01-16-2016, 09:24 AM
Good luck on finding that answer. I searched for years for the answer to that question. There has been a persistent rumor that a Japanese engineer early on scratched his car with the end of a lever while backing his bike out of the garage and they have had them ever since. The other thing I have heard was in the early days a lot of people dropped their bikes scratching the end of their levers. You could cover it up with a 25 cent rubber cover rather than replacing a $3 lever. All I can tell you for sure is I bought my first Honda in 1967 and it had them, and every CB Honda I owned or saw up until about the late 80s had them. I planned on getting rlets in 2012 in anticipation of the US getting the CB 1100 and they went on my 2013, the first the dealer received before I even took delivery of it.