NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
- cbx4evr
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NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
The Valkyrie returns.
Story:
http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/11/20/20 ... /#comments
Video:
http://www.cycleworld.com/videos/latest ... a_valkyrie
.
Story:
http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/11/20/20 ... /#comments
Video:
http://www.cycleworld.com/videos/latest ... a_valkyrie
.
Last edited by cbx4evr on Wed Nov 20, 2013 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"It's a friggen motorcycle, it's not supposed to be comfortable, quiet or safe. The wind noise is supposed to hurt your ears, the seat should be hard and riding it should make you shit your pants every now and then. "
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
Quite a monster!
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
Looks like they finally succeeded in breeding a Goldwing with a Rune....
- bikeymikey748
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I guess it will generate some amount of sales.
You know it's funny though, it's just one of many new bikes that leave me unmoved (pardon the pun).
It's a discussion my buddies and I often have: we're all old enough ( ) to have sampled pretty much every sort of bike out there. For us, at least, only the most obscenely expensive & extremely limited run of bikes will get our juices flowing. Our finances being what they are, or maybe even if they weren't, the party's over for us in that regard.
We've discovered the joys of building older bikes, like....I don't know, a certain air-cooled six, into our own interpretation of how they should be has, more merit. It's a financially accessible alternative with genuine 'bang for your buck'.
You know it's funny though, it's just one of many new bikes that leave me unmoved (pardon the pun).
It's a discussion my buddies and I often have: we're all old enough ( ) to have sampled pretty much every sort of bike out there. For us, at least, only the most obscenely expensive & extremely limited run of bikes will get our juices flowing. Our finances being what they are, or maybe even if they weren't, the party's over for us in that regard.
We've discovered the joys of building older bikes, like....I don't know, a certain air-cooled six, into our own interpretation of how they should be has, more merit. It's a financially accessible alternative with genuine 'bang for your buck'.
- CBXTRA6
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
Yes and it is FUUUUUUGGGLY !EMS wrote:Looks like they finally succeeded in breeding a Goldwing with a Rune....
JP
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
But I predict it will be a hit. Look at how the 'bagger' has done in the last couple of years. Don't knock the 1800 Gold Wing platform until you've ridden one of them. You'll be shocked when you do.
Dave
Dave
- NobleHops
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I bet you're right. First thing I thought when I saw this was "Rocket 6!" because it reminds me of the Triumph Rocket 3 and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that model is Triumph's best seller, which was much to my surprise. I noticed they said it sounds great. If that's true it will help. Only thing I don't care for is the headlight nacelle, and that seems fixable.daves79x wrote:But I predict it will be a hit. Look at how the 'bagger' has done in the last couple of years. Don't knock the 1800 Gold Wing platform until you've ridden one of them. You'll be shocked when you do.
Dave
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I've resisted riding one because I just know it would mean having to sell several other bikes to make room in the garage.daves79x wrote:But I predict it will be a hit. Look at how the 'bagger' has done in the last couple of years. Don't knock the 1800 Gold Wing platform until you've ridden one of them. You'll be shocked when you do.
Dave
Rick Pope
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I like the concept bike better.
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I'm with you Jeff. Only problem is, the concept bike doesn't address the finer points of styling, like fuel and electrics. A 1.5 gal tank wouldn't get you very far.
Rick Pope
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
That's the biggest problem we have in today's vehicle industry. May it be cars or motorcycles, "design" does not consider real world technical requirements. All the graduates from design schools who populate modern companies' design departments pen visions of something great in search of the new design sensation - like another "Bangle Butt"- and the engineers will have to either incorporate it, work around it or scrap it. That's why so many "design concepts" never make it to reality. They are mainly used as PR tools and are hardly practical or commercially feasible.Rick Pope wrote: the concept bike doesn't address the finer points of styling, like fuel and electrics.
- Jeff Bennetts
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
Rick, don't sweat the small stuff.Rick Pope wrote:I'm with you Jeff. Only problem is, the concept bike doesn't address the finer points of styling, like fuel and electrics. A 1.5 gal tank wouldn't get you very far.
I guess there's always this,
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
I turned down a ride on one of those at Daytona, on a cold rainy night. Mark Gardiner, free lance writer, was staying with us, and Suzuki had loaned him the bike for a photo shoot. Mark wanted me to come along with the Bird and cruise Main Street, and swap bikes so he could get the pics.
Being young and foolish, I stayed at the warm dry house and enjoyed malted barley beverages.
Being young and foolish, I stayed at the warm dry house and enjoyed malted barley beverages.
Rick Pope
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
This "new" bike is a sad sign for Honda's state on motorcycle design. It is just a Goldwing stripped down, what is the big deal?
- Highmileage
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Re: NEW 2014 Honda 6 Cylinder
Been a long time since I've visited this site and I gotta say that I am surprised by the negativity regarding this bike.
I have been bitching to Honda factory reps for eleven years now about the demise of the Valkyrie. Ever since the 1800 wing came out, I have been waiting and whining about the lack of availability of an 1800 Valk (the Rune doesn't count, it was too fugly, too expensive, too heavy, and too impractical - it was a bike for showing, not for riding).
I firmly believed that there are a lot of us who like to ride big, comfortable, powerful cruisers, prefer the performance and reliability of something from big red, and have no interest in a V-twin (I rode a VTX1800 and hated it, anyone that thinks it was the economy that killed off that bike is wrong). Many would have bought the big, flat, powerful six if they only offered it w/o the plastic, there was no reason that it could not have been an option, even if the vast majority of buyers preferred the fully dressed 'Wing. '84 was the last year that they offered a naked Wing and those bikes, like the 1500 Valkyries, are highly coveted these days. But they are now old, old, old, their tube frames and their styling just make the bikes look dated and low mileage ones are getting harder and harder to find, especially at reasonable prices!
Back in the '90's, I took a 1200 Wing and cut down the windshield and cut off the trunk and ended up with a really nice bike (yes, the one with the dog that rode on it). No one that I met had ever seen anything like it before and many said that it looked like it had been lowered lowered. I put over 300K miles on that bike and everywhere I rode it, some very informed riders would comment about it (yes. I know that in Europe, the tail trunk was optional and they even offered a small, briefcase trunk, but we never saw those here in the 'States).
I've had lots of other bikes since then, CBXes, a Buell, a big Suzuki GS, etc. but the thing is, most any bike out there, once you have 30K-40K miles on it, that's a high mileage bike. A Gold Wing is the only bike (other than a BMW boxer) that, if it has under 100K miles on it, you can call it a low mileage bike. And I am one of those who have been known to put a lot of miles on a bike, obviously...
I wanted a 1500 Valkyrie badly when they were new, but I never could justify the price of admission (and they looked like crap w/ bags, I had gotten really used to having hard, weatherproof bags to throw a jacket, and other stuff in for those days when it's nice during the day but cold after the sun goes down).
So just as I had given up on Honda being smart enough to tap into this market that is, essentially, exclusively theirs, they introduce this gorgeous ride.
You guys that don't like the styling are showing your age. Our CBXes are now antiques. Beautiful, excellent, unique, wonderful antiques. They stopped making them over thirty years ago!
Come springtime, I just might have to get in line for one of these stripped down, hopefully hopped up Wing/Valkyries. Bet they sell a zillion of them! Every V-twin rider is gonna be jealous of the comfort and performance (both speed and long life) that they offer, so in defense of their ride they'll have to resort to that lame old nonsense about 'it doesn't look right (light some art deco thing from the '30's) or sound right (meaning that it doesn't go 'potato-potato-potato')...
I have been bitching to Honda factory reps for eleven years now about the demise of the Valkyrie. Ever since the 1800 wing came out, I have been waiting and whining about the lack of availability of an 1800 Valk (the Rune doesn't count, it was too fugly, too expensive, too heavy, and too impractical - it was a bike for showing, not for riding).
I firmly believed that there are a lot of us who like to ride big, comfortable, powerful cruisers, prefer the performance and reliability of something from big red, and have no interest in a V-twin (I rode a VTX1800 and hated it, anyone that thinks it was the economy that killed off that bike is wrong). Many would have bought the big, flat, powerful six if they only offered it w/o the plastic, there was no reason that it could not have been an option, even if the vast majority of buyers preferred the fully dressed 'Wing. '84 was the last year that they offered a naked Wing and those bikes, like the 1500 Valkyries, are highly coveted these days. But they are now old, old, old, their tube frames and their styling just make the bikes look dated and low mileage ones are getting harder and harder to find, especially at reasonable prices!
Back in the '90's, I took a 1200 Wing and cut down the windshield and cut off the trunk and ended up with a really nice bike (yes, the one with the dog that rode on it). No one that I met had ever seen anything like it before and many said that it looked like it had been lowered lowered. I put over 300K miles on that bike and everywhere I rode it, some very informed riders would comment about it (yes. I know that in Europe, the tail trunk was optional and they even offered a small, briefcase trunk, but we never saw those here in the 'States).
I've had lots of other bikes since then, CBXes, a Buell, a big Suzuki GS, etc. but the thing is, most any bike out there, once you have 30K-40K miles on it, that's a high mileage bike. A Gold Wing is the only bike (other than a BMW boxer) that, if it has under 100K miles on it, you can call it a low mileage bike. And I am one of those who have been known to put a lot of miles on a bike, obviously...
I wanted a 1500 Valkyrie badly when they were new, but I never could justify the price of admission (and they looked like crap w/ bags, I had gotten really used to having hard, weatherproof bags to throw a jacket, and other stuff in for those days when it's nice during the day but cold after the sun goes down).
So just as I had given up on Honda being smart enough to tap into this market that is, essentially, exclusively theirs, they introduce this gorgeous ride.
You guys that don't like the styling are showing your age. Our CBXes are now antiques. Beautiful, excellent, unique, wonderful antiques. They stopped making them over thirty years ago!
Come springtime, I just might have to get in line for one of these stripped down, hopefully hopped up Wing/Valkyries. Bet they sell a zillion of them! Every V-twin rider is gonna be jealous of the comfort and performance (both speed and long life) that they offer, so in defense of their ride they'll have to resort to that lame old nonsense about 'it doesn't look right (light some art deco thing from the '30's) or sound right (meaning that it doesn't go 'potato-potato-potato')...