I was getting there Mr. Impatient! Sheesh, you're worse than my future ex-wife. BTW, the point I was arguing that Honda has always made boring bikes – clearly they haven’t and still don't (and you've proved my point).
Edit to add: I don't believe I've ever typed the phrase "beautiful KTM" in a non-ironic sense...
Ok, now that's been settled I will say this.
Honda has built some interesting bikes over the years but lately I have been disappointed with there selection and design.
Take the 919. I thought that bike had promis but let down by less than stellar engine performance.
It was beat out at the time by Yamahas FZ-1.
Eventually it went away due to lack of interest.
Believe Hondas marketing decided the naked bikes just didn't do well in the US.
They are wrong.
Build a performance purpose naked and you won't keep them in the show rooms.
Listen up Honda, build it without the Buckrogers flare that a lot of your bikes are looking like theses days and the public might be willing to spend there money on your product.
There's no doubt that Honda has made some great bikes over the years. The lineup they've been putting out over the last seven or eight years is really dull, though.
They're good bikes, I imagine, but none of them grab me and say " you must buy me."
The "Soul" of the bike depends on the connection with the person riding it. In my opinion, any bike can have "Soul". If you have fun riding whatever bike you are on, it has "Soul" in my opinion.
I am looking at a 2012 V4 Factory Aprilia this afternoon. Close out price. Tiny as my old 675. Honda had the same opportunity to use their V4 engine in a smaller, more nimble bike but instead created the 1200 VFR wanna be.
A CB400F of bygone era.
The current model. Guess I am stuck on older styles rather than the gaudy plastic ones. A Triumph alternative to the CB1100.I am done here.
That 400F brought back memories.
Had one just like your picture. Loved it.
Bought it for $1000.00 brand new.
Only had a dollar in my wallet and used it for a down payment to hold it till I could pick it up the next day.
My 79 CB750F was a great bike, or so I thought - it was my first. My 85 VF500F was absolutely stellar; bought brand new off the showroom floor with my caddy money. My 90 CB-1 was even better, but then came the CBR400RR and NC30 I rode while living overseas. I was so enamored of the NC30 I wanted to pull a Radar O'Reilly with it, but the shipping company wouldn't have it. Since about the mid-90's though, I've lost interest in Honda. The first bike I bought when I moved home was a Suzuki SV650S. Now I have the Street Triple, to which Honda has nothing that is even close.
I've said it before, but if any of the Japanese manufacturers want to lop a cylinder off one of their 600 super sports, keep the frame, suspension, and brakes, bin the bodywork, and sort some rational ergos - resulting in basically a 450 Street Triple - I would be more than interested, but what are the odds anything like that might happen?
I finally saw one today at the dealer. It sits a little taller than than Bonnie or T100 and feels heavier. The materials felt cheap by comparison too. Overall I think the Bonnie is the better bike for me but the CB1100 does look nice.
Perhaps I shouldn't have said cheaper, but the bike as a whole just felt flimsier if that makes sense. My T100 feels very solid (I know, it has plastic parts too). I can't really put my finger on it, but everything from the seat to the controls just had a different feel. Mind you, all I did was sit on it, but didn't get to ride it.
I had the chance to look at one on the dealership floor. It isn't for me, but it sure did bring me back to the UJM of the 80's that I grew up riding. Back in the day I rode a Suzuki GS 1100 E. This new Honda has that type of feeling to me.
I rode a GS1100E, once. I took a freeway onramp that has an "S" shape to it and I got the whole bike to wallow like a duck in heat. Scared the crap outa me as I wasn't going fast (yet!) Turns out that model had a problem with it's "spindlie" front forks. (They flexed a lot.) I thought it odd and returned the bike, got back on my GS750EZ and rode it for another year.
THE 1100 was the "big gun" in town. It did the quartermile in 11.21@ 121! While that seems slow now, it was the king of the hill in 1981.
I think the first bike into the "tens" was Honda's V65 Sabre (and it's a shaftie!)
While I like the "UJM", I'm afraid we'll keep seeing "specialty" bikes until there's tiered licensing. I'll never own a 1500cc and up motorcycle, (and this coming from a guy who owns an LS-7 powered car...)
I'm not afraid of displacement, but I'm not seeing a use for 2 liter motorcycles (yes, I know about the Rocket.)
This thread has me so irritated. not by the cb1100 exactly, althought it looks ehh, although cafeing it would be cool.
As a classic triple owner i'm irritated because there is so much desire from members here to bring back that line, or style. they are the bigger better version of a bonnie. It irritates me that the line failed. And that the standard bike in general does not do well in the U.S...
I think the problem is the average person has no clue they exist. a motorcycle is either a crotch rocket or a harley (how many people don't even know they make triumphs again). those two types of bikes have very stereotyped identities.. so people think "well i'm not that burly, leather, "biker gang" style person. And I'm not a young guy looking to go 200 mph into the nearest tree or play racer... so i guess i don't like motorcycles."
if someone would just run a superbowl ad for a standard bike, and give some kind of physical identity to the rider of a standard bike (showing the inbetween of biker-sportbiker).. i think standard bikes would finally catch on. People just don't know they exist and manufacturers release them so limitedly people never get exposed to them.
And for chrissake bring back the TBS already Triumph! It blows me away how many people would love some kind of a cross between a bonnie and a street triple.. when the option was around, no one knew they exised, so it died.
ok just had to let that out.
edit: superbowl ad with brett favre riding a tbs in his wranglers. hahaha
You hit the nail on the head ! You left one out. Most of our choices are crotch rocket, Cruiser or a motorcycle that looks like something from a Transformer movie. Not for me either. My ZRX and Bonneville don't fit any of the above.
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