50 years ago

it's funny to me that the i4, in all its various incarnations, is so perfect and so balanced that it will lead the motorcycle industry all the way into the electric age. when 90% of the bikes on the road are electric, most of the remaining 10% dino bikes will still be i4's.
 
150 years ago: completion of the transcontinental railroad
50 years ago: Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon

Amazing what can be accomplished in 100 years!
 
Everything in a man's life time.

50 years ago when the CB750 was introduced, my dad was riding a Harley flat head 45 belly shift, I was riding a Cl 77 Honda Scrambler, and my younger brother was riding a CA 150 Honda Dream. We all rode up to the local Honda dealer for the unveiling of the CB 750 who had it on a revolving display in the show room. We all agreed it was too big and too complicated, and would never sell. We repeated the stupid scenario and predicted the same stupid out come at the same dealer in 1975 when the new Gold WIng came out. Another sales loser for sure lol.
 
An aside: how’s the recovery going, Jim?

I think I was just amazed that anyone would build a motorcycle with 4 cylinders, but I can’t be sure. As someone once said, ‘if you can remember the 60s, you weren’t there’.
 
The ferret_imp said:
Everything in a man's life time.

50 years ago when the CB750 was introduced, my dad was riding a Harley flat head 45 belly shift, I was riding a Cl 77 Honda Scrambler, and my younger brother was riding a CA 150 Honda Dream. We all rode up to the local Honda dealer for the unveiling of the CB 750 who had it on a revolving display in the show room. We all agreed it was too big and too complicated, and would never sell. We repeated the stupid scenario and predicted the same stupid out come at the same dealer in 1975 when the new Gold WIng came out. Another sales loser for sure lol.
Click to expand...
Don't feel bad. Long ago I realized that predicting success for a new product isn't that easy. In '93 I was working for a brokerage firm that decided they were going to start an Internet trading platform for stocks and bonds. I came up with half a dozen reasons why it wouldn't work. I'm really glad no one listened to me. :D

BTW, I'm still not sure what the point of Twitter is.
 
Flynrider_imp said:
The ferret_imp said:
Everything in a man's life time.

50 years ago when the CB750 was introduced, my dad was riding a Harley flat head 45 belly shift, I was riding a Cl 77 Honda Scrambler, and my younger brother was riding a CA 150 Honda Dream. We all rode up to the local Honda dealer for the unveiling of the CB 750 who had it on a revolving display in the show room. We all agreed it was too big and too complicated, and would never sell. We repeated the stupid scenario and predicted the same stupid out come at the same dealer in 1975 when the new Gold WIng came out. Another sales loser for sure lol.
Click to expand...
Don't feel bad. Long ago I realized that predicting success for a new product isn't that easy. In '93 I was working for a brokerage firm that decided they were going to start an Internet trading platform for stocks and bonds. I came up with half a dozen reasons why it wouldn't work. I'm really glad no one listened to me. :D

BTW, I'm still not sure what the point of Twitter is.
Click to expand...
It enables our leaders to communicate directly with us.
 
Cormanus_imp said:
Flynrider_imp said:
The ferret_imp said:
Everything in a man's life time.

50 years ago when the CB750 was introduced, my dad was riding a Harley flat head 45 belly shift, I was riding a Cl 77 Honda Scrambler, and my younger brother was riding a CA 150 Honda Dream. We all rode up to the local Honda dealer for the unveiling of the CB 750 who had it on a revolving display in the show room. We all agreed it was too big and too complicated, and would never sell. We repeated the stupid scenario and predicted the same stupid out come at the same dealer in 1975 when the new Gold WIng came out. Another sales loser for sure lol.
Click to expand...
Don't feel bad. Long ago I realized that predicting success for a new product isn't that easy. In '93 I was working for a brokerage firm that decided they were going to start an Internet trading platform for stocks and bonds. I came up with half a dozen reasons why it wouldn't work. I'm really glad no one listened to me. :D

BTW, I'm still not sure what the point of Twitter is.
Click to expand...
It enables our leaders to communicate directly with us.
Click to expand...
It enables our leaders to communicate directly with us.
In some countries it allows leaders to communicate directly to us. :dodgy:

I get my Twitter dose from the morning news radio. :)
 
Cormanus_imp said:
An aside: how’s the recovery going, Jim?

I think I was just amazed that anyone would build a motorcycle with 4 cylinders, but I can’t be sure. As someone once said, ‘if you can remember the 60s, you weren’t there’.
Click to expand...
Tom Rush starts with that comment before singing his Remember song.




If you were riding in the 60s this funny song will probably strike a cord with you.
 
We all agreed it was too big and too complicated, and would never sell. We repeated the stupid scenario and predicted the same stupid out come at the same dealer in 1975 when the new Gold WIng came out. Another sales loser for sure lol.
[/QUOTE]

I never thought liquid-cooling would sell for a motocross bike - too heavy, too complicated, and too fragile.

I never thought 4-stroke motocross bikes would replace 2-stroke motocross bikes - too heavy, too complicated, under-powered, and over-priced.
 
Fundamentally, the CB hasn't changed in 50 years. That's how advanced it was. What has driven complexity is sensitivity to the environment, while attempting to maintain some resemblance of excitement.
 
Nortoon, I've scrolled down here to thank you for some kind thing you did, but I'm not sure I can remember what it was.

Thanks anyway. :D
 
Cormanus_imp said:
Nortoon, I've scrolled down here to thank you for some kind thing you did, but I'm not sure I can remember what it was.

Thanks anyway. :D
Click to expand...
They said marijuana would cause memory loss. Nah! I can still remember the 60s, I just can't find my glasses. :D
 
50 years ago I was getting ready to enlist in the Air Force. I was going to college and my draft number was 6. I wanted to better the odds of coming home so I enlisted. I'm grateful to this day of being around and still riding.
My bike at the time was a '67 305 Scrambler. Growing up in Oakland and the Bay Area that bike took me everywhere and even a road trip down Highway 1 through Big Sur and then the Pacific Coast Highway.

I'll be riding that 305 today, yep, still have my 1st bike along with a 2013 CB and a '74 CB 750 in Orange just like you remember. They're all watershed bikes in my opinion. A testimony to Honda's engineering and visionary design.

I was having coffee with a riding buddy yesterday and I brought up why other existing motorcycle companies before Honda didn't make and bring an inline 4 to market for "mass production?" His answer was change and complacency. I'm thankful Honda took the leap and the others followed.

Keeping the rubber side down CD
 
My first "big bike" was a 305 Honda Scrambler. Loved it. Unfortunately a lady in a 54 Dodge turned left in front of me and it got totaled.

Can't believe you kept yours all these years. That's so cool.
 
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