A bit of CB450 DX history

Top: CB450S '87
Middle CB900F '83
Bottom CB450 DX-K

Righto, it's come to my attention that we've digressed a little from the original purpose of this site which was to help you IF you were considering the purchase of this unglamorous machine.
Well here's what I've gleaned over the past couple of months and if nothing else it'll make a better Wiikipedia entry than exists presently. Yes, I know, I could bother to write it myself but if anyone wants to copy and paste any of the info here, that's fine by me.

Now you'll all doubtless remember the 1978 CB400N Superdream (if you are over 40). Big hefty machine which was also sold in 250 form for L platers (happy, happy days).
While the CB250N was a bit of a slug (same chassis and weight) the 400N was pretty nippiy and some reports suggest it'd give an RD400 a run for its money.
Now it was based on the one-year only Dream from 1977 which was a welcome replacement for the CB360J - which had pistons which went up and down in turn rather than in unison - and earned itself a boring reputation. I actually quite like those too but that's my problem.
The CB400T Dream had a few cam problems (a bit of a Honda weak point for a few years around that time) and the Superdream had softer lifts and new styling and after its launch sold by the shedload.
Anway the CB400N lasted here until 1984 and then disappeared.

Europe not UK?

What you might not know is there was a CB450N which was sold afterwards throughout the eighties in parts of Europe, well definitely Germany from what I can find out.
I'm not too sure when the Brazilian bikes started being assembled(and later built completely) but certainly Honda saw fit to support a huge new factory in the middle of the Brazilian jungle. they would also start knocking out the venerable CG125 (which is a pushrod, overhead valve 125 not ohc as so many idiots claim) which would continue to give reliable service in third world countries, where maintenance is a dirty word, and of course to commuters and sensible learners in the UK.
So the CB450N was pretty much as we see the CB450DX today apart from the drum rear brake and round headlamp.
Easy, huh?
Now that's not to be confused with the CB450S, which had the Harris type tubular frame which we in Blighty saw as the CB350S (see top pic).
As I said don't get confused.
So (fanfare of trumpets) in mid 1989 Honda decided to bring in a solid, old-fashioned commuter/tourer and punt it out at a staggering £2,499.
Ridiculous as for £100 more you could sit astride the all new GS500E (well newish with is air-cooled, twin-cam lump last seen in the GS450 commuter and GS425 before that) with massive fully floating front disc, wide 17-inch front wheel and a beam frame which looked the business. And I reckon still does. Another £200 and you could have the proven Yamaha XJ600, four cylinder, air-cooled, monoshocked.... etc.
So Honda had its work cut out but must have felt there was a gap in its range and importing them earned a few quid.
I'm not sure of the sales figures. All indications are it wasn't a best seller in the way the Superdream had been... in fact it seems to have been a bit of a sales turkey.
There was also some doubt over the quality of the Brazilian workmanship and materials compared with Japanese Hondas which had built an enviable reputation, thanks in no small part to the Swiss watch type mechanicals and reliability of the sixties machines which arguably helped kill off the British bike industry.
But, and here's the big but, there are still quite a few CB450DX-Ks around. All seem to be tatty but they still survive and run.
And they do the job.
It's a decent sized machine physically and if you look you can see the styling cues nicked from the bigger Hondas from the late seventies and early eighties. It was called, without irony, "Euro-styling".
Take a look at a CB900F from '83 (middle pic above). See the side panels? See the headlamp? See the sweep of the tank? See... well, you get the get the idea. If you want to be really perverse, have a look at the tank on a CBX1000... yes really.
Palming off five-year-old technology to an emerging nation is nothing new these days and all the Japanese car and bike companies have been at it across Asia. So for Honda the reliable 400 twin became a 450 and had a new lease of life in Brazil.
The CB450 Nighthawk in the USA seems to have exactly the same lump, but I'm still checking where it was built.
But I reckon the Brazilian machines weren't badly built really (and I've had a good old poke around mine. It has another engine put in and quite a bit of maintenance by a bloke who claimed to have owned 27 of 'em, so everything comes undone nicely). They may not have been as good as the best from Honda Japan, but compare them with Suzukis and Yamahas from the late eighties and they're better.

Ancient

The machine was kicked out of Honda showrooms in 1992, apart from it's ancient styling, I can't see why but guess it just wasn't selling enough and it would be 'replaced' by the water-cooled learner-favourite CB500 in 1994.
Now that is a bike which really can do everything you could want..if you're honest with yourself.
Anyway, the CB450DX soldiered on in Brazil for a few years after it was withdrawn from sale here. They don't seem to rot there, they're popular and if I spoke Portuguese I'm sure I'd have a whole lot more info.
What's cool about the DX is it was old technology when we had it in the UK and, for me, old means simple and it should be easy to keep on the road.
And with the simplest of tools, anyone can keep her running.