This CB450 is my favorite daily rider.
I have owned it for nearly 30 years and used to commute 90 miles a day on it.
In 1985 it was removed from daily commuter duties and underwent a complete restoration.
It has the amazing CB450 engine that just keeps on running. At 85,000 miles,
it is not a stranger to being on the road, but these days I may only put 1000 miles
on it a year.
It is a fun bike to ride. When compared to a modern, new machine, it is underpowered, has weak brakes and a suspension that seems at times to be made of some rubber-like material. But if you judge it by the other bikes available in 1966, it was an amazing machine. Stacked up against its peers from 1966, it performed very well and sound of the engine revving at 9,000 -10,000 RPM caused many a Brit-bike rider to wonder just what that was that went screaming past.
I purchased the first CB450 sold by Honda of San Mateo back when the bikes were introduced. I had read the articles about the 450 and went down to my favorite Honda shop and paid for one, sight unseen. I loved that bike but decided to sell it a little less than a year later when I received my draft notice and subsequent orders for a tour in Viet Nam, but that’s another story.
