They were cool bikes, still are. I'd love to find me a nice Honda 160, myself.. Re-living my early riding days back in the 1960s..
Here are a few for you to ponder. One of each.
Honda made its reputation on the parallel-twin middle-weights of the day, in the 1960's. You have to remember, something in the 50 cc-160 cc range was a "starter bike," 250-350 cc bikes were "middle-weights," and 500-750 cc bikes were "heavyweights." The Harley-Davidsons at 883 cc-1200 cc were in a class by themselves, and most Harley-Davidson guys would rather consume pus-laden rotting worms than ride a Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, or Bridgestone, the common mid-1960 brands from Japan.
The pricing of the Japanese offerings, coupled with their economy of operation, lack of oil leaks (horizontal unit engine halves, better machining, and Hondabond, Yamabond etc. sealant) and decent performance for their displacement attracted a lot of people to bikes. The Baby Boomers were of-age to buy bikes, and Honda's "
You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda" advertising campaign coupled with the popularity of motorcycles in popular culture, seen in movies, on the streets, and various types of competition just exploded the market.
Honda was the four-stroke champion, while the other Japanese manufacturers selling in the USA embraced the simple two-strokes. Most bikes under 250 cc were single cylinder, while middle-weights and larger were often twins. Only exotica like MV Agustas were multi-cylinder. Japan, Inc. had some surprises coming close-to the end of the 1960's, but in the middle of that decade, it was the Honda 250 and 305 cc parallel twins that made performance accessible to the masses at reasonable price, with engineering features no American cars had (overhead cams), reliability, and a noticeable lack of oil leaks.
The Honda CA 77 Dream had a pressed-steel frame, leading-link front fork, a comfortable seat, and unique styling (squared-off rear shocks). It was comfortable and sedate, a 'safe choice' for new riders.
If you were more-adventurous, depending upon your attraction to certain types of useage, you could opt for one of the other choices in the Honda 305 cc line-up.
There was the CL 77 Scrambler, a high-pipe and low-geared (high numerically) model with a cross-braced handlebar, and capable of significant abuse off-road, why, two CL's made it to the bottom of Baja California MX in record time, early in the decade, setting the stage for much-more offroad racing of all-types in the future, and many cottage industries to support them. People in Indiana might be a thousand+ miles from the Pacific Ocean, but they knew what a 'dune-buggy' was, and where it was used. The Honda CL 77 Scrambler became a fabulously-successful design for Honda, and while most riders of them only used them on streets, many did go offroad, and they showed Honda that increasing specialization of usage for this type of use was profitable.
Probably the 'cream-of-the-crop' of the 305 cc Honda lineup was the CB 77, named "Superhawk." This bike was capable of embarrassing bikes with much-larger displacement in both a straight-line and through the curves. Almost overnight there were all-sorts of people making hop-up kits for them, equipping them with alloy wheel rims, even light tubular frames (Yetman). Thousands of them were used in roadracing, and the Honda Grand Prix international roadracing motorcycles of four and six cylinders just fueled the fire, and so-did the Honda V-12 Formula 1 car, an engineering marvel of its time.
Here are three to consider.
A CA 77, awaiting someone to take an interest in its refurbishment.
A CL 77 that has an unusual characteristic making it a valuable
objet d'art, because its paintwork was done by the artist and gunsmith who went by the name of Von Dutch, his real name was Ken Howard. He was an eccentric character, difficult to work-with, but skilled at his chosen trades.
Finally, a true, late-model CB 77, also awaiting a restoration. This one's mine.
Since you mentioned the CB 160, here's one of those, in my friend's shop, getting returned to the road.
