Honda's 736cc four beat Triumph and Norton on every spec at once

In 1969, Triumph and Norton still set the standard for fast road motorcycles. Their big British twins offered speed, racing credibility, sharp handling, and the kind of character riders proudly tolerated through vibration, kickstarting, four-speed gearboxes, and drum brakes. Then a new machine arrived with more cylinders, more power, five speeds, electric starting, and a hydraulic front disc. This bike changed everything.

Triumph And Norton Still Defined What A Fast Motorcycle Should Be

The Triumph Bonneville had every right to look confident. By 1969, Triumph had spent years refining its 650cc parallel-twin into one of the best-known fast road motorcycles in the world. Its basic family tree reached back to Edward Turner’s Speed Twin, but years of development had brought unit engine-and-gearbox construction, better breathing, stronger brakes, and a chassis that riders trusted. The Bonneville represented the mature version of that formula, not an old design nobody had bothered to replace. Its 649cc overhead-valve twin made about 46 hp and sent it through a four-speed transmission.

Cycle World’s period coverage treated Triumph’s big twins with real respect. The magazine praised their tight power delivery, strong chassis, useful suspension, and natural road manners. It noted that a Bonneville could finish a standing quarter-mile at about 100 mph and run beyond 115 mph in the right conditions. And that performance came with personality: the engine pulsed, the exhaust barked, and the slim chassis gave the rider a direct sense of speed. A Bonneville asked for effort, but many enthusiasts saw that as part of the experience. Even the kickstarter felt like a handshake, though sometimes the motorcycle squeezed first.

Norton's 745cc Commando, meanwhile, offered a newer answer to the same British formula. Its Isolastic system mounted the engine and swingarm through rubber elements, which kept much of the parallel twin’s vibration away from the rider. That was very important because Norton’s engine produced roughly 56 to 58 horsepower, enough for a top speed near 115 mph. Early Commandos still used a four-speed gearbox, a kickstarter, and a front drum brake, but they paired that hardware with a chassis that felt alert and planted.

The Challenger Was Designed Around Everything Riders Complained About

Honda reached the same point of refinement after learning a hard lesson from the CB450. The smaller twin was quick and technically advanced, yet American buyers did not judge a big motorcycle only by stopwatch results and wanted displacement that looked important, torque that arrived without frantic downshifts, and enough physical size to feel substantial on long roads. Honda's research found that many U.S. riders saw motorcycling as recreation and travel, not a constant high-rpm test. Honda project leader Yoshiro Harada even tried explaining that the smaller bike could outperform some British 650s, but dealers still heard the same answer from customers: bigger mattered.

The company also learned that Triumph was developing a 750cc triple. That news helped Honda choose the same displacement class, but the project brief reached far beyond beating one horsepower figure. Engineers targeted steady cruising between about 87 and 99 mph, reliable braking after repeated high-speed use, low vibration and noise, long-distance comfort, durable lights and instruments, easier service, and a design that factories could build in large numbers. Honda was planning the next five years of ownership, including cold mornings, traffic, highway heat, two-up weekends, and the moment when the headlight had to work rather than merely look decorative.

The 1969 Honda CB750 Combined The Entire Future In One Bike

That mystery motorcycle was the 1969 Honda CB750 Four. Its engine displaced 736cc and arranged four air-cooled cylinders across the frame under a single overhead camshaft. Four carburetors fed it, and a one-piece crankshaft ran in plain bearings, an automotive-style choice that supported smooth, sustained high-rpm use when paired with Honda's pressure-fed oil system. Production output stood at about 67 hp at 8,000 rpm, which topped the Bonneville and Commando while delivering its power with far less shake.

Honda also resisted the urge to tune the engine like a fragile race special. Cycle World described the long-stroke four as mild enough to pull cleanly at low and middle rpm, return useful fuel economy, and live a long life. That decision gave the CB750 one of its least flashy advantages – it didn’t feel dramatic in the same way the era’s flagship bikes did. Four cylinders spread each combustion event across smaller pistons, which reduced the pounding sensation common to large twins. The result made high-speed cruising less tiring.

The rest of the specification sheet read like a coordinated attack. A five-speed gearbox offered closer ratios and more flexibility than the British four-speeds. An electric starter let the rider wake the engine with a thumb instead of a boot. Historians widely credit its hydraulic front disc as the first fitted to a mass-production street motorcycle. Its exposed rotor shed heat into the air, while an enclosed drum had more trouble cooling itself and could lose effectiveness as temperatures climbed.

Then came the price: $1,495 in the United States. That was not bargain-bin money, and it did not undercut every British twin. Cycle World listed the 1969 Triumph Tiger at $1,299, yet the Honda cost less than the roughly $1,750 BSA Rocket 3 while supplying four cylinders, five speeds, electric starting, and a hydraulic disc. It also made exotic multi-cylinder motorcycles look financially unreasonable. The trick was not that Honda invented every component first; other motorcycles had used fours, overhead cams, electric starters, and disc brakes in one form or another. The trick was that Honda assembled the best ideas into one attainable machine, then supported them with ordinary dealer service and mass production.

Britain Could Match Individual Features, But Not Honda’s Manufacturing System

Honda’s advantage started before the first CB750 reached a dealer. The company brought Grand Prix experience with small multi-cylinder engines, knowledge from automobile production, large casting and machining resources, and enough money to test away problems instead of passing them to customers. The manufacturer ran prototype pistons for 200 hours at 70 percent power, followed by 20 hours at full throttle. Early designs suffered heat and scuffing trouble, so engineers changed piston thickness and taper until the problem eased. Honda also used computer systems to speed design changes and production planning, then checked hundreds of items from the owner’s point of view before full export production.

The production story showed the same depth. Honda first expected to build only 1,500 CB750s a year. Orders quickly turned that annual forecast into a monthly target, then pushed output toward 3,000 units per month. Early crankcases used a labor-heavy mold process because Honda did not know whether the market would support expensive tooling. Demand answered the question loudly, so the company changed to die-cast cases and reorganized production. The famous early “sandcast” cases were not a performance upgrade – they marked Honda’s cautious first step before the sales flood, and later became collector bait. Across the original single-overhead-cam generation, model tallies commonly total roughly 553,000 CB750s through 1978. Honda put advanced hardware into hundreds of thousands of garages, which lowered costs, spread service knowledge, and made sophisticated equipment look ordinary.

Triumph and Norton eventually added many of the same features, but the calendar tells the painful story. Norton adopted a front disc in the early 1970s, then combined disc brakes and electric starting on the 1975 Commando 850 Mk3. Triumph’s 1975 T160 Trident finally brought a five-speed gearbox, disc brakes, and electric starting together. By then, the CB750 had spent years resetting buyer expectations and encouraging other Japanese brands to develop large multi-cylinder road bikes. Britain could only answer one feature at a time.

Of course, the CB750 did not outperform the Bonneville and Commando in every measurement. It weighed more, and many riders preferred the steering feel, slimness, and quick direction changes of the British twins. Norton’s Isolastic mounting was a major innovation, too. Cycle World still found the Honda remarkably capable for its weight, with strong cornering clearance, stable high-speed manners, and no major handling penalty from its size. Also, the Honda’s win came from the full package – its width, weight, four carburetors, and four exhaust pipes brought their own service and packaging costs, so the engineering did not come free.

The CB750 Changed What Counted As A Complete Motorcycle

Before 1969, a great motorcycle could earn its reputation through one or two dominant traits. It might be very fast, very light, beautiful in motion, successful in racing, or unusually rewarding on a twisting road. The CB750 changed the grading curve – buyers began to expect speed, smoothness, repeatable braking, easy starting, long-distance comfort, dependable electrics, routine reliability, and real availability at the same time. A performance bike could no longer excuse a weak starter, fading brake, or narrow comfort zone merely because the engine had charm. Character still mattered; it just stopped working as a substitute for every missing feature.

That shift mattered more than any single speed record. Honda’s rivals answered with their own large multi-cylinder motorcycles, and the shared layout later gained the label Universal Japanese Motorcycle. The formula was simple because Honda had done the difficult work first: an across-the-frame multi-cylinder engine, upright ergonomics, a front disc, electric starting, useful road manners, and factory precision at mass-market scale. Triumph and Norton still built motorcycles that enthusiasts loved, and they remain beloved for good reasons. The problem was that love no longer covered the whole invoice. By the time British machines combined modern brakes, five speeds, and electric starting, the market treated those items as expected equipment rather than headline news.

Source: Honda, Triumph, Norton, Cycle World