Honda CBX750

I don’t know how i did not die on this bike. A step up straight from my CB250 into a 747 cc inline-four 16 valve engine of the CB 750X was significantly different from anything i had owned before. Honda’s engineers were brilliant in eliminating any extraneous weight from the engine to achieve the goal of making the bike as small and light as possible. It had a high output alternator which was was relocated from the end of the crankshaft to behind the cylinders, above the gearbox, adjacent to the starting motor, reducing width at the bottom of the motor. A chain from the crankshaft’s centre drives it in this location and by decreasing the depth of the sump, the height of the engine reduced further. To make up for the new engines oil loss, Honda duplicated the traditional BSA design and created a reservoir in the bike’s frame. This resulted in a smaller engine that was mounted lower in the frame for a better centre of gravity and enhanced oil cooling. Where Honda made truly major improvements to the engine was at the top end. The camshafts were made hollow for lightness and hydraulic oil-filled self-adjusting tappets were introduced. Even at high rpm, they were near silent, and maintenance was hardly ever required. Only trouble I ever had with this bike was icing of the carbs in winter…