The Kneeslider

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Honda Fury Chopper Rumors

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Honda Fury

These spy photos, from the Spanish website, Solomoto, have been running all over the web and are supposedly the test mule for a new Honda chopper called the Fury. It’s a V-Twin with displacement guesses running from 1300cc to 2000cc. Honda dealers were shown a video and rumor has it, the bike will debut at the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show and be introduced next year.

If Honda is really going to introduce a bike like this, I think they missed the market by about 2 or 3 years unless there is some super secret drive train or something else to make it remarkable or maybe Honda knows something about pent up demand for choppers and cruisers that everyone else has missed.

Look at the photos and decide for yourself.

Link: Solomoto

Honda Fury

Comments

  2. Yawn.

    Really? Another dealer-chopper? Really?

    Just ask Harley how that is working out for them.

    Missed this market by at least two years.

  3. Two years? Seems a lot longer than that. I’d say 5+, during the American Chopper/Monster Garage peak.

    Then they just got cliche.

  4. Ugh, why can’t they just bring a couple of decent standard motorcycles (under 1000cc, please) here to the States instead? Honda, I want to love you again, I really do…but not just for your products that are 20+ years old. =(

  5. Blah, It will take more than an underseat radiator to make this thing exciting. I wonder though, if they are doing this to tidy up their range in order to ditch a few of their current chopper-cruzer bikes. That would make more sense than another entry into a drooping niche market. At least its not 2000cc…. oh wait..

  6. is that a real hardtail or one of those hidden suspensions in the back?

    always nice to not shatter the ol’ vertebrae

    I like it. Not overstated.

  8. Looks like they are going for the boat shoe crowd, not that there is anything wrong with that (I recognized them because I wear them). Not a bad bike, to round out their line, but I agree with the above comment and would also like to see a couple of the old school small bikes brought out as well.

  10. Wow. Those are some really old photos. I recall seeing those pics years ago. I am not so sure that anything, from the bike you have pictured, will make it to the Honda Fury. That thing has a VTX 1800 engine in it, a modified frame, and a belt drive. The new Honda Fury is supposed to be a 1300cc engine (There has been some Internet speculation that the motor is the same engine from the vtx 1300, I doubt it). The Fury will be shaft driven, not belt. Quite frankly, Honda is several years too late in coming out with a chopper model.

  11. With every passing year and every new model introduced into the US I am becoming less and less of a potential Honda customer.

    The last years of good Honda design (imported to the US) were around ’89-’91; CB1, GB500, HawkGT, NSR500, Transalp, RC30, PC800, ST1100, after that only the 2004 Dream 50R. Remember walking into a Honda dealer back then, there was something for everyone, well beyond what I mentioned above. Now what? This?

    -todd

  12. If you look closely you can see that this has the fuel tank, forks, and headlight from a Kawasaki VN1600. The rear fender from a Meanstreak. And the motor looks to be the Honda VTX1800. This is most likely just someones custom built bike from scraps of other popular bikes.

  13. “custom built bike from scraps”….with some type of monitoring device on the tank ?

    Missing the chopper cruiser market? yes.

    Coming up with possibly more aesthetic ways to package a liquid-cooled, naked bike which could transcend from cruisers to cafes?

    Alright.

  14. Um. Why would they produce that and not produce those retro concept CB1100F and CB1100R: at least the CB’s would work as actual motorbikes not just a poseur fashion statement. And for someone with a 28 inch inseam, that “legs straight out in front of you” is completely pointless. Great having a low seat but if you can’t put your feet on the pegs what is the point? H-D Nightster actually gets it right with the mid mount pegs.

    FAIL.

  16. i seriously doubt Honda would send a test rider out without a proper jacket and boots. my guess is it’s just a very well done custom. thankfully. i don’t think i could handle another “factory custom cruiser”.

  18. All the dentists have their rides and the bankers are cutting back this year.

    Young adults with a little money to spend, would like a tricked out underbone from South East Asia. Where’s that? The rich folk would like a few Super Cubs to keep in the garage at the Summer house. I would like a sport tourer in about the 450cc range.

  19. Yep, just what the US needs. Yet another Harley-styled mondo-cruiser.

    It’s pretty as far as it goes, but could we please see some of the originality of design that Europe gets please?

  20. tim said it best: Honda has it’s head WAY up it’s ass if it thinks there’s no demand for the CB1100F/R, come on Honda!

  21. Honda chose this over a modern CB650? WTF?

    I’ve had Hondas, and liked them, but
    I don’t see me buying one soon if my only
    seating choices are racer rearsets or the
    Human Sail position.

  23. That is not an old photo or pieces of other bikes. The front disc is not hub mounted and the rear is on the same side as the belt. That may be an older engine but I believe the radiator is under the bike. At least that’s what appears on the drawings. Don’t whine for a standard just because you aren’t in to cruisers. There is a great market for this type of bike if reasonably priced. Yeah the $30 to 60K market topped out. Big surprise. If they get the sound right like Harley, Yamaha, and Victory it will sell.

  24. I was wrong: the front rotor is hub mounted. I don’t see an axle adjuster or belt tension roller. Interesting. That’s not a test rider. Only an engineer would wear loafers with carpenter jeans and tape his sleeves closed with electrical tape.

  25. My theory is that Honda is searching for motorcycles designs they can hide high-priced Japanese labor in and thereby keep their aging, un-layoff-able Japanese work force productively occupied.

  26. Boring boring, i want simple elegant light weight mid capacity bikes (350-500’s) twins and singles with proper riding positions not bizare factory ‘choppers’.

  27. It’s liquid cooled! Look at the last pic on the solomoto site. There is a green coolant bottle under the rider’s thigh. There is also a metal scoop or duct just rear of the bottle. Tell me I’m wrong…

  28. Ya’ll won’t make me believe that Honda doesn’t know what they’re doing. They are probably smart enough and significantly experienced to invest their resources in a product that they will sell.
    It’s unfortunate if they don’t launch bikes that pleases us, readers of the kneeslider, but we probably don’t represent the largest potential of honda buyers.
    Now, all of you who crave for a 450, why not buying a 70’s CB in a barn and work on it ?

  29. Nic, that’s what we’ve been doing for years now since we can’t get anything like it from the dealer. If manufacturers made a bunch of light weight low-mid cap standards the used classic bike market would collapse!

    -todd

  31. Just thinking for a second about that “midweight, mid capacity, usable motorcycle” we’re all pining for:

    Suzuki SV650 naked (do you even get them in the US?: I had one, great little bike and with some fettling a hell of a lot of fun as a trackday special):

    Honda Hornet 600 or 900 also fits the bill. My 900 Hornet is the most like my old CB750’s (air cooled, SOHC thank you)the ultimate do it all bike you can commute on, ride your local racer road and tour on, then thrash it on trackdays. I got my first ever knee down (on a racetrack of course) on my Hornet.

    Triumph Street Triple is getting there, too, though at the quite overtly sporty end of the spectrum.

    We also get Suzuki GS500’s here (or did till recently) which are at the workaday end of that spectrum.

    I don’t know where the majority of posters on this board are from, but perhaps the issue is the US market, and decisions made about what might sell where you live, and the issues about parts inventory, backup and exactly how many might sell, not whether the bikes are available globally?

  32. Those photos were taken back in 2003 so I doubt there is any similarity between it and the upcoming Fury. In fact I doubt that spy shot is of a Honda at all, have a look at the rear fender and taillight, exactly the same as the current model Kawasaki VN900 Custom, so I’m guessing this was some kind of Kawasaki test mule which never ended up seeing the light of day.

  33. chopper? anyone that calls that a chopper is blind. and harley has a chopper? alot of confused “bikers” here i suppose.

  34. Tim, no, we’re talking something less – about half the SV650. Around 40 horsepower, under 350 pounds; pretty much a modern day RD350 / CB400F. Something that might hit 100mph if you tuck in and teases bigger bikes in the canyons… something Goldilocks would buy.

    Mike is right, this Honda isn’t even a Chopper. It would be more interesting if it actually was.

    -todd

  35. I think tim and todd are on the right track so lets get them plane tickets to japan so maybe a couple of actual motorcycle riders can get the point across as in something functional. mid size and I want to ride it all the time

  36. Todd & guys, the 50 hp 350 lbs formula already exists in the US, it’s called DR650 or XR650. Put some road tires on it, eventually 17″ in the front to llok cool and deserve the term “supermotard”, and I can ensure you that it makes the daily commute fun, and it beats fast spectacular supersport bikes on the twisty roads.

  37. Nicolas, I have a 94 XR650 with CBR600 wheels. I’m 6 foot, 3 inches tall and I’m still on the tips of my toes at lights. Maybe Honda should have taken the XR and built a street roadster, same goes for Suzuki.

    Maybe I should.

    -todd

  39. I just sold my DR650 (damn myself), I’m 6″2 and always had my feet on the ground at red lights. But the geometry of this bike also helps to make as easy to ride as a bicycle, and allows you to go where a roadster typed bike would scratch it’s belly.
    As you probably know, the HP are easy to reach with to simple optimizations such as dynojet kit, good flowing exhaust, or even bigger carb … not even talking about high compression pistons or other fancy twists. But the point is that you don’t really look for HP at the top end of the band, more for the umpf at low-mid range. All these DR/XR are enjoyable for their kick-in-the-butt character, while they lack in the pull-the-arms side. And I know that usually nobody believes it, but a good DR/XR650 can smoke out any 100+HP sportsbike, I can testify on it ! 😉

  40. … I mean on a twisty road, of course as soon as it gets straight, my CBR buddy leaves me in the dust …

  41. remember the transalp I liked that one I think that bike was ahead of its time so the sv650 is right in there now, my insurance on my pre-historic ancient wing is ridiculous so lets focus on the semi multipurpose mid size,I dont think a single is totally the way to go but a twin either parallel or v whatever the preference (mines parallel) 650 to 750 with todays technology should deliver all the goods anybody would realistically want.but to each his own.

  42. That IS NOT the Fury or even a test bed for teh Fury!! That is an old spy pic from 2003 of a R&D VTX 1800, it never went anywhere and these pics circulating the web are just incredible rumors from someone that has NO CLUE what Honda is doing with the Fury. It’s best if this website shuts this thread down as it is only perpetuating the lies that site in Spain is spewwing

  44. Even better, Honda can circulate the photos and create the rumors themselves to judge public opinion. They don’t even have to build a prototype, just find a few old test pictures of a less than recognizable bike, leak them out to a populated Spanish blog and follow the frenzy. Valuable target marketing and feedback, All for free.

    -todd

  45. I’ll keep my Yamaha STAR Raider.
    Best bikes I’ve ever owned. Have been riding for 40 years.

  46. Ok guys, If you look close you wil notice that that bike has no turn signals, which Honda would NOT put on the road with an engineer or test rider. And a major player like Honda would play it very straight, with all their testing done on their own testing grounds in Japan. Not to mention that Honda would not let anyone test drive either a bike or car without all the proper safety gear on.

  48. I’ve read several stating that it came to late, perhaps but what I think they are trying to do as many others are doing is piggy backing off of the Victory, this bike looks almost identical to the 8 Ball.

  49. Honda is trying to build something attractive and reliable, so kudos for that. But once again it will be too expensive for anyone except a bunch of old guys or retirees. What manufacturers *should do* if they want to get a younger market is produce a rigid frame bike for around $5k or less. And before all you naysayers start griping –remember what it was like to be young and fearless? A rigid frame bike isn’t scary or impossible to ride long distance. The proof is in what Harley did with the Nightster, which is a hit among the twenty-something crowd –many of whom are now converting them with rigid struts and customizing them with apehanger bars, smaller blinkers (or none at all) and other personal custom mods.

    As long as there is a new generation of riders, it’s never too late for the “cool” factor.

  50. look closely and you can see the screengrab of the bike in this…

    wwww.furyisunleashed.com

  51. Let West Coast and Harley be West Coast and Harley. This thing is not why I love Honda. Why don’t they just improve the Sabre and bring it back?

  52. I’d like to buy the mule the boat shoe guy is riding its more interesting than the cookie cutter 1300. zzzzzzzz

  54. what i think is funny is that the FURY looks nothing like this concept at the top of the page!!!! the bike at the top would bomb bad. but goggle the honda FURY and check it out on youtube. it is a very sweat looking bike. beats any thing that harley has on the market in looks and kills it it price. so go check out the real thing and leave this wona be chopper alone!!!!

  55. I agree with the earlier coment about smaller bikes. I’d love to have a little 125 or something to scoot around on thats not 25 years old. But, not a rebel. there’s a guy on youtube that customized his rebel to look like a harley. A crash bar saddlebags even tassels seems kind of rediculous. but I guess to each thier own.