Honda's Retro Roadster Planned for US

Is a larger version of the GB350S (pictured) called GB500 coming to the US soon? It appears that way.

Honda revived the GB name tag in Europe for 2025 with the recent launch of the GB350S—a rebranded version of the air-cooled CB350RS single that’s been on sale in India since 2021 as a rival to similarly simple offerings from Royal Enfield. Now it looks like the GB title is set to return to the US on a larger GB500 model in the not-too-distant future.

It looks like Honda is reviving the GB name for the US. The last bike to carry it was the 1989 and 1990 GB500TT.

The GB500 name isn’t a new one for Honda. It last appeared on the GB500TT, an air-cooled cafe racer launched in Japan in 1985 that briefly appeared on the US market in 1989 and 1990. Looking back on it today, it’s a machine that hit the sort of retro notes that are proving popular now but were perhaps less appealing in the 1980s. It was powered by a four-valve SOHC single with its roots in the same design that lives on to this day in the Honda XR650L. It was stuffed in a simple steel-tube frame, had a gaiter-clad right-way-up fork and 18-inch wire-spoked wheels.

The new GB350S that’s now hit the European market in response to growing sales of affordable, sub-400cc bikes has a similar recipe. Its engine, also an air-cooled single, is even more simplistic than the old GB500TT’s, with just two valves and a peak power of only 20.8 hp—around half the output of the old GB500TT’s four-valve design. However, it’s an engine designed with efficiency at its core, including modern fuel injection and an offset cylinder that reduces side thrust of the piston on its downward strokes. It sits in a steel cradle frame with traditional design and a suspension layout that includes twin rear shocks and a conventional 41mm fork.

The GB350S was launched for the European market for 2025.

The GB350S hasn’t been added to Honda’s US market lineup. It’s arguably too small and low performance to have broad appeal over here. That’s where the larger GB500 is expected to come into play. Honda has applied for trademarks on the GB500 name in the US and New Zealand so far, with the US application being particularly noteworthy—if the bike wasn’t intended for these shores, it’s unlikely Honda would bother to trademark its title.

Exactly how Honda will create the GB500 remains to be seen. Some Japanese sources suggest that the GB350S’ single has enough metal in its cylinder to allow a substantially larger bore (big enough to achieve the 500cc mark). That’s quite believable as the engine has a remarkably undersquare design in its 348cc form, combining a 70mm bore with a 90.5mm stroke. Externally, that gives it the appearance of a much bigger engine, and if the bore could be increased to 84mm, it would achieve a capacity of 501cc.

Would a GB500 be based on the GB350S, or on the SCL500 platform?

Alternatively, Honda could be intending to take a completely different route, perhaps building a retro cafe racer worthy of the “GB” title around the bones of the scrambler-style SCL500. It already has the appropriate twin-shock chassis design and one of Honda’s most enduring engines in the 471cc twin that also powers the Rebel 500, CB500F, NX500, and CBR500R, so would be easily adapted into a GB500 if required.

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