I was born in a trunk. Mama died and my daddy got drunk. Left me here to die alone In the middle of Tobacco Road.

Anyway, I’m sure you remember that little ditty now, but what’s that got to do with the story you say? Well it’s a lot like the vast piles of metric bikes that were used and abused back in the ‘70s and left to die alone on some tobacco road of their own. But not this 1971 Honda CB750 that Adam Weeks of Tobacco Road Trikes and Cycles (forever referred to as T.R.T.C.) in Merrill, New York, cut, fabbed, welded, and painted for his friend, Jarrod Shusda, until the build became a living interpretation of the song’s last verse.

Bring that dynamite and a crane, Blow it up, start all over again. Build a town (bike?), be proud to show. Gives the name Tobacco Road.

Okay, maybe I’m stretching things a bit, but the state of New York is not generally known as a tobacco-growing region so something’s gotta give here. And, I didn’t want to bore you to death with ‘70s references, so what’re you gonna do? Hey, anytime I get to hear Eric Burdon wail away, I’ll take it.

With all that out of the way, let’s get on to Adam’s build. At first I thought this was just a Honda with a hardtail, but Adam’s been a busy lad. The T.R.T.C. frame-job is a pretty radical piece with 38-degrees of rake and a stretch of 6”-up and 4”-out. Between the 6”-over legs of a Cycle X fork, a skinny 21” wheel resides where a fatter 19”-wheel once lived while an 18” wheel off a Honda 550 pulls up the rear. Stock Honda brakes do what they have to when they have to and the same goes for the 750cc engine. T.R.T.C. did fab up a set of four-into-four pipes like the stock bike ran but are totally unlike anything that the bike wore in its showroom debut. They just kinda all group together on the left and individually as a new unit of four; dump out in the middle of the stretched frame. Mr. Honda would not have approved, but Jarrod does I’m sure. Oh and one other thing that has never come standard on any Honda is the T.R.T.C.-built hand shifter with clutch linkage running through the frame.

Adam just didn’t stop there and call it a day, but got on with making his own idea of what ‘70s bodywork means to him. The fuel and oil tanks are the polar opposite of their rounded forbearers with flat sides, angles, and points just raring for a vintage-style paintjob. If it’s a ‘70s-style vehicle that means earth tones and T.R.T.C. supplied the brown base paint so often seen during that era (all I can say to that is to each their own, earth tones are none of my business). Bob Weeks of Crazy Legs Pinstriping finished it off with his back-to-the-‘70s graphics.

Right now this ‘70s flashback has gotten about 2,500 hardtail miles put on it by Jarrod and he’s thrilled with it. And no, he’s not out cross-country touring, but he does do 100 –mile days which is quite a bit on a rigid frame. According to Adam, “It rides like a hardtail, but handles well.” And as far as the public’s reaction to this ode to the ‘70s chopper, Adam said, “We get a lot of compliments on it at shows.” All in all, it’s good to see a lot of things have survived the somewhat perilous, but oh-so-exciting ‘70s including probably half of you readers. I just wonder how many still get compliments today?