Honda has taken a bold step outside traditional motorcycling boundaries with the DN-01
Posted on 03/13/2009 3:25:30 PM PDT by JoeProBono
There seems to be a trend among manufacturers to design motorcycles for people who don't really like them. It's no surprise, then, that Honda, the world's largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, wants in on this nontraditional crowd. This is, after all, the "you meet the nicest people" company that virtually invented the concept of motorcycling as a mass-market pastime. Now it wants to broaden those horizons further, and it sees a niche smack dab between the loafer-wearing scooter crowd and those preening, leather-shod bikers. Its solution is the DN-01 ($17,499). While it looks like a motorcycle (well, sort of ), it feels like a scooter, albeit a full-sized one. For instance, the seating position -- though the frame is not a scooter-like stepthrough-- is pure, easy-to-live-with scooter. The floorboards tilt at the same angle, the handlebar is all sit-up-and-beg and the low, low seat and its large rearward hump could be right off Honda's Silver Wing. On the other hand, it has a real engine, in this case a 680-cc, eight-valve V-twin not unlike those powering many of the company's cruisers. It rides on normal 17-inch wheels rather than scooter-ish 12-inchers and 14-inchers. In fact, the DN-01's tires are sized almost identically to some of the most popular superbikes -- 190/50-17 at the rear and 130/70-17 up front. As well, there's an actual telescopic front fork up front and a well-damped single-shock rear suspension.
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Honda has taken a bold step outside traditional motorcycling boundaries with the DN-01
a scooter on steroids for $14,599 (USD)!!!
That’s crazeeee!!!
Some reason they couldn’t put that E-Tec/Bombardier engine in a bike??
Why is this not a motorcycle with an automatic transmission? Same tires, same engine, just a different stance. But there are a range of different stances in the motorcycle world today.
Agreed. It’s a motorcycle with an automatic transmission.
not sure but what is interesting about the scooter is it has a CVT tranny. THat’s pretty cool. Means you never feel the thing shift nor do you have to shift.
Doesn’t seem much like a scooter to me. The upright seating position could be said to be Harleyish as much as scooterish. It’s basically a laid back rice rocket.
Way, seriously overpriced
Looks like fun, but a VTX 1300 costs only $9899
That “different stance” looks kind of like a standard Harley riding position. The only thing I don’t like about this thing is the CVT transmission. You can’t “gear down” on one of those things and you can’t take it out of gear to coast.I used to love to put my bike in neutral to go down those lo-o-o-ong slopes in the Rockies.
It’s exotic. It’s first offering. The price will settle to what people will pay and the thing is still profitable.Honda wants to get the money of the first tier of buyers who will pay a premium to be the First with the New Thing. Then they will trim a little of the whoop-de-do and downsize the price for the rest.
That’s Powell’s little one. My son has my P81 that he restored and it is a cool looking Scoot. Powell Brothers built one smaller than the one in your post for the paratroopers for the invasion of Europe. After the war they also built station wagons and pickups at their plant in So Cal...
Isn't this a Tote Goat?
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