Honda GB350S

[Yorick]

Unsurprisingly the less powerful modern bike beats the old one across the board. The acceleration difference was pretty stark eh? He's right about the weight, but I also wonder about the gears...doesn't the modern one have 2 more ratios?

Edit: He also says the new bike weighs 147kg whereas Honda quote ~180kg. What vs dry?

Peak HP is a very narrow metric after all.

That was a CB300R in video

[Mr. Dazzle]

I know.

[Cousin Jack]

I am currently waiting for my bike to be MOTed and wandering around the showroom.

CB500R is 192kg., CB650R is 211kg. Honda figures. Bigger holes must weigh a lot.

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's twice as many holes too. Makes no sense at all!

[A_morti]

Unsurprisingly the less powerful modern bike beats the old one across the board. The acceleration difference was pretty stark eh? He's right about the weight, but I also wonder about the gears...doesn't the modern one have 2 more ratios?

Edit: He also says the new bike weighs 147kg whereas Honda quote ~180kg. What vs dry?

Peak HP is a very narrow metric after all.

If you're talking about fortnine, he's talking about the cb300r, a very different animal than the gb350 we're talking about in this thread.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah I know, I suspect Horse also knew that when he posted it.

Point still stands though, every time these small new bikes are mentioned people say "My XXX from 35 years ago had more power, less weight etc." and yet as that video showed these new bikes still out drag, out brake and out turn the old stuff. While being cleaner, quieter and cheaper to run.

Which is what you'd expect with something four decades newer

[KungFooBob]

I can't get subtitles to work on my phone, can someone watch this and let me know if the Gold Star is more betterer than the GB350?

[Yorick]

I can't get subtitles to work on my phone, can someone watch this and let me know if the Gold Star is more betterer than the GB350?

I managed 5 minutes then wanted to gouge my eyes out. Dull, dull presenters

[Dodgy69]

I can't get subtitles to work on my phone, can someone watch this and let me know if the Gold Star is more betterer than the GB350?

It says the Gold star is a million times worse

[Nordboy]

I can't get subtitles to work on my phone, can someone watch this and let me know if the Gold Star is more betterer than the GB350?

I have no idea, boring as hell, and all they did was talk about loads of other bikes and which was the best? They didn't seem to know either.

[Cousin Jack]

I must say the Honda 350 looks the part. Shame about the colour, mud grey is not at the top of my list. Dealer had several in stock and it looks good, even in grey.

[Spadger2]

Hi everyone I'm new here and wanted to chuck my 2d's worth in about the GB350S,I ride a 2024 CB500X and a 2020 DL650 Vstrom.
My 2024 CB500X went in to Blackpool Honda(highly recommended)today for it's 8k mile service,I asked if I could take a GB350S out for a test ride not expecting much if I'm honest but intrigued by the tests I've read about and seen on YT.
What a revelation,now I understand what all the fuss is about,what a lovely little bike that,like the CB500X,punches well above it's weight.
I rode it on a variety of town and country back roads,Lancashire's worst crapmac and dual carriageway,I easily wound it upto 70mph,and was pleasantly surprised how well it accelerated,with 5 long gears,though as others have found 5th is an overdrive,3rd is peach of a gear that takes the rider from 25 to 60mph quite surprisingly briskly from a peach of a smooth engine with a nice spread of power.Handling was spot on and a delight to ride even on Lancashire's previously mentioned back road crapmac.
TBH I was very tempted to buy one there and then and had to restrain reaching for the plastic even though I don't really need a third bike,this was mainly like so many others who've ridden it,I was charmed by it's looks(this is one very hansom motorcycle that reminds me of days of yore,yes I am old enough to remember those halcyon days)and a surprisingly spritely performance.It's a small capacity bike that really did surprise me.
As I told the salesman,if Mr Honda makes a GB500S with 40bhp and 40Nm he'll kill RE and Triumph's offerings stone dead and annihilate BSA and their pseudo Goldstar,if he doesn't I may still be tempted such is this little bike's romantic charm,yes really!

Of course there has to be a fault or two as no bike is perfect,but my gripe were,a lack of mudguarding(nothing new there) the seat,is a little hard and for shorter riders due to it being a bench type would make the bike seem higher than it actually is as it's quite wide at the front,I did ask the service lady whether she'd tried it out,she at 1.61m tall said she was on tiptoes and didn't feel safe on it.The clock was on the left side with the small LCD portion on the right side of it making it difficult to see when riding,if the clock was mounted to the right side the LCD would've been much easier to see, especially with my old and longsight eyes.I would've prefer an S/S exhaust pipe and can like the Aussie and Indian versions.

Honda has one heckova winner with this bike,a very similar air cooled single cylinder GB500s at say £5k,(the GB350S retails at £4k),would be one killer retro bike that would do so much damage to the opposition I doubt they'd recover.


After a long coat of thinking about this bike,IMHO a scramble type handlebar and a high level(s/steel)exhaust pipe would add to this bike's charm in a big way

EDITED for typos

[Taipan]

Mans bike!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Mans bike!

Looks like an Africa Twin to me?