Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

The X11 is a new kin d of muscl ebike for the ne xt millennium. CBlOOO Big On e they tried to d o it wit h befor e su ffered fro m an id entity crisis; aiming to be either mu scularly mod ern or rad ically ret ro, they tried to be a bit of both, and ended up being neith er. Looking at the Xl l glowering menacing ly in the autumn su ns hine, you ge t the impression of a barel y hou setrained Rottweiler of a motorcycl e - a motorcycle that migh t have been develop ed as a n a fte r- ho u rs projec t by a bun ch ~f Hond a R&D engineers . Pe rha ps they were eager to p ro d u ce a s tree t-fig hter spin -off fro m th eir CBRll00XX speed touter, by the simple exped ient of stripping off the pointy-nose bodywork and ge tting radical with the styling crayons. If so , the bo ys done good, as they' ve offered a new kind of musc lebike for the next millennium. Meet Max Rottweiler the cra nked -u p canine, fres h fro m obedience classes and read y to do your bidding, which th e Xl l w ill rea d ily per form a t the turn of a key and the twist of a wri st - so mu ch eas ier than ya nking on . a leash . In fact, the new Honda is su rpri sin gly docile a t low revs, provin g a more a de p t ci ty bi ke th an ex p e cte d, eve n in wet cond itions.when you might treat th e 140 hp on tap a t 9000 rpm a t the cra n k (a ro u nd 125 hp at th e rear Mich elin Macadam) with more than a little cau tion. No need to, really, though, because in tran sforming the CBR11OOXX into the Xl l , Honda has don e more than s im p ly p er form a s tri p tease o n the styling. The Blackbird 's fuel-in jected 1137cc DOHC 16-val ve fou r-cy lin der eng ine has been rev amped electronically, with its int egrated engine managem ent sys tem 's fu el -injection and ignition prog ra ms rem app ed to pr ovid e ex tra midrange torqu e at the expe nse of top end power - and the ra m air in troduced alongside EFI on the latest Blackbird jettisoned for th is unfaired vers ion . In ad d ition to the thr ee-way catalyst incorpor ated as standard in the 4-2-1-2 stainless-st eel exhau st, environmenta l considerations are further catered to by the addi tion of air-injection in to the exhaust po rts to burn off excess emissions, and an oxygen senso r in the exhaus t to optimize ai r / fue l sett ings on the EFI, a ll enab lin g th e Xl l to bre ez e p a st th e tough new EURO-l anti-po llu tant regu lations. Maybe they shou ld have painted it green, not black (though yo u can have it in red or blue, if you wan t). There' s the sa me an ti-knoc k se nsor on the EFI as o n th e C BRll00XX , to detect pre-ignition . But on e of the pair of gear-driven balan ce s ha fts on th e Blackbird ha s been rem oved from th e Xll motor, supposedly to give it a little m or e raw per sonalit y . (" Yes, with add ed vib ra tion !") Howe ve r, th e rubber-mounted handlebars mean you onl y fe el th e un obtrusi v e p a y off tingles throu gh th e se a t and (ootp egs . And that's on ly when you rev it hard, so this is quite a good move that prevents the X-ll from feeling quite as bland at low speeds as did the Blackbird. The last bik e 1 rod e fro m the Super Blackbird flock wa s Honda Britain's limit ed ed ition , 50 th A nn ive rsa ry V&M Hond a CBR1 200XX, w hich on a d ozen ru ns failed by only 2 m p h to brea k the 200 mph-speed bar rier, bu t strad d ling the Xl l is the entry ticket to a di fferent ki nd of riding experien ce . In keepi ng ' w ith th e mod el' s modern, no t retro , design conce p t, Honda has retained the same basic tw in-spar alloy beam frame as the Blackbird - thou gh with the alloy sw inga rm pivotin g not in th e en gine cases, but in the mas sive rear, centrally located casting that also doubles as the upper mounting point for the single rear shock. How ever, the rid er 's sta nce is more upright than on th e hypertourer, and takes a bit of gettin g u sed to, with the dropped front section of the dual sea t wedging you firmly in place with fairly forward-set , quite low foo tpegs, with hero tabs that are eas y to grind down, ev en if g ro u nd clearance is otherwise pr etty good. But there's a long reach to the quite flat ' ba rs, ne cessitating that you wrap you r a rms around th e bul bous 5.7-gallon fu el ta nk. Quite why Honda felt it necessary to .deliver a 200mile range between gas sto ps to a bike which by its very nature is u nlikely to be used for lon g-di stance cruisin g is another mystery, especially as the 565.4pound fu lly fue led resu lt take s a bit of g ra p p ling w it h - dry w eight is 488.4 pound s, arid a sma ller fuel ta nk wo uld have bee n dynam ically mor e sensible, if less mu scularl y imposing to look at. But the gian t tank has deep ind en ts in its flanks for your knees, and once tucked in position yo u feel yo u' re sitting in the bike, rather than on it - eve n if the seat padd ing is a littl e hard. The long st retc, to .t h: Xll's handleh b a rs mean s yo u re srttmg in a more prone position than on more retro naked b ikes, and this no t on ly hel ps load up the front wheel with yo ur bod y weight for ex tra grip in turns (partly helping co m pensa te for th e lack of front-end weight bia s after removal of the fairing ), ita lso all ows y o u to benefi t from a clever combination of styling and fun ction in the shape of the sculpted bac k to the instrument binnacle. This acts as an effective wind deflector at speed , and In !!Ii ::iii !!i IIlii III ~ ~ ~ Q . g: ~ :;:i Q; .Q B u 0 7

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