Another 450 anecdote from way back:
A special 450 Honda turned up at the shop one day, 1968? The boss had purchased it from I don’t know where, and had kept mum about it until it arrived. But there was no secret about its purpose: going fast at the dragstrip. It was a full on lay-down dragbike built around a 450 engine. A lightweight two section tube frame. A narrow ribbed tire on a spooled (no brake) front wheel. One piece front end: triples forks drag bars with high rpm tach. Solid rear end using a standard 450 rear wheel with 400 x 18 Avon slick. Rear sets at rear wheel.
We took the bike to Detroit Dragway for the most part. Skip was the rider at the beginning. I’m stretching my memory here quite a bit but I think the 450 dragster turned low 13’s high 12’s @ 100mph. One evening Skip was playing to the crowd, doing wheelies on the return road. That was his last run, as the forks were bent.
Over the winter, high dome over bore pistons and big bump cams were installed. Roger was the new rider and the first run was in Ontario, at the St. Thomas? all bike drags. It’s was a real treat for the ears, all the bikes singing down the strip in full flight. Sweet sounding British twins, mostly Norton’s with the occasional HD and one lonesome Honda 450 that didn’t finish its first run as valve and piston kissed. I never saw the 450 run again. I don’t know it’s whereabouts or what became of it.
That ended my chances of ever piloting the 450 dragbike. Of course, I was only 15, and had never been over 20 mph at the controls on a bike. But I was the lightest of any, like a jockey, and I was working on my 450 hole shots. My own CB750 followed in ‘70.
