r/cb750

Hey, I’m going shopping for my new bike Monday, and I’m pretty set between these two models. The 2026 CB750 Hornet and the 2026 CB650R.

The main factors I’m considering are Engine, Features, and Aesthetics.

I’m a 6’4 rider with a 34 inch inseam. Sitting on either bike is comfortable, but as it’s my first ride I don’t really know whether or not a certain amount of knee bend or lean becomes unsustainable on hour+ rides. I’m trying to use this bike as a daily commuter on my 10 mile route equally split between the interstate and traffic-light city roads. On the weekends my father and I are planning to do larger scale rides, around a couple hours. Neither of us have any inclination to push the bikes harder than the speed limit, except in passing scenarios.

Engine-wise, The 750 is a parallel twin while the 650 is an inline-4. I believe this means the 750 handles city riding better and is cheaper overall. I’ve also heard that parallel twins are easier to service. The 650’s inline-4 appears to handle easier on the interstate and at higher speeds, but I’ve also seen a lot of people say the bike has problems with vibration at 6k rpm. I know there’s a strong culture around inline-4’s and the quality of their sound. I personally don’t care about this.

Both bikes are very similar with the Honda E-Clutch tech, which I love as the only bike adjacent thing I’ve ridden was the automatic scooter I would rent when I lived in Asia. The main difference between the bikes is that the 650 is throttle by cable, and the 750 is throttle by wire. This means the 750 can automatically rev match when shifting, and also introduces ride modes to the bike. For someone who’s only rode automatic, I really love the ease of use that comes from the E-Clutch TBW combo, but maybe I’m overestimating how difficult rev matching is. The 750 also comes with Roadsync, but I’ve heard this software is trash anyway. I just like that it’s integrated into the machine for aesthetics and simplicity.

Aesthetically, hands down I love the 650 so much more. I think it’s a beautiful bike, and while the 750 isn’t exactly an ugly ride, the colorway of the black with the gold trim is just so sexy to me.

Engine: Undecided, need a test ride.

Features: CB750 unless I decide TBW is inconsequential to my riding experience.

Aesthetics: CB650R all the way, but the 750 isn’t an ugly ride.

Found a bike the same year and trim as my recently broken 1981 CB750K. $200 and 2 hours of driving. I hate knowing it will never see the road again, but parts of it will keep a good bike going.

Check out the vintage Coors Racing sticker!

Making some custom body panels for my first build since I wanted to keep the stock wiring so I can use a wiring diagram and YouTube to fix it. Cut with hand shears and a grinding wheel, bent with a 2x4 and the edge of a table. CAD is propaganda by big computer, shoutout the old heads for this method for making carbon wet lay molds.