The Honda CB-1 is a small and light naked sport bike with a 399 cubic centimetres (24.3 cu in) straight-four engine, called by Cycle World "a reincarnation of the standard motorcycle ... the sort of bike everyone rode before sporting riders went replica racer crazy. The Honda model code is NC27. In contrast to all other models of the Honda CB series, the name is written with a hyphen. In some countries it was sold as Honda CB400F as an attempt to connect the model with the original CB400F of 1975, with which it has virtually nothing in common other than the fact that it has a 4-cylinder transverse-mounted 400cc engine.
The bike was first introduced in 1989 and built until the end of 1990. Originally developed for the Japanese market, the CB-1 was also officially sold in the USA and Canada. Called a "great motorcycle that never found an audience" and "victims of a difficult market" by Cycle World, the final model year 1990 CB-1s available as leftover stock were offered in 1992 at a $600 discount, for $3700 in the US, which in current money would be $5,791 accounting for inflation.
Cycle World measured the acceleration from 0 to 1⁄4 mile (0 to 0.40 km) as 13.17 seconds at 99.16 miles per hour (159.58 km/h) and a top speed of 118 miles per hour (190 km/h). Braking distance from 60 to 0 miles per hour (97 to 0 km/h) was 124 feet (38 m).
