Description
Honda CB750 Phil Read factory replica.
CONCOURS
Probably the best example in the world
FULLY UK LICENSED
MODEL HISTORY
Motorcycle manufacturers are all ‘for profit’ organisations and any trick they can employ to shift a few more bikes they will undoubtedly take, limited editions are one way to go and other is the ‘race replica’ and here you have one of the very, if not the very first examples of the breed.
In order to celebrate their Isle of Man TT victory Honda decided to have a series of race replicas built, so they commissioned Colin Seeley’s legendary company to convert otherwise stock CB 750 F2s into official Phil Read Replicas.
Seeley’s team fitted a double beam full fairing with Cibie headlights, a hand-formed 5 gallon alloy fuel tank, racing-style rear sets, a new single seat and rear cowl, a custom high-performance exhaust, and it was all finished off in the same red/ white/ blue colour scheme used by the Honda Britain Racing Team.
Only 150 or so bikes were built before a disagreement between Phil Read and Honda killed the project. Colin Seeley remained undeterred, and slightly redesigned the model, then continued selling it as the Honda Britain, with Honda selling them as the CB750SS.
This machine.
Oh my, here’s something a little special. I spend an unhealthy amount of time looking at motorcycles, I believe that the way a motorcycle looks is only slightly less important than how it actually performs, particularly in the classic sector, as most modern 500cc motorcycles will easily outperform anything you might find in our show rooms (OK the Ducati Matrix has raised an objection). Most people (myself included) spend more time looking at their classic bikes than (heaven forfend) riding them. I therefore would contest that this motorcycle is kinetic art, I never get tired of looking at it and frankly feel I would be perfectly in my rights to charge people to sneak a peak at this beauty.
I would love to claim that we rescued this bike from a hedge in outer Mongolia and restored it totally ourselves, but that dear reader would be a lie, and the one thing we don’t do at MIS is lie. This I purchased as auction a couple of years ago, it was pretty much exactly the same as it is now, we have simply run an oily rag over it to make sure its spot on and my word this bike is spot on. It comes with a huge amount of paperwork detailing its authenticity and prior work, this bike truly has pedigree. You will notice there are no indicators and there are no mirrors, presumably the theory being you’re going racing not shopping and you only need to worry about what is in front of you. We have the original indicators that were sold with the bike and mirrors are available should they ever be needed.
Simply the best.
