By ERIC TROW

The dream of road riding and all its possibilities came a little later , gaining real traction in 1978 . That ’ s the year I spotted a red 1966 Honda Dream Touring 305 . The Dream had a unique angular design with square-profile valanced fenders – the rear being formed from the one-piece pressed-steel frame . It even had a square headlight with a square lens . The boxy fuel tank hosted large chrome panels ( think “ toaster ”), inset rubber knee pads , and a round emblem with the signature Honda wing insignia , representing the freedom this bike would give me .

I handed the guy $ 50 of the hard-earned cash from my job pumping gas . In exchange , he handed me the title and helped Dad and me drag the relic out of his horse stable . Once home , I went over every inch of it , cleaned it up , and got it running in short order ( that ’ s an old Honda for you ). From that moment , the little Dream gave me freedom to , well , dream . True to its name , it had me imagining faraway places that , for the first time in my life , extended beyond the limits of my Schwinn or the limited availability of the family car .

The Dream was my sole means of motorized transportation . It carried me to and from college ( about 75 miles from home ) and along nearly every backroad of Western Pennsylvania .

I took my first significant road trip , to Buffalo , New York , to visit a girl I had met in school and was quite fond of . After surviving hours on the intrusively narrow saddle and a nearly irreversible state of hypothermia from riding through endless cold rain in a cheap rainsuit , I nearly cried when sweet Julie said she had arranged for us to go horseback riding .

Although I didn ’ t burden that little Honda with longer journeys , I dreamed of such trips . That pint-size Dream sparked me to dream big , although I never imagined I would soon ride another motorcycle across the breadth of the North American continent on a solo journey . And then do it again 25 years later , this time riding alongside my own son . Or navigate Europe ’ s Alps , Dolomites , and Apennines with my beautiful wife and travel companion , Amy .

That ’ 66 Honda Dream was sold when I moved up to a Honda 550 . Forty-five years later , I once again have a Dream – this one a ’ 67 model in black that had clearly been decked out (“ farkled ” wasn ’ t invented yet ) with nearly every accessory available back then . A Dream was once again taking me back to those nearby faraway places ; rides that were a big deal back then . As I puttered along familiar backroads , my mind wandered to what life had been like when this now nearly six-decades-old machine was first uncrated and put into service . The Touring 305 was one of Honda ’ s largest models at the time , eclipsed only by the arrival of the more adultsized CB450 ( aka the “ Black Bomber ”). Still , it was small . But other things were smaller back then too .

In 1967 , there were a mere 24 Walmart stores in all of America . Southwest Airlines was just getting off the ground as a startup . Big Lots was little more than a big idea . It was the year my hometown Pittsburgh Penguins were born , migrating out of the old American Hockey League , where they were known as the Hornets . That year also marked the emergence of a new neighborhood in public television , started by a kind man named Fred Rogers . And somewhere in Virginia a guy purchased this brand-new CA78 Dream .

The original dealer ’ s sticker is still affixed to the rear fender . The machine ’ s first state inspection sticker from 1967 remains inside the left side cover . I wondered if he went all in and bought all the accessories right then and there or whether he added them over time , springing for a set of Buco Twinmaster “ fiberglas bags ” here and a two-tone Buco Sport windscreen there , eventually adding the chrome engine guard and , at some point , the shiny fender tips and passenger grab rail .

I pondered where the original owner had traveled on this bike . Surely , with all the touring accoutrements , he had his own dreams of places this fully equipped touring machine might

12 / APRIL 2025 / RIDERMAGAZINE . COM