750 Sand Cast

 A beautifully restored 1969 Honda CB 750 Four “Sand Cast”

Introduced in 1968, the CB 750 Four was a complete departure from established paths in the 60s. A mtorcycle that would have brought the standards of the stock production bikes to a new and higher level. Kawasaki was outraged: they had been working on a 750cc four-cylinder, but they imply were too late… The revenge would have come later, with the Z900. But that’s another story. The first CB 750s rolled off the production line in late 1968. The early models, up to the beginning of 1969, were designated, simply, CB 750, without a K-number suffix. The CB 750 K0 was the second model, a transition one, followed closely by the 1970 K1, and so on through 1978 and the K8. The 1969 “sand cast” production had engine crankcases that were cast in “short-term molds” that were unsuitable for mass production. Honda did not want to pour all their investment capital into one strategy before they had some measure of its likely success. Technically speaking those early molds were not made of sand. They were steel molds and the process is called gravity or low pressure die casting, a process which produces a mildly rough exterior texture that is somewhat similar to that of sand casting. Once success came Honda switched to “high volume” pressure die cast steel molds. But “sand cast” stuck.

 

Moto Borgotaro - Brooklyn, NYC, USA