Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

-;:: '" ri ~ - CYCLE NEWS TESTS: By Ron Schneiders One Honda dealer told us recently that his best seller in the road bike ~ category was not, as you might w Z super-sophisticated w ... expect, the 750 but the bike four cylinder calls simply the CB ~ that Honda the initials CB stand 450. What for, only Honda knows for sure, but the 450 stands for' the approximate displacement ot the engine in cubic centimeters. When we were offered one of the machines to test, we quickly accepted. First impression of the Honda is that it is a very pretty machine. Tank and side panels are a pleasing gold color that looks like it came out of the same can that Honda's chief competitor uses for its 650. The next impression is a little harder to define, but it has to do with what aerospace engineers like to call the"design package." In essence it is the way everything fits together as an integrated whole. Most bikes look like they were designed by six different people in six different countries who could only communicate by letter through a tongue-tied translator. In these "designs" things are hung on the bike as after-thoughts. The front fenders don't match the tanks, and so on. The Honda, on the other hand, looks like it was designed by one who had it all planned out in his mind before he set the first pencil to the drawbfg board. Things to service can be easily reached, all the "dead" space in the center of the machine is used efficiently and there are no parts left over. Lift the seat and see all the electrical components as nicely boxed and protected as a dozen eggs iil their foam carton. Even the tum signal lights, which I detest on most bikes, look like they belong and are inoffensive on the 450. When you start the Honda you immediately come in contact with one of its nicest features: an electric starter that really works. It tunis the engine over smartly and the battery is large enough for quite a few starts without having to worry about its going flat. The electric starter is our first clue that this bike is basically an "around town" bike. It is basic transportation, not an athletic event each time it is used. The engine starts very easily when warm, but early in the morning, even here in sunny climes, that mill has to tum over quite a few times to start it perking. (When a mill starts perking, you can pour yours'elf a cup of scrambled metaphor). Then you're happy that you have an electric starter, because if you had to rely on the kick starter you'd just never get started at all. That pedal is geared so low that it takes about three kicks to get through one engine revolution. Once, after I thoroughly drowned the carbs and ignition while washing the bike, I ran down the battery trying to get it started. "No matter," I thought to myself, "I'll use the kick starter." Vb ub. Much easier to push-start it. Along about this time you discover an interesting little device, required by the DOT, called a kill switch. Now a kill button I regard as essential on any bike, THE HONDA 450 road or dirt. A kill butturetors, it's the latest word in sophistication. You might rightfuDy expect it to be the most . muscular 30-incher around the block too, but you'd be a bit disappointed, especially at first. The engine as it comes new is very tight, and it takes a good 500 miles to loosen up. Even then in normal use it doesn't feel all that powerful. The diffiuclty is that the engine fells "happiest" running around 5500-6000 rpm. There's very little vibration in that range and it's an engine speed you can hold for a long time without rider fatigue. The real power whin fairly quietly and without fuss. Soon you almost forget it's there, just like a car. Honda supplies a set of tools with the bike, but if the machine were mine I'd probably take them out and leave them in the work shop or something. Things don't often break on the machine and when they -do. roadside repairs are unlikely to be effective. On such bikes you carry tools to tighten the things that vibrate loose before they fall off, but such things don't happen to the Honda. We had one roadside emergency which turned out to be a blown rectifier and wasn't easily "fixable." It would have been replaced on the guarantee if it happened to a customer. Seating position on the Honda I found to be very comfortable for fairly longish rides. The bars were low and quite straigh t, which I like but other riders will want to change. This is always the case. I don't know why manufacturers don't sell the bikes without bars. Let the customer put on what he wants. Seat height is 31 inches which means people much under 5 '5" are not going to be able to reach the ground. Weight is a modest 424 Ibs. The one really superi> feature of the 450 is the braking system. A front disc that will stop time after time with wonderful dependability is the heart of the system. I must admit to having my doubt about a disc brake on an inexpensive scooter. It seemed like one of those areas where the manufacturer could cut comers and send me right into a wall. But apparently Honda realizes their responsibility to the rider on this particular feature and cut no comers. As long as I had the bike that brake just worked right every time, wet or dry with no adjustmen t being necessary during the whole period. A stout brake fluid reservoir is mounted on handlebars. Presumably it will need topping up once in awhile, but it didn't while I had it. There were no leaks. The rear brake is the more conventional (and less effective) single leading shoe variety. The front brake works so well that there is a tendency to forget the rear one during most normal stops. In a maximum decleration about 75% of the job would be done by the front brake on the Honda, about 25% by the rear This neat tool kit, including extra fuses and feeler gauges comes with each bike. position the starting motor will not operate. Sometime in the late thirties, auto engineers learned that it was a good idea to have the ignition and the starting motor wired together so that you couldn't run down your car battery trying to start a car with the ignition switch off. Wond,er how long it will take bike enlrineers? unfailingly, but is about as satisfying to pump as a bumper jack and half as reassuring. Trying to find neutral (or for that matter trying to shift at all) when the machine is moving very slowly or stopped is about as likely as finding a particular radio station with the radio turned off. You might hit it lucky once in 15 or 20 tries. There are, however, ways to cope with the beast and if you're going to ride a bike designed in Japan, I guess you just learn and bear The handlebars on road bikes are starting to get complicated. On this side is the brake lever and reservoir, the emergency kill SWitch, the starter button On/Off/Dim switch. and the headlight though, comes in at 9000 r's which is a whole bunch. If you get the engine running in that range and hold it there when you shift gears, it feels, and is, quite powerful Down in the more comfortable range, power is adequate, but not at all spectacular. The transmission is typical Japanese design which is to say it works One of the appealing features of the 450 is this very effective front disk brake. which capably handles the bike', 424 Ibs. For making your way quickly and reliably through traffic the 450, like the bug in the background, is hard to best. (an interesting set of figures to keep in mind when on surfaces of minimum or uncertain traction where it is inadvisable to clamp on the front binders). One would have thought that with that excellent front brake as a starting point for the handling package that Honda would have gone all the way and made the bike really handle well. They didn't. Its handling is adequate for a good transportation bike, that's all. Translated that means if you try play-racing this bike you're going to be in a heap of trouble, son. Short wheelbase combined with the traditional Japanese shock disturi>ers tend to throw the bike out of control when the going is fast and the surface is rought or bumpy. Hitting a really good bump at speed could pitch you riPt over the bars. On the freeway "ripple,"

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