It was the end of a decade and the end of an era for the biking world. It was time to say goodbye to the air-cooled, two-stroke engine due to restrictions and regulations being placed on all types of vehicles so they could be compliant with the new environmental restrictions coming down the pike. Yamaha blew out the conclusion of the 70s with a huge bang when they released the RD400F Daytona Special.
Today, when motorcycle enthusiasts think back to what bikes make the cut for being on the list of the best of the best, for Yamaha, the consensus gives that honor to the Daytona Special. Living up to its name, it still holds a special place in the history of motorcycles and in the hearts of riders around the world.
Honda and Yamaha often go head-to-head with motorcycle and even car designs, so it should come as no surprise that Honda designed the CBX line to outdo recent releases by Yamaha and other Japanese competitors.
In the 1970s, Honda had a relatively unexciting release of new motorcycles, leaving Yamaha to assume that Honda’s focus was now on cars and that there was room for a new king in the Japanese motorcycle world. The CBX line is how Honda answered Yamaha’s challenge.
To say that the Honda Hurricane CBR600F took the world by storm in 1987 would almost be an understatement. The Hurricane revolutionized the sports bike world forever, and it was not apologetic for the disturbance it caused.
The Hurricane performed like nothing before, setting new standards across the board. Winning all of the major AMA races it entered in its inaugural year, the CBR600F made the rest of the sports bike community stand up, take notice, and do their best not to be blown away.
The development of the CX500 Turbo comes from previous decades of horsepower wars between Japanese and American bikes. Riders cared more about the power of the bike than an excess of features, and would readily gobble up an odd looking bike or less than amazing ride if they can get there faster.
CX's line replaced the CB550, which was very popular in its own right. The lineup offered some new features that weren't common on bikes yet, including liquid cooling, a long mounted engine, and air free tires. The new platform initially had to compete with the powerful Suzuki GS750, a sportbike of the day. These sportsbikes sold very well despite having some reliability issues and sometimes having no limiter, which could readily lead to destroying an engine.
