Thank you for that information, I stand corrected.

 

You beat me to it. I had a new 1980 CBX. That thing was an engineering marvel and a mechanical masterpiece. I rode across the USA in 1980 and Honda dealers emptied because they’d never seen one. What a breathtaking motorcycle.

Btw, like mine, the red one pictured has the outrageously rare European Control Kit - lower bars and slightly rear set pegs. It’s dizzying to imagine the value today.

 

Back in the day my friend who worked at a Honda shop bought a 6 cylinder Honda when they first came out. He told me it would hit 90 in 2nd gear. It was fast.

 

I had a 1979 CBX in the candy apple red color, the only other color available was silver which looked too bland for me. It had the silver Comstar rims which I liked, I think in 1980 Honda reversed them and started painted them black which I didn't particularly care for.

Paid $3200 out the door for it.

They were fast, and sounded so sweet...

 

Looking back, with the advantage of history, we seem to ascribe way more value to attitudes than were there at the time. Thanks for working past the ethnic slur posts.

I got my Sportster, an XLH in 1964. It ruled the roost. The only Honda’s were 50cc. Solid little bikes, but little more than glorified scooters. Within a few years, my friends showed up as riders on BSA and Norton. While triumph was a player somewhere, we found whatever used bike was available close to our pocket book. I will always feel blessed that I had a sporty, not a Brit bike.

While my first motorcycle was a 47 Knucklehead, it was difficult, slow, hard to handle (ie, race) and marked its spot. But in those days, only the main roads were paved and only my uncle had a paved driveway to his barn, so a little spot of oil did not matter much. In fact, I used all our used oil to oil our driveway, hold the dust and reduce weeds.

But in 1964, I got an ironhead. It was a real motorcycle. For 1964, it was fast and powerful. Not until Leo got a CB750 did we think anything else, and that was years later. But even in 1970 against the CB750, I would not have traded bikes. The Sportster held its own. I was happy years later when they shifted brake and shifter to the more conventional side used today. After about 17 years, I finally made the shift to shifting with my left foot. I still have a righty ironhead, but my 95 XL gets a lot more road time.

So, in the rural area I lived, actually most of the world was still semi rural then, the “sportbike” was a phenomenon of the mid 70’s. It was a rare bike before then. In fact, Leo may have had the only new bike I’d see for years. Everyone I knew until the mid 70’s rode a used bike, usually found locally by word of mouth. Choice was not an option. No Craig’s list, no bike trader, only WOM ( word of mouth) or the classified section of the paper, and I don’t remember ever seeing a bike for sale in the classified, then I never looked either!

So, to me, the term sportbike did not even enter into the motorcycle lexicon until the 80’s. It even took Honda and Kawasaki a while to develop that style.

I just thank god I started on a sporty and they have remained a part of my life for 57 years. It only plays second fiddle to my FLHRU because by 1988, long distance touring became important.

 

Do your homework old chap , Honda have been making bikes for 72 years .

 

Just to help...

Honda History | The Vision Of Soichiro Honda | Honda UK