Honda CB750 Seeley Phil Read
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Overview
Honda CB750 Seeley Phil Read Factory Replica
The Colin Seeley-built
Phil
Read Factory Replica is a very rare motorcycle, approximately 150 were made and
they have the distinction of being the first fully faired race replica available
to buy off the showroom floor from a Japanese marque.
Colin Seeley
The motorcycle frames developed by
in the 1960s
and onwards were so revolutionary that they had an enduring global impact on
motorcycle engineering an impact that continues to the current day. Colin grew
up in a motorcycle family, his father owned a
and they would both travel to the nearby race track Brands Hatch to
watch the races.
Seeley started his working life as an apprentice at Harcourt Motorcycles,
where he became acquainted with Bernie Ecclestone who ran a used motorcycle
dealership nearby. Over the course of his young career he also worked as a
mechanic at a driving school where he tried driving a car for the first time.
Colin spent much of his free time in his parents shed working on his own
projects, and learning the fundamentals of motorcycle design and engineering.
He started racing in 1954, and over the course of his competition career he
would race in endurance road events, off road enduro and scrambles races, and
road-based sidecar racing this latter form of motorsport would capture his
heart, and it would be the one in which he would win the most accolades.
Upon retiring from competition at the end of the 1967 season, Seeley turned
his attention to manufacturing frames and complete motorcycles for racing.
Although he had no formal engineering training, he had an intuitive ability to
bend and weld Reynolds 531 tubing into remarkably rigid frames. Though he
started out building frames for British motorcycles he began a shift towards
Japanese engines by the early 1970s.
The bike you see here is a rare bird, it was commissioned by Honda to
celebrate Phil Reads 1977 Isle of Man TT victory in 1977 aboard an 820cc
version of the Honda CB750 F2. The F2 had been released a year earlier in 1976
as an upgrade over the original CB750. It had a new head with larger valves, a
hotter cam shaft, and 28mm Keihin carburetors with accelerator pumps this
boosted power slightly to 70 hp at 9500 rpm.
In order to celebrate their Isle of Man TT victory Honda decided to have a
series of race replicas built, so they commissioned Colin Seeleys legendary
company to convert otherwise stock CB 750 F2s into official Phil Read Replicas.
Seeleys team fitted a double beam full fairing with Cibie headlights, a
hand-formed 5 gallon alloy fuel tank, racing-style rear sets, a new single seat
and rear cowl, a custom high-performance exhaust, and it was all finished off in
the same red/white/blue color scheme used by the Honda Britain Racing Team.
Only 150 or so bikes were built before a disagreement between Phil Read and
Honda killed the project. Colin Seeley remained undeterred, and slightly
redesigned the model, then continued selling it as the Honda Britain, with Honda
selling them as the CB750SS.
Source