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Horizon and tires.

Written by Greg Schmitz.
I am a US (Alaska) NighawkS aficionado, you may have this information already, but The Horizon is a Japan market
bike. Unknown about other difference, but it had 18 inch front tire, compared to the US (and Canada I think) 16
inch front tire.
I had a 76 Honda (roughly) I bought out in Hawaii, it was a Japanese market bike,
that had been put on a Naval P3 Orion doing a Pacific patrol that went from Hawaii, to the Aleutians, Japan, Australia,
New Zealand and back to Hawaii.
The bike was intended from the ground up as a shaft drive, it would have been
a 750 here, except Harley successfully sued the Japanese for dumping bikes in US at less than manufactured price.
I don't think it shared a frame with anything else, as the lower front frame tubes are oil passage for the oil
cooler.
To keep under the 45% tariff that was put on bikes 700cc and over, they brought
into this country as a 696cc machine (destroked CBX engine).
84/85/86 production years, and then they quit. If you look, you can find 750s
in Canada - comment was that they failed at around 50k (from a guy who had owned 4 of them). Hard to tell, seems
odd, extremely good reputation here, unless seriously abused.
Best tire handling combo I found were Metzler ME33 front, and the ME99A rear.
I was unhappy with the ME99 mileage, while the front went about 14k in moderate riding, the rear was gone by 7k,
got tired of that and switched to a ME88 rear (touring tire). So far wear is good, but handling is not nearly as
good. Heard they had new ME330 and 550 out, will try those eventually (one good report on that). The 550 is also
listed as the choice to use with the ME33.
I got mine used at 7k, have 27k on it now, other than fork seal leaks, occasion
carburetor cleanout needed, its performed wonderfully.
The following site is a Horizon site for a man in Japan.
http://yinugw.yinu.co.jp/~nao/motorcycles/horizon/index_e.html
Greg in Anchorage AK.
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