How Honda Botched Their $184,000 Motorcycle
Honda brags about the RC213V-S’s “agility” and the quality of its welds and the wizardry of its electronics. And man, all that stuff is neat. But it’s not the story.
“Honda is asking the Japanese public to spend ¥21.9 million (or $184,000) for a motorcycle that makes two horsepower more than a Triumph Bonneville,” wrote Sean MacDonald on RevZilla’s Common Tread. That’s the story. The one being told by the press and talked about on message boards; the one that matters.
In order to make a MotoGP bike road legal, it has to meet noise regulations. A MotoGP bike makes 130dB; to be road legal in California, for instance, a motorcycle can’t make more than 80dB. That’s the difference between a phone’s dial tone and a jet engine. And to take the bike down from 130 to 80 would require the most gigantic of gigantic mufflers to end all gigantic mufflers. Which the RC213V-S does not wear.
Instead, Honda just programmed the ECU to artificially limit revs to whatever level will pass local noise regs. In Japan, that’s just 6,000 of its maximum potential 14,000rpm. That means it makes just 70bhp. And that’s just embarrassing.
Everyone who buys one will buy the sport kit (even if Honda says it’s illegal in America) and get the full 215bhp. But they’re still selling a stock $184,000 motorcycle that makes 2bhp more than a Bonneville.
(Jalopnik.com)
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