My favorite automotive reporter used to say: “Motorcycles are vehicles driven by passion, not by reason” and I think I agree with him. After all, if reason was an important part when one is buying a bike, Harley Davidson would have gone out of business a long time ago.
I first rode a motorcycle when I was 12 years old, it was even before I drove a car with no adult supervision. That doesn’t mean after all those years I became a superb rider, actually I am pretty average. I am no daredevil, I don’t even know how to do a “Willie” and sometimes I think this lack of courage might have saved my life more than once.
The bike I rode that glorious Sunday afternoon was a 1979 Honda CG 125cc, in yellow, just like the one in the picture. My father bought it almost brand new, with no more than a couple hundreds of kilometers on the clock.
For sure I was terrified of screwing up and damaging my father’s beloved Honda. Only after I stopped and jumped off it could I take a deep breath and feel proud of myself.
The Honda CG has a long history in Brazil, it has been produced there since 1976 and it is the most successful vehicle in the history of the country. Even after more than 40 years, sales are still strong with no sign of slowing down.
Honda sells around 26,000 CG per month in Brazil, which is a pretty good number for a South American market.
The assembly line in the state of Amazon is Honda’s biggest in the world. The company also produce other models there but the CG occupies most of it.
During all these years, the little Honda hasn’t changed much, but some modern features like electric starter, disc brakes, electronic fuel injection and a bigger engine (160 cc) have certainly made the CG more enjoyable to ride.
What is so special about the 1979 model? For the first three years of production, the CG had its engine imported from Japan, but for 1979 it came with a Brazilian engine, finally making the little Honda a 100% “domestic”.
A few years later, in 1984, my father made a desperate attempt to convince me to grab the books and give my life a path toward the job market; he promised to give me a used Honda CG if I pass the admission test for the Technical High School.
Fair enough, I did my part and passed the exams but my dad failed me; he said at 14, I was too young to have a “real” motorcycle of my own. Instead he bought me a moped.
He found a 1980 Alpina, in metallic brown. The moped was in a very good condition and he didn’t think twice about buying a cheaper (and much slower) bike than a Honda CG.
There is not much to say about the Alpina in Brazil. For two model years, 1974 and 1975, the mopeds were assembled in a small building in Rio Grande do Sul, with parts imported from Italy and the name of the Bike was “Italy 1”. After that the brand changed ownership and the bike was renamed “Alpina T50” and the 2 stroke engine was then imported from Argentina.
The Alpina is indeed an obscure brand in Brazil and the lack of information is overwhelming, the enthusiasts aren’t even sure about the last year of production before the company went out of business.
Thank God for the brief period of time I owned mine, I never needed to replace a single part. I really don’t think it would be an easy task to find parts for that bike, especially in a time with no Internet to help.
The Alpina was in fact really slow, I remember having a hard time trying to keep up with my buddies riding 10-speed bicycles.
After one year, the Alpina was replaced by a “real bike”, a 1982 Honda “Turuna”, the sport-ish version of the CG.
The Turunas were equipped with the same 125cc engine from the CG, but they have 5 speed transmission (4 speed on CG), front disc brake and a more aggressive design. As far as I remember the Turunas came only in three colors, the more common red, dark grey (like mine) and the super rare blue.
My Turuna was not in a great condition: bald tires, the paint was peeling off and the engine was making a weird noise after it warmed up but who cares, it was a Honda and it was still quite reliable. She never left me stranded.
One Sunday afternoon, my best friend and I swapped rides for a while. I gave him the key of my Turuna and he gave me the key of his 1965 Willys Gordini. I jumped in, started the car and left, with a big smile on my face, after all I was cruising around the neighborhood in a classic car. After a couple blocks I ran out of gas and walked my way back to his house.
When I got there, I saw my friend, sitting on the curb, holding his head with two hands and with a very, very sad face. Right beside him was my crashed bike.
Right after launching the bike in first gear, he lost control and hit a small tree. Thank God he was very slow and other than a few scratches he was all right. I couldn’t say the same thing about my Turuna; the headlight was broken, the handlebar was torn as well as the turn signal and the instrument cluster was in pieces. I was devastated. My buddies and I were nothing more than a bunch of broke teenagers with no jobs and we had to rely on allowances to put gas on our vehicles. So it was no surprise my friend took forever to get the parts needed to fix the bike and we put everything back together ourselves. The final result was way below my standards (which I think are already pretty low), so I decided it was time to let the Turuna go.
I sold the bike and bought a 1966 VW Beetle and the idea of owning another motorcycle didn’t cross my mind for a while. But my dad was an enthusiast and he owned a bunch of Hondas. For him it was like no other motorcycle brand ever existed.
The first decent bike he had was a 1974 Honda 500 “Four”. I remember the bike was high mileage one but it was in really good shape.
The starter was busted but it didn’t matter, the bike was surprisingly easy to kick start. The bike also had the “mandatory” 4×1 straight pipe exhaust, even today I still think the old 8 valves Honda “Four” engines have a more melodic sound than the modern 16 valves.
I never had a chance to ride this bike on my own, it was considered too heavy for a skinny 15 year old guy like me but I have some really good memories of riding on the back with my father and his buddies in short trips to the beaches. The “gang” had a good variety of motorcycles, a couple Suzuki 380 GT, one Yamaha RD 200, some CB 400, one XL 250R, well those are the ones I can remember.
The military government was in charge at that time and, to boost the domestic industry, they made it unlawful to import any kind of vehicles.
Facing zero competition from overseas, our domestic brands had little incentive to give us more exiting models. For example, the most bad ass bike from Brazilian Honda at the time was the CB 400.
In 1984, my dad sold the 500 Four and bought a slightly used 1980, made in Brazil, CB 400, just like the one on the picture. The bike proved to be very reliable and never gave him any kind of headache.
The CB 400 had a long and successful life in Brazil. They were produced between 1980 and 1994 and during this period Honda sold around 75,000 units, a pretty good number considering the bike was very expensive by South American standards.
In 1984, Honda introduced a more sophisticated version, the DX, with a slightly bigger engine, 450cc, double disc brakes in front and a single disc in the rear.
In 1989 came the last version of this legendary bike, the CBR 450 SR.
By that time, Honda made a questionable decision with the CBR 450. The only thing it shared with the CB 450 was the old and reliable twin cylinder engine, generating 50 hp, everything else was new and up-to-date with other Honda products around the world.
For the first time we had the access to some modern stuff like an all-aluminum frame and pro-link suspension.
The new bike faced two big problems right off the bat. First was the poor performance provided by the ancient engine and second was a high price.
The price for a brand new CBR 450 was dangerously close to the price of a much better option, the CBX 750.
The CBX came to Brazil in 1986 and, just like its smaller cousins before, it had a lot of Japanese parts in the beginning. The bike became the biggest Honda ever made in Brazil and it didn’t take long to reach the status of “legend”. It came at a time when it was already too hard to find a mint condition Honda “Four” imported before the prohibition and the few good ones around had reached an insane price tag. The enthusiasts rushed to the dealerships and Honda wasn’t able to keep up the production to cover the demand. Some dealers were charging as much as 4 times the tag price if someone was willing to leapfrog the waiting list.
The CBX 750 remained the Queen of the Brazilian bikes until 1994 when the ban on imported vehicles was lifted. In the same year, Honda decided to stop the production of the bike; the company realized it was cheaper and simpler to officially import high performance bikes directly from Japan.
A year before, in 1993, the custumers were already predicting the bike market would be flooded with new options from overseas and the prices of the used CBX 750 started to fall. My dad decided it was the right time to say goodbye to his beloved CB 400.
He found a slightly used 1988 CBX 750 in a very rare color scheme.
This color scheme became know on the streets as the “Rothmans CBX”, as a reference to the multi winning Rothmans Honda GP Team.
On this pic you see the legend Mick Doohan riding the 1990 Honda NSR 500.
I remember vividly on the very first day he brought the bike home, he tossed me the key to his car and some cash, “Go to the dealer and bring me a 4×1 exhaust”.
Nope, no “Four” is complete without a 4×1 exhaust. I have fond memories of that bike since I was older and I had more opportunities to ride it.
In 1999, I moved to the States and for 7 years I lost contact with motorcycles. When I came back to Brazil, among many surprises I had, one of them was this:
Dad had replaced the “Queen” 750 with a 250 Virago. I never thought I would see my father riding anything other than a Honda, let alone a Yamaha, but I guess people do change. He said he was getting old and the 750 became too heavy/dangerous and he needed something smaller. Well, the Virago fit the bill perfectly but he could have got all of this out of a Honda Shadow. Go figure.
The little Virago was, in fact, a lot of fun to ride around town and didn’t take long before it got a pair of straight pipes, old habits are hard to kill. The Virago proved not as reliable as its predecessors as the bike had a very annoying electrical problem that would suddenly stall the engine; it had to cool down for 10 minutes or so to start again normally. It took a while to find the problem and to fix it but after that dad became very fond of the Virago and he ended up putting more miles on it than in any of the bikes he had before.
One day, back in 2007, he was riding on a highway and a big truck cut him off; it was a close call, he almost fell at 80 km/h. After that he decided to retire from riding. He was 57 at the time, recently retired and he thought it was time to enjoy life, not to spend the rest of his days on a wheel chair. He sold the Virago and gave me his leather jacket and gloves. I had mixed feelings about it. I was obviously relieved to know my father would be safer riding inside a car and at the same time I was pretty sad to see up close the time when an enthusiast decides to stop doing something that was pretty much part of his life for such a long time. Certainly I was also sad I wouldn’t have the chance to ride dad’s bikes anymore. It was time to start saving to buy my own bike again.
In 2013 I was working for one of the biggest classic car restoration companies in Brazil, Studio Phoenix.
Among many different activities we performed there, the boss used to buy and sell premium used bikes, like Triumph, Ducati, Buell and obviously Harley Davidson. Having the opportunity to ride all those brands, I immediately fell in love with the 883 Sportster, they are small, fun to ride and kinda affordable.
That was my target, in Orange because 99.99% of the Harleys in Brazil are black. It took a long while to save the money and when the time came I just decided not to buy it. Thanks to a severe case of mismanagement, Studio Phoenix was going down to the drain and I decided to jump off the boat before it sunk. I went back to Powertech, a much smaller company and with a lower wage too. (I wrote an article about Powertech here at CC). I was about to start a more frugal life style and a Harley Davidson shouldn’t be part of this picture.
At Powertech, my manager’s dad had a 2008 Honda Twister 250cc. He bought it brand new and didn’t like it. For some weird reason, he decided to keep the little Honda. Imagine that, a 6 year old bike with only 180 km on the clock.
That Twister would fit me perfectly, it was affordable and pretty much brand new. I made a reasonable offer and the guy decided to sell it to me.
The CBX 250 Twister came to the Brazilian market in 2001 as the very first serious attempt to offer a decent mid-size bike (in a country where 400cc is considered a big bike, 250cc falls in the mid-size category).
The CBX 250 came as a complete new project and it was up-to-date with what Honda was offering around the world. It was equipped with a mono cylinder, 4-valve engine, able to produce 24hp at 9,500 RPM. Other nice stuff like monoshock rear suspension, oil cooler, alloy wheels and disc brakes were standard.
I was very happy with my little babe, even if it was way below what I was initially looking for. I was so happy I even named it: Felicia.
Felicia became my daily partner, she took me to work and school and on weekends me and my wife used to ride her on short trips to neighboring towns.
As I would expect from a Honda, Felicia was very reliable as the only time she left stranded was when the throttle cable snapped. Good thing I wasn’t far from home.
The Twister was the replacement for the CBX 200 Strada, produced in Brazil from 1993 until 2001. The Strada was in fact a good bike but anybody could see it was nothing more than a CG on steroids.
As a 2008 model, Felicia was the part of the last production year for the Twister.
For 2009 the bike received a new design. The engine got a little bigger, 300cc, and the name Twister was dropped .
Felicia was the proof we can still have fun with a smaller bike as she was affordable, good-looking and reliable. Obviously a Sportster would have put a even bigger smile on my face but she was the right bike at the right time.
In 2015 our immigration papers to Canada were approved and I had to kiss Felicia goodbye. It was a very nice relationship and I only have good memories of her. Now we live in Winnipeg, a city where the cold weather can last 8 months a year, which means a motorcycle here would spend more time sitting inside the garage (which I don’t have right now) than on the streets. Still, I often catch myself daydreaming about bikes and for sure the orange Sportster is still part of it.
So is another contender, a Bonneville.
Who knows what the future may bring.
Great BOAL, it’s hard to give up riding! At almost 70 i’ve been riding for over 50 years, from a Suzuki b100p “bloop” 120 to a T350 to a ’58 Harley DuoGlide to a new ’74 Triumph T-150 Trident, a few big 2-stroke road bikes, and finally to the Honda actually shown in this picture, taken after a dust-off shower just last year. Now 47 years old and she hasn’t been started in over 2 years. The reflexes slow which makes trusting yourself on the road difficult as you age. But I can still go out to the garage and remember those good (and a few scary – there’s an old biker saying: it’s not if you’ll fall off, but when, and it’s so true) times. She still looks every bit as good as she did back in 1971… Hondas forever!
Randerson,
Beautiful bike! I am only seeing one pipe coming out. Is that a 360? It looks like more engine than that, but it’s been a very long time since I saw mine.
’71 Honda 350 k3 twin, here’s the other side:
Ok, thanks Randerson. I can’t remember seeing one of those in person. Looks like it could be new in the showroom.
Great article! I have no doubt that a new motorcycle will soon find its way to you. They are too interwoven into your life for you to be without one. I live in a wintry climate and motorcycles and fun summer hobbies are what keep people going in those cold and grey months. You look forward to that first day of taking out of storage. Same holds true for classic and fun summer cars and boats . My advice is to start with something very cheap to get yourself back into the bike hobby -a solid older runner for under $1000 that might need some work. Maybe at least for the time being you could store it in a friends garage?
What a great read! An interesting collection of bikes, too. I had short history of riding. Staring when I was 14, with my paper route money…
Honda Express, blue, 1979-ish.
Honda Express, green, same
1985 Suzuki DS 80, yellow and blue (of course); 2 stroke,; full-floater competition suspension. I was too tall for it but it was quick for an 80cc!
1986 Honda Spree, red (hey the girls loved those!)
1987 Honda Spree, black
1986 Honda Spree, white
1976 Honda CB360, black; six gears; revved to 13,500 rpms. Seat and sissy bars from a 750…”MAC” mufflers…I put 30,000 miles on in 2 years. Looked and ran great.
That’s it. No bigger bikes, no more scooters. Played it safe in cars thereafter. But I still miss the 360 a little bit. Sold it in 1994…
Replying to my own post here.
I used the term “sissy bars” without even noticing. It’s what they called the backrest when I was a kid. A phrase I say so infrequently it didn’t get caught by the “Don’t be an A-hole” filter.
Sorry.
I refer to them as LGBTQ2 bars these days…
Thanks for this fun story. I too had a dad who was a motorcycle fan, and my sister and I picked that up.
None of these models are familiar to me, but several are appealing. I’ve never bought into the massive cc warz that hit the US bike market starting in the 70s. Bikes under a liter are often seen as starter bikes now, though there is some movement away from that as of late.
Close calls are part of life on two wheels. Maybe your dad could enjoy off road riding. No cars to worry about.
I know of a gal who only has a scooter for transport and daily rides it in New York City. All year. Brrr. And brave. But I get it. The sheer joy of being in the open air riding is addictive.
Thanks for sharing from a very different “scene” than the bike world here. And though Winnipeg must be cold, my perception (as a Californian) is that the Canadian motorcycle culture is very strong. Perhaps an adventure bike or dual sport to explore the bush?
I actually had a Virago 250 and took a couple of backroads trips with it. I didn’t dare take it on the rural interstate where my max speed on a level road was just as fast as most people cruised. Climbing hills was like riding a rented mule, with the throttle twisted to max and downshifting to 4th when necessary, me crouched down behind the windshield with an eye firmly fixed on the rear-view mirror for those who always, always followed too close. It was stone reliable, the only problem I ever had was a cracked plastic manifold leading from the carb to one of the cylinders.
I’ve given up riding now, after 9 bikes. Too many people with their faces in their phone and too many aggressive drivers. Plus, I have a C4-C5 fusion and a laser surgery reattached retina – and the doc has warned me that a solid bump on my head could make it, or the other one detach again. A spill or collision other men could easily recover from while wearing a helmet and safety gear might very well mean paralysis AND blindness and I have no desire to experience either.
I need to do a BOAL someday.
Always wear your helmets guys! Mine saved me from a bird strike while riding my Ninja at a non-legal speed. When I stopped, there was an unmistakable wingspread pattern of oil and dust from the feathers on my faceshield – and a chip right over my eye where the beak hit…
Great post and good luck getting back on two wheels. A full fairing makes a big difference in cold weather so something like a Kawasaki Concours or BMW RT would extend your season by a month or two.
My personal history is shorter on bikes and longer on years.
My first was a Kawasaki KZ400 in the spring of 1990 that I learned to ride on and quickly sold in the summer to buy a 1978 BMW R100S. I still have that bike and still ride it occasionally, although not as much as when I belonged to a club in the early 90s and commuted in the late 90s and early 2000s.
My last bike is 1983 Honda CM250C belt drive that I bought to teach my girlfriend how to ride. This is interesting as a one year only model since the 82 CM250C was chain drive and it was replaced by the CMX 250 Rebel in 84. To my shame this bike has been in the garage since 1997 when she was pregnant with our first child. I did try getting it running once in 2000 but it has either a clogged carb or failed coil and wouldn’t run for more than a few seconds. Now that I have some spare time and money it’s on the summer project list.
Enjoyable read, Rubens. It’s always interesting to learn about bikes in different parts of the world.
I had two bikes; a Bridgestone 90 and then later briefly an old Yamaha 305. I really, really wanted a BMW 750 with a Vetter fairing with which to roam the country and Mexico, but that dream never came to fruition.
I am glad you guys liked it and thanks Paul for the help.
Very interesting post. Many nice “small” bikes; altho my original 1965 Honda CB 77 305cc Super Hawk was and is one of my favorites of the 69 bikes I’ve had so far.
It is currently snowing here, but I’m dreaming of SPRING and getting my 3 licensed bikes back on the road. Cars are fine, but nothing can beat a good bike on a nice Spring morning!!! Keep riding………safely. DFO
Fantastic article, and a nice look at motorcycling in a lovely country. Its interesting to see how domestic market protection influenced purchase decisions.
I’ve been riding dirt bikes since 1975. I still do, and I still have all my old machines. As a kid I virtually lived on dirt bikes all summer, and never rode street bikes, except for the occasional brief ride on borrowed machines. But I now own two Yamaha XJ750’s and am looking forward to some proper fun rides next summer. It’s odd to start riding at 53. I’ve been telling myself I’m too old for the stereotype of the mid-life crisis beginner.
Neat story, only the engines of those Hondas look familiar. CB400 the same as my 450 Nighthawk, and CBX750 the same as my 750 Nighthawk S (my favourite motorcycle, should have kept that one)
Welcome to Canada. It’s only -6 in Winnipeg right now and we’re -5 in Hamilton. Not bad. I hope you get that Bonneville, that’s a nice ride..
Thanks for a great write up.
My dad forbid me to ride motorcycles when I was growing up. Even as a passenger. The neighbor kid who lived across the street from us, and who was a year older than me, had a Honda Minitrail 50, and his brother had a couple different Hondas. An SL125 and an SL175.
Back then, neighbors looked out for each other. That included enforcing other parents rules. So even behind my dad’s back, I was never allowed to ride the Minitrail.
The kid that lived behind me had a Briggs & Stratton powered mini bike, … the kind with plywood & vinyl/foam seat, pull start and fixed foot pegs. For some reason, THAT was ok to ride.
My older brothers had some friends who were “the bad guys” that my folks did’t want us to associate with. They rode motorcycles, and had built a dirt bike from parts that was essentially a Yamaha with a Suzuki 125 engine. I was about 11 or 12 at the time and had only ridden mini bikes, but THIS was an eye opener. I learned how to operate the clutch and run through the gears. That was the fastest I had ever been on two wheels, and I was hooked.
Here’s the bikes I’ve owned over the years since then. Starting out with dirt bikes, and then switching to street.
Dirt bikes:
1979 Suzuki RM 125
1977 Maico 450
1979 Maico 490
1979 Yamaha YZ125
Street bikes:
1979 Suzuki GS850G
1988 Honda CBR1000F Hurricane
1993 Yamaha XJ600 SECA II
1976 Kawasaki KZ 400
1986 Honda VFR750R
2006 Honda VTX1300C
1985 Honda Gold Wing GL1200L Limited
2006 Honda VTX1800NR
Currently in my garage is a nice low milage 2006 Honda VTX 1300C, which is a twin to the 1300C listed above.
Over the years, I’ve gained an affinity for Honda motorcycles. They make some of the most reliable bikes out there.
I’m 56 now and am thinking of trading the VTX for another Gold Wing, or and F6b….. something fat and comfy for the wife and I.
We shall see.
Neat bikes from another continent. My first was a 76 Honda CJ360 twin cylinder. Paid a princely sum of $240 for it in the early nineties. Always started after being parked outside all winter.
It seems after I picked that one up here in Canada a small bike was a 650 and for a while I was hard to find anything smaller except for dirt bikes.
I am lucky to live on Vancouver Island now, so we get some good riding from March-October. I have got back into riding this last year after a decade off. Instead of getting something bigger I picked up an old Yamaha riva 180cc scooter which is fun and cheap to commute my 7 minutes to work. It does well up the hill on my ride home unlike a smaller scooter I used to borrow from my son.
Great story and hope you can get an appropriate bike for you new home.
I went through a lot of bikes when I was younger, but my favorite was my first, a 1976 CB550. I definitely agree with your assessment of the sound, it was glorious.
Rubens.
Really nice story. I’ve never learned to ride bikes but find very interesting to read about them and see some classic models. My favorites are the Honda CB “four” from the 70s and the brazilian CBX 750.
It’s wonderful to read an article from a fellow Brazilian at my favorite auto website, and also nice to be welcomed by readers from USA, Europe and other parts of the world.
Well, I wish you and your family have a happy life in Canada, certainly a splendid country. Unfortunately the situation in Brazil has been quite adverse, making me think about moving abroad too. ABRAÇOS
Come to the cold side of the force. Canada is indeed a fantastic country and still offers opportunities to immigrants. Abração.
Thanks a lot! I’d really love to, and have already thought about how to accomplish it. I’m an economist and fear that this field of work may not be much in demand there. Maybe I should apply to other kinds of jobs (not white collar) ?
Very enjoyable article. Being a lifelong American, I’m often surprised to see what passes for a ‘big’ bike in other countries. Here’s a 400cc motorcycle is usually considered just the start of a respectable motorcycle, to the point that there aren’t too many options in the marketplace for that size, and there’s virtually nothing street under 300cc anymore.
I’ll admit I’ve been working on an article like yours, although it’s going to have going to have to be done in 5-6 parts, even if I do allow 5-6 motorcycles per part (I’ve owned up to ten at a time, and have never owned less than three at a time since 1992). Big problem right now is I seem to have misplaced my album that has at least one picture of every motorcycle I’ve owned, after the first four.
Wow, my Honda CBF250 must be the export version of the CBX 250 as they look identical in aspect an specifications. In Spain we got them imported from Brasil.
However, mine is somewhat a lemon, although it gets the job done and I’m not to complain after 9 years of ownership and 53000 km. Nevertheless (yes I’m complaining) about the problems with the starter (twice busted), the automatic choke system (when hot it idles at 5000 rpm and 3 mechanics don’t know how to fix that), the flimsy rear brake… But the bike is agile and superior to any scooter in Barcelona for anything but regular streets and I don’t really know what to buy to substitute it.
I had a Turuna also . If I am not mistaken, the Turuna´s engine is an OHC version of the CG´s. Also had a ML.
Yours was blue, cool. You are right about the engine, remember the breaker point under the “125” chrome lid on the side of the engine? The CG didn’t have that.