Classic Ride - page 6 (Vol. 95 - September 1995)

Unfortunately the stylist must have been having an off-day when he drew up the switchgear, warning lights and clocks.

All work fine, but they look cheap and nasty. Sadly, of course, this is the stuff the rider has staring back at him all the time.

While on the subject of styling, can you visualise how fantastic this bike would look with six chrome silencers? Orgasmic! Benelli fitted such a system to the 750 Sei they launched four years earlier and Honda should have followed suit. If you've got it, flaunt it.

Our Ant gives the Metzelers a good testing.

The rigours of picture sessions in the summer! From left; Ant, Brian, camera-shy Tammy, and Bob's son Richard.

(Yes, Mr Angry of Little Monkton-on-the-Marsh, I know it would have made the bike even heavier than it is and, yes, I can imagine how much that kind of pipework would cost to replace. Practical, no. Magnificent, yes.)

As it is, the exhaust note sounds pretty terrific anyway, or at least it does when you can hear it over a mechanical cacophony of swirling chains and clicking gears.

So, how do I feel about the CBX today? Well, new showroom arrivals and classics are judged by different criteria. In 1978 the GS1000 was the better buy as a practical everyday superbike. It deserved the Machine of the Year accolade. However, the attributes which made it number one have long since been surpassed and what you are left with is a good but fairly ordinary looking across-the-frame four whose time has been and gone.

The Six, on the other hand, is a flawed masterpiece with genuine charisma.

FauIts that made it second best to the Suzuki are far easier to forgive today than they were back then. In my book it stands head and shoulders above all the opposition as THE Japanese classic of the Seventies.

Would our Bob ever part with it? Well, his son Richard has told him he mustn't sell, but we did hear Bob muttering into his Guinness about being tempted if someone made him a generous offer.

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