What Year is my CB77

[G-Man]

It was traditional with the British factories that they would take a two week vacation in August, the factory would be re-tooled in that period and when the production line staff cam back they would be building the 'next year' models for the US market.

I'm sure Honda did something similar.

G

<<<<<<<<<<<So late '65 early '66 would be quite sensible.>>>>>>>>>>
Find this all the time. .................lm

That's the date that the wiring harness was made. This obviously had to be manufactured before it was put on the bike. So late '65 early '66 would be quite sensible.

G

It must be an early 1966 model manufactured in late 1965, assuming the wire harness wasn't replaced somewhere along the way. LOUD MOUSE is probably the expert on carbon dating these machines, he helped me determine the years of a couple of my 305's.

[Hamamatsu Nippon]

I don't believe the Japanese embraced or even understood the Western idea of releasing all new models for the next year. Do you remember the TV ads "Visit you Chevrolet dealer and see the all new models for 1963." The Japanese ran their manufacturing line consecutively and made any change right on the line whenever change was needed. In the early sixties Honda didn't make designations to identify a model year. I suspect this was a Japanese cultural difference. They did succumb to model years in 1968 with the K moniker and subsequent K2, K3 etc. for next year models. As an example the 1968 CB450 was given the year identifier of K1. This became awkward later when asked "well what do you call the 1965 to '67 450's.?" They were retroactively labeled K0's.

[revlover]

I am convinced Honda may have made harnesses in greater numbers long before they built the bikes. I bought an unmolested ca102 cub from the original owner who bought it from a dealer in 1969 (I have the receipt). The harness tag says 1965. This practice may have only been the case with the smaller bikes that they sold considerably more of, but it busted my theory of the wire tag indicating the date of assembly. Just my thoughts.

[G-Man]

The C102 was only manufactured from 1960-1966. The C50 took over after that. A lot of bikes (even Hondas) stayed unsold in dealers for many years.

G

I am convinced Honda may have made harnesses in greater numbers long before they built the bikes. I bought an unmolested ca102 cub from the original owner who bought it from a dealer in 1969 (I have the receipt). The harness tag says 1965. This practice may have only been the case with the smaller bikes that they sold considerably more of, but it busted my theory of the wire tag indicating the date of assembly. Just my thoughts.

[revlover]

Thanks for the info, G-man. That scenario crossed my mind, but I thought 3+ years might have been a long stretch for a company that moved products so fast. Interestingly, the Cub came from a hardware store in Michigan that was also a Honda dealer. Maybe it was leftover stock from a larger dealer who sold it to a smaller outlet. Who knows? If only our bikes could talk....

[RSchaefer]

We had a West Coast VJMC rally a couple of years ago in Solvang, CA and our guest speaker was the original US guy that contracted with Honda to bring the bikes to the US (I think he was 90 years old three years ago). He says he was the one that came up with "You Meet the Nice's People on a Honda!"

He said he purchased 5-Ford El Rancho's and loaded 5 or 10 cubs into the back and rode each one out to five different regions of the country to setup the 1st sales regions. Told each guy if they sold the Honda cubs they could keep the El Rancho.

[revlover]

I'm sorry to keep pushing this thread further off topic, but I am intrigued. Could the vehicle your talking about be the Ford Ranchero? I think 5 Cubs would fit in the bed of the 57-59 models, but the 1960 and later models were much smaller.