- The original GB500 used an air-cooled, single-cylinder engine
- Honda also has a 471cc twin-cylinder engine, as seen on the NX500
- GB350 sold overseas is made-in-India, sold here as H’ness CB350
Honda GB500S expected launch details
The name in question is the GB500S, and it’s a nameplate that Honda has used in the past. The original GB500 was a retro-racer-looking motorcycle that used an air-cooled, single-cylinder engine. It was sold in Japan and the US, as well as some international markets under a different name in the late 1980s. Back then, the bike was available in 400cc and 500cc variants, and it had a short-stroke design with a power output of over 30hp.
In the modern era, the GB name was resurrected by Honda for the Japanese spec of the CB350 H’ness, which has also recently been launched in Europe. The GB350 is made in India, and the differences between it and the H’ness are mostly down to a few small visual elements.
Honda’s recent registration of the GB500S name in the US raises a couple of interesting possibilities. The first is that the company may launch a new retro-themed bike with the parallel-twin engine from the CB500 family, but this is less likely given that the GB name has so far been used on single-cylinder bikes.
The second, more exciting possibility is that Honda is, in fact, working on a new air-cooled thumper in the 500cc-capacity ballpark. If that were the case, it would make Honda the only manufacturer to do so, given that RE has not made a 500cc single since the J platform came in and does not seem to have one in the works either.
If Honda does make an air-cooled, 500cc, single-cylinder engine, expect to see performance figures somewhere in the ballpark or slightly higher than the Harley-Davidson X440, which puts out 27hp and 38Nm of torque.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
