overhead cam CB750 back in 1969 had catapulted Honda truly into the limelight, as other Nipponese factories joined the fight, then development from the Hamamatsu factory was vital to compete with the new machines from Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. But when the twin cam CB750 came to the market 10 years after that first iconic Cee Bee, it didn’t receive quite the same rapturous welcome, particularly when it showed several reliability issues. Aside from having to allay the fears that potential buyers had thanks to the issues that plagued the first of Honda’s DOHC inline fours, the new CBX also had to fit into a fast-moving marketplace that was seeing three-quarter litre bikes become sportier by the month. With the Kawasaki GPz750 Unitrak and Suzuki GSX-R750 setting the pace, the CBX had to be sportier than the V-four 750 that Honda had launched a year earlier in 1983. That V-engine was based around the liquid-cooled powerplant that had arrived in the custom-styled Sabre and Magna in 1982 (albeit with six-speed transmission and shaft drive, while the sportier VF had chain final drive and just
