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Honda CD 185T

With 50cc step-throughs, in all their differing forms, it was the CD175 that helped to form the backbone of Honda's
commuter-bike programme in the UK. For a decade from the late 1960s it served as a cheap, reliable alternative to bus and train for all those 20/40 miles-a-day workers who in the 1950s might have bought BSA Bantams and the like. For most of its 10-year run it was unchanged until, in 1977, the pressed-steel frame gave way to a tubular structure.

There had seemed to be no pressing reason for the alteration; and certainly, once it was done, most Honda-watchers would have said there was every chance that the 175 would carry on, undisturbed, into the 1980s. But Honda decided otherwise.

In 1979 the 175 was replaced by the CD185T which, because its engine was merely 1mm bigger in the bores, while retaining the 175's 41mm stroke, was not a 185 at all but a 180. Perhaps there is some special euphnony in '185'; more likely, Honda calculated that an extra 5cc would not alone convince the public that the new bike, at £570, was worth £60 more than the old

In fact, there were some engine changes other than the tiny capacity increase: the contact-breaker had been moved from the cam box, where it was driven from the camshaft, to the timing chest, with drive off the crankshaft, and the crankcases were vertically split — in age -old British fashion — instead of horizontally, as before.
Of more point to the average CD owner were improvements to the dual-seat which became longer and deeper, and thus more comfortable, and to the rear suspension, with more effective damping. Unchanged, however, were the basic virtues of uncomplaining service with minimum maintenance, and frugal petrol consumption averaging 75mph in mixed town and 60mph usage.

Specification

CD185Benly: Twin-cylinder, one, 180cc (53 x 41mm). 17bhp/9,500rpm. Five-speed gearbox. Coil ign I alternator. 2.1g petrol, 3pt oil. Telescopic/pf. Tyres, 3.00 x 17in. 2751b. 83mph.