Hansen told Soichiro Honda that he should build a 'King of Motorcycles',[failed verification] and the CB750 appeared at the Tokyo Show in November 1968.

In the UK, it was publicly launched at the Brighton motorcycle show, held at the Metropole Hotel exhibition centre during April 1969,[16][17] with an earlier press-launch at Honda's London headquarters;[16][17] the pre-production versions appeared with a high and very wide handlebar intended for the US market.

[15] Hansen's race team's historic victory at the March 1970 Daytona 200 with Dick Mann riding a tall-geared CR750 to victory[2][18] preceded the June 1970 Isle of Man TT races when two 'official' Honda CB750s were entered, again ridden by Irishman Tommy Robb partnered in the team by experienced English racer John Cooper.

[19] Cooper was interviewed in UK monthly magazine Motorcycle Mechanics, stating both riders were unhappy with their poor-handling Hondas, and that he would not ride in the next year's race "unless the bikes have been greatly improved".

[21] Under development for a year,[22] the CB750 had a transverse straight-four engine with a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) and a front disc brake, neither of which had previously been available on an affordable mainstream production motorcycle.

This spec, married with the introductory price of US$1,495[23] (US$12,819 in current money), gave the CB750 a considerable sporting-performance advantage over its competition, particularly its British rivals.

[23] Cycle World called it a masterpiece, highlighting Honda's painstaking durability testing, the bike's 124 mph (200 km/h) top speed, the fade-free braking, the comfortable ride, and the excellent instrumentation.

[4][10] Adding to the bike's value were its electric starter, kill switch, dual mirrors, flashing turn signals, easily maintained valves, and overall smoothness and low vibration both under way and at a standstill.

Due to slow sales the model was discontinued in 1978,[30] though Honda did later introduce smaller Hondamatic motorcycles (namely the CB400A, CM400A,[35] and CM450A).

As the motorcycle market in the early 1980s began to experience segmentation and the prevalence of UJMs began to dwindle, Honda made efforts to hold its territory on the market by offering more specific variants of their existing bikes as the company was still in the midst of researching and developing dedicated sportbike and cruiser lines.

[37] The cruiser variant of many of the Honda models offered at the time would be known as "customs"; this included but was not limited to the CB900C, CX500C, CM250C and the CB750C, and these bikes would prove to be the most popular with American consumers.

Instead, as was typically the case for many Japanese corporations during the bubble years, Honda began to experiment with its standard bike offerings by first releasing the V-twin NT650 in 1988 and later both the boutique-developed cafe racer GB500 and CBR400RR derived CB-1 in 1989.

In the following year, the higher spec RC42 CB750 would debut for European and Japanese markets (in Europe it went by either CB750F2 or CB Seven-Fifty) coinciding with the release of the NC31 CB400 and SC30 CB1000.

The RC42 CB750 was widely adopted at riding schools throughout Japan to prepare riders for their large motorcycle license exams due in part to its smooth power delivery, predictable handling, neutral ergonomics, reliability and maintainability.

This limited edition run was put forth to commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Fast Freddie" Spencer joining the Honda Grand Prix Team and a version of this bike donning the "Digital Silver Metallic" color of the CB750 racebike Spencer used in the 1981 AMA Superbike championship was offered alongside a version that was painted in "Candy Blazing Red" reminiscent of the CBX1000.

In 2010, Honda released the CB1100, which although well over 750cc in displacement and fuel-injected was marketed as a spiritual successor to the CB750, both in style and in concept; this motorcycle would be later sold to Europe and North America from 2013 until 2022.