The Forgotten Motorcycle that made Honda

I first rode a Honda Dream back in 1975. It was a great bike, smooth, and powerful. My beautiful older female neighbor wanted me to take her for a ride around Cincinnati. The longer we rode, the more she pressed her chest in my back, and the more I realized how much I loved riding motorcycles. Lol.

Bought a 150 Honda Dream in the mid 60's to ride while the Harley was being repaired. Soon sold the Harley and bought a 305 Super Hawk that was stolen. After a short stent on a BSA, I bought a CB 450 which was my second favorite bike. It was a 900 Kawasaki that really stole my heart.

I worked for two Honda motorcycle shops from 1969 to 1973 and one thing I learned was how Honda started small and worked up to bigger and better bikes. A lot of parts on the 750 came from the smaller machines! This saved money in production and in parts inventory which was passed on to the customers. Reading old motorcycle magazines reviews of Hondas the one thing that stood out was the appreciation of a bike having lights and brakes that worked, even at night! Then as more and more Hondas appeared on the roads their reputation for reliability grew until it was taken for granted that a Honda will always work and last.

My late father owned a `66 CB450 Black Bomber (@13:24) from the early 70`s until his death in 2007. I hadn`t seen it in over 15yrs. The current owner found me on fb. (old registration under seat) I purchased it on July 4th. Literally 2 days ago! It`s got issues but it`s finally mine!😍🤩 Honestly never thought i`d ever see that bike again. Been going out into the garage every few hours just to make sure i`m not dreaming.

I like the looks of the dream. As a kid I had a C50 to ride to school. A friend had one too. The rest of the school had 2 stroke Kreidlers Zundapp ,Yamaha FS1 and some the new Honda MB-50 or MT-50. But I loved my C50. It had no first gear, no kickstarter but it always ran in summer or winter, ran 70 km/h and used very few fuel. I used it to go skiing in winter (We rode from the Netherlands to Luxemburg in freezing weather. Ski's strapped left and right and bags with campinggear. It was cold (-20 degrees) but our Hondas carried us without any problems. My first motorcycle was also a Honda (CB550K3) and 40 years later I drive a Honda GL1800 as main transport.

If Honda could hear us, let us announce it loud and proud. “Revive the dream!”

My dream bike as a young teenager was a Harley Sportster. Then the financial reality hit and I set my sights on a Honda 305 Hawk. I never wound up owning either. Instead in 1974 I bought my first new bike, a Honda 750.

I love those vintage showroom bikes - beautifully preserved.

Hey, you got it all wrong on the double overhead cam the first double overhead cam Honda was the Honda 450. I know I had a couple of super hawks and took them all apart. Put them all back together and race them out with cams porting and board them to 350. Sent the cam off to LA to to make a racing cam. Put a racing Barnett clutch in with super strong springs. Also, Xed the gears which made the step-by-step even steps From 1st to 4th like a race bike. I took the horsepower from about 29 to 40. I was 15 years old in 1965 when I did all of this. I was breaking chains and beating motorcycles much bigger than mine. This was my first motorcycle and I loved it. The Takeaway here is it is a single overhead cam. Everything else in your video is right on. Thank you for publishing this it was very nostalgic for me I now own six motorcycles 650 Suzuki‘s a Honda Goldwing 1800 cc a 1200 GS BMW and Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 Motorcycling brings sparks to my life, and I recommend it to everyone. If I could find a restored Honda 305 for a reasonable price I would buy it in a heartbeat

My first motorcycle was a 1965 CB77 305 Superhawk. I was in highschool at the time. It was a great first bike, the competition at the time were the Yamaha 250 and the Harley Sprint 160, both had two cycle engines. I kept the 305 until I went into the Army in 1967.

This is one of the best motorcycle channels ever on YouTube. I love your work, man!

Thanks for this one.. My dad was a Honda fan early on. He owned at least one Dream model in the 60s as well as a CB350 in 1970. I can still remember riding with him on those bikes. Another great aspect of Honda was their development of smaller sized bikes. Thanks to them I got my start riding aboard a ‘69 Z50 Mini Trail and then a ‘73 XR75 before moving on to full-sized bikes. As someone who always did all of his own wrenching, I believe what attracted my dad to Honda motorcycles in particular was the quality of those bikes and the engineering behind them. The quality of their products certainly made a fan of me as well. Now an old man myself, I have owned a variety of motorcycles and cars over my adult life — most of those being Hondas.

The Superhawk was the motorcycle that Pirsig rode across the United States with his son in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Back in the mid-60s in suburban Midwest, a kid went from a Honda 50 "Step Through", to a 160cc and then, finally, something 300 or a bit bigger. Probably a Honda. Then you sold your bike and went to college or got a full-time job and a car.

I bought a new CB750 in 1974. I rode that bike from Bullsville NY to Miami Florida and never got tired. I put on 6 inch extended forks , Hooker 4 into one Headers upgraded the cams and bigger jets in the 4 carbs. A Harley rear wheel for a smooth as glass ride. Bike was fast as hell. And blew away a 750 Kawasaki I-95 in Florida reaching over 125 MPH and had plenty left

I loved the look of the Scramblers back in the 60's.

The Superhawk (and Hawk) were not double overhead cam. Single cam. The CB450 was the first DOHC marketed by Honda.

I had a 1971 Honda CB750 with a 4 into 1 header and a 17-tooth front sprocket. I was riding a Kawasaki 900 once while my brother rode my Honda. We raced from a dead stop and he beat me on my own bike. It was the best bike I ever owned. You couldn't break that old Honda.

My old man was a merchant seamen. He went to Japan often in the late 1950's early 60's I remember he brought back a 250 dream for a friend. He would do donuts out in front of the house... Good times!!

Not forgotten by me; my first Japanese bike was a 305 Dream. It died in the Desert, in the Australian Outback, when the air cleaner became accidentally detached, and the bulldust caused the throttle to jam fully open ! It took off across the saltbush, threw me and self-destructed at maximum revs. I certainly have never forgotten that !