Dresda Honda CB750 (Identification needed)

[Yoshi823]

Nice pic Steve...but the CB750K had differant side panels to the era of the CB900FZ

I very nearly bought one of these bikes back in '79. Sort of glad that i spent the time & money modifying my 750F2 instead...

[Eric Frith]

Here's a pic of the seat and tank unit. Clearly inspired by the CB900f's etc, which sort of confirms that it's been retro fitted.



Thanks for the help so far

Eric

[K2-K6]

Eric, I think your bike maybe out of a company called "Japauto" a big french Honda dealer that raced alot of CB750 stuff in 70's endurance racing.

If you search for "japauto+dresda" and change to images, then it even pulls up some wheels that seem to be the same as yours.

It seems that japauto ran three dresda framed 750's during the 1972 race season, so you may have something connected with that.

That missing cush drive, it's just possible that it could of used a quick detach sprocket arrangement to facilitate fast wheel changes while leaving the sprocket on the spindle/swingarm with the chain in place.

[K2-K6]

There's even more info about this once you connect it to japauto (if that's the case) it appears that Dave Degens supplied 5 frames in 1970 to them.
And this bit is really interesting, he designed and built a 4 into 1 exhaust....5 examples....for these bikes. This it seems was against the belief of the Honda factory that they would work well, his reasoning was that they needed more ground clearance than outright power.
Your exhaust looks pretty unique, so it's possible that you have a historically important system that maybe a precursor to any of the japanese production systems.
Dave Degens apparently confirmed this to the SOHC.net site in the past.

You could have something very interesting Eric.

[Eric Frith]

I live in hope......I'll continue to gather info until I start the re-furb, probably in 2015.

Thanks to all that have helped so far.........

Eric

[rs_pete]

Saw your post and joined the forum!
I own a Dresda Honda and have done since about 1975. Overbored to 900 and bloody quick :-)
That's about the best bit, it currently resides in boxes in a storage unit as I stripped it down to rebuild it a couple of house moves ago....
Anyway Dresda built at least three iterations of the frame for the CB750 SOHC. Yours and mine are pretty similar except for the coils mounted on the down tubes. They were moved there to keep them cooler and easier to change when racing if they gave problems.
Yours seems to have suffered some "attention" as in the rear master cylinder bracket welded to the frame. All his frames were bronze welded and I believe T45 tubing.
The front is obviously Honda. Wheels are, I think, early Laverda cast ones. Do they have any markings on them and are they different rim widths?
Body work I haven't a clue but Dave used to export Hondas to Spain as Dresdas. Brand new but with a few tweaks such as an alloy tank re register as Dresda and sold in Spain as a British built machine attracting less tax than a Japanese import. Could be the bodywork had something to do with him but ....?
Worth looking at the Japauto owners site for some idea of how awful some of the creations looked back in the 70's! They were often truly unique!!
http://1000vx-club.pagesperso-orange.fr/
The following links are for sites featuring some of the various Dresda frames for the CB750
http://www.motor-forum.nl/forum/list_messages/197903/Jaren-7080-Specials-1.html
http://charlescamberoque.unblog.fr/2009/09/02/la-186-terrot-philippon-rallye/
http://www.stmotorcycles.co.uk/index.php?p=1_9_Honda-Dresda
http://www.nirvana-motorcycles.com/gallerydresda.htm
The last one shows a 3C Laverda with early cast wheels,
http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/File:3C.jpg

I will see if I can dig out some of the info I have including scanning some sales brochures if you are interested?

[SteveD CB500K0]

http://www.nirvana-motorcycles.com/gallerydresda.htm

This one is mine.

Long story - I will write it up for my blog at some stage.

At the moment it is being refurbished by a local enthusiast.

Steve

[rs_pete]

Nice.
Well maybe the paintwork is an acquired taste! though was popular on some of his bikes he had in the Putney showrooms when I visited.
What is the story on the engine front alluded to in the caption?
Mine also has the oil in the frame. Bit concerned that the tubes haven't got any corrosion on them that may wreck the engine. Will have to see how I can get them clean.


I had to replace a Guzzi Le Mans engine in a Magni Guzzi some years ago. The owner had the frame powder coated. They didn't block up the engine breather that was part of the frame so ended up full of shot.  As did the engine when he took it out for a run . When I removed the valve covers there were little piles of sand in there! Totally and completely wrecked every bit.

[Eric Frith]

Thanks for the additional information, every bit helps, the rear brake does look to be a bit of a bodge and I may either make it good or revert to drum rear.

[Eric Frith]

I looked up some Laverda wheels and they are very similar, I'll do some further digging..

[SteveD CB500K0]

What is the story on the engine front alluded to in the caption?

Just that - "we understand that..."

I never met the previous owner but that is (apparently) what he told Eamon.

Steve

[Eric Frith]

I've just had a look at the wheels and I would say that they are both definitely fronts, front discs are spaced to match the discs, rear disc has a separate carrier with the required bolt pattern, Sprocket carrier must have been a two piece aluminium item with the larger of the two being missing, the carrier didn't have any bearings in it and just sat on two nylon sleeves that in turn sat on the spindle. ( It's a guess as it's not there)

[Eric Frith]

As can be seen here

[rs_pete]

Laverda wheels from workshop manual.

[K2-K6]

Quite alot of the pictures of the japauto bikes show this type of front wheel paired with a standdard looking cb750 spoke and drum rear setup. as yours appears to have a non std (dresda) bracket for the master cylinder it would suggest it's been modded to use an obvious match in wheel terms of another front wheel.

Endurance stuff of that period quite often had some unique sprocket carriers to give a quick release wheel with the chain and sprocket left on the swingarm to speed things up, could this be a possibility?