The Honda Owners Club

steviebaby1000 wrote:The front of the new blade does have a look of the Ducati but they copied the NR750 for there swing arm and pipes... the NR had indicators in the mirrors, Rads on the side, Under seat exhaust, Twin head lights, Ceramic Liners and the side stand in the fairing, all in 1992 over 1 year before the 916..... all things that have been copied....

Quite right, the NR750 was miles ahead of it's time and was the inspiration of many things to appear on future bikes.

Regards

Chimpy

Dibble wrote:Disagree Barry

The X11 was a stripped Blackbird. It sold well but was discontinued by Honda.

Sold well? How come the tarted up version is still going?

Historically the 'Silver Wing' was a tarted up CX500 and that failed miserably as the performance and technology were not there. Looked pretty though

Pretty!, Pretty? Can you imagine any advertisement describing a bike as 'pretty' selling many.

As to looks paint naked women on the tanks or put on noisy and naughty exhausts and the macho men you describe get all they need to buy a bike. Hardly great advances in technology or perfomance.

Take a look at the aftermarket bits and pieces. Gilding the lilly does come to mind. But buyers of new bikes do want their bike to look different.
Bike manufacturers need fashion concious bikers who will change their bikes every couple of years - regrdless of mileage. If everyone kept their bikes for 10 years, they would go bust.

Have Honda lost the plot? Who the hell is the DN-01 supposed appeal to? Only a mother could love this ugly baby!



Al

Barry the X11 was discontinued not tarted up as I said before. Enthusiasts wanted more but Honda said no!

Barry you keep changing your argument first you want good looking but object to pretty --- which does appeal to many especially female riders which are the growing demand market.

Fact is there is nothing really new in any of these and the legislators are also keen to restrict what people would really want because they fear them all going off and killingthemselves with the shear power and speed desired. That however is already berated by you in another thread.

Dibble wrote:Fact is there is nothing really new in any of these and the legislators are also keen to restrict what people would really want because they fear them all going off and killingthemselves with the shear power and speed desired.

One manufacturer has cracked the style, performance equation without inducing fear into the legislators whilst bring a smile to most none bikers faces and is doing it very profitably too - Harley Davidson!

Are Cruisers the future?

yuk - cruisers! I know everyone to their own but .............and didn't I read that Harley were getting all their employees to take holiday as they needed to cut down on production as sales were lower than forecast......perhaps folk are seeing sense (sorry if I offend any cruiser riders on the site! )

al-n-di wrote:Have Honda lost the plot? Who the hell is the DN-01 supposed appeal to? Only a mother could love this ugly baby!



Al

That sure is hideous.

Regards

Chimpy

Just one for the other side...I actually quite like it but then I am of the female (growing) minority that like 'pretty'.

al-n-di wrote:Have Honda lost the plot? Who the hell is the DN-01 supposed appeal to? Only a mother could love this ugly baby! Al

Al, I guess it’s a case of “Beauty in the eye of the beholder”. For example, you have a ST1300 and I have the older ST1100 and I’m sure we both love our Pans to bits. But despite the improvements of the 1300 over the 1100 you’ll never find one in my garage and that just because the appearance off the 1300 just doesn’t push the right buttons for me, yet I’ve spoke to many people who quite rightly consider 1300 a fantastic bike. I’ve just been to Austria with a guy from the Northumbria branch who’s just ordered his 3rd ST1300.

Mind you, I must agree the DN-01 is one hell of an ugly beast and I don’t really think its mother would love it…

… so there won’t be one of these thing in my garage either

Johnny-Boy wrote:Mind you, I must agree the DN-01 is one hell of an ugly beast and I don’t really think its mother would love it…

… so there won’t be one of these thing in my garage either

Give it another 20 bhp and 150mm of axel travel and I would be interested in one

No sorry, I need a fresh canvas. You see when I bought my first ST1100, a 92-model, which I bought by accident, I knew once I picked it up from Teddington and headed north back home, stopping at Pagnall services for a pee, this was the bike I was going to tour on. Now I have a 2000 model ST1100 and since last March I’ve put 10,000 miles on it. It pressed the right buttons for me you see.

12-years since I hired a VFR750fr to go on a run with my mates from work… Wow it pressed the right buttons before I’d done looking at the range of bikes the dealer had available to hire, so 3-years since I bought the same1994 model and it’s still in my garage and goes out regularly.

I was in Austria last month and hired a BMW K1200S for the day at a staggering cost of 20-euros per day. It looked good and it handled well and I really enjoyed my day out on it leaving the rest of the party at certain times to go and have a play around the twisty bits. But there was a vibration through the handle bars, which if I rested my finger on the brake and clutch levers tickled my fingers and gave me pins and needles. I think this could be cured with a tune up, but the cheap nasty handle bar controls meant I’d never buy one.

So you see, for me not only does a bike have to press all the right buttons, it has to sound the right buzzers and ring the right bells or I’m just not interested in it and that’s the way I feel about the DN-01 and that's just on it's looks.