A RARE RIDE
How much would you pay for a 50-year-old Honda 750cc four? I was pondering this while riding a very special CB750, one of only four built by Honda to launch the bike to dealers early in 1969 before production had started in Japan.
Examples of the so-called ‘sand-cast’ versions – bikes with engine numbers up to 0007414 – have been selling for up to £30,000, so what might you think an even rarer one – a celebrity machine amongst Honda CB750 four fans – would be valued at? Tony Brown from Lancashire has an idea what it could be, and it’s more than the phenomenal £161,000 he paid during the H&H auction held at the National Motorcycle Museum in March 2018. Immediately after the deal was completed, one of the unsuccessful bidders offered Tony an extra £10,000 on the spot. So he reckons, now that this CB750 is better known, not just in motorcycling circles but in the world of automobile collectors, it could now reach much more than that.
The value of this machine was important to Mortons, the publishers of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, because it had to be covered by insurance. After I
