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In the spring of 1969, at a time when large motorcycles still relied on drum brakes and kick-starters, Honda arrived with a 736cc inline-four. US media looks back at how the CB750 is the machine that essentially invented the concept of the "superbike" itself.
The CB750 is a machine that straddled a fault line in history. It arrived carrying an inline-four and disc brakes into a world dominated by drums and British twins. What the era demanded was speed and reliability coexisting. It's fair to say the term "superbike" was born in the wake of this one machine.
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Didn't know the CB750 was the starting point for the whole superbike genre.
What displacement were other manufacturers' flagship engines mostly centered around back in 1969?
Back then the mainstream was mostly 650cc-class parallel twins, so a 736cc inline-4 was completely off the charts.
Its arrival must've been a serious shock to contemporaries like Triumph and BSA.
A single bike that created the whole concept of 'superbike' — historical articles like this are always a good read.
The impact of a 736cc inline-4 in the era of drum brakes and kick starters just can't be measured by today's standards.
