Passes & Canyons Blog

The new Honda CB750 Four.

My friend Nick, from Chicago, is keeping close tabs on my recovery from my June 29 crash and he also knows I intend to buy a new bike. He texted me the other day with the startling news that Honda intends to bring back the CB750 in 2026. I had to check this out.

Calling it the CB750 Four, this new bike is styled very much like the old CB750–like the one I rode for nearly 40 years before it got smashed on June 29. While I loved that bike I will admit I was not in love with the old tech. So the ability to get a very similar bike with the most modern tech available is extremely inviting to me.

I had already begun looking for a Yamaha Tracer because that is a bike I identified a couple years ago as something I would like to have. There are not many left on the dealers’ floors but when you can find one they go new for $12,600. All the bags and everything else are extra.

This new CB is supposed to be priced at $9,000, with bags extra. Of course, that’s before Trump’s tariffs kick in. I was talking with a sales guy at Vickery the other day and he said the only info he has as yet is that dirt bikes will go up in price about $1,500. He said he expects street bike prices to go up by double that. So who knows what the CB will actually cost.

Meanwhile, it gives you a pretty good incentive to either buy new from what is already in the country or else buy used. I would seriously consider picking up a new Tracer now but I hate buying a bike I have never ridden. Fortunately there will be a Yamaha demo days event in Cheyenne in early September. And considering that I’m currently constrained from riding as I recover from the crash, that may prove to be very good timing.

As for the CB750 Four, certainly I will want to climb on one and see how it feels but if there is one motorcycle I have extreme familiarity with it is this new one’s ancestor. If I swing my leg over the new one and it feels like the old one I really don’t think I’m going to need to ride it to make my decision.

Biker Quote for Today

Your motorcycle is a discovery; your bike is freedom. It doesn’t matter where you are when you’re on the bike; you’re taken away.

Motorado has a lot of bikes but not a lot of space.

It’s funny how you get an idea and if you let it it takes on a life of its own. I got this idea of swapping two of my motorcycles–the ’06 V-Strom 650 and the ’99 Concours–for something in between them that would fill both their niches. Then I mentioned it to the guys, who enthusiastically supported the idea. And now I’m looking at bikes.

Whoa. Hold on. Do I really want to do this? The more I think about it the more, when riding the old bikes, I find myself appreciating the things I have always liked about them. Why mess with what is already good?

But the thing is in motion. After looking at some new bikes and test riding one, I turned my attention to used bikes. Two reasons: a used bike costs less than a new bike, plus a used bike–if you choose selectively–will come with a lot of the extras you would need to pay extra for on a new bike.

I had looked at web sites and seen some bikes of possible interest so last week I decided it was time to see some of these bikes in person. I headed first to Aces because it was reasonably close but also because this is where my now former mechanic, Joel, now works. What I found was very different from my expectations.

I had the mistaken idea that Joel was the head of the service department at Aces but in fact, Aces does not do service. Joel is the mechanic on site with the job of doing whatever is needed by any of the bikes on the premises. So my search for a new mechanic goes on.

Then, second, pretty much every bike they had in their spacious showroom was a late model bike, mostly 2019 and newer. Yes you would pay less for these than for new models but we’re still talking pretty big bucks.

I did, however, get an idea for one model to consider and that was the Yamaha Tracer 900. The sales guy Joel hooked me up with said it was one of his three all-time favorite bikes and it seemed to fit in the middle ground where I was hoping to find something. Unfortunately, the 2019 model they had on hand does not have cruise control. That was only added to that model in 2020.

Leaving Aces I figured I was already over on the west side of town so I might as well go on over to Motorado at 6th and Sheridan. This proved to be a very different place.

In contrast to the huge showroom at Aces, Motorado has a much smaller space with bikes crammed in every square inch. They had several bikes I had seen on their website and I could check them out but only within limits. For instance, one bike was on its sidestand and I couldn’t stand it upright because the bike on one side was literally leaning onto it, just as it was leaning onto the bike on the other side. I figure if you are really interested in a bike you better have a check or credit card in your hand before you ask them to pull one out so you can really check it out.

On another I was interested in the seat height but it was on its center stand and there was no way I could rock it down to see how my feet touched ground. But at least at Motorado they had plenty of bikes that were not just late model, and they were therefore at better price points.

I don’t know. I guess next I’ll look more into buying from private owners. The problem there is that it’s much more of a buyer beware situation. And while it’s easy to take a used car to a shop to have it inspected by a mechanic, try that with a motorcycle. I’m trying to find a new mechanic to even work on my bikes and I’m not having a lot of luck.

So that just sends me back to the question of whether or not I even want to do this. But as Judy pointed out, if I had a newer bike I could take it to a dealer and they’d be happy to work on it for me. At least until it got old enough that they fired me as a customer again.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Motorcycles don’t get pregnant.