When Bike EXIF lit a fire under the custom scene ten years ago, Honda CB750 cafe racers showed up everywhere. And there was a simple formula for customizing them: ditch the fenders, loop the subframe and slap on a bench seat. Then add pipewrap and Firestone Deluxe Champions for extra credit.
We’ve entered a new decade now, and that recipe is well and truly played out. So here’s a fresh look at the iconic 1970s Honda, from Rob Chappell of Origin8or in Ontario, Canada.

Instead of leaning on clichés, Rob’s given the CB750 hits of 80s and 90s muscle bike style, with some contemporary performance upgrades in the mix too. Only fitting for a bike that’s widely know as the world’s first ‘superbike.’
Rob originally founded Origin8or alone, but these days he’s helped by a South African transplant, Adrian Taljaard. And they pieced this 1974 CB750 together from almost thirty boxes of parts that arrived in the back of a van.
?When a customer says they?ve taken it apart,? Rob says, ?I usually think the motor is out of the frame and the forks and wheels are separate. In this case every single nut and bolt was bagged and tagged, in their own boxes.?
?The customer had it sitting that way for about three years, and finally gave in to the fact that he was never going to finish it, and so he called me.?

Rob and Adrian went to town, overhauling the bike from the inside out. The engine parts and carbs went off for vapor blasting, before e...