American Honda opened for business in Los Angeles on June 11, 1959, with three small models. By 1970, it had sold 500,000 motorcycles in the U.S. These nine machines carried it there, from a 50cc step-through to the CB750 Four.

The list follows the order the bikes reached American riders. Some sold in huge numbers, while others proved Honda could build a serious performance machine. Each entry carries a figure from the source linked in it.

1. Honda 50 (Super Cub C100): American Honda’s opener

The Honda 50, also called the Super Cub, was one of the three models American Honda offered in 1959. Honda had launched it at home in 1958. It was a step-through with a 49cc four-stroke single.

According to Motorcycle Classics, the first engine made 4.5 hp at 9,500 rpm. Instead of a hand lever, a centrifugal clutch disengaged through the foot shifter. In 1962, it listed at $215. Then, after Honda launched its “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” ads in 1963, it sold 90,000 of its 50cc runabouts, Rider Magazine reports.

2. Honda Benly 125

The 125cc Benly was the second of American Honda’s three launch models. Its name also has a meaning in Japanese.

Benly translates to “convenience,” the National Motorcycle Museum explains. Its 1958 Benly JC58 is a 125cc home-market bike rated at 9.5 hp. In fact, the museum notes that Honda did not officially import motorcycles to the U.S. until it set up on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1959.

3. Honda Dream

The Dream completed the 1959 launch trio, Rider Magazine notes. Its name went back to the 1949 Dream D-type, which Honda calls its first full-fledged motorcycle. Even Soichiro Honda could not say who named it. In fact, Honda’s own history says, “It is no longer known who gave the D-Type this name.”

The American Dreams were twins with a pressed steel frame, a square headlight nacelle and, on most, whitewall tires. Electric starting, 12-volt electrics and turn signals were also part of the package. Meanwhile, the electric-start CA77 that arrived in 1961 “became popular almost instantaneously,” the Lane Motor Museum says. It counts about 250,000 Dreams built from 1961 to 1967.

4. 1961 Honda CB77 Super Hawk

The Super Hawk showed Honda could build a sporting bike, not just a commuter. In 1961, Honda released the CB72 Hawk, and months later the more popular 305cc CB77 Super Hawk followed. Unlike the Dream, it used a tubular steel frame.

That frame also used the engine as a stressed member, according to the National Motorcycle Museum. The museum also lists 28 hp, plus both kick and electric starting. Period testing, it adds, showed a top speed of nearly 105 mph.

5. 1962 Honda CL72 Scrambler

The CL72 took the Hawk’s twin toward the dirt. Honda then sold it from 1962 to 1965. Because it was based on the CB72 Hawk, it kept that bike’s twin carburetors.

According to Hagerty, the 247cc engine made a claimed 24 hp at 9,000 rpm. Dry weight ran from 315 to 319 pounds, and top speed was 80 to 85 mph. Together with the later CL77, Americans bought nearly 90,000 of these two-cylinder Scramblers.

6. 1965 Honda CB450

The CB450 went after the big European bikes directly. Honda released the Dream CB450 in 1965 and exported it as its flagship, mainly to the United States. Its air-cooled 450cc twin used double overhead camshafts.

Honda’s own CB history lists 43 PS at 8,500 rpm and a top speed of 180 km/h. That performance, Honda says, surpassed the 500cc models of European makers. However, the same history adds that American demand favored different qualities.

7. 1965 Honda CL77 Scrambler

The CL77 followed the CL72 with a bigger engine. Honda built it from 1965 until 1968. Its 305cc twin made a claimed 27.4 hp at 9,000 rpm, according to Hagerty.

By 1967, it sold for $707 new. By 1970, Rider Magazine counts the CL77 Scrambler among the models in Honda’s expanded U.S. lineup. Together with the CL72, it accounts for the nearly 90,000 Scramblers Americans bought.

8. 1968 Honda Mini Trail Z50A

The Mini Trail shrank Honda down to minibike size. Honda’s first minibike, the Z100 of 1961, was sold only in Europe. Then, in 1968, the Z50A-K0 reached the U.S.

It used the 49cc overhead-cam four-stroke from the C100 Cub, with a three-speed semi-automatic gearbox. According to Motorcycle Classics, it made 3 hp at 7,500 rpm and cost $239 in 1968. Also, its folding handlebars and seat came from the 1967 Z50M. Honda kept it on the American market until 1978.

9. 1969 Honda CB750 Four

Honda showed the CB750 Four prototype at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1968. American Honda had asked for a 200 km/h top speed as a target. The result had a 750cc air-cooled, overhead-cam four-cylinder engine and a front disc brake.

According to Honda’s CB history, it made 67 PS at 8,000 rpm. Exports to the United States and Canada began in April 1969, four months before sales started in Japan. Finally, by 1970, with the Mini Trail, CL77 and CB750 in the lineup, Honda had sold 500,000 motorcycles in the U.S.

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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.