What was the CB900F designed for specifically?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:19 pm

They came a bit later but don't forget about the Yamaha FZ series that later became the FZR series that competed against the Honda Interceptors and such.

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:52 pm

Bandit65 wrote:

Jebbysan wrote:

Richard! Bad Ass! You look a little like Gerry Rafferty in that photo! Laughing

Peace,
Jebby

Sorry, who would that be?

He was the dude who wrote and performed the song "Baker Street".....

Just could not help how much your old photo resembles him Very Happy

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:54 pm

The first Japanese performance/sport bike to really break the mold of UJM was the same year as the 1100F and that was the VF750F Interceptor.
V-4, perimeter frame (vs backbone), 16 inch front wheel and single shock, link rear suspension.

One could even argue that the VF750S or Sabre, that came out in 1982 was the beginning, of the change, but the Interceptor was a more profound divergence from the traditional inline four, backbone frame, twin shock universal Japanese motorcycle (UJM) that was started by the 1969 CB750K0.

Out twin cam F bikes are really only significant from a history standpoint, in that they were the end of an era. The last of a design that brought reliable, high performance, and utility unseen with the British bikes that came before them.

DH

Twinstar Joined: Nov 24, 2008 Posts: 79 Location: Sydney

The importance of the CB900F has to be seen in the context of the European market. With the CB750 (sohc) Honda completed its dominance of the US market. It then turned thoughts to Europe as the next big market. In fact the DOHC project was code named NORMANDY for obvious reasons. Honda capitalised on the interest and investment Europeans had in endurance racing at the time to compete with prototype modified CB750s (sohc converted to dohc). After winning successive championships Honda released the CB900F in 1978/79 as its open class sports machine. It only went to the US later as the more touring orientated version in 1981 (upright riding position, rubber mounted motor, marginally reduced horsepower).

When the CB900F proved insufficient to win convincingly in European/British/SA/NZ/Aus production races Honda released the CB1100R thus introducing the production racer concept. It won.

The CB900F was initially planned as a 1000 but was scaled back to prevent cannibalising CBX1000 sales. The sad result was both bikes were only marginal production racers. The GS1000E (an uncomplicated and elegant 8 valve four) saw off the CBX and CB900 in the 1979 Castrol Six Hour (despite having more valves than a pipe organ) which contributed to Honda's determination to build the R.

So in summary, the F is a slug today but in its era it was the FireBlade/R1/ZXR/GSXR. And the R was the era's desmosedici.