Honda Motorcycle Road Tests
& Reviews
Honda Motorcycle Guide
Honda, the biggest of the Japanese Big Four, began manufacturing motorcycles in 1955. Honda motorcycle road tests reflect the company's history as the world's largest manufacturer of both motorcycles and internal combustion engines by volume. Honda's Super Cub, having been in continuous production since 1958 and surpassing 60 million units in 2008, is the world's most produced motor vehicle. The Super Cub's U.S. advertising campaign, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda," had a positive, enduring impact on Honda motorcycles, their image, and American attitudes about motorcycling.
2013 Middleweight Metric Cruiser Comparo
Greg Drevenstedt
June 5, 2013
My favorite comfort foods, heart-warming and artery-clogging classics like mac-and-cheese, buttermilk biscuits and pulled-pork barbecue, are straightforward and uncomplicated, each prepared with a short list of ingredients and easy techniques. But many cooks have been fooled by such simplicity, following... Read more »
2013 Honda Shadow Aero Review
Greg Drevenstedt
June 5, 2013
Like Kawasaki’s Vulcan line, Honda has had Shadow cruisers in its lineup since the early 1980s. Over the past three decades, engine displacements have gone up and down, models have come and gone. But since the 1,100cc Shadow Sabre was retired in 2007, the Shadow pedigree has lived on in the middleweight... Read more »
Grom, Forza and CRF250L Join Honda’s 2014 Lineup
Press Release
May 14, 2013
American Honda has introduced a selection of machines that will be in its 2014 powersports lineup, including the 125cc Grom street bike, 279cc Forza scooter and CRF250L dual-sport. “This is really a fun time for Honda fans, as we unveil these incredibly cool machines for 2014 that reach out to entirely... Read more »
2013 Honda F6B – Rider Test
Mark Tuttle
May 3, 2013
Last year, more new touring motorcycles were sold than bikes in any other individual street bike category, even cruisers. Touring includes luxury performers such as the Honda Gold Wing, BMW K 1600 GTL and the like, but the vast majority of those top-selling machines were “baggers,” large V-twin touring... Read more »
Comparison Test: 2013 BMW C 650 GT vs. 2013 Honda NC700X
Mark Tuttle
April 3, 2013
We aren’t normally a shiftless bunch except for an hour or two after lunch, but we recently spent the last two weeks swapping between two new “automatics”—BMW’s C 650 GT maxi-scooter, and Honda’s NC700X with dual-clutch transmission—in an effort to see which type of shiftless two-wheeler... Read more »
2013 Honda CBR600RR—First Ride
Greg Drevenstedt
March 29, 2013
Ten years. More than 100,000 units sold. Multiple AMA Supersport and Formula Xtreme championships. Seven FIM World Supersport titles. Genesis for the official spec engine in Moto2 racing. New MotoGP-inspired bodywork has 6.5% less aerodynamic drag. Those are serious bona fides for a serious sportbike.... Read more »
2014 Honda CTX700 and CTX700N – First Look
Greg Drevenstedt
February 8, 2013
At the Chicago round of the International Motorcycle Show, Honda announced updated colors and pricing for the recently released NC700X and the introduction of two new models, the CTX700 and CTX700N, both powered by the same 670cc parallel twin as the NC. This announcement rounds out the largest crop... Read more »
Retrospective: Honda NC/NA50 Express: 1977-1983
Clement Salvadori
February 4, 2013
When the price of gasoline rose to 60 cents a gallon back in 1976, Honda figured it had a whole new market. Americans were approaching panic status at the thought of spending more than 10 bucks to fill up the tank of that Buick or Dodge. OPEC (Organization of Oil Exporting Countries) had us over the... Read more »
Rider Comparo: 2013 Honda CRF250L vs. 2013 Kawasaki KLX250S vs. 2013 Yamaha WR250R
Arden Kysely
January 31, 2013
The last time Rider corralled a herd of 250 dual-sports (April 2008), we chose the thriftiest models available in the face of rising gas prices. This time we went for best-in-class, grabbing Yamaha’s WR250R, Honda’s new CRF250L and Kawasaki’s KLX250S—the only return contender. The KLX received... Read more »
2013 Honda CRF250L: Ridden & Rated
Donya Carlson
January 3, 2013
Conventional wisdom says you can’t please everyone, but that’s not stopping Honda from trying. Its new 2013 CRF250L dual-sport has a liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, single-cylinder engine derived from the peppy CBR250R. The company’s goal is to spark the imagination of returning, new and current... Read more »
