2003 HONDA CB1300
Quick Spin on a future classic? Oh yes!
Right, it’s time for me to get my apologies/ excuses out of the way very early doors. Firstly, you’ll see that this bike really is ‘only’ 14 years old. It’s not quite in that 15-year VJMC ruling that we here at CMM try to stick to. For that I apologise. But look at it! It’s a real UJM, a universal Japanese motorcycle with pure, clean lines and naked as the day it was born (well, rolled off the production line). It’s what we would term a ‘coming classic’, something we feature now and again so that you can think ahead of what to tuck away for the future. Second apology then… I love these bikes and had one from new for a year and did a ton of miles on it, so I will try and keep the following lot of huff objective, as much as a purely subjective Quick Spin can be. When the CB1300 first came out in this form in 2003, Honda UK was expecting big things. Now, the bike had been around since 1998 back ‘home’ (see page 11 for the family tree) but not in this clean, classic form. As I approach the big CB1300, I’m struck by just how big it is – even compared to one of its illustrious forebears. It’s that big tank, that chunky 180-rear section and – well – I’m a big lad, so I generally shy away from wearing white. It makes me look bigger but the CB1300 is loud and proud. That 1284cc lump looks good de-finned for this version, so you know this ain’t no air-cooled four. Swing a leg over the wide seat, grab the wide bars, spread your knees around the (yeah, you’ve guessed it) tank and let’s get ready to rumble. The big clocks are old-school cool. Okay, so there are some LCD touches here, with fuel-gauge, clock and odometer, but LCD was also seen on lots of 1980s bikes. The idiot lights and indicator lights though are pretty similar to your 1970s steed. We’ve said it’s big and wide and it’s no lightweight – but at 224 kilos it’s still a fair few kilos lighter than a CB900F and (with around 110bhp) anything between 10-15bhp more powerful too. I’m mentioning power and weight together here not for sportsbike-style performance but the sheer balance of the big CB which is apparent as soon as you hoike up the sidestand and release that light, hydraulic clutch. Because, be it around town or down some twisties, the Honda CB chassis engineers got the performance of the 1300 cock-on. At slow speeds you don’t feel the bulk of the CB1300 working against you, while at speed out of town the Honda (understandably) rides like a modern bike, despite the looks. I always remember never really being able to fault the rear-end (Showas adjustable for rebound and pre-load only) while the front wasn’t quite as good, but if I recall I simply upped the preload to not far off max and left it there… Same here today, really. Aiding this composure that silky straight-four motor: it provides all the low-down grunt that you could ever need but it doesn’t overpower what the chassis provides. With the CB1300 you have handling and horses working together, with neither overdoing it. You don’t get too much of anything with the CB, unless of course it’s sheer presence. Now, this isn’t the place to talk about rivals – I did ride them all (and owned some) back in the day – but in isolation the CB works very well indeed and you won’t want anything else… unless… well, unless you look at the Kawasaki ZRX1100/1200 with that Eddie Lawson paint and small fairing.
Still, I can speak from experience here (9500 miles in seven months, a 220-mile daily commute) and say that those clocks can deflect a fair amount of windblast, even if I did bottle it and fit a small fly-screen. And while we’re talking about the looks, in the classic Honda white/red she looks stunning. I do remember some cool and butch black or silver offerings, too… As I tip-toe around the leafy Northants roads it’s all starting to come back. You do get quite into the handling and start to throw the bike around a bit. This example had 21k on the clocks and the only bugbear was the brakes. They look like the ones you see off the old CBR600 or Blade from the early 2000s and could well be. I recall them being better than this on the CB1300 and this was despite the fact that this bike had braided lines. Practicalitywise there’s plenty to love on the big CB: analogue clocks hide two LCD displays which hold two trips, time, date, ambient air temp, stopwatch and fuel gauge. Then there’s the impressive under-seat storage space of 12.4 litres which can hold plenty of stuff. With the CB1300, there’s also been space under the seat for U-locks, too. So, pretty practical for a big naked. That’s the good news, what of the bad? Well, they were really quite thirsty and many owners re-jet via a Power Commander (although I remember around 145 miles on average to the fuel light) some owners reported vibration (I didn’t), some owners said ground clearance was an issue but the big thing was the finish. For a Honda it was typically good, but that dash of practicality meant you often rode it in all weathers, so it did need looking after. Exposed engine parts – which were almost of a semi-polished finish – could suffer, as could fork legs, which always were a typical Honda issue from the mid-1990s on. It’s probably fair to say that the ‘original’ 2003 UK CB1300 didn’t quite catch the imagination of the bike-buying public back in the day, which is a shame as it was clearly the best-handling bike in its class. I remember upping the power of mine by 15bhp with a full-system Akrapovic, adding some rear-sets and adding to the sound and attitude of the bike. It is ideas like that which fill my mind now when I prepare to hand the bike back to its owner: think of what a bike this could become. Hell, it’s ‘just’ a Honda CB inline four, but I’ve loved my time aboard her and I know that – hidden just under the surface – is so much more! Maybe the next few years will be kinder to the unsung UJM – the Honda CB1300. I hope so as it’s a cracking bike, well worth a good look.