standards and expectations in motorcycling.
Drawing on his experience as a private owner and a professional restorer, he has transcribed CB750 lore into a detailed account of the many variations of big four that have served motorcyclists during and beyond the 1968- 78 production span of the model.

As is customary in the Original series, an authoritative text is matched by over 200 colour photographs specially commissioned to illustrate just about every external feature, large and small, that helped make Honda's sohc CB750 the most important motorcycle of its time.

Honda CB750 Four

In the 1960s, Japanese motorcycle manufacturers were eating into the markets in Europe and the United States with genuinely new designs and modern technology. In 1968, Honda dropped its four-cylinder bombshell in the form of the CB750, complete with electric starter, five-speed gearbox and front disc brake. More than that, it offered speed, convenience, reliability and oiltightness, features that were normally mutually exclusive. The first 'superbike' had arrived.

In this book, Rod Ker tells the story of the Honda CB750 and its development during the 1970s. The author also covers the Four's subsequent rebirth as a classic, its present iconic status and includes buying advice for the twenty-first century.

Honda CB750 (1969-1978)

Brooklands Portfolio book about the Honda CB750 motorcycles from the years 1969-1978. Describes the Honda CB 750 Automatic, Super Sport, K2, K3, K5, K6, K7, F1, F2 and 960.

• The 38 articles, taken from contemporary British and American motorcycle magazines, provide much information about history, model changes and technology.
• Also driving impressions, tests, comparison tests, technical specifications, etc.

▶  More information on the Brooklands Portfolio books

Génération Honda - La révolution CB 750

Présentée en première mondiale à Tokyo fin 1968, la Honda CB 750 Four est disponible aux USA en juin 69, les derniers jours du mois d'août en France. Il y a cinquante ans, le premier gros cube signé Honda, avec son moteur quatre-cylindres et son frein avant à disque, démode instantanément tout ce qui roule. La révolution est telle qu'on parle de moto du siècle.

Le succès est immédiat : tous les motards de la planète rêvent de posséder une « 4-Pattes », comme elle est aussitôt surnommée. Première grosse cylindrée moderne, la Honda Four bouleverse l'industrie moto et impose de nouveaux standards. Après 1969 plus rien n'est pareil !

Honda CB 750 - Nanahan - Das Motorrad des Jahrhunderts

Nanahan - schlicht 7 und 50 bedeuten diese Worte im Japanischen, doch vor fünf Jahrzehnten begann damit eine Revolution. Hondas CB 750 wurde nicht nur zum "Motorrad des Jahrhunderts" gewählt, mit ihr stiess die gesamte Motorradindustrie in neue Dimensionen vor.

Reinhard Hopp, der Soichiro Honda noch persönlich kennenlernte, skizziert die Stationen dieses millionenfach gebauten Traums. Er beschreibt Entwicklung, Technik, Variationen und Prototypen, nimmt das Zubehör ebenso unter die Lupe wie die Folgegenerationen.
Ein umfangreicher Datenteil rundet diese mit etlichen Fotos garnierte Monografie des ersten Bigbikes ab.

Honda CB 750 Four - Vier Zylinder und zwei Räder

Schön, schnell, revolutionär und aufregend - Hondas CB 750 Four stellte die Motorradwelt auf den Kopf. Der legendäre Vierzylinder war das erste Großserien-Superbike. 1999 wurde die Four zum "Motorrad des Jahrhunderts" gewählt.
Zehn Jahre lang wurde die 1968 vorgestellte CB 750 mit geringen Änderungen in geradezu unglaublichen Stückzahlen gebaut.

In diesem üppig illustrierten Buch finden Sie die Story der Four, dazu die technischen Daten, die Baureihen, die Motorsport- (Stichwort Bol d'Or) und die Tuninggeschichte - von Bimota über Egli zu Rickman - sowie eine Menge Zeitkolorit.

Honda CB 750 Four

In a list of the 10 most significant motorcycles in two-wheel history, there is no doubt that the Honda 750 must take one of the top places. But it would also be included if the list were to be whittled down to five models - or and even three. Because when the machine went on sale in 1969, it radically changed the world motorcycle panorama.
If two wheeled machines were seen as a mere substitute for the car in previous decades, a spartan vehicle and, with rare exceptions, one of little fascination, a revolution took place with the arrival of the Four. Now, the motorcycle - this motorcycle - is even preferred to an open sports car in that it is a vehicle of enthusiasts' dreams due to its extremely modern appearance and high performance: for the first time, a production bike was capable of 200 kph.

The technical content was extraordinary, with its 4-cylinder engine, which had previously been reserved for racing, the front disc brake and its five speed gearbox. On top of that, the machine had an electric starter, a feature that alone pushed many a "motorcyclist" into buying it, people who until that day would never have dreamt of giving up their 4-wheel transport the day before the Four came out.
Competition was off-guard, so the arrival of the 750 meant the opposition immediately aged at least 10 years. And if that's not a revolution...

Text in Italian.