Editors' Notes
EDITORS'NOTES
WHEN LAST WE SAW A HONDA NIGHThawk. Freddie Spencer was riding it off into the horizon of a TV commercial. threatening never to return.
It’s been five years since the last of those, the tariff-beating 700cc Nighthawk S, rolled off the assembly line, but Honda has an uncanny ability to transcend time. As proof, here’s the new Nighthawk 750, looking for all the world like the product of a winter’s redesign, and with not a hint of its long hiatus showing. It simply exists as though it had never stopped existing.
Still, riding Honda’s new/old standard left me unimpressed. Which is not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just that the Nighthawk 750 is neither spectacular, nor spectacularly flawed. It is what it is, which is exactly what you'd expect it to be after little more than a first glance.
Both Spencer and the Nighthawk have returned. Let’s see which makes the more successful comeback.
—Brian Cutlerson. Associate Editor
THERESA LOT TO BE SAID FOR THE 750 Nighthawk's simplicity. Its proven, air-cooled inline-Four is smooth, quiet and spirited. Body parts are limited to side panels and the tail section. Instruments are easy-to-read round pods. The handlebar is a chromed tube, easily replaceable should its bend not fit you.
But being a basic motorcycle doesn't mean the bike looks cheap. The Nighthawk’s glass-smooth, metallicred paint would do a custom painter proud, and there's just enough chrome to add class, not crass.
Sure, this 750 won’t break any dragstrip records, and it won't outhandle a sportbike. but it will provide its rider with versatility, a rare commodity as of late.
Perfect it's not, with a weak rear brake and shocks that should have been left in 1982. But this bike’s reasonable price leaves room fora buyer to personalize the 'Hawk to fit his needs and whims, and that's what standard bikes are all about. -Ron Griewe. Senior Editor
1 HAD HOPES THAI HONDA’S NEW STANdard would be a pumped-up rendition of the CB-1, an enjoyable bike flawed by the fact that it was designed for Japanese riders. As with many so-called “new-age” standards, anyone brought up believing that fish should be cooked and eaten with something other than two wooden sticks was just too big for the diminutive 400.
Well, the Nighthawk isn’t as modern as the CB-1, lacking a single-shock suspension, a rear disc and a perimeter-type frame. But it is sized right, with a saddle that comfortably packs two, and with ergonomics that don’t require the flexibility of a 13-year-old Rumanian gymnast. It’s also got power and torque, qualities never out of style in the U.S. And at $3998, it has to be the bargain of the year.
Viewing the Honda parked alongside my 1982 Yamaha Seca 650 in the CM7 garage, someone asked what the difference between the two bikes was. Aside from the Nighthawk having shiny paint, unscratched chrome and a 12-month warranty, there weren't any.
And that's just fine. —David Edwards. Editor
