If you search the forum, i believe there is a post from Hondaman or one of our Gurus about this. I will do my best to give you the gist. It seems that Honda designed the motor to be "out of square" which means the stroke is longer than the bore, which is counter what Hot Rodders do. Up until the CB750 motor, out of square motors were slow turning industrial motors which had tons of torque. Honda built one that would rev really fast. This is why we have such a long power curve. If you short stroke it you would probably lose that advantage. Others may have more info.
