1966 Honda 305 Scrambler

By Joe Berk
Updated on August 11, 2023
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by Joe Berk

Our story here is about a special 1966 Honda 305 Scrambler, a motorcycle owned for a cool half century by my friend Jerry Dowgin, but the story needs background to provide context.

To riders of a certain age, the words “Honda” and “305” hold special meaning. Anyone with even a passing interest in vintage motorcycles knows the Honda story and how it changed the world. Triumph’s Edward Turner saw it coming when he visited the Honda factory in Japan in the 1960s and urged Triumph to prepare. Turner’s words fell on deaf ears while Triumph, the rest of the British motorcycle industry, and Harley-Davidson soldiered on, oblivious to the emerging giant that was the Japanese motorcycle industry. Small bikes, a well-marketed succession of moves up to larger bikes, the Honda CB750, Japanese motorcycle dominance: It was a brilliant marketing strategy complemented by design and manufacturing excellence, and it resulted in one of the most successful companies the world has ever known.

The strategic triad of Honda 305s

Much of Honda’s success was due to the technical excellence and success of the Honda 305s. There were three: The Honda Dream, the Honda Super Hawk, and the Honda Scrambler. At the time, they were the biggest motorcycles Honda made.

The CA77 Honda Dream was not an offroad-styled motorcycle (that was the CL77 Scrambler’s domain) or a performance motorcycle (that call was answered by the CB77 Super Hawk). The Scrambler and the Super Hawk appealed to more serious motorcycle enthusiasts; the Dream was a much less intimidating ticket into the motorcycle world. The typical Dream buyer was either someone stepping up from a smaller Honda or someone who had not previously owned a motorcycle. Honda first used the name “Dream” on its 1949 Model D (a single-cylinder, 98cc 2-stroke) and no one knows where the Dream moniker came from (legend has it that someone at Honda upon first seeing the Model D, proclaimed it to “look like a dream”). Some say Honda based its forward leaning parallel 250/305cc engine design on an earlier NSU engine, but Honda unquestionably carried the engineering across the finish line (when was the last time you saw an NSU?). The Dream’s 305cc 360-degree engine had a single 23mm Keihin carb and it produced 23 horsepower at 7,500rpm. According to magazines of the era, the Dream was good for between 80 and 100mph (the disparity in reported top end was presumably due to motojournalist weight and perhaps prevailing headwinds). The Dream averaged 50 miles per gallon, although in those blissful days of $0.28/gallon gasoline nobody really cared. Honda built the Dream until 1969. The Dream retailed for $595 back in those days, but a shrewd negotiator could do a little better.

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