It’s not easy to make a Honda CB750 custom stand out these days. Even if it’s a big money bike. But this budget build by Canadian Mike Salek caught my eye. Salek began riding bikes at the age of 10, and was starting to feel jaded. “After several years of riding canyon roads and doing track days, I decided I wasn’t going to buy a new mass-produced bike every two years. I started buying bikes that were ‘different’, and a CB750 was always on that list.”
After working his way through a Ducati 999R, a Honda RC51 and a Ducati Monster 1000s i.e., Mike decided he was ready for a vintage classic. “I always loved the Japanese ‘Brat style’ and the things the Wrenchmonkees were doing,” he says. “While digging through Bike EXIF a couple of years ago, I read about a guy who built a bobber on a very tight budget and with very little experience. Nothing fancy or polished, just a raw, cool, badass bike. So I figured, why can’t I do that?”
It took Mike two years to find a decent CB750, locating this 1975 model at a wreckers. The bike had been sitting in a barn for the last 12 years, but it ran great—despite most components being rusted out. “The day I got it home I started taking the bike apart and ordering parts. It was done on a strict budget of $3,000, including the bike. Which was a challenge, but I wanted to see if it was possible to build something cool on a minimal budget.”
Mike wanted the bike to have the proper stance and patina, and sacrificed everything for those two aspects. So he lowered his CB750 about three inches, and sat it on 4.00” x 19” (front) and 4.50” x 18” (rear) Firestones. The 4” headlight, wheels, triples and shocks were all sprayed or powdercoated black. Then Mike fitted a gold chain, a CRG bar end mirror, and cut the OEM pipes short.
He fabricated a new seat pan and seat, and custom-made the rear frame section to suit. But the paint and side covers are ‘as found’, with a simple polish to show off the original patina. “This bike has been more fun to ride then any other bike I have owned,” says Mike. “Just looking at it makes me smile.”
