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Looks just like Freddie Spencer’s...
fine handling on tap, could be viewed as
an almost perfect machine. Where others
wallowed, the Honda tracked true, when
the bigger bikes pushed the brakes to
the limit the CB simply stopped. It really
is like chalk and cheese when comparing
the bikes of 1979 alongside each other.
The advantage enjoyed by the Honda
was a short lived experience however, as
by 1981 Kawasaki had stolen the march
on handling with the GPz series.
The only real tangible fault I could find with
the CB has to be the rear brake, the disc is
too large, diameter wise, and at times can
overpower the wheel. This could be a fraction
of the size, as indeed could the huge lever used
to operate it, and still be very useful at hauling
the bike up but without any fear of locking.
could well be the engine with its wide range of
torquey, usable power. After all the power plant
did find its way into many a special like Bimota
HB2 and Harris Magnums. But that would be
grossly unfair to the chassis that is both stiff
and sweet handling. The high specification
Showa suspension also deserves much credit,
for a straight out of the showroom machine
the CB900 was a revelation for its time, before
then, the pogo’ing and wallowing was accepted
as the norm until you up rated with Marzocchis
or the like. Now you could buy a machine
that didn’t need such work and Japanese
suspension, both thinking and engineering
techniques, had finally come of age. To sum up,
the CB cannot be broken apart and one area
pointed at as being the jewel in the crown, it
all works as a whole straight out of the crate.
The real star of the CB show is hard to define; it
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