I agree with you about the odd looking K0 tank, Ash, it always looked like it was upside down to me. You can see why they had to rush out the scrambler kit to shift bikes in the US, and quickly invent the CL450. They looked great, although I am biased of course. The K1 CB450 made amends though, the tank looks right, as if it was copied from a BSA. Somehow, though, that first Black Bomber, the only 450 Honda I’d actually seen in a showroom, left me with the long term impression that CB450s were fugly. Maybe the later improvements weren’t sold here, I was quite unaware of them at the time.
The CB500T I thought was another styling disaster, with the poo brown seat and ye olde English gold script they managed to achieve ‘old fashioned fuddy duddy’ straight out of the box.