Honda Cm185t
HONDA CM185T
CYCLE WORLD TEST
Proof Positive that Soichiro No Longer Controls the Company
All right, let’s cut the giggling and have some quiet in the back of the room there. We’re entertaining questions from the floor. And they’re fair questions: Does the world really need a mini-chopper? And if so. is this the machine you want to put under your son or daughter for their first experience in motorcycling?
We’re glad you asked. The answers are not really and no.
But that doesn’t mean this little stepchild is without any redeeming qualities.
Let us begin at the beginning. We suspected there was going to be a substantial credibility problem for this piece when it arrived. This suspicion was confirmed when Manney wandered in. beheld it. and left shaking his head in disbelief. We have since come to regard this as a characteristic reaction among motorcyclists whose experience goes back more than, say, two weeks.
The tech ed summed it up best. We caught him scraping the side stand in a continuous circle out behind the shop one afternoon, and doing it with a nice touch. The CM 185—Honda has chosen to call it the Twinstar—is surprisingly nimble, and our man looked to be in harmony with it. When he realized he had an audience, he even popped a few creditable wheelies. We suggested that he really liked the mini chopper and all the head-shaking was just so much posturing.
“I never said I didn’t like it,” he retorted. “I just said I didn’t want to be seen in public on it.”
Well, that winds up being the reaction of most of us. Getting someone on board for a photo session was a matter of drawing straws. It’s difficult for an adultsize person to look very dignified with his knees sticking up above the gas tank. We found ourselves studiously avoiding eye contact with other riders, and by keeping the smoked face-shield of the helmet snapped down tight one could duck any stoplight interrogations about this strange motorcycle.
However, our reluctance to take the Twinstar out during daylight hours was only a function of misapplication. Properly employed, this machine stands near the head of its class. Honda categorizes the CM 185 as an entry level machine, good for beginners because of its handling ease and proximity to the ground (seat height is 28.7 in.). Wrong. The high bars and low seat do create an impression of control ease, but the lower back discomfort they conspire to produce is far from an impression: It’s genuine, whether your back is young or adult, experienced or novice. The Twinstar is OK for short hauls but anything longer will make you wish you’d ridden something else, even a car.
So what we have here—quiet now, all you high-minded purists—is one of the better pit bikes to come along in quite awhile.
Some of the mossbacks around here say no, it’s not even good for that, too big, too unsanitary, something like the SL75 or a mini-trail is much better. But where’s your SL75 or mini-trail when it comes time for you and Miss Sheboygan to fly away to the official preor post-race frolic a few miles from the track? The Twinstar > is definitely sub-sonic, but it will handle freeway speeds with two up and manage this quite smoothly. Its relative portliness is offset by this quality. Further. Miss Sheboygan is going to look dynamite motoring around the pits on the Twinstar as she scrounges around to find you a new chain tensioner, tach drive and Gatorade. When you throw in a few w'heelies (they're easy with this rig, especially if you sit on the back part of the saddle), you're bound to dominate the weekend’s pit action whether you win or lose on the track.
“I never said I didn’t like it,” the tech ed retorted. “I just said I didn’t want to be seen in public on it.”
HONDA
CM185T
$898
Because the CM185 is not designed for
the advanced tourer, one can hardly complain about the action of the standard Showa forks, which are perfectly suited to the nature of this machine. We give them two stars.
Tests performed at Number One Products
These shocks are a surprise from two standpoints: 1) They are of the same basic type as on the Hawk series, and work extremely well. 2) Honda’s shock mounts have progressed from eye-eye, eye-clevis, clevis-clevis back to eye-eye.
Tests performed at Number One Products
The essentials of this oddly garbed motorcycle are actually pretty good. The engine, a four-stroke I85cc OFIC Twin, is new in the Honda lineup, although its general design, drawn from the 175cc Twin, is a proven one. The little Twin is nourished by a single 22mm carburetor (Keihin, of course) drawing its air supply through an oil-wetted foam filter. A 360degree crank, riding in three main bearings, spins inside the cases, and for an unusual touch there are two cam chains. The entire layout is aimed at long life and low maintenance. Like most Honda powerplants, it’s markedly oversquare. Useful power comes in fairly low in the rpm range, and continues on up through middle revs. There’s no top end power rush, such as that experienced in the new Hawks, but there’s not much power in any case. There’s enough for scooting through the pits and back to the motel, though (or around town, if it comes to that), and it’s smooth. Even better is its thirst, which is negligible (70.4 mpg). It would be hard to ask much more of this glamorless-but solid-little cooker.
The suspension looks as though it might be a trifle squirrely, but it's actually straightforward. The diamond frame, designed to offer the low seating position, and the high-rise bars combine to give the Twinstar its chopper look, but the Showa forks are not extenders and work well on ordinary street bumps. Compliance is good, and the front end is stable even in our wonderful rain grooves. The rear shocks are Honda’s tw’o-stagers as introduced on the new Hawks two months ago. The bottom of each shock bears the initials FVQ. When we inquired after the meaning of these initials, we were told it stands for Full Variable Quality. Two-stage or FVQ, though, these too work OK for putting around town or up and down the pits. With two up. the suspension is taxed a trifle, but deals with minor bumps satisfactorily. Combined with the bike’s low center of gravity and the low profile tires, the suspension allows the rider all sorts of minor lean-over liberties, such as the side stand dragging trick. They’ll love it at the track.
Stopping is also a reasonably solid feature with the Twinstar. Since this machine is obviously not going to be hurrying anywhere, Honda was able to economize slightly by installing drum brakes at both ends. As the data panel indicates, stopping distances were quite acceptable, control was good, and fade wasn’t a problem during testing. Wringing this bike out to the point of producing brake fade isn’t a realistic exercise in any case.> Honda was also able to save substantially on instrumentation, which is quite basic: speedo, with turn signal repeater, neutral light and high beam indicator. No tach, because you don’t need a tach (shift points are indicated on the speedo). The choke control is right up there topside, which is welcome. About the only concession to luxury is an electric starting system, which Honda includes as a lure for new riders. This is a useful touch in a boss pit bike as well.
In many ways, this machine is the logical extension of the Cushman Eagle approach.
We’ve mentioned the comfort issue, so without belaboring the point let us say merely that the two-plane seat is a poor ally at best. We don’t like them generally, and we especially dislike this one, primarily because it crams one’s body into too small a space and keeps it there. Confinement such as this invariably magnifies a host of other ills, such as the slight center ridge and the rather skimpy padding. But then, you knew this machine wasn’t a touring bike when you looked at the picture, right?
Then there are the high-rise handlebars. Some of Honda’s marketing sachems must have spent time touring high school and college parking lots where they saw a great deal of chopped up machinery equipped with bars similar in appearance to the Twinstars. They apparently concluded that this look, combined with a seating position which allowed the rider to get both feet solidly on the ground, was the key to overcoming the fears of new riders and getting them up on two.
We don’t agree. The existence of choppers doesn’t necessarily argue for their marketability as a finished product from the factory. As one of our sages noted, there was a time when high school parking lots were filled with cars whose hubcaps were absent, indicating that their owners were (a) drag racers or (b) wished to look like drag racers. But this didn’t mean that manufacturers should start supplying cars without hubcaps.
Honda has surrounded a perfectly viable little motorcycle with a lot of gimcrackery that reduces its functionality unforgivably, at least in terms of getting newcomers involved. It is simply not a proper motorcycle, and one must pay something of a premium for that impropriety. We certainly don’t expect to see many young riders putting around on these creatures. It’s possible that some of them may turn up in the hands of 50-ish suburbanites who just want something to doodle around on. and this application isn't really so far removed from the one we suggested earlier. In many ways, this machine is the logical extension of the Cushman Eagle approach to two-wheeling, and it’s likely to appeal to the same buyers, who. unfortunately, have gotten somewhat older in the interim.
To this latter group we say enjoy. This machine, which is a toy and not to be taken seriously, may be just the thing for them. For ourselves, we say we still want one for a pit bike—just as soon as we get set for the superbike wars with our new double throwdown Superdesmo Explosiva 900. Hope you’re ready, Miss Sheboygan. 0
Miss Sheboygan is going to look dynamite motoring around the pits on the Twinstar as she scrounges around to find you a new chain tensioner, tach drive and Gatorade.
