When you spend your days poring over cafe racers, scramblers and trackers, it’s easy to forget how alluring an original classic can be. Oftentimes it’s a good resto-mod that hits the mark—a bike that strikes the balance between vintage charm and tasteful, modern upgrades.
Rawhide Cycles have this down to an art. Their first bike, a classy Honda CB750 dubbed the ‘Golden Goose,’ immediately captivated us. Now they’ve taken another stab at the CB750. Let’s say hello to ‘Sweet Jane.’
Rawhide are based in Nampa, Idaho, but this commission came from a customer some 800 miles south, in California. “He came across the Golden Goose when we had it listed for sale,” says shop boss Brandon Wurtz.
“He called right after we sold it, so we discussed the possibility of building something similar, but taking it further. Six months later, Sweet Jane was born.”
“Tom [the customer] was amazing to work with. He gave us a lot of freedom, but also had a lot of input and ideas. The smaller tank and lots of other important details were Tom’s contribution.
“Everything on the bike was intended to be period correct in appearance. We wanted to build a CB750 restomod that could potentially have existed in 1975.”
Rawhide take the ‘resto’ bit pretty seriously, so there’s not an inch of this CB750 that hasn’t been touched. Every fastener, washer, spring and fitting was zinc-plated, chromed or replaced with new hardware. More importantly, the engine’s been completely overhauled—and hot-rodded.
“We used a Wiseco 836cc kit, with the most aggressive street profile WebCam Racing recommends with their billet camshafts,” says Brandon. The Honda now has new valves, seats and valve guides, new primary chains and tensioner, and a new cam chain, tensioner and guide. Rawhide cleaned and inspected every single part, rebuilding the transmission along the way too.
As for the mods, Rawhide wanted the bike to look period-correct, but not necessarily model-correct. So they swapped the fuel tank out for a smaller 1975 CB200 unit. It was further modded with scallops to clear the carb linkages, and a new tunnel to fit the 750’s frame, before being sent of to Tony Markus at GTL Advantage for a new epoxy lining.
The stock side covers were retained, but trimmed for a cleaner effect. Up front are the fork ears and headlight bucket from a 1967 CL77, altered to fit the CB750’s forks. Rawhide picked that particular headlight for its embedded speedo design, so that they could keep the front as low profile as possible.
The generous seat is all-new, shaped with extra foam to handle Tom’s 6’3″ frame. (Interior Revolution handled the upholstery.) Rawhide tweaked the rear fender a bit, but went to town on the front fender, shortening, narrowing and lowering it. They also shaved and smoothed the frame and triple clamps, and then had them powder-coated black.
A set of high-shoulder aluminum rims from Borrani was picked out to help lighten the CB750 further. The front’s a narrow 1.60×19″, and both are laced up with stainless steel spokes from Buchanan’s. The stock hubs were powder coated black, while the brake plates and sprocket carrier were polished.
On the suspension side, the guys have installed a set of 1.5″ shorter-than-stock Hagon shocks, specc’ing them with stainless shrouds and chrome springs to match the rest of the build. They’ve also polished the front fork lowers, and replaced the stanchions with 1.5″ shorter stainless tubes.
Honda’s vintage model range was pillaged yet again for the cockpit. The bars are low-rise CB400F units, kitted with controls from a 1965 Superhawk. Complementing those are Halcyon bar-end mirrors, a Kustomtech master cylinder, and scalloped clutch and brake levers.
The wiring’s naturally been seen to as well—Rawhide rewired the whole shebang with original Honda wiring colors. Upgrades include a Charlie’s Place electronic ignition, Dynatek coils, a regulator/rectifier from Rick’s, and an Antigravity Lithium-ion battery. A Posh Japan taillight and turn signals round out the lighting.
Finishing things off is a customized four-into-four stainless steel exhaust system, with each header terminating in a custom-made end tip. Rawhide designed the slip-in tips with baffles, and then had them machined and coated in a high-temp semi-gloss black finish.
It’s an impressive set of mods, matched by an exquisite paint job. The bike’s been shot in a House of Kolor ‘Oriental Blue Kandy’ with a green micro flake, and adorned with original Honda badges.
Sweet Jane is a looker, no doubt, but she’s got plenty going on under the hood too. You may struggle to keep up with her: “The aggressive motor breaks the tire loose easily,” says Brandon. “Sweet Jane runs through the curves like she was born to do it.”
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