Brilliance of honda

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The best Honda in history was the NX 250. Nothing equals it's durability and endurance. Me going 165 km/h with a passenger in straight lines to a place 100 km away plus hills and mountain ranges thrown in the mix. It had guts. I just stopped using it, it never failed me, when I turned it off for the last time it didn't burnt a drop of oil.
 
I'm slightly biased but:


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Priller said:
To me, Honda was magic for a long time up until the mid-'00s. They simultaneously made the dead-reliable tools for peoples day-to-day lives while also spreading their wing(s) in all sorts of experimental directions. The same company that built solid rocks like the ST1100 also went nuts and made the NR750 or Rune (check used prices on them if you think they were a dud). The RC30 sums it up best: a beautifully engineered machine built to win races (and it won a lot) that was also amazing as a street bike, incredibly reliable, and stunning to boot.

Somewhere along the way, though, they forgot the wacko and experimental stuff and just made the reliable stuff. The OG CBR900RR redefined sportbikes, but from 2008 on, the bikes were bland and ugly. Only the latest pirate edition has brought any desirability back to the model. They seem to be finding some of their spark lately, though that may also be me aging into finding bikes like the Africa Twin sexy...

It might be to simple to say the death of Soichiro was the culprit, with the echoes of his vision taking over a decade to dissipate, but they have felt an awful lot like the dullest of corporations over the past 15 years. I'd love to see them do more design exercises like the Rune or thought experiments like the NR, even if they're not to everyone's taste. Sure, they did that GP bike a few years ago, but that wasn't imaginative or creative, it was the opposite.
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Honda was run by engineers and now is run by bean counters. Their products are still very good imo (10th gen civic and the Type R) but they lack that something special many of the 90s and early 2000's products had (S2000, their 90s bikes, lightweight fun econo boxes with double wishbone suspension and brilliantly fun DOHC VTEC engines. Their '88 F1 engine was a jewel with very advanced fuel control for its time. They then built a winning V10 and a year later a winning V12. Maybe some of their 90s success can be attributed to Japans bubble economy of the late 80s...

The bikes over the last decade are bland, dependable, reliable products but lacking in soul or excitement.
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