Your Favourite Honda ;o)

My CB 360 bought new did a big end at 50 000 km.
My CB 750 F2 bought new did a set of valves and guides in at 50 000 km.
At least they put me on the way to learning about things mechanical because otherwise the lousy things were so boring that they didn't warrant repairing, not the case of my Laverda. And they got me looking for real motorcycles.
Paul
 
I have owned C100 50cc, C92 125cc, CB92 125cc, CB160, CB175, CD175 Sloper, CL175 Sloper, C72 250cc, CB72 250cc, CA77 305cc, CB77 305cc, CL77 305cc, CB250K, CB350K, CB400/4, CB500/4, CX500 and finally the CB900.
Some of them were just passing through my hands others I used for long periods. The best one was the CB77, I still have two in bits with a stash of parts. I had several CB160's, just sold one to fund a new well pump for my house, didn't want to but needs must. Those old 1960's Hondas were great little bikes. Incidentally I always liked the CB350K more than the 400/4. I also still have a red CA77 like the one in the video, had it running a few weeks ago.
 
Paul Marx said:
My CB 360 bought new did a big end at 50 000 km.
My CB 750 F2 bought new did a set of valves and guides in at 50 000 km.
At least they put me on the way to learning about things mechanical because otherwise the lousy things were so boring that they didn't warrant repairing, not the case of my Laverda. And they got me looking for real motorcycles.
Paul
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It’s you! Worked at a big Honda dealership for eleven years, never ever did valve guides on any model ,in fact I’ve never needed to change guides on any jap engine! Big end failure on a bullet proof Honda is down to oil, lack of, blocked strainer or centrifugal filter not being cleaned 🤔 If you can f@ck up a Honda from new you are indeed special. I have worked on nearly all makes over the years and Honda & Yamaha are by far the best engineered. They also do the best in racing which is no coincidence. I have rebuilt a few RC30’s & they were in a different league to everything else.
 
Only ever owned one Honda - CB250K2. Used as student transport in the early 80’s. Endless trouble - big ends - can chain (tensioner broke resulting in lots of top end carnage), cam bearing failed several times and the exhausts appeared to be soluble. Glad to see the back of it!

Just remembered - my kids learnt to ride on a Z50 until that died - did its job though.
 
Exmoor beast said:
It’s you! Worked at a big Honda dealership for eleven years, never ever did valve guides on any model ,in fact I’ve never needed to change guides on any jap engine! Big end failure on a bullet proof Honda is down to oil, lack of, blocked strainer or centrifugal filter not being cleaned 🤔 If you can f@ck up a Honda from new you are indeed special. I have worked on nearly all makes over the years and Honda & Yamaha are by far the best engineered. They also do the best in racing which is no coincidence. I have rebuilt a few RC30’s & they were in a different league to everything else.
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The CB360 was my first bike. Regularly maintained. The only thing that I didn't know about was warming it up before thrashing it. Doesn't really explain a big end though.
I was maniacal about the F2, warming up included. The local Honda dealer reckoned that the cam on that was too harsh on the valve gear to extract a few extra horsepower from an old design. It started going through more than a litre of oil per 1000 km.

Whatever, they were boring, particularly the 750. We put a lot of kilometres on my then wife's 500/4. Boring, but indestructible. So nothing to do with me.

Paul
 
A lot of remembering with thick rose colored glasses! Honda's of the 1970's are some of the worst handling bikes of all time.

I currently have a Honda XR400R that was made legal for the road. The XR500, XR600 and XR650 are ridiculously overweight and a pig to ride off road.

I also have a Honda made under license, a 1978 Benelli 500 Quattro. Weighs less than the Honda CB500 and handles much better. Also has more power and a better charging system. But it is still under powered and no one bought them.

I never understood the attraction of the Honda 400/4. My Yamaha RD400 would leave one in the dust.
 
I had one of these for a while in the late 70's. It's a Honda Coupe 9. 1300cc 4-cylinder air cooled naturally aspirated engine with 4 carbs. It was a unit construction engine/gearbox/diff with front wheel drive. Basically a motorcycle engine in a car. It made 116HP at 7500 rpm and was a sporty little thing that handled pretty well. I wish I still had it. It's a bit of a rare beast these days. They don't come up for sale very often.

Honda Coupe 9.JPG
 
Dellortoman said:
I had one of these for a while in the late 70's. It's a Honda Coupe 9. 1300cc 4-cylinder air cooled naturally aspirated engine with 4 carbs. It was a unit construction engine/gearbox/diff with front wheel drive. Basically a motorcycle engine in a car. It made 116HP at 7500 rpm and was a sporty little thing that handled pretty well. I wish I still had it. It's a bit of a rare beast these days. They don't come up for sale very often.

View attachment 99771
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Super rare!!!
 
Alzero said:
Just like many new bikes will leave a Laverda in their dust. Maybe it’s about more than that?
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Yes, very true. But I am not comparing a new bike to a 400/4 but a bike made at the same time and was a direct competitor. The 400/4 was not a big seller in the USA and was only made from 1975 to 1977. Where as Yamaha kept making two stroke twins until 1996.

A good friend of mine crashed his CB750 and bought a new 400/4 with the insurance money. I had at the time a Yamaha RD250 which got sold for a new RD400. He was not happy my much cheaper Yamaha was faster and he sold it to buy a Kawasaki KZ650 which was faster than my RD400. I never bought one of the water cooled Yamaha twins which would have also left his KZ650 in the dust as I was by then riding a Triumph Bonneville. His KZ650 was eventually sold to get a KZ1300 and it was an unreliable piece of crap so was replaced by I think a KZ1000?

My first Laverda was still ten years away.

The Yamaha:
Cost less.
Weighed less.
Had more HP.
Handled better.
Better brakes.
Higher top speed.

The only advantage of the 400/4 was it burned a lot less petrol. I thought they were a great bike until I rode one.
 
1200ts said:
Yes, very true. But I am not comparing a new bike to a 400/4 but a bike made at the same time and was a direct competitor. The 400/4 was not a big seller in the USA and was only made from 1975 to 1977. Where as Yamaha kept making two stroke twins until 1996.

A good friend of mine crashed his CB750 and bought a new 400/4 with the insurance money. I had at the time a Yamaha RD250 which got sold for a new RD400. He was not happy my much cheaper Yamaha was faster and he sold it to buy a Kawasaki KZ650 which was faster than my RD400. I never bought one of the water cooled Yamaha twins which would have also left his KZ650 in the dust as I was by then riding a Triumph Bonneville. His KZ650 was eventually sold to get a KZ1300 and it was an unreliable piece of crap so was replaced by I think a KZ1000?

My first Laverda was still ten years away.

The Yamaha:
Cost less.
Weighed less.
Had more HP.
Handled better.
Better brakes.
Higher top speed.

The only advantage of the 400/4 was it burned a lot less petrol. I thought they were a great bike until I rode one.
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400 four was loved in UK, as was the RD400. The Honda would go twice as far on a tank of fuel ( not to mention 2 stroke oil) which made it an ideal commuter, tourer all rounder- fuel was always more expensive in UK. Much better bike to ride in traffic as well. Honda sold 105,000 units of original 4/4 but has continued to make a variant ever since. I never understood how Honda sold so many CX500, CB250/400N SuperDreams as they were dull, slow & heavy but we sold loads . I also never understood why the XBR500,CBX250,CX650 Turbo didn’t sell as they were really good? The bad handling of the early Japanese bikes was probably more to do with the standard tyres - ironically Yokohama were awful - World Tours were hard enough to do a lap of the world, if it wasn’t raining !
 
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