Over a month in advance of the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, Honda has supported rumors of upcoming retro-styled CB motorcycles by releasing shots of CB1100F and CB1100R concept bikes which, judging by their model names, will boast powerplants in the 1,100cc range-- considerably more than the displacement suggested by the CB750F rumors.
Referred to as "prototypes," the CBs join a radically-styled EVO6 concept (which Honda also calls a "prototype,") and a far less shocking maxi scooter which, unlike the concepts, is officially scheduled for release. The macro scooter, dubbed the Forza Z, will be available with optional ABS.
Little else is known about these models, but visual clues reveal air-cooled powerplants and 4-into-1 exhausts for the CB1100 models, a stripped down, lightweight tube-frame and half-fairing for the CB1100R variant, and a flat-six powerplant for the EVO6 concept.
More info on these concepts will be revealed as soon as it becomes available; in the meantime, check out our Honda Concept photo gallery, and share your thoughts about whether or not you'd consider buying one of these "new old" Hondas if they became commercially available.
Photos © Honda
I like the CB1100F. I pays homage to the past, with all the modern touches. I’m a cruiser guy, but it’s nice to see something retro other than a cruiser. Chrome front fender is great.
What good is a retro concept without wire wheels, but even without them the CB 1100F is very good news.
Give her 18 inch wheels and a plush seat for 2-up cruising. Then she’d be perfect – and unique!
Leave it Honda brilliance to come up with the next new retro-craze. The new CB1100F is as beautiful a canvas as any for the self expression generation, I guarantee!
The CB1100F is the first new bike that I would consider buying. The retro styling is just what I’ve been looking for. I always loved the Honda scramblers of the 60’s & what a tribute this bike would be. Awesome!!!
With Victory, Kawasaki and now Triumph coming out with “muscle” touring bikes, I’m looking to see what Honda does with the Goldwing!!!
wait. didnt honda already come out with a cb1100f? oh yeah they did, i own one. o_o google it, “1983 cb1100f”
Please bring the cb1300 from europe to the US.
I have numerous friends who purchased Harley chopper clones and were dissapointed in the reliability (big Dog, Ironhorse, etc.). Honda needs to build a chopper and market the “reliability” factor. Lower volume and limited supply like the Rune could be a start. The Rune actually gave Honda some credability to the custom guys. The largest segment of the “chopper” crowd will want Harley clones, but to remain competitive in the decades to come, new ground needs to be broken. A limited edition, low volume, very reliable, on the edge traditional chopper, would increase the status of Honda. I would like to see Honda dominate the motorcycle world like it did in the late 1960’s. Build a traditional chopper, start regional “grass roots” Honda clubs, have “Honda custom” shows (be open to others, but promote Honda products), and over a decade, there will be greater loyalty to Honda than what exists now.
Don’t get me wrong, I own a second ‘82cb750f after riding the first into the ground. Great bikes, and I can only imagine what the 1100f was/is like. But when I think Honda, and classic Honda especially, even when I think of what a “retro” should be (usually means a bastardization of a classic) I think ‘69 k0/sandcast cb750k, I think ‘73 cb350f, and then I get even more turned on and I think of c72’s, black bombers, twins with heads looking like the face of a walrus, chrome sided tanks with knee inserts, candy metal flake paint, all those fork ears, boots and lower fork shrouds that were thrown away by the easy rider wannabes, painted rear fork shroud or even chrome ones, indicator lights gauges and switch-gear made of something non-plastic, etc, etc, etc. As mentioned above, and above all, wire wheels, chrome fenders. Probably because my father rode early honda fours, and my first bike was a blue cb100k0.
A retro bike shouldn’t be about something to accessorize whilts dressing up in one’s silk scarf and ace cafe leathers. Or other such fetish garb. (*Cough* Harley. Village People. *Cough*) Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Heck, I can dig a moustache handlebar *or* a handlebar moustache. The ’80s muscle bike era, dohc fours, vee-fours, awesome. Until Nintendo came along, the zietgeist of Japanese culture and thereby norto-americano culture stood in the eyes of the world upon the very precipice before the fall. Incidentally, what bike was Fonzee riding when he jumped that shark? For a time, video games imitated motorcycles. Then, in a classic example of “Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?”, motorcycles began to not only look like the nintendo console and later, be designed digitally, but to follow Moore’s law of integrated circuits, virtually doubling their performance every few years. The vision of artistic design, the human element, has been difficult to simulate. And so here we are.
A retro model bike should be for the nostalgia crowd, who just wanna ogle the type of bikes you can only find in a museum. Better yet, sitting in a barn covered in cobwebs, waiting to be ravished.
I’ve got it bad, “Gotta be a Honda”. Still, no interest here in the ‘09, ‘10 cb1100f. Would rather sink the money into a restoration. Until honda makes a large retro bike based on a pre-1980 bike, preferably pre-’75, better still pre-’70, my money will be sunk into the second hand market. -S.
There has been an increase in the development of “specialty and custom” motorcycles for several reasons. First, cars have become so expensive to modify or customize, innovators have turned to less expensive ways to express design ideas. Secondly, the limitations surrounding cars (size, gas milage, cost, licenseing, etc.) reduce the numbers of people working in that domain. Motorcycles, however, reduce those factors yet still have the excitement! There has been a huge increase in specialty custome in the last five years, and I think the trend will continue.
Hi folks, i take my photo programm and create some new colors for the honda evo6: http://www.honda-evo6.de/2009/08/03/honda-evo6-farbspiele/ – i really hope the honda will bring this bike 2010!
Honda’s flat six in a sport bike package would be insane. Suzuki’s 1300cc inline four versus Honda’s 1800cc flat six (I’m assuming this is the engine in the Goldwing.)
With that said, Honda really needs some cool 250cc or 450cc entry level bikes.