HONDA CB72 (1959-1960) Specs, Performance & Photos

The Honda CB72 was a motorcycle built by the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer from 1960 to the end of 1967. The CB72 motorcycle was the third model in the CB series and the first bike that featured a tubular frame instead of the metal shell frame used until then.

In Japan, the bike was launched in 1960, in 1961 in the USA market, which was the most important market, in 1961 Frankfurt, Germany, introduced and imported by the Hamburg motorcycle dealer Karlheinz-Heinz Meller, and the European Honda Motor Trading GmbH was founded in 1961 and sold the model from 1962 with few changes.

Made for production racing, the Honda CB72 was one of the first models that marked the increasingly popular and important branch of motorcycle sport at the time, and even today, the bike is one of the most desirable of the Japanese classics.

For suspension, the bike packed a telescopic fork on the front end of the tubular steel frame and a dual shock absorber system on the rear end, while the braking power was handled by a drum unit on the front wheel and another drum unit on the rear wheel.

In the performance department, the 1960 Honda CB72 had its soul brought to life by a 247cc four-stroke twin-cylinder air-cooled engine that delivered an output power of 24 hp with maximum strength at 8,000 rpm and 20 Nm (15 lb-ft) of torque available at 5,700 rpm.