Today’s Honda takes its styling cues and big single aesthetic from the British bikes of the ’50s and ’60s. Retro looks aren’t this bike’s only calling card; it also has a White Brothers big bore kit for some serious power. Let’s see if we can take this beautiful bike’s price just as seriously.
There’s a song by the woefully underrated Chicago band, , called , about a man who takes a time machine back to meet his true love at the inception of their relationship, just to tell them that it’s all going to turn out just fine. It’s likely that the time traveler would have also warned their then and future partner not to spend $48,000 on the we looked at yesterday. Most of you commented such a price was far too high for what was essentially an experiment of a car and, more importantly, one that needed a windshield and some touchup paint.
The result was an 86 percent No Dice loss. While yesterday’s BMW may have been an attempt to look into the future, today’s is a retro gaze into the past. Only made available in the 1989 and 1990 model years, the Café-style GB500 is built around a sleeved-down single taken from the contemporary XL600 dirt bike.
The monoposto design echos the great British bikes of the 1950s and ’60s, right down to the duel shock rear swing arm and polished spoked wheels. The name even calls this out, as the GB supposedly stands for “Great British.” It’s a good-looking bike, albeit a small one, which might make bigger riders feel cram.