Considered by many as Honda’s first sport bike, the CB77 is a far cry from what is considered a sport bike today. Make mine an analog example like this Super Hawk with everything out in the open and not looking like a computer game come to life. This 1968 Honda CB77 Super Hawk is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Centennial, Colorado and the seller is asking a mere $2,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Howard A. for the tip!
The photos aren’t the best here, sadly, but that’s not surprising anymore. This is the only overall photo of the right side of this bike but from what is visible, it looks like a dandy example, as nobody has said in five decades. Honda made the CB77 Super Hawk from 1961 until 1968 and there was also a smaller version, a CB72 Hawk, which was a 250. Elvis rode a Super Hawk in the movie Roustabout because Harleys had somewhat of a bad reputation for motorcycle gang activity. Although, I can’t imagine many motorcycle gang members today would ride a Honda.
This is a zoomed-in screenshot from the seller’s video since they didn’t include any detailed photos. This example looks nice from what we can see in the few photos, and price-wise, it seems like a no-brainer. Hagerty is at $3,000 for a #4 fair-condition bike and $5,000 for a #3 good-condition bike. If it works as well as the seller says, this is a great deal at $2,500. This would be hard to pass up at that price if it wasn’t for shipping costs. They say it has a rebuilt speedometer and a new chain and sprocket, and it isn’t perfect as you can see from the video, but it would be fun to clean it up and just ride it without making it a show bike.
The engine is Honda’s 305-cc OHC inline twin-cylinder four-stroke with 28 horsepower and 17 lb-ft of torque when new. It sends power through a four-speed through that new chain and sprocket(s?) to the rear wheel, and this one is shown running in a video on the listing. Weighing in at 350 pounds and with standard electric start, the Super Hawk solidified Honda’s position in the market only a few years after the company started making motorcycles and that’s just amazing. Have any of you owned a CB77 Super Hawk?
Good eye Howard. 12k on the tach . Honda sure loves the high winding engines in bikes and cars.
Test,,
Okay, access clearance accepted, I’ll TRY and be brief, ya’ right. When I saw this, again, so many memories of youth. I was lucky to have 1 of the only 2 Honda dealers in Milwaukee near me. Hertings ( became SE Sales) on my side of town, AFL on t’other. Naturally, having a Honda 50, we were enamored with the make. We’d ride our bikes to the dealer, and see if any new models came in. There were the smaller ones, 50, S50, S65, 90, S90 the trail jobs and the kooky square themed Benly and Dreams, ( did I miss any?) but by far, the most popular bike was the 160. Many a rider cut their teeth on a 160. The ones that stayed with biking, then bought the 305. My neighbor had the Scrambler, which I think was a 300, but the Super Hawk was a totally different bike, ( thanks to SG, I always wondered if there was a “Standard” or a “DeLuxe” Hawk) and changed motorcycling forever. The Super Hawk looked similar to the 160, except for the bigger tank. It was the 1st Asian bike you could do 100 mph out of the box. It excelled in every way, performance on par with bikes 2,3 even 4 times the size. Light, handled well, stopped well, started 1st tick of the starter and above all, it didn’t leak oil.
The Super Hawk shown here was just over $500 new, heck, half the Bar-Mitzvah money( oh they knew you would pixx it away anyway) and about half the cost of a Sportster, or a Limey, and could leave both in the dust. Many took the air cleaners off, or installed”Snuf-or nots”, but really didn’t do much. Honda had it tuned just right anyway. I read, this bike would do the 1/4 mile in 16.8 at 83 mph, and a top speed of 104. Incredible as it was, you know what was right around the corner? That’s right, in 1969, Honda blew us all away with the 750, 4 cylinder. Suddenly, the Super Hawk was horribly out of date, and you know those big piles of motorcycles in,,,IDK, Kansas, I guarantee there are a couple Super Hawks and certainly 160s near the bottom.
When I was looking for a bike, lo these 5 years ago, these were a lot more. You can see the prices are down, typical in winter ( you don’t buy a lawnmower in Spring) but seems, vintage bike prices are coming down. Why, a ’99 FXWG near me for $3900 sure had me interested, as does this. I bet $1800 on the seat would get it. Then what? ( dream cloud pops) It’s okay, thanks to SG and the site again, and some lucky person will find out what all the hub-bub was about with a ( cue dramatic music), Honda Super Hawk!!!
Terrific find, Howard. I’m willing to beat most folks our age started with a Honda 50, as they didn’t have the bad rep that HD did with the proliferation of really, REALLY badly made biker movies.
As you said, this was the opening salvo fired by Honda though as most know it was initially dismissed by established US and British/European manufacturers-until the public discovered it would go faster, further, and was cheaper to fix in the rare instance it needed attention. Between this and the Scrambler taking the win in the 1962 Baja sealed Hondas rep..
The coup de grace on the street was the amazing 450 Black Bomber, and then the aforementioned 750 K0 decidedly became the new standard in the bike wars.
But it’s still fun to tootle around on a smaller bike IMHO.
What was your first bike, Scotty?
Terrific find, Howard. I’m willing to bet most folks our age started with a Honda 50, as they didn’t have the bad rep that HD did with the proliferation of really, REALLY badly made biker movies.
As you said, this was the opening salvo fired by Honda though as most know it was initially dismissed by established US and British/European manufacturers-until the public discovered it would go faster, further, and was cheaper to fix in the rare instance it needed attention. Between this and the Scrambler taking the win in the 1962 Baja sealed Hondas rep..
The coup de grace on the street was the amazing 450 Black Bomber, and then the aforementioned 750 K0 decidedly became the new standard in the bike wars.
But it’s still fun to tootle around on a smaller bike IMHO.
What was your first bike, Scotty?
Nice find, Howard! You don’t mind storing this in your living room for me for a few months, do you? (crickets)
Nevadahalfrack: my first bike was a late-60s Yamaha YL-1 Twin Jet 100 and I still have it, although it’s been in storage for 40 years now, ouch.
That’s cool Scotty that you still have it!!
That’s a nice bike. I generally had CD175 Hondas*, which were cheap and – generally – reliable. I did have a bike that was styled after the 60s Honda, though; a Laverda 750SF.
*Inbetween strokers….!
You meet the nicest people on a Honda.
My favorite of this series. I wouldn’t kick one of these off my driveway, and I’ve never been a big fan of Japanese anything. But they had a winner with this, just like they had a winner with the Super Cub…
For $2500, that looks a great deal to me. I’m surprised it has been for sale for so long. There’s no mention of the title or registration status, so hopefully that’s not a problem. If I had it, I’d add back in the missing bits (original air cleaners, diffusers) and ride it like it is. I’d love to have that in my garage next to my CB160.
Big word of the day…diffusers. We just called them baffles ;)
I had one in college and a few years after that. It was a lot of fun and easy to maintain.
The only thing wrong with this one is that it hasn’t sold, which is surprising. The price is more than fair and the condition is better than you have any right to expect for one that hasn’t been completely restored and priced accordingly.
If it was within 500 miles I’d already be on the phone with the seller.
Great find Howard, I cant remember exactly the number of older Hondas I bought not running over the years, maybe 30? Never once couldn’t get one going after a carb clean and a couple hours of adjustments and tweaking. Des Plaines Honda in Des Plaines Illinois parts department told me only their service department ordered more parts than I did, lol. I still own one bike, a 1965 CL77 mostly original. Sadly, it’s earmarked for sale this spring, age and arthritis has forced me back on 4 wheels for my duration. Super write up Scotty, love this site. And hey Howard I still want to see that picture of you I heard about on the 1956 Rambler wagon write up.
A 65 CL77? Sounds nice.
Not that I need any more bikes….
Great bikes but hard to go without electric start once you get used to it.
I owned a honda cb72 as my first bike when I lived in England at the time it was said to be the fastest 250 on the road. I road it for several years on my car license and only changed it when they changed the law to be only able ride a 125 as a learner so I bought one so i could take my test and move on to bigger bikes. The CB72 was a great bike and capable of over 100mph
Would love to add this to my collection, trying to convince my wifey into it however she says “ANOTHER ?
You already have a 65 s90,73 tl125,73 xl125,74 xl175.
Would look great and I don’t have anything for 68.
Nice find. I rode one all through high school. It was the fastest bike in town for a while. I put a lot of miles on it. If I was closer I’d be looking seriously at it.
I never rode one but I could tell by the sound that the 305 dream my friend had was coming up the road. Compared to my Triumph that twin cylinder engine was so silky smooth sounding it almost sounded like a 3 or 4 cylinder engine. I’ve never heard another before or since that had that sound.
Second bike I ever had was a 67 CL77 Scrambler. Plenty of fun.
Who remembers ‘Snuff or Nots’? They were just a plain flat washer with a hole in the middle welded to a threaded rod with a spring and a nut. To lower the decibel you turned it to restrict the exhaust with your gloved hand. Out on the open road you could turn it horizontal for a ‘free flowing open exhaust’! Hey, we were kids looking for any extra hp we could easily put our hands on! If I remember right all the Super Hawks had a flat drag bar for handlebars. Any remember the Bridgestone 350 or Yamaha’s Big Bear 305 or a tear your arms out Kawasaki’s 350 Avenger!
Since I’m not in high school anymore I don’t like any unmuffled bikes with the exception of the Honda 305. That sound is like music.
I well remember the “Snuff-Or-Nots.” Our shop teacher had a CL77 with those. It seems to me that one blew out less than a month after he installed it. He just took the other one out and ran open pipes.
I rather liked the Big Bear scrambler but I thought it was rather bulky compared to the Honda.
Those 350 bikes from Yamaha and Kawasaki were potent. I remember a guy with a Bridgestone 350 GTR. It went like “Jack the Bear,” but it blew both pistons out at 5000 miles. Turned out they didn’t use sleeves but hard-Chromed the cylinders. Chunks of chrome started flaking off and wiped out the pistons…
Those 35 GTR’s were beautiful, good handling and the fastest 350 at the time I believe…the chrome bores were great as long as you didn’t lug the engine and overheat it or remove the baffles (lean condition) or modify the air filters (more lean conditions). Lugging was the death of many Kawasaki triples too. Bridgestone was the number one tire maker for Japanese motorcycles and the other brands banded together and told Bridgestone to get out the motorcycle building business if they wanted to remain number one in the motorcycle tire business…that was the end of the line for the bikes.
The 305 Superhawk and the 305 Scrambler had 180 crankshafts, definitely not a “smooth” engine. The CA 300 or 305 (Dream, all the way down to the 150) however had very smooth 360 degree crankshafts. The dreams also had a single carb.
Actually the real early Dreams had a 180 crankshaft. I did a top-end for a friend’s Dream (1959) and it was most definitely a 180. I don’t know when Honda changed it; it had to be in the earlier 60s…
I should have just referred to the model because I don’t know anything about the pre CB CL CA models. CA = 360 crankshaft.
I have no idea of the configuration of the later Dream engines. I’ve had a number of Hawk/Super Hawk and scrambler engines apart but the only Dream was the aforementioned ’59 model. It was a 305 and it wasn’t much different from the later, more powerful models with the twin carbs. Actually idling it with the pipes off sounded the same. I do remember that it had upswept exhaust pipes that were about as ugly as they could get. Other than that it was a Honda Dream that looked (other than the pipes) exactly the same as a ’67 model.
Absolutely true…I took a 200 mile trip on a CL305 and I didn’t stop vibrating for an hour after…hands numb. Not a pleasant long distance bike for sure.
I bought one in Atsugi, Japan used in 64. I paid $300, it was used but almost new. I only bought it to sell. I rode it for about 2 weeks while I was on leave and sold it for $450.
Robert Pirsig rode one across the NW USA with his son Chris. The subsequent book on philosophy, mental illness, and life – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – is about that trip on that Honda.
One of my wish-list bikes…
I own an orginal 1 – owner you can call my paper route Super Hawk. I really wanted the S-90 but he wouldn’t sell me that either – even when I said he’d get his paper sooner. Same guy I got the 55 Stude from after he died.
This is a nice one for the money IF your in the market for one.
My first was a Suzuki Trail 80 in the late 1960’s. Great learning bike, even though by then I was an adult. Lot of fun on the CCC trails of Northern Michigan.
When I was a kid in Louisiana in the mid-60s, seems half the town had 50s, 65s, 90s, or s90s … even my cousin had her Cub 50 … but my mom just wouldn’t allow us to have one … she remembered my dad crashing his stick-shift Harley and said never again …
My older brother had a 55 trail with a buddy seat and or rack in 1962. In 67 he stepped up to 160 scrambler with baffles on the end of looked like straight pipes. I bought a 68 trail 90 first year for the trail switch and 8 hp …
’65 CB77, what a great bike!!! The only thing better was my ’73 Z1 !!! If you knew what to do to really bring the Honda alive, it was a real winner. I did an engine massage on mine, then off to the drag strip! The result was a 12:34 time! I wished that I still had both bikes. Those were great days!!!