A road test and retrospective of the original Honda CBX, from Classic & Motorcycle Mechanics September 1995 issue. Click on the pictures to view full-size versions (requires a Javascript-capable browser). (Note - the pictures were scanned from photocopies, and quality is therefore somewhat reduced.)

'YOU WEAR IT WELL' Honda's six-cylinder CBX is even more appealing today than it was 17 years ago, reckons Brian Tarbox. Back in 1978 he fell in love with another, but now feels that in middle-age, six cylinders have more attraction than four.

THE ignition key came with a warning. 'Be careful,' advised the mechanic, 'its performance is... (pause for effect) mind- boggling.'

It was July, 1978. 1 was road test editor of Motor Cycle News and had arrived at Honda UK's Chiswick headquarters to collect a six-cylinder CBX1000, one of four available to Britain's motorcycling press prior to the model's showroom release a few weeks later.

Mechanics editor Bob Berry was MCN's editor at the time and had already ridden a pre-production version at a champagne-soaked press launch at Japan's Suzuka circuit. Now it was my turn.

Bob had been impressed, but would the 'Six' live up to that initial promise in a full test? How would it perform in city traffic, on the open road and in speed trials?

A CBX was mine for two weeks to find out. The speed testing session took place at the Motor Industry Research Association's proving grounds near Nuneaton. A strong crosswind didn't prevent it from delivering the goods.

On its best run, it triggered the timing lights at 138.2mph and backed that up with a tyre-smoking standing quarter-mile of 11.62 seconds. It was the fastest production bike MCN had ever tested - but only just.

Twelve months earlier those figures would have made it as untouchable as Elliott Ness. Not so in 1978. This was the year that Japan's 'Big Four' went head-to-head for the first time in a superbike war that has raged ever since.

The CBX found itself in the ring against three other newcomers - the Z1R Kawasaki, XS1100 Yamaha and GS1000 Suzuki. Honda won the performance round of the contest on points rather than by the knockout that had been predicted.

In the paddock at Suzuka circuit, Japan, in 1977. The bike editor Bob rode on the press launch.

The silver road test machine Brian Tarbox tested for MCN in 1978.

SEVENTEEN years on, the thing I remember most about the CBX is that the GS1000 was better!

In fact, Suzuki had launched their new flagship model to the world's bike press in Japan during the very same week in November, 1977, that Honda launched the CBX. Talk about a head-to-head. MCN had editor Bob and staff man Peter Howdle in different parts of Japan for a week, as did rival paper Motor Cycle.

And, of course, both papers had to run both launch stories in the following week's papers, forcing direct comparisons between the two bikes.

The papers rated the GS as the better bike but the CBX as more charismatic. Most buyers thought so too. The Honda was the superbike people talked about. The Suzuki was the one they bought.

It topped the sales chart and rubbed salt into Honda's wounds by being voted Motor Cycle News Machine of the Year.

The Suzuki's ace card was its handling. It was a mere 3mph slower than the Honda and, unlike its rivals, it went around corners. The Z1R - an old friend in new clothes - wobbled about like a demented shopping trolley and the XS1100 (great engine) had an epileptic front end that scared the pants off me on more than one occasion. And I said so in my MCN road test!

Now bear with me while I get this off my chest

Not long after my critical assassination of the XS1100, our Mr Berry had the misfortune to find himself on stage at a Yamaha dealer conference being interviewed by TV personality Michael Parkinson, no less.

Talk about bad timing.

Bob escaped with his life, but it was a close run thing. The baying for blood reached a crescendo when a dealer stood up to inform the assembled mass that he had borrowed from Mitsui (the Yamaha importers) the bike MCN had tested, and found it perfect - after pumping up its flat rear tyre!

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