1966 Honda CB77F Super Hawk
date: label: date made
content: 1966
name: label: maker
content: Honda Motor Company
notes: label: Description
content: This motorcycle is a 1966 305cc CB77F Honda Super Hawk, S/N 1029216 [frame #: CB77-102918]. At the time, it was Honda’s largest and sportiest motorcycle. It belonged to Robert M. Pirsig(1928-2017), the famous American author who rode it 5,700 miles from Minnesota to California and back with his 11-year-old son Chris in the summer of 1968. In 1974, he published the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (William Morrow & Co., Inc: New York) about the ride and his philosophical considerations. The brand and model of the bike are never mentioned in the book, which has been translated into 27 languages and published around six million copies.
label: Description
content: There was a second, undocumented motorcycle journey on the Super Hawk with Bob’s second son Ted in 1969, when Ted too was eleven. The original plan was to head south to Rio di Janeiro, but instead the pair went to the Canadian town of Churchill on Hudson Bay to see polar bears.
label: Description
content: In the spring of 1974, the Pirsig family went on a camping trip to Texas in their Ford pickup truck with a camper top, towing the Super Hawk behind on a trailer. On a highway stretch at speed, the bike broke loose from its mount and flipped over, breaking the handlebars into two pieces and damaging the front fender and some other parts. The front fender was replaced with a hand-made one, and the handlebar was welded back together but eventually replaced.
label: Description
content: In 2014/15, Pirsig and a local mechanic did a frame-off mechanical restoration of the bike, saving all the worn and replaced parts, right down to the broken and rewelded handlebar. After this, the bike was stored on a trickle charger in the Pirsigs’ garage in Maine until the Smithsonian acquired it.
label: Description
content: For more information about Pirsig and his motorcycles, see Paul F. Johnston, “Chrome and Black and Dusty: Robert Pirsig’s Motorcycle Heritage,” International Journal of Motorcycle Studies 17 (2021).
label: Description
content: https://motorcyclestudies.org/volume-17-2021/chrome-and-black-and-dusty-robert-pirsigs-motorcycle-heritage-paul-f-johnston/
topic: label: Subject
content: Motorcycles
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: Exhibition
content: America On The Move
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Wendy Pirsig
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2019.0270.001
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0270.001
label: accession number
content: 2019.0270
objectType: label: Object Name
content: motorcycle
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 48 in x 83 in; 121.92 cm x 210.82 cm