Honda is unique amongst vehicle manufacturers in that it makes both cars and motorcycles. (So does Suzuki, but they don't sell their cars in the U.S. anymore, so we don't count 'em.) In the late 1980s, Honda asked their car and motorcycle designers to put their heads together and create a motorcycle for people who don't ride motorcycles. It would be a bike that would provide the small size and excellent gas mileage of a bike, but covered in a friendly wrapper for people who didn't want any part of the bad boy biker scene. The result was the Pacific Coast 800, a plastic-wrapped motorcycle that was ahead of its time in many ways, but failed to attract the popularity Honda had hoped to gain.

Motorcycles covered in plastic are fairly common today, but in 1989 they were largely unheard of. As a result, the PC800 was quite futuristic looking at the time. (In fact, it looked so advanced that it was used as a future bike in Back to the Future 2 and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.) The idea was to keep the appearance clean and to hide the engine, unlike other motorcycles of the time. As a bonus, Honda was able to save some money on making the engine pretty, since the typical owner would never see it.

Honda borrowed the V-twin from the VT800 Shadow for the PC800—but to make it appeal to non-riders, four rubber motor mounts isolated any vibration, and the exhaust was made to sound more like a sewing machine than a motorcycle. Honda also made it extremely low-maintenance, with a self-adjusting timing chain, hydraulic lifters that did not have to be adjusted from time to time like most motorcycles. It was no powerhouse with just 46 horsepower, but the extremely flat torque curve ensured that the 600-pound bike always had some get-up-and-go. And a shaft drive eliminated the need for chain or belt adjustments.