An ingeninuous invention - now considered a Vintage Honda Motorcycle - is the Honda Hawk automatic. I believe that this motorcycle, which was first manufactured in 1975, was intended for women.

Wanting to do a bit of research on this model, I went directly to the Honda Motorcycle website, and checked their historical press releases. No mention of the Honda Hawk in 1975, 1976 or 1978 - the last year for this model. Interesting.

One would think that such a ground-breaking concept - a motorcycle without a clutch - would be worthy of a press release.

Then, I find an article on Wikepedia and learn that the Hawk, the automatic version - provided to be a bit of a failure. Apparently, the bike without a clutch was a bit too heavy and slow.

The bike also has a fairly "wonky" parking brake on the left handlebar, and another brake on the right, along with a foot brake.

Honda first manufactured a 750cc model, then followed it with a smaller 400cc. Neither stood the test of time.

I recently had an opportunity to see one of the earlier 750 V-twin model in person, and it was a beauty. I believe it is an original color - a bright tomato red - but I could not find enough information about the model to confirm that.

Personally, I don't think that I would like an automatic motorcycle - but that is because I've learned how to use the clutch and work the gears.

Can you imagine grabbing the parking brake by mistake?

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