For those of you who have never even heard of the 1959 250cc Honda CE71, I’ll give you a quick overview here.
Before there was a CB72-CB77 Hawk/Super Hawk, Honda was still making dry-sump Dream models and attempting to make them competitive in competition. Honda was just making its move into the US market starting June 4, 1959. Their first shipments included Honda C100 Cubs, a 1959 CA92, CB92 some 250-305 Dreams and then they tossed in the 1959 CE71 Dream Sport, just for the US market.
Honda parts books show only 390 model serial numbers, although a few odd ones have popped up in Australia with higher numbers. Honda had been building bikes to race in Asama cinder tracks and other events in Japan, so racing was already in their long-range plans for world domination.
When the CE71 showed up, it appeared to be a grown-up version of the CB92 in overall styling. It featured the same arrowhead shaped fuel tank, big 18” wheels with magnesium brakes, an improved 250cc engine with a larger 24mm carburetor and dual points and coils despite the fact that it was still a 360 degree firing crankshaft design. The engine ignition had a bolt-on spark advancer on the end of the camshaft, which was unfortunately replaced by the integrated camsprocket/spark advancer unit on the later wet-sump models. Looking at the NPS parts listings, there were numerous parts replacements for the mufflers, fuel tank and other bits, which seems odd for such a low-production machine.
Honda did produce a small handful of CR71 factory race bikes, fit for both road racing and off-road competition. Those models had gear-driven camshafts twin port heads and amazingly high redlines given the 1957 basic design architecture. Soichiro Honda had been to Europe and attended races where exotic Italian and German hi-rev machinery was already in use. He actually bought a bike and disassembled it, bringing it back as luggage so he could study the design features. The desire was stated that he would have Honda motorcycles competing in the IOM races as soon as they could be designed and produced. The competitive urge ran through his veins and he was driven to make things happen to put HONDA on the world map of racing events.
Backing up to the CE71 model, Honda offered a few “racing parts” for the new model, including a racing tachometer with a crazy 18k rpm range, and some racing high pipes. This distinctive tachometer has been seen and collected by a handful of my friends over the years. The seldom ever come to market and if/when they do the asking prices rival the original price of the whole CE71 bike.
I have an extensive list of early Honda part numbers in a NPS conversion file that had some 400 pages and covers all the bikes up to the CB450K0 Bombers. Looking up the 257 codes for the CE71, a number of which were used on the first CA77 Dreams, I was unable to find any reference to the -810 style Y racing part numbers. The list only showed the part numbers for the standard street bike. Digging back into my archives I had a memory of a reference to the Y71 part numbers for the tachometer. In the 1961 AHMC special parts catalog, there is a reference to a set of split high pipes for the model, plus it shows a completely different R71 (as in CR71) round racing tach, with a 20k rpm face that was designed to work on the CE71. So far, the NPS part number for the known examples of the 18k tachometer that fits in place of the speedometer has eluded me.
I can’t remember if there was a Honda ad reference to the bike racing at Daytona, but I do recall either talking to someone who raced the CE71 there or perhaps a third hand story, but I am pretty sure that the CE71 did race there once. A stock CA77 Dream has a top speed of something in the 80 mph range, so a CE71 probably didn’t go much faster than 90 mph. Still for a 250cc street bike, back in 1959, it was probably relatively competitive at the time.
The Genesis of this story is that I FINALLY was able to buy a pricey, but perfectly new CE71 tachometer from a collector in Colorado. There is a whole story about this man and the treasures that he has been able to acquire recently. Watch for the full story coming soon.
In the meantime, here is the fantastic 18k CE71 racing tachometer in all of its glory.
Bill Silver
aka MrHonda
