HONDA GB500

For all its expertise, innovation and knowledge The Big Aitch can, on occasion, drop the ball and, sometimes, spectacularly so.

Honda’s VF750S immediately springs to mind along with the main bearings on their early 1980s stroker singles, the MVX250 and a few others. The normal MO for Honda is to dust itself off then carry on developing, refining and honing its two-wheeled art. It can never be palatable for the world’s foremost motorcycle manufacturer to swallow its pride, but when it comes to half-litre singles Honda’s had to do it more than once. To parody Oscar Wilde: “To mis-invent one 500 may be regarded as a misfortune but to make