Honda are expected to announce some pretty innovative motorcycles in the coming months. The company has already teased us with prototypes of the EV Fun, a fully electric sportsbike which will be the first of its type from one of the Big Four Japanese manufacturers. We know it’s coming and it’s now just a case of seeing exactly what technology it brings, and to see if it can succeed in winning over customers where the likes of Energica, Livewire and Zero have so far failed.
And then there’s the interesting supercharged V3 project, which should also reach production someday in the not too distant future. Shown as a concept at last November’s EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy, it’s a new platform featuring a V3 engine boosted by an electrical supercharger.
The design should be compact and efficient, and looks set to play an important role in maintaining the internal combustion engine for years to come. We think it’s all really exciting stuff, but no surprise when you consider all the groundbreaking models and technology to have come from the Tokyo-based giant’s skunkworks projects.
Don’t believe us? Here’s 10 of the motorcycles we believe are the most innovative from Honda’s near 80-year history. We could have come up with a few more too!
Honda Super Cub (1958)
The iconic Super Cub is innovative for its marvellous mass market appeal as much as anything else. Designed to be simple to ride, easy to make and a doddle to maintain, it hit the design brief on the bullseye and has provided transportation for the masses across eight decades, with over 100 million units sold worldwide.
Developed under the eye of founder Soichiro Honda himself, the step-through design, centrifugal clutch and ease of use made it accessible to almost everyone, even non-motorcyclists, and gave Honda a global reputation for making quality products at good prices – a value it upholds today.
It’s advertising message ‘You meet the nicest people on a Honda’ succeeded in showing that motorcycles could be for everyone, not just rufty-tufty bikers, and if that’s not innovation, we don’t know what is!
Honda CB750 (1969)
Just over a decade after the Cub came a motorbike which changed it all. Often dubbed the world’s first superbike, the CB750 moved the performance goalposts and confirmed that Japanese manufacturers really had arrived.
The silky smooth four-cylinder motor knocked the British twins and triples out of the park when it came to refinement and performance, and enjoyed build quality that was on a different level too. The spec was high too, with disc brakes and electric starter all included for a very reasonable price. It created a blueprint for the UJM, or Universal Japanese Motorcycle, which dominated the 1970s marketplace and virtually wiped out the European motorbike industry.
Honda Gold Wing GL1100 Interstate (1980)
As Brits, it’s sometimes easy to dismiss the Gold Wing as a bit of a novelty, but the impact it has had globally, especially in the United States, should not be underestimated.
It redefined long-distance touring. The first versions came out in 1978 and had smooth liquid-cooled flat-four engines, shaft drive and comfy riding positions, but by the mid ‘80s it was a case of excess all areas with six-cylinder engines, huge fairings, stereos, and massive luggage provision.
This Interstate model was mindblowing and Honda once again created a genre that didn’t exist before, building the first full touring motorcycle. Now in its sixth generation, it’s an absolute cult classic and continues to define ultimate motorcycle touring.
Honda CBX (1978)
The CBX mightn’t have been the first production motorcycle to feature a six-cylinder engine (that honour goes to the Benelli Sei of 1973) but it was another reminder that when the Big H pushed the boat out, it didn’t do things by half.
In many ways the CBX was a conventional UJM, but where Kawasaki and Suzuki’s range toppers were 1000cc fours, the CBX featured a jewel like 1049cc inline six-cylinder engine at its heart. The company had built a prodigious reputation for its six-cylinder racers in the 1960s and this new range topping superbike left no-one in any doubt as to Honda’s engineering prowess.
Its reign was fairly short. Kawasaki would introduce the six-cylinder Z1300 a year later, besting the Honda on power even if the shaft drive and water cooling made it a real beast of a bike, while the CBX was quickly detuned and repositioned as one of the world’s first sports tourers, with a half fairing and optional panniers.
Honda CB400A Hondamatic (1978)
We’re a bit in two minds as to whether the automatic version of the once ubiquitous Super Dream deserved inclusion here. Contemporary reports and sales weren’t particularly kind to this automatic middleweight when it was launched in the late ‘70s but, with autos now starting to gain some traction in the modern day marketplace, it’s a real example of how Honda has always been well ahead of the curve when it comes to introducing new technology to make riding easier.
Using technology developed on Honda cars, the patented Hondamatic system wasn’t a truly automatic system, rather a manually operated two speed gearbox with a torque converter taking the place of a manually operated clutch.
It proved reasonably popular in the four wheelers and actually featured on an ‘auto’ CB750 a few years before this revised version was offered on the 400.
The idea was sound, but the technology wasn’t quite there 50 years ago. Performance was blunted, but Honda wouldn’t give up and would ultimately lead the way in creating the modern auto with its DCT technology.
Honda VFR750R – RC30 (1987)
Honda was a real pioneer of the V4 engine concept in the 1980s. The company’s ‘VF’ range incorporated engine capacities from 400cc to 1000cc and provided the secret sauce for the factory Formula One racers, including the fabled RVF750 machines which were dominant in endurance racing.
When the new Superbike World Championship was announced for 1988, the rules dictated bikes be based on 750cc machines you could buy in showrooms – so Honda built a very special model in small numbers to comply with the rules. Developed by Honda’s racing division, HRC (Honda Racing Corporation), it became one of the most iconic motorcycles of the 1980s.
It is believed around 5000 were built, enough to comply with the homologation rules and meet demand from race teams around the world, and it was very expensive. Based on the factory racers, it featured the Elf-developed single sided swingarm (a real boost in endurance races, where quick wheel changes were required) and a special version of the V4 engine which shared very little with the touring biassed VFR750F (one of the most popular bikes of the time).
It made just under 120bhp as standard but was designed to be used with a race kit on the track. It was an instant hit, writing itself into the history books when it powered American ace Fred Merkel to the first two world superbike titles. It also won numerous endurance races, national championships and Isle of Man TTs.
Honda NR750 (1992)
With the obvious exception of the RC30, we’ve largely focussed on Honda’s street bikes (for frankly we’d end up writing a book if we talked about the technology introduced on the company’s racers from the ‘60s and ‘70s) but no bike has probably ever showcased what Honda is all about more than the NR750.
A technological marvel, the NR750 was expensive and produced in very limited numbers. it showcased Honda’s commitment to pushing engineering boundaries.
Honda never took the easy route in racing. The company avoided crude two-strokes for as long as possible, instead trying some complex and creative engineering led solutions, like multiple cylinders and gearboxes with an implausibly large number of cogs to stick with its four-stroke philosophy.
The NR500 Grand Prix racer of 1979 was Honda’s defiant last stand against the strokers. With rules allowing for only four cylinders, the company built the four-stroke NR (which stood for New Racing) with oval shaped pistons, allowing eight valves per cylinder and essentially making it a V8. Despite the ingenuity, it needed to be highly tuned to stand a chance against the more powerful two-strokes. As a result, it was unreliable and just couldn’t compete, but it did lead to this stunning showcase over a decade later.
The NR750 cost a fortune. The performance specs weren’t all that special, but that wasn’t the point. It was stunningly beautiful and a technical tour de force. Most went to collectors, and they remain among the most desirable and collectable classic motorbikes you can buy today. Its styling is considered to be the inspiration for the Ducati 916 of 1994, a machine widely considered to be the most beautiful motorcycle of all time.
Honda CBR900RR FireBlade (1992)
While the NR750 was little more than (a very impressive) platform for Honda to show off its technical skills, the CBR900RR FireBlade of the same year was the company’s gift to the everyday enthusiast.
On one hand there’s nothing outstandingly innovative about the first ‘Blade, but design chief Tadao Baba’s singlemindedness and obsession with lightness made it an absolute gamechanger.
Not built to meet racing regulations, nor assembled from parts lying around from other models, the FireBlade was lighter than most 600s and as powerful as most 1000s. It outperformed the 750cc superbikes of the era and made litre bikes look silly in corners.
It was a massive hit. Baba-san didn’t care about the latest trends. There were no fashionable upside down forks, when conventional units were lighter, while the 16” front wheel was chosen for weight reasons above all else. There were even holes drilled in the fairing, for goodness sake!
Later FireBlades got bigger engines, lost their uniqueness and arguably became more generic, but these early ‘90s machines brought a purity of design that probably hasn’t been seen in the motorcycling world since.
Honda VFR1200F DCT (2010)
A bit like the inclusion of the Hondamatic, we’re a bit torn as to whether or not the VFR1200F really belongs here but, having introduced Honda’s Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) to the buying public, it’s a hill we’re willing to die on.
Honda’s VFR range are all bona fide legends in their own rights. The V-Four engine configuration (hence the VF designation) was developed through Honda’s Formula One and endurance racing programme and, despite an inauspicious start (the first VF750s, launched in 1983, had massive issues with camshaft wear) the VFR750F sports tourer was one of the most versatile and popular motorcycles of the 1990s.
The sports tourer bubble had burst by the time the VFR1200F (and the related VFR1200X Crosstourer) landed in showrooms in 2010, but the optional DCT transmission once again showed Honda at its best and leading innovation.
Automatic transmission systems for motorcycles have risen in popularity in recent years, but Honda’s system remains the OG, allowing seamless gear changes without the need to operate a traditional clutch. It’s available on many Honda models these days, and is usually more popular than a manual version where offered – proving they were ahead of the game again with this one.
Honda RC213V-S (2015)
Honda was the dominant force in the early era of MotoGP racing, and the RC213V-S was the company’s very exclusive way of celebrating this.
A street legal version of the RC213V race bike upon which Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez won MotoGP world titles, the RC213V-S was a hand built motorcycle which came with a £140,000 price tag.
With the optional race kit fitted, this machine made a claimed 215bhp and was the closest thing you could buy to a real MotoGP prototype. It may not have been a motorcycle for the masses like those very first Super Cubs, but the RC213V-S was the ultimate self-tribute to Honda’s glorious racing pedigree and the sort of thing Honda trots out every other decade to remind us how brilliant they are and embody their slogan – The Power of Dreams.
It's not all great though…
While we’ve missed out some undoubtedly great motorcycles in our top 10 innovative Hondas, it would be remiss of us to ignore the fact that not everything the company touches turns to gold. Flops like the original VF750F (fabled for its failing camshafts), the DN-01 (a weird cruiser/scooter/sportsbike cross over), NM4 Vultus (an equally unconventional maxi scooter with Bat Bike vibes) and the CX500 Turbo (just why?) all make our list of hopeless Hondas.
Whether history will place the EV Fun and V3 in the ‘hit’ or ‘miss’ category remains to be seen. Either way, we’re pretty sure they won’t be the last motorcycles the company produces which break down traditional boundaries.
