Honda CB750 Is Priciest Japanese Motorcycle To Be Sold At Auction

The 1968 pre-production Honda CB750 is one of just four built and fetched GBP 1,61,000 (around Rs. 1.45 crore) to become the most expensive Japanese motorcycle ever sold at auction. The bike was built for promotional purposes and was sent to Honda Great Britain in 1969 to be used for the UK launch of the then new CB750 model. The bike was first publicly shown in Europe at the Brighton Motorcycle show on April 5, 1969, and also appeared on the cover of the May 1969 issue of 'Motorcycle Mechanics'.

The bike does not share a single part with the production model

The bike, with frame number and engine number, CB750-2110, was sold at the H&H Classics auction organised at the British National Motorcycle Museum on March 4, 2018. The pre-production Honda CB750 was estimated by H&H Classics to sell for between GBP 35,000-40,000 before the sale, but a prolonged bidding contest saw the price soar to GBP 1,61,000. According to the auction house, the 1968 Honda CB750 does not share a single part with the production model and has been kept in the same private collection for the past 35 years. It was being put through a complete restoration when the owner passed away.

The previous record for the most expensive Japanese motorcycle sold at auction was for a 1962 Honda CR72 Production Racer, which sold at around GBP 130,000 (over Rs. 1.1 crore) at a Las Vegas auction in 2009. The previous record price for a Honda CB750 was set by another Honda prototype which sold for $148,000 (just over GBP 1,00,000 or Rs. 96 lakh) on eBay in February 2014.