Standing up for the XBR
Steve Cooper’s account of the virtues and otherwise of the Honda XBR must have been written after a bilious attack. He managed to rubbish a perfectly good motorcycle without including the positive aspects of the machine, for example, some stuff around ‘what it’s like to own’. If he had, then much of what he cites as irksome or just plain bad would have been counterbalanced by what is good about the bike.
I’m in the lucky situation where I not only own an XBR but also a 1961 Velocette Clubman, fitted with a Nova Racing five-speed gear cluster and an
Alton electric boot so the Velo, from a mechanical point of view, is almost an exact match for the XBR. Each is a great bike but they aren’t the same, either to ride, in performance terms, or in aesthetics etc. Starting, riding, stopping and popping the XBR onto its centre stand are so much more easily managed than with the Velo, which has Velocette’s delightful, hernia-inducing centre stand – great exercise for us oldies.
Towards the end of his piece, Steve suggests
Suzuki’s GS twin or Yamaha’s two-stroke twin as better options when, self-evidently, someone wanting a 500cc traditional single cylinder bike (perhaps as close as it’s possible to get to the perfect motorcycle) wouldn’t even consider them.
Steve said the XBR is an anachronism and he’s right. That it patently failed to appeal to enough motorcyclists in the 1980s in sufficient numbers is one of those
things that surprises me, but knocking Honda for innovation with the XBR is a poor effort on his part.
I recall the Honda CX500, which shocked some in the motorcycling arena with its ‘V’ twin 500cc, pushrod engine, contra-rotating clutch, shaft drive and comstar wheels. “Oh dear,” we all said, but I owned one of them, too, and a finer, all-round motorcycle would be hard to find.
Vive la différence.
Ron Wardale, Cambridge