Perhaps we are talking about different bikes.
In the UK we had the Honda VF750 and 1000, which very quickly developed a terrible reputation for camchain, and other, problems. They were also chain drive.
Eventually Honda gave up completely on their camchains and put in an all-gear system.
Read about it here:
Though they all run on chains again nowadays, those gears are too expensive, and I think they must have found an engineer who could design a simple chain system to be reliable.
By the way, the replacement chains and tensioners were extremely expensive, HyVo silent, engine out job, complete disassembly, crankcases split, etc. If you neglected to do this, the chains would get so loose that, as well as sounding like a bag of nails, they would chew up the passages in the block and fill the engine with swarf.
I traded my worn-out CB750KZ for a CBX550, and was glad to see the back of it. Curiously two weeks later my father was visited late at night by the Police (it was registered there) to enquire about who I had sold it to (a reputable dealer as a part exchange, though they had not yet sent in their half of the paperwork.) Turned out that it had been used as a getaway vehicle for an armed robbery of a jewellers in London, then abandoned.
I spoke with the dealer later, they were a bit sheepish, it was bought with cash, and they had neglected to keep any record of the buyer, nevermind fill in the forms. Sold for spares, apparently.
The VFR750 that emerged from this mess was one of the sweetest, most reliable bikes ever made. And the RC30 one of the best racers.
