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From Marketing Stunt to Legend: The Baja 1000

June 20, 2023

The impetus of the Baja 1000 came from none other than Honda American.

In the early 1960s, motorcycle riding and specifically dirt bike riding were seeing a massive surge in popularity. Honda American was at the forefront of this movement and was doing everything they could to convince riders that their bikes were not only the most capable but also the most reliable. Anyone who knows motorcycles today knows that this is what Honda bikes are really known for, and this branding started early on.

To prove the reliability of their brand new CL72 Scrambler, brand geniuses Jack McCormick and Walt Fulton of Honda American wanted to push the scrambler on a long-distance run across terrain that included everything from rocks and sand to mountain passes and dried out washes. An amalgamation of what dirt bike riders would encounter on their own riding days. Northwest Mexico would be the perfect environment to test out the overall durability of Honda's plucky CL72 Scrambler.

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Last Of The 305 Scramblers: The Honda CL77

June 06, 2023

If you wanted to go off-road with a motorcycle in the 1960s, your options were fairly limited to larger, slower bikes that were pushrod-driven and not all that much fun to drive.

Honda entered the market with the Honda CL77 in an effort to contrast the lackluster efforts of other manufacturers by adding a more modern up to date design with a smaller, but more rev-happy engine. The result? Between 1965 and 1968, Honda sold an incredible number of the Honda CL77s as a fun, lightweight road bike that could handle off-road trips too. It was just what America was asking for.

Psychobilly Honda-Davidson

July 19, 2022

There are many motorcycles that exist only in stories and legends that cruise the highways for years evading the public eye but exist as one of a kind bikes that survive simply because they are just too wild to die. These kinds of "one off" survivors are usually reserved for custom choppers but what about a custom hybrid Harley Honda full dresser? A Honda Davidson or quite possibly a "Harlonda?" Well, we met a gentleman, Paul Atkins, one year at AMA vintage days who owns not only one, but three of these incredible machines and he brought his 1966 Harley Davidson with an SOHC CB750 motor powering it to our Old Bike Barn crossroads bike show and the rest is history and an interesting one at that. We sat down with Paul this year to pick his brain about the origins of his blue beauty which he affectionately refers to as "Psychobilly" and also get some info on the other 2 of these wild hybrid machines he has chosen to own over the years.

The Bigger Minibike: The Honda Trail 70

May 10, 2022

To those that grew up in the 1970s, and loved motorcycles, this meant amazing creations from the legends at Honda like the Z50 mini bike and its bigger brother the Trail 70. See, Honda knew they had a hit on their hands when the “monkey bike” that first debuted as a children’s ride in Tama Tech park was a hit with not only the kiddies, but the adults as well. Within a few years of this concept, the Z50 was a hit in not only the home market of Japan but in markets all over the world.

1974 Amen Savior CB550 Chopper

March 22, 2022

We often attend many motorcycle events and truth be told, seek out any custom builds or survivors projects that have vintage Japanese motors but we dont often see 550 motors in choppers. So when a good one comes along we take notice. The company "Amen" made plunger style chopper frames for many different inline four motors back in the 70's including the Honda CB750 and CB550 but the 550 frames were much more short lived and rare than the 750 ones. So when we met Steven Rodriguez at the Cooks Corner bar in Trabuco Canyon before last years Born Free show we took notice of this awesome Amen chopper he had built and been riding for some time. The bike was obviously a "daily rider" with tons of style and some really cool functionality. So we took a chance to snap some pics and talk with Steven about this neat piece of 70s chopper history.

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