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Honda’s eagerly-awaited new retro roadster, the CB1100, has just gone on sale in Japan accompanied by this official promo video – but it still looks unlikely it’ll ever be coming to the UK. 2010 Honda CB1100 production bike revealed The...

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motowebmaster

Interesting bike. Here is the video:

Jamie

Once upon a time, Honda meant vision. Some of you might remember the CB250/305 (and "Scrambler" versions thereof, for the US market) which in very early 60's revolutionized one's outlook on "big bikes". Biking suddenly became recreational, as opposed to merely transportation-oriented (as it still was in Japan, back then ,which, in hindsight, makes Mr Schoiro Honda's vision of the to-be Western World motorcycle market even more amazingly brilliant) or left to misfit, suburban hell or purgatory angels riding loud and oil-leaking Harley's or Triumph's.

You met "nice people on Honda's", so went the early 60's Honda ad campaign (am not too sure about the accuracy of the quote, but that was the gist of it). And that ad campaign went all the way to Sunday supplements of US DAILIES, whereas the "other" brands had not done much advertising, beyond hard-to find monthly rags.

Thanks to these Honda bikes (all 4-stroke, all offering more HP per engine displacement than anything else on the market at the time , all being perfectly finished and all being incredibly reliable), "made in Japan" started to invite respect, if not envy. Pearl Harbour sunk into oblivion (pun, if any, not intended)

Contributing to this Japanese redemption (here I come !) was, believe it or not, the FACT that a Japanese singer, Kuy Sakamoto, hit the US top-selling records list for three months in a row in 1963. The "romance" song was "Sukiyaki", not its original title, evidently, but far more acceptable to the US buying public according to its US producer.

Anytime.

Ol'Jamie.

The Prophet

Being a sucker for the old style bikes.. I like it.

'Appears to me that an alert someone at Honda has been peeking at the success of Triumph with their "Modern Classics" range, and decided to get in on the deal.

This style bike would appeal mainly to the 45-70 year old crowd, who also just happen to be in the upper echelon of the "expendable cash" market segment as well. That age group would best recall fondly the 'good ol' days', and seriously consider a modern equivalent ride such as this.

To Jamie's fine comments: Note as well that the old "you meet the nicest people..." ads for Honda's NEVER used the word "Motorcycle" because at that period (early '60's) motorcycles had a negative image that depleted sales.

Believe it or not, Harley Davidson also tried to "clean up" the image during that same period by offering questionable ads portraying a sport coated, pipe smoking, Alpine hat wearin' apparently affluent, Madison Avenue "everyman", riding a full dresser with a "Donna Reed" clone riding pillion. Sometimes the guy wore a necktie! Compare that with todays hanky headed, sneering, fingerless glove sportin' , leather everything weekend wannabe's as suggested in recent ads. What goes around... comes around.

Yet another solid reason to never get suckered in by media malarkey.

Ride Safe!

Bob

__________________

• A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu
• Motorcyles are not my whole life, but they make my life whole. ` me

Jamie

Another song that made Japan popular to the US public (and which predates "Sukiyaki") was "Mitchiko from Tokyo" by Gene Vincent (of "Be Bop a Lula" fame). Capitol released it in 1960.

Jamie

The Prophet

I had the wondeful opportunity of attending a "Kareoke Night" with a bunch of Japanese businessmen about two weeks ago. You haven't lived until you've seen an overly inebriated Japanese guy drone through "We've only just begun"!

These guys are all in the 50+ range, and the song choices were interesting. I obviously don't have a clue as to what the words/lyrics were, but by the video back-ups, I can date most of the songs as either traditional, or from the sixties (beehive haidoo's on the gals, Tony Curtis pompadour's on the guys). They ranged from perky and happy songs, to massive tear-jerkers.

Sukiyaki was a favorite, as was anything by the Carpenters. The others were all in Japanese, with the exceptions of "Love me tender", and "Let it be" .

Who else remembers crappy, "some kinda pot metal" cap guns (caps?), and cheap - fall apart in a few days - toy cars and trucks. Transister radio's were all the rage during my late grammer school days, as you could be crafty and sneak one into school, and listen to AM radio through the earphone during class... until you eventually got caught.

With the exception of the recent tragedy at Toyota, Japanese manufacturing quality can only be rated as excellent. I agree that Toyota management got a little greedy, and things began to get out of hand (welcome to the American way!) as the focus was on profit and growth, not quality and safety. Too bad, but they'll soon recover.

Ride safe!

Bob

Jamie

Ue wo muite
arukoi
Namidaga koborenai youni
Omoidasu, haru no hi
hitoribocchino yoru

(...)

Jamie