#Honda

The maxi-scooter world is relatively large these days, with BMW, Kymco, Suzuki, and Yamaha all fielding players. In 2008, however, the players in this field were rather scarce. One name that’s been on the list the entire time has been Honda. For this week’s Church feature, we go back to 2008 and the review of that year’s Silver Wing ABS. Penning the review is our friends at TheScooterReview.com. Oh, and by the way, the Silver Wing ABS is still around today, available at your Honda dealer for a starting price of $9,270. For more pictures of the Silver Wing ABS, hop on over to the photo gallery. 

By now, we’ll assume you’ve read the Part 1 of the Ankle Biters test, wherein we asked some newer riders to ride the Honda Grom, Kawasaki Z125 Pro, Kymco K-Pipe 125, and SSR Motorsports Razkull 125. Their job was to give us feedback as to which bike makes the best learner for the absolute noob because it’s been awhile since any of the MO staff could call themselves one. Our riders had a lot of fun with the test, but as for us MOrons, we wanted a bit more excitement once we got a chance to throw a leg over the quartet.

Heading into the finale of the 2016 season, the atmosphere in Valencia was mostly celebratory. The title had been decided, the silly season was well over, and most of the riders were competing for pride alone. The Ricardo Tormo circuit here is one of the top venues in this sport, loved by the Spanish riders and most of the others, too. Bragging rights during the offseason are nice and all, but pale in comparison to a season finale with a title on the line such as we saw in 2013 and last year.

With the announcement of the new Honda CBR1000RR SP and SP2 at Intermot, as well as the standard CBR1000RR at EICMA 2016, we haven’t been this excited about Honda’s flagship literbike since, well, 2008, when the now outgoing model was first introduced to the world. So, for this Church of MO installment, we’re going back in time to October 2007, when we got our first look at the then all-new 2008 Honda CBR1000RR; a sportbike we’d grow very fond of over the years. For more pictures, be sure to check out the photo gallery. 

On the surface, the 2017 Honda CBR650F and its naked sibling the CB650F don’t look much different than their 2016 versions apart from their new graphic schemes. The overall visual design, including their oh-s0-sexy cascading header pipes are back, and the underslung silencer has only a slightly different shape. Underneath the familiar skin, however, are a few updates that further refine Honda’s two 650 models.

If EICMA is the barometer of where the moto-industry is headed, it appears as if 2017 will be the year of the small-displacement adventure bike. In addition to the CRF250L Rally on this page, Suzuki unveiled a V-Strom 250, Kawasaki debuted its Versys-X 300, and BMW revealed its G310GS.

This is the other concept bike Honda’s Rome R&D group presented at EICMA this year, alongside the CB1100TR. The Africa Twin Enduro Sport concept gets enhanced off-road ability thanks to lighter chassis parts snagged from Honda’s CRF racing models. The Enduro Sports concept, say the Romans, is designed to be “Queen of the Off-Road!”

This concept by Honda R&D of Rome didn’t appear as part of Honda’s main EICMA presentation, but it just might be the coolest bike with a Honda badge at the show.

After showing us Fireblade SP and SP2 versions last month at Intermot, today the all-new base Honda CBR1000RR made its debut in Italy. The high-end Öhlins and Brembo components from the SPs are swapped for less-spendy Showa and Tokico pieces.

A year ago at EICMA, Honda debuted its intriguing City Adventure concept, combining an adventure-bike design with a scooter platform. Today, Honda officially presented the final production version in the 2017 X-ADV. At the moment, the X-ADV has only been announced for Europe and it’s not likely to be brought over to the U.S.

Hot on the heels of its popular new Africa Twin model introduced last year comes a lighter-weight adventure-focused motorcycle from Honda, the CRF250L Rally. The Rally is based on the updated-for-2017 CRF250L and inspired by the factory CRF450 Rally machine raced in the Dakar by Team HRC.

It’s that time of year again: New Bike Season. We’ve already gotten a taste of what’s to come in 2017 thanks to the Intermot show in Cologne, Germany, and AIMExpo in Orlando last month, but when we really want to drool over what awaits us in 2017, EICMA is the show to pay attention to. No less than 30 companies will be making big announcements over the course of the three days that span Nov. 7-9, and our man Evans Brasfield will be on the ground in Milan covering the action as it happens. He’ll even be shooting some video footage we’ll post right here on these pages.

The 2017 Honda CRF450R is the most anticipated motocross bike of the year, and it proves to be worth the wait!

The 26th running of the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on the newly refurbished Sepang International Circuit went especially well for several combatants, and not so well for a few others. For factory Ducati veteran Andrea Dovizioso, his skills, his bike, the track and the weather came together in the best possible way, allowing him the relief of a second premier class win, his first since 2009’s British Grand Prix. Contenders Cal Crutchlow, Marc Marquez and Andrea Iannone all crashed within a minute of one another mid-race, to the delight of those following them. The denouement of the 2016 season concludes in two weeks at the finale in Valencia.

The Honda Shadow has been around forever (well, 1983 if we’re being technical). How many other manufacturers, save for Harley-Davidson, can claim such lineage with one model line? Not many. Heck, the Shadow is still around today! But for this Church feature we’re going back to 2007, since that was the year the Shadow got a refresh and Pete Brissette was there to review it. After reading Pete’s take on the bike you get the sense the Shadow is showing it’s age, but it’s character, charm, and user-friendly rideability make it a perennial winner in Honda’s lineup. For more pics of the Shadow, visit the photo gallery.