<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Ever since I first saw a Honda CR750 I&amp;#039;ve wanted one. When Honda built the CR750 they notched up a race win that solidified their place in the American motorcycle market, and created a machine that 46 years later is still about as good looking as a motorcycle can get. Our cover bike is a replica we stumbled across purely by chance and I&amp;#039;m very happy we did \u2026 so happy in fact that we at Tank Moto magazine decided to put it on the cover.  This CR750 replica was built by Brian Browne, owner of TT Motorcycles in Mornington, located about an hour south of Melbourne. Brian built the CR for a customer who wanted an accurate reconstruction of Honda&amp;#039;s original design, and he&amp;#039;s certainly not going to be disappointed. Before we talk about Brain&amp;#039;s CR though, I think it&amp;#039;s important we first take a look back at why the CR750 is such a special part of Honda&amp;#039;s two wheeled history.  In 1970 Honda Motorcycles&amp;#039; marketing department had their eyes set on the United States. Although their newly released 1969 CB750 was celebrated as a technological and performance breakthrough, the Honda brand simply didn&amp;#039;t have the street-cred it needed to generate enough US sales. Honda had already experienced success in European racing in 1969 including a win at the revered Bol d&amp;#039;Or 24 hour in France, but it wasn&amp;#039;t enough to make an impact on the Americans. Bob Hansen, the American service manager at the time, told Mr. Honda himself that if you want to sell them, you&amp;#039;ll have to race them. At the time a motorcycle manufacturer could expect a &amp;quot;Win on Sunday, sell on Monday&amp;quot; result due to the huge popularity of the racing events. This recommendation lead to the construction of four unique racing bikes, which were promptly packed and shipped to the USA for entry into the Daytona 200 mile.  Honda had originally planned for all four bikes to be ridden by British riders, but later assigned one to the 1969 AMA Grand National titleholder, Dick Mann, a decision they would never regret. The British/Irish constituent of the CR750 team included road circuit racer Bill Smith, future lightweight TT winner Tommy Robb and Honda 50cc world champion Ralph Bryans. Honda provided the racers with four bikes which each had slight differences in camshaft specifications and varying power figures of between 89 to 96 hp.  During testing Ralph Bryans bike stepped out on a bank, jack-knifed, and crashed. The bike burst into flames when its tank ruptured. Bill Smith subsequently gave up his bike so the more accomplished rider Bryans could compete. All of the bikes were experiencing mechanical problems and it was discovered that the magnesium crankcases were expanding under high temperatures which could have lead to serious engine failure. To tackle this problem, three stock CB750 engines were sourced from local dealers and promptly modified using parts from the original CR750 motors. During this time Brian Hensen&amp;#039;s team spotted a weakness in the bike&amp;#039;s cam chain tensioner and replaced it with one from a CB450, a modification that the British teams chose not to do. The remaining three CR750s then lined up on the 200-deep grid amongst new triples from Triumph and BSA, and the first XR750 Harley-Davidsons.  When the starting flag dropped Mann shot ahead from his fourth place on the grid and had a 50m lead by the first turn. Early in the race the two other CRs experienced mechanical failures and dropped out but Mann maintained his lead. After 100 laps of the Daytona course, Dick Mann crossed the finish line with up-and-coming champion Gene Romero hot on his heels, winning his first Daytona 200 after 15 attempts and giving Honda the boost in sales they were after. Ironically Dick&amp;#039;s bike broke down only seconds after crossing the line but this made no difference to the final result. This single win could be regarded as the one event that led to Honda Motorcycles becoming the company it is today.   Due to demand for CR750 racers Honda released a short run of &amp;#039;kit bike&amp;#039; CR750s which they supplied to a select group of dealers. The kits could be used to convert a stock CB750K into a race-ready bike using around 200 specially designed parts that were direct replacements for the factory components. Today very few of the original kit bikes remain so building an accurate replica can be a real challenge.  Brian&amp;#039;s CR750 replica has been a painstaking 18 months in the making. The decision to make the bike as accurate to original factory spec has meant acquiring parts that as Brian puts it &amp;quot;are as rare as hens teeth&amp;quot;. Thankfully though Brian has 30 years of working for Honda behind him and he&amp;#039;s a walking databank of CR750 facts. The build began with a &amp;#039;71/&amp;#039;72 series CB750 frame that was cut and braced to race spec before receiving a coat of black 2pac paint. A K2 series engine was located and underwent a full rebuild, upgrading to a mild racing tune. Since this CR doesn&amp;#039;t have any racing plans (yet) capacity was only increased to 836 cc. The cam was replaced with a mild race unit from Yoshimura and electrics have been converted to a total loss system. The stock carbs have been replaced with modern, smooth bore 31 mm CR carbs, which aren&amp;#039;t magnesium like the original ones, but are as visually accurate as possible.  About 20 years ago while Brian was working at Honda Australia they gained access to an original CR750 kit bike. He was allowed to take moulds of the bikes components and as such the levers and pegs on this bike are identical to the original 1970s bike. The bike&amp;#039;s aluminium fuel and oil tank come from Mead Speed in the UK who build exact replicas on a five-month order-to-delivery turn around. The fiberglass fairing and seat cowl come from Airtech Streamlining in the states which are again, exact replicas from Honda&amp;#039;s original design. The bike rolls on a pair of 18-inch, flanged &amp;#039;mud catcher&amp;#039; rims from Spanish manufacturer Morad who reproduce them to the original Akront design. The rear hub, which Brian refers to as the bikes most prized component is a super rare (\u20AC4000) twin leading shoe, magnesium cast hub that is, by all accounts &amp;quot;no longer available.&amp;quot; Brian knew where to look.  The CR redefines the meaning of loud thanks to an eight-piece, handmade, straight through, four-tip exhaust from the UK. It&amp;#039;s another long wait item taking three months to arrive but I can&amp;#039;t imagine anyone claiming it wasn&amp;#039;t worth the wait. The gauges are again replicas of the original units from Honda made by Smiths in the UK. Brian was quick to point out the tach starts at 1000 rpm when it should be 4000 rpm, and plans to change that sometime in the future. Brian made the mounting plate for the instruments along with all the fairing mounts and many other unseen features that help to pull the bike together, but the thing he is most proud of is the paint. He worked closely with a local painter to mix the mysterious colour. He calls it &amp;#039;Candy Topaz Orange&amp;#039; which they achieved by laying five layers of metallic silver base, then ten coats of his color candy mix, and finally four coats of clear, resulting in a near perfect match to Honda&amp;#039;s original color scheme.  I was somewhat disappointed to hear that the bike was destined to become a lounge room feature, but Brian assures me it&amp;#039;s owner won&amp;#039;t be able to resist temptation for too long. Hopefully with any luck we&amp;#039;ll be able to his CR750 replica in action at a Phillip Island classics race in the not too distant future. This article originally appeared in Tank Moto magazine, issue #1. International readers can subscribe to Tank Moto or its beautiful sister book, FUEL at ShiftAndDrive.com. For more on Tank Moto and FUEL, visit  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/features/a4798/guest-feature-tank-moto-honda-cr750-classic-replica/>