Honda CB 900 Bol d'or FA/FZ history?

[MickC]

Does anyone know the history of these bikes or where i could get the info (in a USA based forum as well and there is quite a bit of discussion as to which models are actually Bol d'or's)?
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[Shaft]

In my memory (which cannot always be relied upon) in the UK only the fully faired FII was called Bol d'Or and they carried that forward to other models which they subsequently offered with full fairings, after launching as naked or semi naked bikes, like the CBX750.

However, I believe that even the naked 900F was called Bol d'Or elsewhere in Europe and the colonies.

ETA: a door has just creaked open in the dark recesses of my mind, behind which is the information that the Bol d'Or tag only applied to the bikes in the red/white colour scheme, but I'm less certain of that.
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[T.C]

Probably the best bike I ever owned, or to be more accurate probably the bike I had the most fun on.

I had an 85 model back around 1987 (funnily enough I found the pictures of it the other day), and I loved every moment on it.

The original 900FA (unfaired model) had various teething problems as it was one of the early follow ons from the 750.

In the UK, we started with the CB900F2B which came with probably the best fairing on any bike.

The Bol D'or was the later bike (although I think they used this designation in Europe throughout its life) and if memory serves was the last of the range before it got dropped, although spec remained pretty much the same apart from the back tyre becoming a little wider.

Not the fastest bike (about 140 was probably its top speed) but supremely comfortable, probably the best mirrors on a bike until the Pan European improved things, easy to work on, and although quite heavy, that vanished once rolling.

The only things that ever really tended to go wrong, and even then it was not really a fault was that the starter chain tended to get a bit noisy (something Honda called a mid life crisis) around the 60,000 mile mark, and when changing the plugs care had to be taken as it was very easy to cross thread which meant a heli coil job.

But that apart? Terrific bike if you can find a good one which may be difficult as they have been out of production since about 87/88/
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[Tenko]

Didn't the Bol'Dor come with different wheels to the standard CB900FII?

[T.C]

[Vincent]

Didn't it have gold mag engine covers too? They must have been pretty rare* as I don't remember ever seeing one on the road.

* Read "expensive".

Bit of info from a foreign site, (might take a few seconds to load):-

https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://4pat.pagesperso-orange.fr/le_musee_virtuel/honda/honda_cb_900_boldor.htm&ei=j51kTseEBsmyhAfo3pScCg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3DBol%2BD%2527or%2B900%2Bhonda%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DpwW%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26channel%3Dnp%26prmd%3Divns

And:-

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3DBol%2BD%2527or%2B900%2Bhonda%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DpwW%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26channel%3Dnp%26prmd%3Divns&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=fr&u=https://honda.cb900f.pagesperso-orange.fr/&usg=ALkJrhjWMiFCxdGR_p8QQM17tGSn-YKyhg
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[MickC]

Bit of info from a foreign site, (might take a few seconds to load):-

Cheers Vincent, that should clear it up (the debate is which models were classed as bol d or and from that page in your first link it does state all of them from 79-83 were classed as it.
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Previous: CG125,XS250 (converted to 400),Z250A, GPZ550, Norton Commando, XS500, 78 Laverda Jota, GPZ1100,Harris bonneville, XV750 (mono shock),TR1

[Vincent]

Aye, and the one I'm thinking of with the Gold cases is the 1100 I think
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[Shaft]