 Honda CB-1
A Modified Classic In Seattle
"What the heck is that?" asked a local seasoned motorcycle
enthusiast when he gazed upon the red Honda. Upon a second look, and
running through his rolodex of knowledge about bikes through the decades
he started to stutter - "It's a... ahhhhh... C...CB...CB1?."
Bingo.
Probably the trickiest part of figuring it out had to do with the
color. Red was never a color that this bike was produced in domestically.
 Way back in 1975, Honda produced an air cooled in-line four to fit into its
already popular CB series, the CB 400F. Much like the CB 750 and CB 500
series', the CB 400 sported similar styling with one slight change which lay in
the steering and handle bar design. The CB 400F had more of a cafe racer
look on the front end. But as often happens with some great Hondas, this
one had a short lifespan and was gone before the end of the decade. Its
original color? Red.
By the mid 80's, someone in Honda's R&D department felt the CB 400F was
still a great bike, but could use a little updating to bring it back to market,
so back on the drawing board it returned. The modern racing element was
heavily weighed into the new machine and by the time it was re-designed it was
more than ready for the track.
 This time Honda had created an inline 400 four that was water-cooled and had
an engine that was over the top in terms of 400 cc machines. And this time
it was blue. Cycle World was so impressed they ran a feature on both the
'75 and '89 models celebrating the return of the CB 400F (the final model
brought to market was officially named the CB-1 in the US, NC27 in some
international markets).
Again the bike failed with the market. Was it the blue color? Was it
the low displacement in comparison to the overzealous horsepower that was
driving the sport bike market? No one can say for sure, but again this
bike had a short lifespan, only two years. By the end of 1990, the last
models were sold and it became history as far as Honda was concerned.
One such bike was sold here in Seattle to a local rider. After a period
of time the bike was crashed and fell into the hands of its second owner who took the bike entirely apart and sent the frame out for a powder
coating, goodbye black, a silver coat was applied. The blue rims
were sent out and powder coated into gold. And best of all, new body parts
were ordered, and together with the original tank, were treated to a bathing in
VFR red. Yummy!
And it makes you wonder when you look at the bike in red, just who had the
bad idea to create this masterpiece in blue in the first place? It also
makes you realize that this bike has the distinctive lines and stylings of
another small sport bike to come along later - the Ducati Monster. In fact
Honda somewhat resurrected many of the CB-1 stylings in 1994 when it brough a
600 Hawk model to market - in red of course. That bike shared some of the
same parts of the CB-1, including the seat. No doubt some corporate bean
counter was concerned about left over inventory on a bike that was now out of
print.
It was the slight modifications that the second applied to the machine that set it
apart from all the others created over its short two year run. Moving it
to red gave it a much more attractive and distinctive look. He even
refrained from decaling the machine in the original manner, and instead opted
for adding a simple Honda wing logo on each side of the tank, and the
brand name across the rear fender.
The bike was then sold to it's third owner.
It's obvious from the 1/16 inch drillings in many of the front end bolts, and
some left over wiring that the bike had been used for official racing at some
point in its life. The other obvious giveaway the bike was raced was the
extent of warpage on the front disc brake.
Today, the bike has 15,000 miles on it and indeed carries many of the characteristics
it's long been known for. Such as...
Let's start with the obvious fact that the bike redlines at 13,500 rpm.
While most modern day sport bikes red line at 10,000 to 12,000 rpm this little
monster just keeps giving with the slightest hesitation..
 A recent dyno test done at Max RPM in Bremerton clocked the bike in with a
weenie 48 horsepower. Nothing special for a sport bike today , but how
about the fact that the power plant and exhaust are stock and it's only an
inline four. Not bad for its time when you think about it.
Next is the rpm range where it's most happy. Well, in our recent runs,
that would be between 2,000 and 10,000 revs, depending on who you want to wake
up. Yes, it can be putted around town at 2000-3,000 rpm and you won't wake
the neighbors, but like the turbo on a CX 500, there's a kick in the power curve
that occurs at 7,000 rpm and continues up beyond 10,000.
More about those revs is that when you're cruising the interstate at 65 mph,
you're cranking a mere 7,500 in sixth gear, but if you need to pass a slow
vehicle, over time it doesn't take much to realize you could do that simply by
down shifting to 5th, or even 4th for that matter, then crank your right hand
back.
 As you can see from the front end there is no fairing. So just how does
that factor in at high speeds? Not as bad as you'd think. The design
is such that an average height person simply postures their head ahead of their
elbows which reduces the stress elements at the arms leaving things much more
manageable from the upper limbs. In this position your chest transfers
the wind resistance and management thereof to the lower body which you have firmly
placed with a little lean onto the tank area.
Considering that this bike has been through five owners now and performs as
well today as it did in 89', it is indeed a bike that just keeps on giving and
has satisfied a number of people, from racers to street riders. Keep your
eye's peeled for this sweet little thing, no one's going to be locking it up too
soon, just too fun to ride.
Patrick Thomas/Summer 00
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