Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

co the '" '" ~ .., ..... ell C L450 c: '" :::l .., When I take 'er to the burger stand, she's right shiny, even though she ain't too timely. ~ w Z W ...J U > U • Just like the burqer, it was better than we e xpected . by Wald o , the CN Staff ando ther hangers on Only a t Honda c o uld a dual overhead cam shaft e ngi ne be an a nac h ro nis m . While o ther m an u facturers p ush bi kes with mo tors with cam s d own b y th e cran k shaft rig h t o u t th eir doors billin g them as engineering m arv els, Honda has a bike suc h as the 45 0 th at is almost co nsid e re d obsole te . Sh arin g showro o m flo ors w ith wo oshing fo u r cy lindered wonders, one mi ght expect th e 4 50 to fad e aw a y . Bu t , the 450 hasn 't fad ed away . It 's alive an d well as a scrambler at burger stands all ov er Ameri ca. Such is the ph en omen a that brough t us t o request a CL 4 50 to test from Honda. "What are all those p eople up to ?" A CL 450 is just like a CB 450 , on ly less sop h isticat ed . It has high pipes tha t make it a 400 p ound plus dirt bike. Dirt b ike s ca n ' t have di sc brakes eit he r, so the CL h as a drum up front. A sligh tly sm aller (2.6 gal.) and exceedi n gly attra ctive gas ta n k slips in up to p to make the CL 'ligh te r.' Add so me cross-b raced handleb a rs an d yo u've abou t covered th e d iffe rences. Nobody, but almo st n ob od v th in ks that th e CL 450 is a dirt b ike. , (A lm o st , bec ~us e th ere mu st be so meone somewh ere.) S till , it 's righ t p opula r for it to look like a di rt b ike (so rt of) . It 's ove rall app e a ran c e i s bizarre. It's no t ' u n att ractive , b u t the engine is jus t pl ain huge. T he sm a lle r CL tan k accen ts the h eigh t of th e m otor. It lo o ks kind of like a big mot o r wi th so me accessories attach ed . For tu nately, t hat m o to r is fu n to lo ok at. In short, loo king at th e 4 5 0 will t ell a li ttle abou t wh y th ere are so m an y rolling a ro u nd , bu t n o t to o much . So on it became obvious th at we wer e go ing to be fo rce d t o rid e the b ike to find out what w as up. So , we did, for a long time an d a co up le o f th ousand miles. In the tw o months th e CL 450 was around it proved one thing over and over ag ain; I t is n ot a b lah m otorcycle. You m ay hate it and you m ay lo ve it , and probably in the same five minute period, but you won' t forget it. Whenever we tri ed t o forget it would d o' something t o remind u s th at it was very much there. Some times th e b atte ry would go d ead and it w ould require bump sta rts. Sometime s it would start makin g a bizarre new nois e. An other time its fo rgiving handling m igh t sa ve a situ ati on , and th en it wo uld co ug h once just to remind o ne th at favor had been given . . Jus t as you might ex pect, th e 450 isn' t to o fast , and it vibrates, too. Th en again, th e 4 50 makes nice u seabl e p ower and it n ever lunges. Off th e s to p ligh t it lose s badly , b u t in o the r th an a str aig ht lin e th e engine makes up much of it s ground. Vibration is n o t of a qu an tity or quality to b oth er o ne a ro u nd to wn . Only o n the h igh way will it b ecome b o th ersome, and th en only so me tim es. A t 75 MPH (6 ,0 0 0 RPM) the 450 is so metime s sm o oth and so me times sh aky. It co mes and goes. Wh en the re is vibrati o n it is in the pegs mu ch more: th an t he bars . Th e p assen ger pegs be come all time lo sers at th e sa me tim e . T he re are a fe w th ing s about t he 45 0 that a re pro foundly a bs urd. Like th e fact that it h an d les real ly well an d has so little gro u nd clearance as to be dangerous. T h is is especially abs u rd , becau se th ere is abs o lu tely no reason for it to be th at way. It h as a CB 4 50 ce ntersta n d th at is built to clear low ' p ip es . If a stand wa s m ad e that wo uld stay o ut of th e wa y th e CL 45 0 could b e lean ed un til the hand lebars to uc hed. (Well , almost.) Lo ts of bikes ground on ro ad racin g co urses and such wit h an expert ride r. T he CL 450 gro un ds p ulli n g in to p ar kin g ' lo t s with am a te urs aboard, c ruisin ' for b u rger s. Anot her uncer t ain absurdit y : At the burger p alace y o u might want t o drop a lad y ty pe frie nd on th e b ack , righ t ? Well, sh e'll like it' a lo t ex cept for o nly b eing able to h o o k th e edge o f h er h eel on the left ' p eg- and then havin g her leg o verheate d at the same tim e . T he high pipes disq u alify any th ing like two- up tourin g. T o o b ad , th e seat is actually pretty co mfo rt ab le and th e suspension han d les tw o pe ople with apl omb . Ah , the su spension. T he 450 has one of the best sets of bump absorbers we've a T hat' s all folk s. A in't no mo re. N ow it's ti me to play Paul Smart .

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