I love the Benly Super-Sport, IMHO one of the most beautiful bikes Honda ever made.
Right now, my retro-fried '82 CB900F Bol D'Or is in the process of it's re-envisioning as a "CB900K0 Bol Bomber" - homage to the '65 CB450K0 Black Bomber -
But if I had my druthers, and a Tony Foale leading-link fork? It'd be a "CB902" ... which would be a what? Benly Super-Bol? Bolly Super-Ben? Either way, it's beautiful the way I picture it!
The main thing that makes me think of the earlier bike is the alloy gas tank from CB1100R which I've polished up on the sides etc. Much as it makes a good toaster-tank, it reminds me all the more of the CB92 tank especially with RC-series wing decals on it. It just needs the big rubber belly bumper on it!
Well whatever - I just wanna tell you how I feel about these early Honda twins. It was a time when Honda was sooo cutting edge. Even more so than later. If that's possible. But it's also about their distinct & iconic aesthetics. NOBODY was building bikes like these.
Well, yeah I guess there were a few interesting things out there - the Ariel Arrow & Leader for instance. Themselves copied directly from a pre-War German bike. Every now and again the smaller motorcycles and larger scooters ... break out of their corral, hop over a fence or two, and mate with each other. Or perhaps they were locked up to opposite sides of a chain-link fence? Either way, some curious hybridization occurred and those are some of the most interesting bikes IMHO.
But Honda didn't just blur those lines, they also DREW them - with models centered around the same engines and even wheels, brakes, running gear - they offered back-bone and under-bone versions of their basic flat single from the Cub.
There's just so much going ON with these early Honda twins. Like AL-FIN cast brake drums in the same vein as was being done with high-spec race-bikes of the previous/contemporaneous few years. Crisp precise castings and 2LS actuation, all alloy construction, full adjustability etc - all the way down to the smallest models. Compare 'em to brakes from anything but the aftermarket - well sometimes the other Japanese makers seemed to get it right too, but Honda was really leading with that stuff - then you get on up through the chassis and it's all WOW with the pressed sheet-metal monocoque frames - they should be doing these things today but in Aluminum. I guess they are, with the Delta-Box frames. But monocoque BACK-BONE frames would be refreshing.... Then you get to the engines and they're incredible to see that type of tech on smaller models. Let alone what they brought to the TRACK during those first five to ten years. On up through the running gear. Beautiful components - you don't get a sense that they're cutting costs at all - not when you look at contemporary marques from elsewhere - and such a focus on weigh savings too, it's like they truly were "race-bred" - proven out by how competitive they were with just a few mods. I gather there were a lot of internal changes for engines within a given model year. Revisions or improvements. I keep hearing about that as though it were a criticism. But think of how other marques would've just kept plugging out the original version, with a product recall down the line!
I figure it's only appropriate to re-model the DOHC-four and even DOHC-six the CBX, in "Hailwood Replica" mode - 'cause this whole series were meant to evoke those earlier race victories. Gotta wonder if it's dredging out all of that DOHC tech from the archives is what prompted 'em to return to racing in '79 with the NR500 - Well I've seen some of them done and well, but I don't quite have a decent fake 4LS drum worked out, planning to pull a rabbit out of a hat with the GL1500 fork and PC800 "hub" - I've got a spare Suzuki GT750J drum from my other project, the "KZ440LOL" but that thing's totally inadequate for these beasts. It would be interesting to try some type of Benly replica on say, a CB400T or thereabouts, a little Hawk twin from the late '70s early '80s Super-Sport family. But not on the bigger fours. So yeah until I can figure out a good "Faux-Leading-Shoe" shrouded "internal" disc brake, let alone a shrouded FORK in the vein of a leading-link item (like the DIY fork shrouds of that one-off Ducati "MS4R" (where they're less of a fake-out and more of a functional aerodynamic cowl - tempting but the underlying suspension is USD and I'm loathe to put a USD fork onto any '80s Superbike!!!) until I can wrap my head around that type of stuff, I figure the best features of the early twins are gonna be out of reach - And so I proceed with re-modelling the DOHC 900 as two DOHC 450's strapped side-by-side! Which is what the 900 IS, really - the power per litre is on par. Perhaps the next one will pull it off. The "KZ440LOL" (as in "laugh out loud") is for my kid to ride, but she'll need a proper DOHC 750cc's+ in no time at all. And so one or the other of these bikes is gonna realize my dream of a "CB902" - it's a model I'll probably never be done with. Had three '82 CB's now, two 750's and now a 900 - but my first bike was a '69 CB100 "parts-bike" which took over it's SL100 project to become a hybrid of the two - then I rode an '82 C70 Passport for a lot of years. Just sayin' - I'm ALSO big into the smaller bikes and singles at that. And going back to the start, I was always keen on the early Honda twins above all else.
I recall an article in Cycle Canada or one of the other big motorcycle magazines, which I read in the library of my High-School - laughing at the prospect of the older "toaster-tank" Honda models becoming "collectable" - they poked fun at the prospect of their being CLUBS in the future full of guys riding around on toaster-tank twins, that there would be a huge aftermarket segment devoted to pattern parts.
And this positively RANKLED me to read it! I still fume about it now, thinking of the negativity people projected towards my little bikes.
But we've got the last laugh NOW, I should think! The resale value of these old bikes seems to go up and up and up. If only I had the cash to snap 'em all up back then, 'cause when I was getting into it, that had to have been an all time low point in North American appreciation for little old Honda twins. Can't even think of how many I had passed over for lack of a place to PUT 'em. Should've bought an old Quonset or something ha-ha. Heck there was an S50 at one point that I could've taken it away free for the hauling. Bah! I'm sure we've all got these stories.
Thing is, they're not a GUILTY pleasure, 'cause they don't belch horrible emissions, they don't guzzle gas they sip it rather miserly. In a sense we haven't caught back up with them yet, in that there hasn't been a segment of transportation which met their sensible economy & efficiency.
Maybe with the electrics? It's my fervent hope that the electric bikes will pick up something from the aesthetics of these early twins. Monocoque frames. Regenerative-electric brake hubs shaped like the 2LS & 4LS drums of old. A bit of polished alloy & chrome, a few cooling fins perchance? Leading-link forks and wire-spoked alloy rims - one can only hope! Ah but we'll probably get an enormous Gold Wing hybrid first - well that's alright with me so long as it's a '75-'77 GL1000 and not a GL1500 or GL1800 style!
I suppose what I'm GETTING AT, is more and more young people need to SEE these older Honda twins. To pique their interest. Youngsters these days are very interested in the vintage mechanical stuff. We older folks might be impressed with electronic gadgetry but the young folks most definitely aren't. Sure there might be a lot of 'em on the 'net or playing Vidiot games, but that's all about porn and furthermore fantasy about earlier eras - perhaps a Vidiot game about racing 60's era 125cc GP machines? Or maybe the Vidiot games are a red herring, and we should push to see these bikes included in the PORNOGRAPHY instead........
-S.
