HONDA CB72 (1962-1963) Specs, Performance & Photos

The Honda CB72 was a motorcycle manufactured by Honda from 1960 to 1967 after the CB92 and the CB71, it was the third model in the CB series and the first model that packed a tubular frame instead of the metal shell that was used until then.

In the USA, the most important market, the bike was presented in February 1961, in Frankfurt Germany, in 1961, and imported by the Hamburg motorcycle dealer Karlheinz-Heinz Meller, while the European Honda Motor Trading GmbH was founded in 1961 and sold the bike in 1962.

The abbreviation CB came from the Japanese "C" LU "B" MAN RACE that took place in 1958 in Suzuka, which was Honda's own racing course, where "C" stands for the type and "B" for the sporty variant, while in the US, the bike was called the CB72 Hawk.

The bike featured a tubular steel frame that housed a telescopic fork on the front and a dual shock absorber system on the rear, while the braking power was handled by a drum unit on the front wheel and another drum unit on the rear wheel.

As for power, the 1963 Honda CB72 had its soul brought to life by a 247cc four-stroke two-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.

All the power generated by the engine was converted into speed by a four-speed manual transmission that spun the rear wheel to a claimed top speed of 135 kph (84 mph).