Give Us This Cheap As Hell Retro Honda Motorcycle Now!RideApart[email protected] (Jonathon Klein)Thu, September 24, 2026 at 11:48 AM UTCAdd us on GoogleHonda CB500An actual whole motorcycle for under $3,000? Give it to us.Don't know if you've noticed, but things are extremely expensive these days. That doesn't mean people don't want things like motorcycles, but it's just become more difficult to afford them and still be financially OK when most start at around $15,000.That may not sound like a lot, but when the average American's wage has seen stagnation for decades, while inflation has skyrocketed, with it becoming worse in recent years, even something that would've been easily afforded in our parents' generation suddenly has become out of reach. Affordability ain't the hoax some have led us to believe.Some motorcycle manufacturers have seen this occur and have pivoted their new lineups to cater to this crowd, offering cheaper, smaller displacement motorcycles, and to great success. Triumph and Royal Enfield have had banger years. Kawasaki and CFMoto are hitting the ground running. And Honda's moto sales are so good, the rest of the group has pulled the offshoot back into the corporate heirarchy to make everyone else look good. But one of Honda's newest small-displacement, inexpensive motorcycles remains elusive, as, at present, it's only bound for India.AdvertisementAdvertisementHonda, I need you to bring the new CB500 here, and do so immediately.Smaller Is MightierBig Motorcycles Have A Problem: Small Bikes Are Getting Too Damn GoodRoyal Enfield Wants To Prove You Don't Need A Giant Bike To Tour AmericaUsing some basic conversion, Honda's new CB500 will set folks in India back just $2,868, which is just insanely affordable. But even for that price, you're not really skimping on the creature comforts, Honda's legendary engineering, or the premise of what a motorcycle means: freedom.Powered by a 501cc single-cylinder engine, the CB500 makes 28 horsepower and 32 pounds of torque, which ain't a lot by any stretch of the imagination, but more than enough to scoot around a major city, get some miles underneath your belt, and save a metric ton of money when it comes to filling up your gas tank each week. More than that, you get ABS, LED lighting front and rear, and a set of dual analog and digital displays. But more than anything, what struck me was how good the CB500 looks in its retro cafe racer design.AdvertisementAdvertisementSee, America already has a CB500: the CB500 Hornet. But it's a naked motorcycle à la the Suzuki SV650, and it's angular and boxy and pretty modern looking. There's also the SCL500, which is sort of a scrambler, but not really. This CB500, though, harkens back to the glory days of Honda cafe motorcycles, and I desperately need that heyday to come back with this motorcycle.Add to the fact that Honda would likely sell a trillion of them given the state of the economy, and COME ON, HONDA.
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