picked up a cb750 a few months ago finally getting around to workin on it, it has what im assuming is a tracy kit on it, but im wondering if there is any way to verify for sure. does anyone know of anyway to tell?
To my knowledge there is no markings on the tracy body kits.
They will be either fiberglass or epoxy in nature.
The underside should have a Logo in the resin that says The Fiberglass Works. That was the name of the company. You got any pics of the body?
Good day, I was chief designer at Tracy Design in Santa Barbara from '76 to '87 and have fond memories of the great fun we all had designing and building MC accessories. To the point, there were three different Honda CB750 one-piece body styles produced by Fiberglass Works/Tracy Design. #1 Early units made by Fiberglass Works, Santa Cruz, CA, ('71-'74) incorporated 2+ gal. fuel capacity and had an access provision on the right side for the remote engine oil tank and one-up seating. While I didn't design this one, it was always my favorite as the shape had a purity to it that subsequent designs lacked due to a company mandate to increase fuel capacity on all new designs. Have you ever tried to make 5 gal. of gas look good without modifications to the bike's frame? #2 The later design (company name changed to Tracy Design and located in Santa Barbara, CA) had a larger two-up seat, more fuel capacity (4 gal.) and updated styling that many enthusiasts, at the time, felt was the inspiration (read rip-off) for the later Honda designed 750F. Tracy also manufactured a smaller scale version of that 750 body to fit the CB550. #3 The final iteration, and likely the rarest to find these days, was an updated body for the earlier CB750 with the remote oil tank. It was the last body I designed for Tracy ('87) and had greater fuel capacity (I don't recall the amount but probably 4 gal.), and a two-up seat. All the Tracy bodies had a "glove box" in the tail section that was accessed by removal of a fastener under the body that allowed the seat to be "flexed" up at the rear. They were produced in iterations unique to the different makes of bike and included models for Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki and ranged in MC size from 1000cc to 350cc.
Welcome! Always welcome, and your input is appreciated. That body kit was very cool, and functional.
Used to have a 1979 CB750L, sold it as a parts bike, now riding a slightly modified 1984 VT700C. Network/Field Engineer. Central OH, USA, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe.
Thanks for the acknowledgement. I forgot to respond to the original query about body ID. As was mentioned by one of the earlier respondents, the Fiberglass Works bodies had labels embedded in the resin under the tanks, or at least most of them did. I recall seeing a few that didn't but they may have undergone repairs or other mods that obscured the label. All 2nd and 3rd generation Honda bodies and all those for other MC makes produced by Tracy Design, after '76, had a plastic logo of a 3-D star and "TRACY" mounted in a recess on the tail section. Some guys removed the logo and filled in the recess to create a smoother look but the recess and logo mounting holes can normally be seen from inside the "glovebox" or underneath the tail. Hope that helps with the identity issue.
Did Tracy also make fiberglass gas tanks? I have a really cool fiberglass tank, for the 69-76 K model. It has petcocks on both sides. I will put up some pictures tonight.
Here are the pictures of the fiberglass tank I have. it does not have any markings on it.
Tracy/Fiberglass Works did make hundreds, if not thousands, of 'glass tanks and the tank in your picture looks very much like that which was made for Hondas.
Many of the Fiberglass Works tanks were designed to be of a 'universal" nature and were made with a pass-through hole in the top of the tank that allowed a "saddle" fastener to be hose clamped to the upper frame tube. The tank was then held in place with a rubber washer, metal flat washer, and then an acorn nut. Not very elegant but effective at a time when the Fiberglass Works needed to consolidate parts to fit as many different bikes as possible. Note that the first iteration CB750 bodies were attached to the frame, at the front, in the same manner. It wasn't until a bit later (I wasn't there at the time of the transition), that the tank bottom molds, for individual tanks and one-piece bodies were drawn off of actual tank "plugs." From then on, the attachment methods were model specific and mimicked the bottom of the stock tank with its stock retention design.
Do you have any pictures, or other info on the Tracy products, you can share with us?
Yeah, I've got originals of all the Tracy Design sales brochures, magazine articles, some advertisements, a couple of illustrations that I did of proposed bodies, and original slides from photo shoots but nothing from the Fiberglass Works. It would be a bit daunting to post it all as none of it is in digital format. This stuff was all done way prior to my use of a computer. If you could be specific about your area of interest I'll look into what I've got. I'm assuming I'll need to register with this website to be able to post images?
If you could just scan in some of the products, so that when something comes up at a swap meet, or craigslist.... We would know what we are looking at.
This will take awhile as I'll have to dig the stuff out and see what will scan with enough detail to make it legible.
Since you have been primarily interested in Tracy bodies, I've limited the images to those, with the exception of a Cafe set that was offered by F/W for the 750K, and a couple of fairings that you might run across.
The #1 Honda CB750K model body produced by F/W. Note that several of these were also fab'd by Tracy Design during my time there. Usually on a special order arrangement as we still had all the molds from F/W.
Note that this particular image is of a CB550 and shows the family resemblance of all the #2 iteration Honda bodies. The 750 was completely identical but larger.
This is the last Honda body design from Tracy Design. Due to the popularity of the SOHC models, the #3 body incorporated all the upgrades that the other makes had such as two-up seating, 4.5gal. fuel capacity, and a glove box in the rear compartment.
Again, the family resemblance for this Suzuki was carried across the range in that the GS1000 was identical to the GS750. This image shows the mock-up of a "2000" model bikini fairing.
The Kawasaki bodies were produced for more models than any other made by either F/W or Tracy Design and covered 4 stroke and 2 stroke models. Again, all the Kawasaki bodies look very similar. This particular KZ1000 was fitted with a Magnacharger turbo and was absolutely scary to hang onto at anything approaching WOT. At 7000RPM it was like starting all over again. Yikes!
The Street Fighter fairing was initially designed for Harleys but it's a sweet little bikini fairing that looks good on everything. It could be had with interchangeable bezels to fit round and rectangular headlights.
This the Tracy Design 2001-2002 (model name not years produced) quarter fairing.
Inexplicably, I was unable to locate the images for Yamaha bodies. We made a really whacked out one-up configuration for the SR500 that was perfect for canyon carving. Good luck finding one of those. And there were also models made for RDs and the 750 triple. If I come across them I'll post the pics.
At this juncture, I'd have to say that finding a one-piece body that looks at all like it's a professionally made piece, at any swap meet or online sale, will almost certainly be a F/W or Tracy Design product. I just don't recall seeing anything else like them out there. Fiberglass tanks and seats are another issue and we saw many examples of those that appeared to have been lifted directly off of a Tracy product.
we live in austrailia now. love, H.
Thanks Ted, you would not happen to have one of those No#1s laying around? That is cool.
Hope you guys don't mind a noob bumping an old thread. I was trolling the net looking around for my old 750F and came across Ted's pictures. The bike with the #3 body style (4th picture) was mine. I worked in Tracy's shop and they "borrowed" my bike for the photo shoot, installing that body for the day. Personally, I didn't care for the winged body. As I recall we referred to them as the K bodies to differentiate from the earlier design. Belated thanks for posting Ted, I forgot all about that day.
I had recently purchased just the lower half of the fairing at Racer's Supply in Los Angeles and went to Tracy's shop to have a new shield made. Tracy was surprised I had that particular fairing, it was a prototype he had left there, never intending for it to be sold. I got to talking to him and by the time the shield was ready he offered me a job.
Couple pics (pre-digital) of how it eventually looked. I sold it when money got tight but would like to locate it again.
Welcome to the forum. That is a really neat story. Have, you seen the Tracy tank, and seat, for sale in the For Sale postings here?