My CB750F Restoration Update: Hurry Up and Wait

This CB750F restoration update is a little different from my usual garage videos. Just a quick ride to talk through where the project stands and why the bike still isn’t in my garage yet.

The short version is that I’m waiting on a Harbor Freight lift I ordered, which turned out to be a pre-sale item. It’s still a couple weeks out. That might sound like I’m just being impatient, but there’s actual logic behind it. Garage space is limited and the bike is going to be the biggest piece of real estate in the whole project. I’d rather have the lift in place, positioned, and ready to go before the CB750F rolls in. That way the bike goes straight onto the lift and stays there. No shuffling things around, no working past it to get equipment set up. Clean start.

Where the Title Situation Stands

In a previous video I mentioned we don’t have a clean title situation for this bike. The 1976 CB750F belonged to my grandfather and the title isn’t in my dad’s name. That’s been a wrinkle worth sorting out before anything else because eventually this bike needs to be registered and insured. That’s the whole point. Get it restored, get it ridable, take it places.

The good news is my dad reached out to my grandmother and she believes she has my grandfather’s death certificate. Once she tracks it down and gets it to my dad, we should be able to work through the transfer. It’s not a dead end. There’s a path forward.

And once it’s road legal, I’ve already got ideas about where to take it. Martin Moto does a classic ride-in that would be a perfect fit for this bike. There’s also a big outdoor flea market in our area called Jake’s that does an informal bike show once or twice a year. You ride up to the barn, they wave you in, you park inside. No exhibitor tables, no formal setup. Just older bikes and people who appreciate them. Getting a restored ’76 CB750F in there sounds like a good time.

The Key Situation (Which Turns Out to Be Fine)

When my dad mentioned he doesn’t have a key for the bike, my first reaction was mild panic. No key means no ignition, and my brain went straight to sourcing a replacement ignition. Not the end of the world but an annoying extra step on a project that already has a few moving pieces.

He talked me off the ledge pretty fast. Apparently back in 1976, the Honda CB750F only had about eight key patterns in existence. That’s it. Eight. So there’s still a known source to get replacement keys, and once the bike is situated we pull the number and order one. Problem solved.

The more I sat with that, the more it cracked me up. Think about it. If you bought a brand new CB750F off the showroom floor in 1976, you had a one in eight shot of being able to start any other CB750F at the dealership with your own key. It makes you wonder why bike theft wasn’t a much bigger problem back then. Grab eight keys and you could theoretically work your way through an entire parking lot of them. Different times.

Where Things Go From Here

So the summary is this. Title situation has a path forward. Key situation is basically a non-issue. The main thing I’m waiting on is the Harbor Freight lift so I can get the garage set up properly before the bike arrives.

Once that lift is in and positioned, the CB750F comes home and the real work starts. I’ll be documenting all of it, so if you’re following along on the restoration you’ll see it unfold from the beginning.

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