History of the Hondamatic
Where the idea originated with the ill-fated Honda CB400 Hondamatic
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54 years 9 months
A monumental step forward in motorcycling history. The Honda CB400 Hondamatic was the firm’s last foray into automatic technology. With a dizzy 27bhp propelling 200kgs of lardy, badly suspended rolling stock the performance was never going to be electrifying..
Strictly speaking the Hondamatic was more of a Hondasemiautomatic. The sytem used a torque converter and offered the rider a choice of two ratios - high and low.
Launched in August 1977 along with an equally de-tuned 750/4 version, the expensive, heavy and slow Hondamatics hardly took the UK or the World by storm,
Offered in a choice of Royal Blue, Orange or Wine (or should that be whine?) they ended up being almost given away by dealers desperate to get rid of them. In a four year period Honda UK shifted just 1000 units.
