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 cramped.
And yes, while it does have two exhaust pipes exiting the air-cooled engine’s finned head, emulating the great twins of the past, this is a a single cylinder bike—a thumper in the parlace of the people. A longer time has now passed since the GB500 was offered than from it and the era that its makers sought to honor, making it something of a retro-retro bike. These have also become a bit of a collector’s piece, and prices have been reflecting that desirability.
This one is especially unique as its motor has been embiggened to 601 ccs by way of a period-correct White Brothers big bore kit. That includes a bigger piston, a larger bore cylinder sleeve, a re-profiled cam, a larger Mikuni carb, and a Supertrap exhaust. All together, the White Bros.
kit puts the GB500’s performance in a whole different league, with contemporary testers saying it rivaled that of larger inline fours. The rest of the bike seems to stand up the engine’s hype. The seller describes it as “Museum quality” and the odometer backs that up, showing just 2402 miles on the clock.
Along with the bigger thumper mill, it has been fitted with progressive forks in front and springs in the back, and wears appropriate Metzger tires on its 18-inch wheels. This isn’t just a retro bike; it’s old-school in its own right. It features a single-disc brake up front and a mechanical drum in the back.
There are no antilock brakes, and the skinny tires, low clip-ons, and half-prone seating position can make for somewhat squirrelly handling. Of course, if it’s going to stay museum quality, the new owner will likely not be testing its limits all that often. The bike comes with a clean title, its original owner’s manual which is in fantastic condition, and an asking price of $11,500.
That’s a lot of cabbage for a bike that emulated greatness but never achieved it itself. It is, however, an extremely nice example and has the party-piece big bore kit already installed and working. Is that enough, though, to make it worth that $11,500 asking? You decide! Los Angeles, California, , or go if the ad disappears.
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