Why are today’s small bikes so underpowered and overweight?

I GOT all excited – not for long, mind you – the other day when I learned that Honda are reviving the GB moniker for their new 350s. 

When I saw pictures of the bike, I went all misty-eyed, reminiscing about my old Honda GB250 Clubman, my second steed and the one I’ve loved the most out of all the bikes I’ve owned.

Lightweight at 130kgs and with 33bhp, it was an absolute giggle to ride and as rare as the proverbial. It was also a lovely-looking Jap copy of some proper old British bikes (hence the GB prefix) but with Japanese reliability, at least in theory.

Old men would stop and stare – not at me in my two-piece leathers – but at the bike, wondering which British manufacturer it was (until I pointed to the Honda wings).

I thrashed the hell out of the thing, riding it around the Yorkshire Dales and using it to commute to the Northern Echo in Darlington for my job as a newspaper hack in the 1990s. 

It had a rubbish headlight and was worn out, but I loved the Heebee Geebee, as I called it, to bits – it broke down on a number of occasions, for the final time in a Yorkshire Dales pub car park.

So, fast forward to 2025, when, as usual, I am looking for my perfect motorcycle, which must be (a) lightweight; (b) low;  (c) fun to ride, with enough power to satisfy my need for speed.

My ‘pumped’ excitement about the new GB was quickly deflated when I learned that the 350s makes about 21bhp and weighs an astonishing 178kg. 

Wow.  I was totally underwhelmed by these statistics, being obsessed with power to weight ratios. 

But maybe I should not have been so disappointed.  On paper the little Honda compares favourably with the unsuitably-named Royal Enfield Meteor 350, which weighs somewhat more and produces a paltry 20bhp.

Goodness me. 

It got me thinking about other 250cc or 350cc bikes of the past, to compare. Discounting the highly tuned 350LC from Yamaha (1980-1983, which I thought was maybe an unfair comparison, but mentioning it was a good excuse to use a picture of one) how about the  Triumph Tiger from the 1960s? Everything probably weighed less in the 1960s, and this bike was no exception at 153kgs. And, it produced 27bhp. 

Still discounting the 350LC, let’s consider the 250LC for a minute. Or longer … it’s a lovely bike!

This weighed just 139kg and produced 35.5bhp, a little more than my treasured GB250.  

Do you get the picture?

Suffice to say, the Honda GB350s is not on my Christmas list.