New Honda huh?
Well a Valkyre it ain't,
but maybe it fills a spot in the Honda lineup that is definitely missing.
Something in between a full touring motorcycle and a ****** rocket.
Kinda like our own touring......
On another note, why downgrade?

How do you mean?

1. The five Hondas I had dating all the way back to 89 never let me down even once. The triumph has put me down twice.
2. My closest triumph dealer is 135 miles away, I have 2 honda dealers within 45 miles
3. Torque will be a little lower, but I will have cruise, a fairing, radio, and better dependability based on past performance.
 
seen what looked to be one of these today.
No badges, no name on the speedometer or anywhere else.
looked ok.
didn't get a chance to ask the owner what exactly it was,
but i think it was one of these.
It was black and looked ok.

on another note, by what I meant was the valkery was a sharp looking bike.
should have whupped harley in the sales dept.
only thing was the badge.
Folks just don't like, need, want hondas.
They'd rather pay three times the money for a harley..
Don't make sense to me either.
Buddy of mine was gonna trade his honda in on another harley.
I showed him the Triumph Rockets on e-bay.
10 years newer than what he was looking at, for half the price.
i think he's coming around,
he does like mine, and knows a v-rod can't keep up.

But hondas are bulletproof, ugly but bulletproof.
but then the rocket ain't no beauty queen either....
 
Was thinking about trading the rocket for one of those, i went for a spin yesterday, no way,,, my beast is still the queen of the garage:D
 
I have a 1978 CB750, it has never let me down, 35 years old, I took it on a 1500 mile road trip with no qualms whatsoever. I tried to get my buddy to go along on his 78 FXE, he said " I'd never trust my bike that far" I said mine is as old as yours, he said "but it's a Honda" LMAO He's old school Harley, too.
 
The bike looks great! It appears Honda is trying to make a "Streetglide" type model along side of the full dresser Wing. One will have to decide if they want all of the amenities of the Wing, or a cool looking, less dressed up Wing.

From my experience, my Streetglide rode a lot harder than an Electroglide, as the Streeglide uses a lowered rear shock. That equals a harder ride. But the bike looked much better than a standard Glide if that was what you are into. Buy two. One for long rides and one to ride on shorter trips while looking cool!
 
I checked it out on the Honda site! looks good in black, honda should have massaged the engine, porting more agressive cam, more compression. much potential in that 6 banger! ;)
 
Honda could make a whole lot more power if they would get rid of the single injector body and go to a direct injection system with six throttle bodies! The engine has possibilities, as it's basically a Porsche type pancake six. I'm sure if Honda upped the compression, did some head work, a bit more aggressive cam grind, Etc., they would have a Wing that would get up and go. All with Honda reliability, smooth and quite and most likely good fuel mileage. Are ya listening mother Honda? ;)
 
Honda could make a whole lot more power if they would get rid of the single injector body and go to a direct injection system with six throttle bodies! The engine has possibilities, as it's basically a Porsche type pancake six. I'm sure if Honda upped the compression, did some head work, a bit more aggressive cam grind, Etc., they would have a Wing that would get up and go. All with Honda reliability, smooth and quite and most likely good fuel mileage. Are ya listening mother Honda? ;)

It has always seemed to me Hondas are designed by panels of people. No single person or group is ever allowed to do their own thing. Why not for once make something that has some serious horsepower. They should have done it with the Valkyrie, they ****ed sure should have done it with the Rune, and they shoulda' did it with this bike. Look what it did for Kawasaki when they released the 500 H1 in 1969. Fastest production bike in the 1/4 mile (of any size). Sure it handled poorly, and wasn't terribly reliable, but it went, and people went for it. That bike was designed, tested and built by a small group who were allowed to "go their own way". That one bike put Kawasaki on the map as a builder of performance motorcycles that it still is today. The flat six in that Honda could scream, if the board of directors would look the other way for a minute. But Honda being Honda, it looks like we are getting Vanilla again. What a shame.
 
Honda is first and foremost an engineering company. Take a look at their racing endeavors. I believe they won the Moto GP manufacturer race this year, not to mention the various auto series in which they've participated. Their CBR series seem to make plenty of power.

It seems they have decided what a reasonable level of power is for their touring and cruiser bikes and stuck to that. Given the lack of high performance parts available for the big flat six, evidently most buyers agree with them. If there was a demand for big power for the GW, there would be more options available. If the marketplace wants something, someone will produce it. As others have stated, that motor has to have a lot more capability than they're getting from it.
 
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