Tokyo motor show (Honda teaser)...

RhynoCZ · Super Spammer Joined: 09 Mar 2012 Karma :

Rogerborg · nimbA Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Karma :

Apologies for the rating.

You're just a victim of Honda here.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

wristjob · World Chat Champion Joined: 29 Sep 2005 Karma :

the retro cb looks like it could work.
an electric cub? its a good idea.
a 3 wheeled goldwing thingy? we need that like a fish needs tits

thepuma · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Karma :

Has Honda abandoned the sport/supersport range?
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YBR125 (SOLD) - CBR250R(SOLD) - CBR650F(SOLD) Current - Street Triple
765 RS

ScaredyCat · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 May 2012 Karma :

Polarbear · Super Spammer Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Karma :

I quite like theCB1100 custom but the one with wire wheels looks like a parts bin special.

I quite like the 3 wheeler, I'd like to compare with the can am for when I get to the stage my Trophy is too heavy for me.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

FlightRisk · Spanner Monkey Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Karma :

Nodded off for a second looking through those.
I'm bit disappointed by Honda lately.
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Honda CB500S

stevo as b4 · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Karma :

Litre sports bikes and the 600cc supersport arms race is dead IMO. The ever more newer, trick, faster and more powerful machines with increasing rider aids and ever more electronics is a dull and boring concept that will soon see it's logical end.

I like the Fact that Honda and Yamaha are looking at these street style urban bikes and things that echo todays rider wants, like hipster café style as a factory bike, uber efficient city commuter's, and high mpg bigger bikes for people wanting easy to ride big bore commuters and workhorse bikes etc.

The Adventure bike is still not dead, (shame) Wink

The Big retro market still has a bit more mileage left in it too, especially when all the naked 800-1000cc bikes currently look like Z800's etc with Star wars/Judge Dread pointy styling and shit loads of cheap plastic.

Out of all these bikes, the CB400, still looks nice, but that first bike if it was a genuine <150kg 45-47bhp sports bike with serious suspension and brakes and handling more like an Aprilia RS250 is about the best and most exciting of the lot.

Someone out there could build a bike to kill the Ninja 300/ YZF320R and make a commited under 47bhp sports bike for new rider's on A2 that don't want to restrict boring dull 600-750cc bikes, or for rider's that want a handling bike that you can use a lot of the power a lot of the time.

RhynoCZ · Super Spammer Joined: 09 Mar 2012 Karma :

The thing is, Stevo, the boom years are gone and fabricating motorcycles becomes more and more expensive, plus people are getting less and less willing to pay the price.

All the exciting, yet affordable bikes from the late 80's and 90's were made with basically no restrictions at all. Meaning, manufacturers could build bikes cheaper, than today. Yes, there were the regulations about lights and brakes, but I'm talking about the engine and the licensing related issues.
Today, motorcycles must fulfill EURO III emissions regulation, soon to be EURO IV. That costs money to achieve. Also, growing up, I never heard someone to say, they had bad mpg or even saying they decided to buy something more reasonable because of the mpg. Today everyone wants the lowest fuel consumption possible. Banning the two strokes also made the manufacturers loose a huge piles of money, since it sure was a very good stream of income.

The licensing, back when I was a kid, there was only once licence for every motorcycle out there. At the age of 17 you did your test, and you could ride whatever you wanted. Then the A1 (11kw) and A2 (25kw/35kw today) came along, and stayed till this day. Now, who does have money to buy a expensive in-line four cylinder four stroke when he's 18 (A2) years old? Not many people and those that have the money, got restricted big bikes. That's why you can still find a TL, R1, Fireblade, ZX10R etc. with 25 kw in the paperwork (A2 friendly). Later on, some smart lads noticed this and said let's let people have 35kw on A2 licence, but if they ride restricted bikes, the original power out put shall not exceed 70 kw + the power/weight ratio limitations.

Now it gets interesting, the motorcycle manufacturer has got to decide. Is he still going to develop motorcycles, only for the negligible percentage of riders that have money to buy a supersport/superbike or is he going to start manufacturing affordable A1 and A2 friendly bikes for beginners (kids) and commuters? Bear in mind, today it's not just about getting together something that can burn petrol and move forward, it has got to be EURO III/IV friendly + soon enough equipped with ABS.

In my humble opinion, the A1 and A2 market is the new two stroke. Cheap to fabricate (by today's standards), affordable and hence easy to sell. I don't have any numbers but as I see it, 90% of bikes sold today is in the A1 and A2 category. That's what earns the manufacturer enough money so they could fabricate supersports and superbikes for the 10% of people that ''carry on riding'' even after their youth years on peds and small bikes.

TL; DR: No one would ever pay for a EURO III/IV friendly 250cc inline four cylinder, if he knew he could buy a 600cc version for only 10% more money. Hence, no excitement for the masses anymore. Companies that still try to produce exciting bikes only went bankrupt several times trying, now being owned by VW and others or just being dead waiting for a billionaire to buy the brand name and start again.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, ~~'96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1~~, ~~'90 Honda CB-1~~, ~~'88 Kawasaki GPz550~~, ~~MZ 150 ETZ~~
~~'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI~~, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

Alex A · World Chat Champion Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Karma :

moonzoomer · World Chat Champion Joined: 01 Jul 2012 Karma :

First bike is a Honda CBR 250RR twin cylinder machine, probably as gutless as it is ugly. Bring back the CB250RS, not exactly a rocket ship but a decent useable bike compared to this thing that resembles something that dropped out of a Christmas cracker.