CBX1000

HONDA'S BIG-SIX TOURER IS A COMPELLING RIDE

HONDA'S bold CBX1000 of 1978-82 helped to build the company's reputation for technical prowess, though it never really succeeded in the showroom. Front and centre was the inline six, four-valve powerplant fed by a bank of six carburetors.

For the time, it was an extraordinary piece of machinery, though by no means the first inline-six production bike. That honour went to Benelli for its 750 and 900Sei series of 1972-78. Somewhat ironically, the Benelli engine owed a lot to Honda's inline fours of the period.

Getting back to Honda, the CBX 1000 powerplant was producing a relatively lazy 105 horses, still a very solid number for the time, and was capable of around 220km/h.