These horses came from using some appropriate fiddling inside the head, with the four valves having a rather narrow 38-degree included angle. And a second V-4, the 750 V45 Magna, introduced the year before. What was Honda thinking? The company had a whole bunch of bikes in the showrooms that year, 40 different models covering all the bases, from shopping-friendly Passports to huge Gold Wing touring platforms. Except for that mildly unaesthetic radiator up front. And liquid cooling to boot, so no worries about overheating when cruising down Main Street on a crowded Saturday evening. Whereas this bruiser was a V-4 with two overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder.
Harleys were the standard cruisers of the day, and they were lucky to get 55 horses to the rear wheel, using a pushrod V-twin that had been around for the better part of half a century. If this bike could be put in a category, it would be Power Cruiser. But a cruiser with feet-forward pegs and wide handlebars - and a shaft drive no less? This was nutso! Unheard of! Sure, sportbikes like Honda’s CB1100R were knocking out that many ponies, but those were for riders who liked leaning into corners at insane speeds. The motorcycling world looked upon this machine in absolute amazement - a cruiser putting out more than 100 horsepower.