Honda CBX 1050 - 6 Cylinder - CBX 1000
In 1978, Honda did something that no mainstream manufacturer had attempted before in the production motorcycle world. They built a six-cylinder engine, mounted it transversely in a motorcycle frame, and called it the CBX 1000. The result was a motorcycle so far ahead of its time that people still talk about it today, and videos of it running still attract hundreds of thousands of views from enthusiasts who were not even born when the bike was new.
The engine is the whole story with the CBX. A 1047cc inline-six with twin overhead cams and 24 valves, it produced around 105 horsepower in stock form, which was an extraordinary number for a production bike in the late 1970s. To put that in context, the fastest production cars of that era were struggling to match those figures. Honda had essentially taken the kind of engine technology being developed in Formula 1 racing and packaged it into something you could ride to work on Monday morning.
The sound is unlike anything else in the motorcycle world. Six individual carburetors feeding six cylinders through six exhaust pipes creates a mechanical symphony that climbs through the rev range with a intensity that genuinely recalls a racing car more than a road bike. At low revs it burbles with a complexity that single and twin cylinder bikes simply cannot replicate. Wind it out past six thousand rpm and the note sharpens into something that raises the hairs on your arms. People who have heard a CBX at full throttle describe it as one of the greatest sounds in motorcycling, full stop.
Honda originally positioned the CBX as a grand tourer, though the early versions were quite sporting in character. The engine was so wide that Honda engineers had to angle the cylinders slightly and route the exhaust pipes in an elaborate six-into-two-into-one arrangement just to give the rider somewhere to put their feet. Even so, the engine cases extend noticeably beyond the frame, and that width is part of what makes the CBX so visually distinctive. You see it and immediately understand that something unusual is happening mechanically.
By the early 1980s Honda had added a Pro-Link rear suspension and a fairing to the CBX, shifting it more firmly into touring territory. Production ended in 1982, making the total production run relatively short, which has contributed to the bikes collectibility today. Well-maintained examples command serious money at auction, and the community of CBX owners is passionate and well-organized, with dedicated clubs and registries tracking surviving bikes around the world.
What makes the CBX relevant today, decades after the last one left the factory, is that it represents a moment when Honda was willing to build something purely extraordinary without worrying too much about practicality or cost. The six-cylinder engine served no particular functional purpose that four cylinders could not have achieved. It was engineering for the love of engineering, performance for the pleasure of performance. That spirit is what keeps people watching videos of these machines and dreaming about owning one. The Honda CBX is not just a motorcycle. It is a statement about what is possible when talented engineers are given permission to go too far.
