The Honda Obsession

Honda first entered the U. S. market and the consciousness of its citizens in the summer of 1959. As I have pontificated lovingly and repeatedly, I used to drool over the Allstate models in the Sears & Roebuck catalog in the ‘50’s, but it was not until my best friend got a Harley-Davidson Super 10 and my favorite cousin got a Honda Benly Touring 150 in 1960 that my personal in-the-saddle experiences began. My first Honda brochure came from Al’s Cycle Shop in Memphis, the same dealership that sold Elvis his Hondas, in 1962. That small B&W brochure had certain recently discontinued models covered by a big X made by a ballpoint pen. These models included the C77 305 with pressed steel handlebars and the CB92 and CB92R, the highly collectible 125cc sport models.

Many patterns can be discerned from a study of the early Hondas. First of all, Honda cared very little for the model year tradition. That is one of the main reasons I have created the charts of these early models, to try to put them into a sort of American perspective. The next thing you might notice is that all the models prior to 1967 were painted in the same four colors. Some models were never offered in white or blue, but practically all were offered in black and most in red. The transition between the traditional paint of 1959 through 1966 occurred in ’67. By 1968 all the models had made the change to candy colors and the variations would explode in number from that point forward. The next component you might notice is that most of the instruments were in the headlight nacelles until ’68, too, and with the exception of a few CL’s, all front and rear springs utilized body-colored covers. Gas tanks were either silver or body-colored with chrome sides. Frames could be either pressed steel or tubular, but the CL-72 was one of the few with a front downtube; i.e., a cradle frame. Seats were hard, suspensions were stiff, and engine vibration was always there to tingle. Until the humpback 450 of 1966, the most exotic engine specs consisted of SOHC twins with twin carburetors.

The new Honda 350’s of ’68 changed everything, or more accurately, the company set in motion product design changes that would soon permeate the entire lineup. Honda stylists had obviously been asking themselves exactly why Americans wanted to buy leaky, antiquey Triumph Bonnevilles? Style, Marvin, style! Do you see the similarity between a 1970 CL-350K2 and a Triumph Trophy? The slender, painted gas tank, the chrome fenders, and upswept pipes with bullet-shaped mufflers should provide a few clues! The new candy paint jobs displayed elegant depth. The suspensions were softened a bit and the engine vibes were brought under a little better control with rubber mounts. Most of all, the horizontally split engine cases kept the oil off the garage floor, the SOHC twin-carb engines revved up a storm, and the electrics were never named after George Lucas!

Honda lost the magic after 1970, when most models seemed to reach their pinnacle of styling and performance. Many of the traditional CA/CB/CL bloodlines would continue into the mid-Seventies, but the spirit was dying. Although the S600 Convertible had been brought to California in 1965, followed by the small coupe/sedan I call The Honda Roller Skate a few years later, the company obviously got serious about car production beginning with the introduction of the Civic in 1972. It is probably not a coincidence that the first homely styling attached itself to many Honda motorcycles that same year. Most of the ’73-’75 models were more attractive, smoother, slower, and more expensive. The emphasis had already shifted to cars and large four-cylinder motorcycles years earlier. Who wants a tiddler when Mach III’s, IV’s, Z-1’s and 750 Fours were flooding the U. S. market? The last great tiddler would be the legendary 400 Four with its gorgeous, swoopy, four-into-one exhaust system. It seemed even as if Honda couldn’t wait to ruin this beauty with western bars in ’77! It was all over but the crying. Simple, reliable, visceral machines like this red 1968 CB-160 were gone forever. The tears for the glorious, excitingly affordable tiddlers have dampened the tire tracks of our memories.

See also: The Honda Dream Chart
The Honda Super Sport Chart
The Honda Scrambler Chart
The Honda Motosport Chart