1976 cb750a hondamatic chopper

whilst clicking through pix of the acme trump below that’s on ebay, i discovered this bike:

it took me a minute to find out more. it was built by a gentleman named jon hughes. there are more pix and info about the build on lowbrow’s facebook page.

the hondamatic was a two speed transmission honda manufactured for motorcycles from 1975 until 1983. the transmission first appeared on a 1975 cb750 that was sold only in canada. in 1976 the cb750 model appeared in the states and was sold for one more year. after 1977, hondamatics appeared only in cm400a and cm450a models until 1983, when the transmission was decommissioned.

first gear took you to about 45 miles an hour and second gear took you, um, faster.

the history behind the hondamatic began in 1964 when a manager at honda r&d wanted to develop an automatic transmission for a mini car. on october 18, 1967, the n360-at was unveiled at the london auto show. 360 is how many cubic centimeters the motor possessed and five months later, the first mini car in the world with an automatic transmission was sold.

then honda used the technology on motorbikes and now you have jon’s chop.

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