1979 Honda CB750 by Tommy Summers - Honda Hibernation

Like many of us that for some reason choose to spend our hard earned bread on old junk motorcycle parts I scour the Internet looking for the perfect score. So when I had a trip planned to Phoenix I was looking on the Phoenix area Craigslist for said junk parts and came across what was said to be an old STREET CHOPPER feature bike. Well, I'll be! I emailed the owner with who I was and asked if I could come by and possibly shoot it again for the magazine even though he was trying to sell it.

Jon found the Honda on Craigslist while looking for a bike project and even though it wasn't exactly what he was looking for, the price was right. He figured he could change it to his liking and still keep it in his budget. The old man that sold it to him didn't know much about the Honda himself, but had kept it in his air conditioned garage for the better part of two decades. Jon paid the man and he and Matt hauled the bike to Matt's garage and started working on getting it to run. During this time Chris Tragert from Venice Choppers got a hold of Jon and filled him in on who Tom Summers was and the bike that he now owned-luckily before Jon started changing it. Jon then found a copy of STREET CHOPPER from March 1981 that had a feature on his bike in it. He then knew that the bike was a time capsule of sorts and agreed with all those who told him it had to stay together. The feature called "Black n' Back" said the bike was owned by Todd Smith who spent $3000 to have Summers build it around a 750 four cylinder Honda from '72. Jon even found a tag on the Ron Finch wiring box that said; "Exclusively manufactured for Todd Smith". The black lacquer paint, and gold leaf work by DJ Ekel, gold plating, and the chrome are all still in amazing condition after all these years.