Honda CB100N

...comprised of a 'bog standard' Honda lightweight frame, using the engine as a stressed member. It had a single cylinder two valve overhead cam engine, fed with a standard carburettor and breathed out into a single chrome exhaust .

Chain driven, it had telescopic forks at the front, and a twin shock suspension at the back. Wire spoked wheels, but chrome plated steel rims meant that they soon lost their looks to road salt.

...compound which meant that they lasted for ages, but didn't assist the mediocre handling - It was when I finally averaged one drop a week that I finally traded them for softer stickier rubber and I realised what a pile of rubbish they were.

Power output was around 9.5 horsepower (the half was important!) and top seed was around 62mph - but that was only on a good day!

I was stopped once by Lothian and Border's finest, ... more

This was my first 'real' bike, and rather like first girlfriends, one tends to remember them rather more fondly that they probably deserve.

I bought my CB100N brand new, for the princely sum of £470 in 1980.

I'd worked the summer between school and college in a bookshop, and was getting increasingly frustrated with my 50cc slo-ped.

The huge benefit of the CB100N was that it actually had a 99cc displacement, which meant it was half the cost to insure compared with a 125.

The CB100N comprised of a 'bog standard' Honda lightweight frame, using the engine as a stressed member. It had a single cylinder two valve overhead cam engine, fed with a standard carburettor and breathed out into a single chrome exhaust .

Chain driven, it had telescopic forks at the front, and a twin shock suspension at the back. Wire spoked wheels, but chrome plated steel rims meant that they soon lost their looks to road salt.

The standard tyres were made of an unnaturally hard compound which meant that they lasted for ages, but didn't assist the mediocre handling - It was when I finally averaged one drop a week that I finally traded them for softer stickier rubber and I realised what a pile of rubbish they were.

Power output was around 9.5 horsepower (the half was important!) and top seed was around 62mph - but that was only on a good day!

I was stopped once by Lothian and Border's finest, and initially accused of going at 90, but as soon as they saw the badges on the side panels they thought better of it, and chose to suggest I was going at 'speeds in excess of prevailing conditions' (my only speeding ticket).

It was relatively cheap to buy, cost virtually nothing to run, and was sufficiently unforgiving to stop me trying anything really stupid (and probably accounts for me still being alive!)

There were several details which drove me absolutely nuts;
It didn't have a sidestand - it was so light you could practically put it in the stand without getting off the bike!

It didn't have a 'proper' oil filter - you had to take the side off the engine to remove what was little more than a tea strainer, there was centrifugal chamber which was attached to the end of the crankshaft which you also needed to open up & clear the sludge out of!

To do this, you had to loosen around a dozen cross headed screws - these invariably seized in the alloy crank case and needed an impact driver to get off (I wonder if an electric screwdriver would have been handy for that, we didn't have them in those days!)

The brakes were, by current standards, appalling; drum at the back operated by a rod linkage to the footbrake (this often got snarled up in a 'drop' and had to be hammered back into shape on several occasions). The front brake was at least a disk, but was cable operated!

On especially cold nights I remember the cable froze, and I had to pour boiling water over it in order to melt the ice!

The front calliper was a beggar for getting clogged up with salt - brakes would lock on, and you'd only get going again by stripping the whole assembly.

Mudguards were chrome plated steel, and as I was relatively lazy, it didn't take long before the 'iron worm' set in, this was before the days of 'plastic everything' - the indicators were, from what I remember, steel, cast alloy and Perspex - no flexible stems here, so every time it made contact with the deck, it was a trip down to the breakers yard!

An especially frustrating trait was that the front brake cable passed directly underneath the ignition key - if you went over a bump in the road, it was likely that your keys would be fired into the air! (you'd have to stop and look for them, in my case the house key was also on the ring, so if I didn't find it, I knew I'd be spending the night out of doors!)

The footrests were 'solid' - and any spill usually meant a session with a blowtorch and hammer to straighten them out (retractable pegs didn't seem to be important in those days)

I remember the air filter was a foam tube - which you were meant to wash with some solvent or other - of course I just used whatever was at hand and melted it!

Perhaps most frustrating of all was the seat - it didn't have a locking mechanism, instead it was bolted to the frame, so a spanner was needed if you wanted under it.

I afforded myself one indulgence; a friend had a handlebar fairing, which I gleefully mounted on the bike.

I remember looking with admiration at the bike after I fitted it; the relatively large tank, the big cylinder head and a fairing going halfway back over the tank - if you saw this from a distance and screwed your eyes up, you could almost convince yourself it was a Ducati (just until the moment you started the engine!)

So- after describing such an unmitigated pile of crap, why do I still have a soft spot for this bike?

Well on a positive note - it cost virtually nothing to run. It was hugely reliable, in spite the abuse I gave it, and it was hugely versatile.

I used it as a daily commuter. I was even known to take it 'trailing' on some of the hills surrounding Edinburgh - something I wouldn't even dare do with my BMW R1200GS!

I even used it as a tourer - going to the Scottish Borders and the Western Isles on a couple of occasions - with full camping kit!

The bike comes a very close second in my 'all time favourite bikes' only just beaten by the CB250RS I bought immediately after passing my motorcycle test, unfortunately they just don't make machines like this any more.

Would I speak so fondly of an identical machine in 2008? - Probably not! But then again my personal circumstances are quite different.

I'm just sorry for novice riders that you just don't get bikes like this any more. 

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