Topic: I can't believe that Honda doesn't make a cafe type bike from the factory...

[shane]

Anyone know why? I wondered this like 5 years ago, and assumed they would just come out with one in a year or two, but it blows my mind that you can go to their website and they have like 30 different bikes available (at least!) and none of them resemble a standard type bike like their old cb's. Why are they giving all the market share to Triumph?

[FunJimmy]

In the late 80's and early 90's Honda made a hot GB500 cafe bike, but apparently they didn't sell that well.
Maybe they would have better market acceptance now that the café craze is so prevalent.



Photo censored to comply with forum rules and edict.

[neverendingproject]

There's something a little off about that pic...oh yeah that rear fender has to go 

[shane]

In the late 80's and early 90's Honda made a hot GB500 cafe bike, but apparently they didn't sell that well.
Maybe they would have better market acceptance now that the café craze is so prevalent.

yeah the GB500 was an awesome bike... They should bring it back!

[Stev-o]

There's something a little off about that pic...oh yeah that rear fender has to go 

No, it's the text that should not be there!

[pikehk]

Its been tried before and Japanese makers always seem to get burned on anything that is not a cruiser or repli racer. Honda still makes plenty of standard bikes for the home and European market. Unfortunately American buyers have no interest in buying these bikes.

[TwoTired]

Anyone know why?

oH Oh, I know.!

Honda refuses to put on pod filters....



 

[cobra2411]

http://www.bowlsla.com/articles/2wheeldivision/2wheeldivision-intel/2010-honda-cb1100/

This - Stateside. Only downside is it would be $10k plus which will keep people away and which is why Honda won't send them over.

[bender01]

Finance that thing $100 a month.

[seanbarney41]

americans generally have bad taste... thus they generally buy crap motorcycles...thus Honda only imports crap to America...pretty simple.

[faux fiddy]

americans generally have bad taste... thus they generally buy crap motorcycles...thus Honda only imports crap to America...pretty simple.

Or a one described it we're gettin the "Cuba" treatment. Rebuild and reuse your stuff because of tariff. (same dif)

Euopeans got XL-1200 Harleys  and had a racing class for them long before they appeared on American Shores in the shops.  Figure that one out. Then explain it to me again.

[bryanj]

I can understand it, you might think there is a market for it but in the general market the people that want cafe racers are a very small percentage of the sales so it aint worth the re-tooling. ALSO every body would want a different one anyway!!!

[worlddrum13]

i had the pleasure of seeing a gb500 upclose at a meet last year. what an AMAZING bike. its gorgeous and well engineered. the problem with this bike is that it was in the wrong year. its style was  both 15 years out of date and 20 years ahead of its time. the style of that bike is HOT for this era. modern classics have never been hotter. the recent boom in the "cafe" world has brought some great bikes. triumph knows that, as well as enfield and even suzuki has a modern classic. HOWEVER, in the late 80's the bikes that were considered nice were a TOTALLY different style. (i call them ugly, others may disagree)

i guess what im saying is if honda released the gb500 now, it would sell just as fast as any triumph, enfield, etc. and another bonus is that the GB500 was relatively simple, so the price tag would most likely be a little less than the others.

[hoodellyhoo]

I forget where I heard it but someone said that the reason the gb500 failed is that it was really expensive when new. Seems to be a trend with honda; bring over a cool bike but price it waaaay higher that the competition. Only exception I can think of is the new cb250r.

[RickB]

Yeah I think this all the time, especially with cars and all those ugly road bikes. Design by focus group is what I blame.

Back in the day it seems a car designer (Pinin Farina for example) was given, to a large extent, freedom to create his vision. Now days, who's designing cars? Teams of industrial designers who pass that to the marketing department. Words like feel, instinct, emotion, style etc aren't said by a designer, they're printed on a billboard.

I suppose the lead-time required to design a bike, build it, market it, distribute it etc means there is quite a bit of lag. Maybe Honda will show up to the party in 2015?

That being said, Hinckley Triumphs have the lions share of 'retro modern' bikes purely because they're relatively unchallenged in the market place. Ducati had that amazing cafe GT1000 a few years ago, but that model now is hideous. I thought I saw Yamaha had a cafe inspired modern bike?

When I hear American's complain about $10,000 bikes I laugh. That won't even get you in the door at dealers here! Cars, bikes and even petrol are cheap in the USA compared to Australia.

Rick.

[Jay B]

Only exception I can think of is the new cb250r.

I really like that new 250r. If they would build a bigger version with a 500 or 650 single and keep the price reasonable I'd probably be buying one.

[RickB]

Am I looking at the wrong CB250r? All the bikes Google images pulls up look like any other plastic road bike.

[splitt]

The Japanese business mindset is all about numbers. If the numbers decline, they change their product. Currently, the cruiser bike market is where the numbers are. Hopefully, the new cb1100 can sell enough numbers to change their mindset. But I'm afraid that the $10k - $11k price tag may be a hindrance.

http://www.mcnews.com.au/Testing/Honda/2010_CB1100/Review.htm

[Roach]

to be honest the only reason i got my 550 was because i couldnt find i thruxton or manx for the life of me....and if i were to buy a new 2011 bike it would be the thruxton cafe

but im so in love with my honds now it probably wouldnt happen