Classic Honda Motorcycles

Announcing our latest Dairyland Cycle Insurance  Race to Rebuild bike, a 1983 Honda CB1100F built by Dime City Cycles.

Highlights from the third annual Modern Classics show at Martin Motorsports in Boyertown, Pa.

Yesterday is back as the old school, air-cooled Honda CB1100 finally arrives on U.S. shores.

Motorcycle Classics’ editors explain how to install switched relay dual horns on a Honda GL1100.

Best bets on tomorrow’s classics: 1980-1982 Honda CB900C. 

Former Honda mechanic Chris Malcolm gives a 1974 Honda CB450K7 a new lease on life. 

Australian motorcycle enthusiast Ian Lee tells the story of the Honda CB750A Down Under.

A 1964 Honda CB77 Superhawk on display with other classic motorcycles at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Ala.

“Blue” Mike Peterson explains the collector value of his latest winter project, a 1970 Honda CB750.

In 1973, offroad riding and motocross were hot, and the Honda CR125M Elsinore was the bike to have.

Release of liability records and DMV registrations make it appear this 1968 Honda 305 Scrambler was at one point owned by Jim Morrison.

Motorcycle Classics tech expert Keith Fellenstein solves a failed fuel petcock issue on a 1985 Honda VF700F Interceptor.

Mark Wiggins gives his 1982 Honda CX500 Eurosport a new lease on life after crashing it years earlier.

Tomorrow’s classics: 1983-1986 Honda V65 Magna was the world’s first Power Cruiser.

TKTK

The Honda Relay Across America continues with cross country motorcycle touring through the Appalachians and into Kentucky. This blog was first published in March 2011 on the 2011 Honda Relay Ride blog on motorcycleclassics.com.

Clarence De Barrows shares his perfectly original classic bike, a 1970 Honda CB750

What better way to celebrate a marriage than to ride two 1973 Hondas on a cross-country honeymoon?

A vintage 1975 Honda Gold Wing on display with other classic motorcycles at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Ala.

Step-by-step instructions for a 1973 Honda CB500 carburetor rebuild

Steve Solko and his brother Carl ride a classic Honda CB 900 and a 2005 Triumph motorcycle on a 325-mile trip to the 2011 Bonneville Vintage GP.

Steve Matthews gets a painful and expensive reminder to wear safety glasses while installing a fender on his 1971 Honda CL350 Scrambler.

Brown M. Maloney owns a rare Honda CR93 racer as well as the even more rare street version of the same bike.

The first Honda VF750F Interceptor had its issues, but today they’ve become surprisingly collectible.

As classic customs – everything from café racers to bobbers – continue gaining in popularity, practitioners of the art of customizing increasingly face a basic question: Do I keep doing the same old same old, or reach out and try to redefine the custom market? There will always be plenty of builders who take the first approach. And fortunately, there are also more than a few willing to follow the path less traveled.

Step-by-step instructions on a fork rebuild for a 1973 Honda CB500. It's not as hard as you think. Just click here for our tutorial to learn how to give your old Honda's tired front end a new lease on life.

1953 Honda Dream on display at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Ala.

First steps in rebuilding a 1973 Honda CB500, from assessing its real condition to stripping the frame.

A motorcycle enthusiast discovers a never completed 1975 Rickman Honda CR750 kit

Larry Cameron shows us his restored 1972 Honda SL350.

Honda’s magic shrinking act gave us the smallest production version of its inline four, the CB350F.

Character, reliability, simplicity and comfort are all important pieces of Pat Parziale's perfect motorcycle.

With a vast history of racing machines utilizing 5- and 6-cylinder motorcycle engines, Honda didn’t need to dig too deeply to create the technology for the Honda CBX 1000.

Derek Pauletto transforms an “ugly duckling” 1979 Honda CB650 Special into a sleek café racer one can brag about.

The Honda CB750A Hondamatic operated without a clutch which left motorcyclists wanting more.

I have been reading Motorcycle Classics since 2008 and finally decided to get off the sidelines and jump into the classic motorcycle arena.  So I began browsing Craig’s list, found the classic I’d always wanted and went to look it over.  The front brake was sticking preventing an actual test ride but I figured that could be fixed.  Otherwise it was all there (wrong seat) and seemed to run properly so I bought it.  A few days later I was ready to follow your motto “Ride ‘Em, Don’t Hide ‘Em “ and take my ‘new’ 1975 Honda CB750 for its first ride.  

It is a truism that there is a perfect bike for everyone, and for Ron Graf, the perfect bike is a Honda CX650 Turbo. He owns three.

Marcos Markoulatos is a fan of 1970s Japanese motorcycles. For proof, look no further than his 1976 Honda CB750F Super Sport.

Deb Justice shares the experience her and her husband have had with a 161,200-mile 1984 Honda GL 1200 Goldwing Aspencade.

Dennis Zickrick is a motorcycle legend and authority on the Honda CB750, but most people don't know that.

Small, light and easy to handle, the Honda CB400F might be the best of the breed.

Greg Wassenberg discusses owning and riding his Honda CBX.

Bill Keena fondly remembers his dad, his dad's Honda CB750 and how he came to love taking motorcycle road trips.

The 1963 Honda CR93 Benly production racer was a factory racer for the everyman.

Don Hughes discusses owning and riding and selling a 1976 Honda CB400 Four.

Bob Reichenberg discusses owning and riding a 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing.

Honda made a play for a share of the police pursuit bike market with its 1967 Honda CB450 Police Special.

The 1983 Honda CB1100F was the ultimate expression of the Honda CB750 Four.

Karl Baumann's 1981 Honda CB900F has logged almost 81,000 miles.

Paul Enz discusses owning and riding his 1965 Honda S65.

The Honda GB 500 had old-school, British-single inspired styling that made an impression.

Triumph may have defined the classic “desert sled,” but for a lot of American riders, the Honda CL77 was the better dirt bike.

Steve Solko rides 700 miles round trip on a 1980 Honda CB900 Custom to attend the 2010 Bonneville Vintage GP in Toole, Utah.

On evenings and weekends, John Davy indulges his passion for collecting classic Japanese motorcycles. One of John’s latest finds is a 1981 Honda CB900F.

Tim Kessel talks about his love for his wife and collecting classic motorcycles.

Technical specifications for the 1968 Honda CL175.

The Honda CB750F Super Sport is easy to work on and generally hugely reliable, making it a great usable classic Honda motorcycle.

The 1984 Honda Ascot VT500 marked the beginning of the nearly no-maintenance bike that became one of many popular classic Honda motorcycles.

Anders Carlson  shares his experience riding 3,754 Miles and 38 days on a 1973 Honda CB750.

Two cylinders, twin cams and loaded with technology, the Honda CB450 put the world on notice: Honda was at war, and planned to win.

The BikeBandit.com/Motorcycle Classics 1973 Honda CB500 is done – and one lucky reader is taking it home!

A few months ago, it looked like we had all the time in the world to put our 1973 Honda CB500 back together for the 5th Annual Barber Vintage Festival on Oct. 10. Suddenly, the festival’s right around the corner, and we’re scrambling to get our café-d Honda up and running.

Honda really did donate hundreds of  its six-cylinder motorcycle to high school shop classes, and this 1981 Honda CBX is one of the few survivors.

This rebuild came about as part of Project Café, the 1973 Honda CB500 Four we’ve been morphing into a street café racer with help from BikeBandit.com. We covered rebuilding the brake caliper in the September/October 2009 issue, a project you can also find here on our website.

Steve Carpenter discusses the custom Honda CB750 cafe racer that's making him a legend in classic motorcycle circles.

In our 6-cylinder motorcycle shootout, three riders from different backgrounds take a quick ride on the Benelli Sei 900, Honda CBX 1000 and Kawasaki KZ1300 and give us their feedback.

Rebuilding the front brake caliper and installing new brake pads.

A classic Honda motorcycle enthusisast sets out at dawn on his 1975 Honda CB750 to ride right off "The End" of Long Island.

This month, we chose two “How-To” projects: upgrading to tapered steering head bearings and installing our fancy new rear swingarm bushings.

Rebuilding the carburetors on the Motorcycle Classics Project Café 1973 Honda CB500 bike.

In 1983, turbocharging was the wave of the motorcycle future. And while the 1983 Honda CX650 Turbo was arguably the best of the turbocharged motorcycles that roared onto roads in the early Eighties, it is now one of the rarest production Hondas ever, with only 1,777 built and fewer than 1,200 imported to the U.S. and Canada.
 

Rebuilding the forks on the Motorcycle Classics Project Cafe 1973 Honda CB500 bike.

The Honda V4 line’s flagship model, at least in its pedigree, was the Honda VF1000R.

BikeBandit.com and Motorcycle Classics team up to turn a 1973 Honda CB500 into a café racer.

I’ve been following the “Found on E-bay” blogs on this site lately, but haven’t yet been tempted. Good thing too, as my shop is now over-full of motorcycles – the latest addition, a 1982 Honda CM450 Custom, having appeared out of the blue last week (almost literally). 

“The thinking man’s motorcycle.” That was Cycle magazine’s take on Honda’s half-liter four, the Honda CB500 Four.

Roaming around the outside of the track, a muffled buzz growing louder and louder, I could swear a swarm of killer bees must be heading toward me. Then I remember; oh yeah, this is vintage motorcycle racing with the Honda CB160.

Guy Webster's Honda CB160 racer was built as an homage to the first Honda race bikes.

When the Honda CB700SC Nighthawk S was introduced in 1984, the words of praise from the motoring press were immediate, and, in a surprise twist to the norm, unifed.

The beefiest of Honda’s middleweights was the CB550 Four. A smooth, capable machine based on the CB750 introduced in 1969, it was decidedly old-school and hardly the machine to entice a new generation of riders. Enter the Honda CX500.

Small and approachable, the shy little Honda S65 embodies everything that makes up a classic 1960s Honda motorcycle.

The Honda CB500T is Seventies twin with character: throwback flavor, classic styling, retro engine

If two was enough, and four supreme, then the industry-leading six-cylinder Honda CBX was nothing short of sublime

Best bets on tomorrow's classics: 1989-1991 Honda Transalp XL600V is a fun and versatile touring bike

The 1984-1985 Honda Sabre VF700S was a tariff-buster that makes a great rider today, if you can find one.

It took awhile for the American arrival of the Honda CB900F in 1981 but it was well worth the wait.

The earliest examples of the Honda CB750 Four featured sandcast engine casings, and these classic motorcycles have become collector favorites.

The Honda CB400 Four was only built for two years, but it's becoming more and more popular as a great classic motorcycle.

The 1958 C92 Benly showed the world that Honda was serious about performance.

Looking back, it's easy to think the first Honda GL1000 Gold Wing in 1975 was a revolutionary touring motorcycle. It was, in fact, evolutionary.

Honda's CB450 may be the perfect everyman's classic motorcycle.