Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125874
, , By Lane Campbe ll Honda could have created a modern classic when they built this, their littlest Four, but they didn't. Somehow, they have managed to cobble the heart of a Ferrari into the body of a Buick . What promises so much in anticipation, turns out to be a disappointment, in terms of both , -h a nd li ng and performance . In their styling of this pa rticular model, Honda has tried to capture some of the Classic flavor of Norton Interstates and Club man Velos with the black tank/gold pinstrip ing treatment. Then yo u look close and see that the striping is rather gross, and the tank lacking t hat deep, lustrous black of an English classic. The paint is "candy charcoal" with flecks of silver in it. At a distance, the styling achieves its purpose, and attention to "customer appointments" is up to Honda standards . Steering, ignition. and seat/helmet locks all take the same key, all inscribed with the key number they accept to facilitate easy theft. Under the seat is a relatively good tool kit stashed in a covered (a n d nominally weatherproof) plastic tray along with the owner's manual. Right next to the tool tray is a li ttle covered grille admitting under-seat air to the engine via a well sea led air box. Lights an d co ntro ls are all new federa l stan dard l e g a l , and straightforward. Both elemen ts of the taillight bul b ble w o nce d uring o ur 900 mile test, the o nly observed e lect rica l failure . Riding it in the com mu ter/to urer mode. ,it is a fair ly smooth. -func tion al motorcycle. Control forces are all light and predic table , and vibration is minimal. A slight high-frequency buzz at certai n speeds is t he wors t of it. There 's some primar y-dri ve lurch that has to be gotten used to. It's an noyi ng, especially when the engine is col d. The engine is cold-blooded in the mornings, and the butterfly type choke has an interlock to the thrott le stop which allows una tt en ded fast-idle warming while you attend to your gloves. goggles. parachute-silk scarf, or whatever. In traffic, the engi ne p ulls cleanly from 3500 R PM onward, but no t strongly until over 6500 RPM. Yo u can Front stopper could have used less squeeze to stop fast . Fo rks stayed oil tight but lacked st iffness, damping. The jewel-like engine/gearbox unit w ith its,10,500 R PM redl ine cou ld have used 100 pounds less motorcycle . Lots of extra beans in there for the super-tuner to find, but valve design pre cludes go ing after extra valve lift. Good to fair tool kit nestles in a nea t little glove box . That o val shaped grille is air bo x inlet . No, it's not meant for enduro rid ing , but it's neat anyway. Despite chronic wobbles, cobby pavement could be taken with a minimum in ruffled feathers. move alo ng at lower RPM witho ut stirring the gearbox, but to grab a .ha ndful and scoot, you'll find you rself dro pp ing down two an d sometimes three gears to get any immediate ac tion . T his brings us back to this "heart of a Fe rrari in the body of a Buick" whic h is th e real problem. You see, impriso ned in t he un avoidable avoird upois of a "customer" to uring bi ke is an engine that just cries to be used as a rac e engine . It loves to ru n in a ba nd between 65 00 and 10,500 RPM, and it's coupled to a crisp shift ing five spe ed gearbox wit h ratios spaced t o kee p it wailing all t he time, if yo u want it to. Wha t 's frustrating is - here you are, making t hese beautiful wai ling n oises , engi ne singing, throwing bi tc hin' shifts with the close ratio box - and in term s of real-life scoot, you're sti llriding a toad . All the lovely St urm und Drang no twit hstanding, it's p robably marginally slower than Ho nda's 360 Twin. A 1 75cc Enduro bike blew it into the wee ds. Aaarrgh! That's just the beginning. The rear shocks are a disaster . We recei ved our test bike with 1600 miles on the clock, and early rides on it convinced us we'd experienced a new low in bo ingy Japanese shock behavior. Stuff it into a corner, and you're riding a pogo stick with hand le ba rs. So we ordered a set of new Honda shocks and installed them . Better. Still not good. but better. The rear en d settled down to a mo re normal slow Dutch roll, boingy and wobbly entering a turn on shutoff, squatting do wn and tracking straigh ter under thro tt le. So someone had completely was te d a pair of stock shocks in 1600 mi les. We put about 600 mo re on t he new se t, an d sea t-of-t he-pa nts says that th ey , too , were begi nning to degrade as the miles went on. T he dam ping just gradua lly goes away. Even if you're no t an inveterate cafe racer, th is is hurtin' to bolt such short-lived equip ment to a high- ticket tourer , (La ter, we tried o ut a set of Boge/Mulholl:md units with interes ti ng resul ts. See box.] Yo u can ' t get i t' o ver far en ough w i thou t gro unding to exceed th e d ry. pave ment a d he sio n o f the Brid gest on e rubber. On lef t-h anders the cu lprit is, as usual, t ha t centerstand extension t hat clears th e e xhaust. When yo u hit so me wavy pa vement heeled over. the stock shocks. as usual, go away, the stand smacks the p avem ent with a heavy Ugraunch," and yo u bounce sideways a co up le inch es. Surp risi ngly, with all this vio lence going on, t he bike rem ain s fai rly unper turbed . Wobbly, im precise , b ut forgiving. The Bridgestones seemed very skatey on wet st uff. When t hey brea k loose, yo u usua lly can recover instead of falling down . Now, abo ut the brakes. T he fro nt disc carries a different part num be r, but lo o ks suspiciously similar to the o ne on the Cll 360G. (Ho nda se rvice co nfirm : it 's basically the sa me un it.) Whatever t he reason, it behaves as though it were carrying about 100 pounds more mot or cycl e th an it was designed for. Id iot -pr oof it may be, in te rms of inadvertently locking t he fro nt wheel. b ut you gel a little braking to rque fo r a whole lo t of lever effort. It takes a lot of squeeze to squeal t he fro nt wheel. Then, too. there's a slight amount of 24 fo rk twist with the single disc. so the hike will tw itch as you lay on the brakes whi le setting up for a corner. It never