2026 Honda GB350 S first ride

I’m tucked in behind the clocks on this Honda as tight as I can get. The twistgrip is pinned against the stop, and has been for the last mile or so. I’ve held onto this gear as long as I can, and I slam it into top gear, catching the torque curve as high up the revs as possible, with a pure, ultimate top speed figure in mind.

I can feel the gale-force winds balancing against the screaming motor. The engine is growling away below me as I eke out the last few revs, and I check the speedo – 80mph. Phew!

Yes, the Honda GB350 S is not a fast bike. Indeed when I ventured onto the M25 for a top-speed blast, I was initially caught out by just how hard you have to work to keep up with ‘normal’ 2026 UK motorway traffic. It’s almost akin to a decent learner bike, and if you’re in a hurry, you’ll have to make rev-perfect gearshifts every time, while the throttle will seldom be anything other than fully-deployed.

The slightest incline or headwind will keep you nearer 70mph indicated, and it’s also often faster in fourth than fifth gear, which is weird at first. A pillion doesn’t help either, and also means you need to work hard, slipping the clutch and dialling in a load of revs to get away from the lights with any alacrity. Yes, the GB350 S is not a fast bike.

None of this is much of a surprise mind. The little retro roadster has its roots in an Indian market model, designed to go up against the Royal Enfields of this world on home turf. And while it’s been revamped for the European market, with production moved to Japan, it’s more in tune with the mean streets of Chennai than the M25 at Chertsey.

Over the previous couple of weeks I’ve spent with the GB350, though, it’s been a pleasure to ride. Kept away from motorways and fast A roads, the charming nature of this mini-roadster shines through, and you can see where its appeal lies. That begins when you start it up.

There’s a pleasing duff-duff-duff from the single silencer, and the low-compression, two-valve, long-stroke unit has a very distinctive sound. Into first gear and pull away, and there’s no fuss at all.

Through town its skinny, compact dimensions mean you can get through almost all traffic jams, and the minimal mass (178kg wet) means you can boss it around largely as you please, though I regularly found myself slipping the clutch a bit on acceleration to make a tight gap or make a sharper overtake.

There are a couple of demerits on the handling though: first is the front brake, which needs a big handful to slow you down at any pace. I quickly work out that the best plan is to stamp on the rear brake pedal at the same time, and if you adjust your technique this way then you can come to a halt pretty damn quick. The other weirdness is that 19” front wheel and the adventure tyres.

You’re quite aware of the large rim at first, and while the vague steering effect fades away as you adjust, I’m still not sure why it’s there. A 17” front wheel would be lighter, sharper and offer more tyre choice, with minimal real-world impact on UK road riders use. By all means, offer a ‘Scrambler’ style GB350 in future with the big wheel and adventure rubber, but as a roadster, I’d prefer a normal wheel and some road rubber too.

I’m pleased to see premium brands here mind – our bike had Bridgestone AX41 tyres, and Metzeler Tourance Next is another option – but just put some asphalt-friendly hoops on there.

While I’m having a grumble, the gear change into second is a little sticky, and I miss having a tacho. The trip buttons are hard to reach with the windshield in place, and the pointless ‘Eco’ light flashes on and off too much, and is green like the indicators so you keep thinking you left the turn signal on. Who needs an ‘Eco’ light on a bike that easily does 110mpg anyway? The HSTC switchable traction control setup seems largely moot as well on such a low-powered machine.

All of this sounds like I didn’t enjoy the GB350 S, but that’s not at all the case. Honda sells plenty of bikes which are much faster and more powerful, with loads of kit, and if that’s what you want, you’ll not be considering the 350 at all. This little machine is for those looking to sail along at a steadier speed, while staying stylish.

Its major selling factor is the price of course: a snip under £4k at £3,999, which is pretty stunning for a brand new made-in-Japan bike from a big brand in 2026. And for that cash you get a handsome, classic retro without having to compromise on the good stuff: the backup of a big name, extensive dealer network, easy spares supply and solid warranty (there’s a sticker on the tank telling me there’s six years of coverage available on this machine, mad for such a cheap unit).

The bike we have on test has a couple of useful add-ons: a small flyscreen and natty soft nylon panniers on a rack, and it comes with a sensible centrestand as standard too. The 15-litre tank gives an enormous range too, with the parsimonious 100mpg+ consumption giving well over 300 miles between refills – nice.

I found my best miles on the GB350 around town, where the soundtrack perfectly matched the experience. There’s just enough pep to keep ahead of most traffic (though the modern electric cars can give you a fright away from a red light these days), the suspension boings merrily over speed humps, and once you adapt to using both brakes at all times, it stops pretty handily too.

What weight there is is held low-down, giving very good slow-speed stability, and with the amount of 20mph zones around my area in SW London, the GB350 is probably better suited to safe, legal progress than anything bigger in the Honda range…

The classic ‘catching your reflection in a shop window’ test is passed easily too: the GB is a stylish little thing, even in the rather muted paint Honda’s gone for (the colour choices are black, blue-grey, or a slightly different grey, weirdly called ‘Pearl Deep Mud Gray’…).

You’d hope for some livelier colours next year (we actually saw a GB350 at Box Hill which had its fuel tank painted classic Honda metallic red by Dream Machine, and it looked a lot nicer.)

Think you might fancy one? Honda’s pushing all its dealers to offer demo rides, so get along and take a spin to see if the slower pace is what you’re looking for. You’ll have to be fast to get one in your garage for this summer though: dealers are struggling to keep ‘em in stock and every batch that Honda gets in seems to sell out fast.

More info: www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/range/street/gb350s/overview.html

Honda GB350 S tech highlights

Engine

Long-stroke, air-cooled, two-valve SOHC single cylinder design is as basic as you can get, but is perfectly in tune with the nature of the beast. Honda’s designed it with a heavy flywheel to match the lowly tune, and the result is an olde-worlde powerplant. It has the basic levels of tech needed to keep it clean: PGM-FI fuel injection and lambda sensor in the exhaust.

Honda also says the engine has a load of friction-cutting tricks, including a car-style offset cylinder that reduces piston side-thrust and an asymmetrical con-rod. There’s also a unique bottom end design, with the crankcase sealed from the transmission space, and a reed-valve controlling crankcase pressure and oil flow into the gearbox.

The gearbox is a five-speed unit, with top gear as a rather tall ‘overdrive’, and the wet clutch is a slipper/assist unit for reduced lever effort.

Chassis

Basic steel tube cradle frame is matched to a steel box-section rear swingarm with conventional forks (sporting some smart rubber gaiters) and preload-adjustable twin rear shocks. Seat height is a decent 800mm, kerb mass is 178kg and it has a lot of ground clearance for a road bike: 168mm.

Brakes/wheels/tyres

A single disc each end with a twin-pot front caliper, cast aluminium wheels and a 17” rear tyre is all as you’d expect. The front wheel is weird though: a big 19” rim, more often seen on mild adventure bikes now, and that extends to the tyre choice too. Our bike had Bridgestone AX41 adventure tyres, and the standard rubber is a Metzeler Tourance Next.

Why the dirt-adjacent fitments? We can only guess it’s a nod to the go-everywhere use case for Indian home market bikes, which often have to cope with less-than-pristine roads. We’ll make the obvious parallel with pothole-strewn UK roads…

Equipment

On the plus side, there’s full LED lighting, a fairly comprehensive little LCD display panel insert on the analogue speedometer, and an ‘Eco’ light which seems fairly moot on a bike which already claims nearly 113mpg… That is mostly it for equipment though.

Accessories

Honda’s commissioned a solid slew of bolt-ons, all of which can help make the fairly-basic GB into a mini touring tool. There’s a small windshield, hand guards and soft panniers, which were on our test bike, and you can also have crash bars, seat cowl, fog lights, heated grips and USB charger.

2026 Honda GB350 S SPECS

Price: £3,999

Engine: SOHC 2v, single, a/c, 348cc

Bore x stroke: 70×90.5mm

Compression ratio: 9.5:1

Carburation: PGM-FI fuel injection

Electronic rider aids: switchable traction control, ABS

Max power (claimed) 21bhp@5,500rpm

Max torque (claimed) 29Nm@3,000rpm

Transmission: five-speed gearbox, wet slipper/assist clutch, chain final drive

Frame: steel tube cradle type

Front suspension: 41mm RWU front fork, non-adjustable

Rear suspension: dual-sided box-section swingarm, preload-adjustable twin shocks

Brakes: single  310mm disc, twin-piston sliding axial-mount caliper (front), 240mm disc, single-piston caliper (rear), dual-channel ABS

Wheels/tyres: cast aluminium/Bridgestone AX41, 100/90 19 front, 150/70 17 rear

Rake/trail: 27°/120mm

Wheelbase: 1,440mm

Seat height: 800mm

Kerb weight: 178kg

Fuel capacity: 15 litres

Equipment: Analogue speedo with LCD insert panel. Fuel gauge, range, gear, mpg displays.

Image Credit: John Goodman