A lament: We, and Honda, let down the CB1000R I’d like to…
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A lament: We, and Honda, let down the CB1000R
I’d like to preface that I have never owned a Honda and have only ridden one once for 5 minutes in my first year of riding and that was 17 years ago. It was a 2004 Honda CBR600RR.
If you’re like me, you’ll make the rounds of visiting manufacturers website just to peruse their offerings. See what’s cool and new, laugh at some shitty models and lust over whatever unreliable piece of thirst-trap KTM always seems to be cooking up. But every time I visit the Honda website I make a beeline straight towards the CB1000R and see if they’re offering it in any other color besides the dark red or black version just to see how it would look in a green or orange. Today was the day I visited the site and saw the CB1000R no longer and immediately I got sad.
In a world where hypernaked motorcycles are spitting out 200hp, the CB1000R is only putting down a “pathetic” 143hp. A lot of people who buy liter bikes are often those who shop by spec sheet so for this thing to be overlooked for an H2, Super Duke, Streetfighter, Mt10 was always going to happen. Whether it’s Honda’s fault for not pushing it enough in development, modernization, or outright engine performance to compete with the other bikes in its class or whether it’s us as a riding community that lacks the overall wisdom and taste to know that that was never the point, who knows?
I mean come on. It’s a down-tuned Fireblade engine and it’s a *Honda*. That shit is going to last forever. 143hp is plenty for 100% of the people who has ever thrown a leg over a bike. In the overall picture of things humans are capable of with mechanical speed, the CB1000R is stupid fast. It was made to be easy to use, easy to maintain, and look good doing it.
And goddamn does it look good. The classic but modern round headlight, the muscular design cues in the tank and tail, the ***single-sided swing-arm***, the gorgeous rear wheel and the black on black. It’s modern, it’s retro, it’s kind of steampunk, and it’s murdered out. Why didn’t more people buy these? Like are we fucking stupid? This thing is an absolute stunner of a motorcycle and we buy a Super Duke? That shit looks like a fucking bug cyborg. Sheesh.
In search for whatever the our egos need to feel big from a big hp bike, we totally slept on this bike and now its being replaced by the Hornet which leans more towards that alien cybertron design. Im sure it’s a great bike, but eh. It’s being discontinued because we have no taste. I have no taste. I admit that I was one of those people that given the choice, I chose the flashy, vulgar, Super Duke instead of understatement and class.
Objectively the top 3 most beautiful bikes from Japan:
1. Rc30
2. Zx-rr
3. Cb1000r
Im going to miss seeing this on the Honda website.
Tl;dr: sappy love letter to an inanimate object.
#motorcycles
source
I’d like to preface that I have never owned a Honda and have only ridden one once for 5 minutes in my first year of riding and that was 17 years ago. It was a 2004 Honda CBR600RR.
If you’re like me, you’ll make the rounds of visiting manufacturers website just to peruse their offerings. See what’s cool and new, laugh at some shitty models and lust over whatever unreliable piece of thirst-trap KTM always seems to be cooking up. But every time I visit the Honda website I make a beeline straight towards the CB1000R and see if they’re offering it in any other color besides the dark red or black version just to see how it would look in a green or orange. Today was the day I visited the site and saw the CB1000R no longer and immediately I got sad.
In a world where hypernaked motorcycles are spitting out 200hp, the CB1000R is only putting down a “pathetic” 143hp. A lot of people who buy liter bikes are often those who shop by spec sheet so for this thing to be overlooked for an H2, Super Duke, Streetfighter, Mt10 was always going to happen. Whether it’s Honda’s fault for not pushing it enough in development, modernization, or outright engine performance to compete with the other bikes in its class or whether it’s us as a riding community that lacks the overall wisdom and taste to know that that was never the point, who knows?
I mean come on. It’s a down-tuned Fireblade engine and it’s a *Honda*. That shit is going to last forever. 143hp is plenty for 100% of the people who has ever thrown a leg over a bike. In the overall picture of things humans are capable of with mechanical speed, the CB1000R is stupid fast. It was made to be easy to use, easy to maintain, and look good doing it.
And goddamn does it look good. The classic but modern round headlight, the muscular design cues in the tank and tail, the ***single-sided swing-arm***, the gorgeous rear wheel and the black on black. It’s modern, it’s retro, it’s kind of steampunk, and it’s murdered out. Why didn’t more people buy these? Like are we fucking stupid? This thing is an absolute stunner of a motorcycle and we buy a Super Duke? That shit looks like a fucking bug cyborg. Sheesh.
In search for whatever the our egos need to feel big from a big hp bike, we totally slept on this bike and now its being replaced by the Hornet which leans more towards that alien cybertron design. Im sure it’s a great bike, but eh. It’s being discontinued because we have no taste. I have no taste. I admit that I was one of those people that given the choice, I chose the flashy, vulgar, Super Duke instead of understatement and class.
Objectively the top 3 most beautiful bikes from Japan:
1. Rc30
2. Zx-rr
3. Cb1000r
Im going to miss seeing this on the Honda website.
Tl;dr: sappy love letter to an inanimate object.
#motorcycles
source
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