Remember the GB500 Tourist Trophy?
It's OK if you don't. Maybe even fellow Honda nerds don't remember this one. But I happen to agree with former RideApart writer Zac, who wrote this piece a few years back: It was a retro bike ahead of its time. And it's far from the only case where Honda has had a good idea too early in the motorcycle timeline, but that's an entirely different topic. I digress.
Anyway, ever since Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's introduction of the H'Ness CB350 back in 2020, international moto enthusiast audiences have been way into it. Over time and geography, it changed its name in some markets to the GB350. That includes Europe, where it's headed next after a successful continental debut at EICMA.
But if you've been intrigued by this simple little classically-styled single in the US, you've likely only heard crickets. That's because we have a limited tolerance for 350s here, so it's not really unexpected.
What if it took a different form, though? A new trademark filing from earlier in November with the US Patent and Trademark Office indicates that Honda might be thinking about just such a thing. What if GB350, only bigger?
Like, say, a GB500. Yeah, that's the ticket!
Presumably, this would be like the GB350, only with a slightly larger engine. Easy enough, right? Honda is Honda, and it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult a thing to pull off. Japanese publication Young Machine added some totally reasonable fuel to this particular fire by talking about something they observed at the launch of the GB350S in Japan.
At the launch, says YM, there was an exploded engine on display. That's not an unusual thing to see on a motorcycle launch, by any stretch.
What set this one apart was that, upon closer examination, YM observed the bore of this engine closely enough to measure it. After doing a little quick math, they determined that it looked more like it would have about 525cc of displacement, which is quite a bit more than 350cc.
Very naturally, they asked a Honda rep about it and were told there were no plans for a bike with that displacement at that time.
But that was then, and this is now. Could what Young Machine saw have been the engine that may ultimately find a home inside a new GB500? While we can't say for sure, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Filing this trademark in the US of course makes it appear more likely that if this bike was to exist, it would be released in this market. Would it be a big single to sit alongside the CB500F and its existing parallel twin? Or would Honda consider just chucking that p-twin inside a new GB500 and calling it a day?
I'm hoping for the former over the latter, because I don't think using that parallel twin inside something called a GB500 would make modern retro bike fans happy. Part of the charm of the 350 is that simple, easy single cylinder design, coupled with the bike's overall styling and presentation.
Would you like to see a GB500? If so, what (if any) changes would you like to see to such a bike, as far as the existing GB350 is concerned? Would you want a GB500 to get all the different GB350 variants, like the S and the C and so on? Let us know in the comments!
