Honda Hornet 1000

[Mick_J]

I managed to get out on the new Honda Hornet 1000 basic yesterday, and these are my thoughts.
Dealer took me out to the bike and pointed out that this was the standard version, not the SP but that they had fitted some goodies, an SC tail pipe, the comfort seat, a quick shifter and a rear seat cover, however the seat it replaced is very, very small.  Firstly I was very impressed with the fit and finish of bike for the price, 1000cc 150 BHP bike for just £9k on the road.  Suspension is KYB (I think) and brakes are Nissin.  Sitting on the bike I first noticed that Honda have their horn and indicator switches the wrong way round but everything fell to hand easily.  The TFT screen was nice and clear but I didn't find it easy to navigate through.  There is a row of lights on both side of the main display with leds for neutral, high beam, indicators, engine management etc.  The main display has mode in the top left with a full range tacho running underneath.  Top right has a clock.  Left side has a fuel gauge and gear position indicator.  In the middle is a large speed readout and to the bottom right is a sub menu box which opens up when you need to read trips, range and fuel consumption etc.   The switch gear was easy to reach and operate. 
After the brief I fired it up and went out for my ride.  The bike slipped into first easily and we pulled out of the dealership really smoothly, gears were slick and a quick test of the brakes showed they lacked nothing.  Working my way through town to find some decent roads I soon began to hate the quick shifter, it is very intrusive in town but to be fair I have found most are. 
Out of town and I just settled in and tried to get a feel for the bike.  Honda are not selling this bike as a super naked so has fitted a 180/55 rear tyre, not the now more common 190/55 so it was quite nimble in town allowing easy feet up filtering.  The clutch was nice and light, the brakes were spot on and the controls were slick, so far so good.
Out of town I was able to open it up a bit and found the engine to be very flexible, pulling 6th from 1800 revs without complaint and smoothly accelerating right up towards the red line.  It is geared a bit high as 4000 RPM brings up just 60 MPH but I guess it's catering for the naked street bike market so is probably spot on.  It's only out of town on faster roads the quick shifter works (mostly) properly, with higher revs it would settle down but I don't ride at the red line.  I found the suspension and handling to be really good, it goes where you want it to go and take bends smoothly giving plenty of feel and confidence.  On a clear bit of road I jumped on the brakes and they pulled the bike up really quickly so no problems there.   the gear selection was slick and positive, I found no false neutrals in the box and running up and down the box was very easy.  For almost 50 years I have not used the clutch to change gear and I had to remember not to blip off the throttle when changing, when I did and just used the quick shifter going up the box was often a little jerky but coming down was brilliant with a perfect amount of auto blipper making the exhaust howl (but a bit quiet), it would be easy to ride this bike very fast, it is great fun, so much so I took a stretch of road twice just to use the quick shifter up and down and listen to the exhaust.  It does get a viby above 5 thousand revs which I didn't like but that didn't seem to affect the mirrors which are reasonable, I can see whats behind.
And now for the bad bits (to me).  I found the bike very uncomfortable, the seat is too low for me at 807cms and is rock hard with only the thinnest amount of padding, and this is the alcantara comfort seat, the standard one must be pure torture.  The actual riding position was fine but the seat made my 40 mile dem painful.  The dealer put a gallon of fuel in before I set off but the fuel guage was lower than It was when I got back so it has a bit of a thirst.  Some of the information of the TFT was a bit of a faff to get to but I think that once set up and you get used to it, it would find it easy to navigate.
So it looks great, sounds good and is a very smooth (below 5k) and slick performer with good suspension and very good brakes.  It's priced exceptionally well, so well in fact that Kawasaki have had to drop the price of the Z900 to try to keep pace with it.  It is made in Japan so should keep looking good and be disgustingly reliable for may years to come but it's not hard to see where they have saved some money.  The seat is horrendous it has no IMU or cruise control.  But at the end of the day it's great fun to ride and as a street bike it has an awful lot going for it.  I have a dem on the Z900 next so week so I'll see how they compare.

[KiwiCol]

Great write up Mick, I'll look forward to the Z900 comparison.   

BTW, the Triumph quick shifter is superb at all speeds, up & down.  Ya should see if you can get a demo of a loaded rocket 3 & see what ya think of that.

[Rynglieder]

Informatively presented thank you.

[Pommeroy]

Sounds like you're having some fun, and it's great to hear your thoughts. I do like the look of the kwaka.

If you're 807cms tall, most bikes will be low for you. Have you considered a giraffe?

[Kiwifruit]

Good to see some of the older but familiar names coming out of the woodwork 

[Mick_J]

Sounds like you're having some fun, and it's great to hear your thoughts. I do like the look of the kwaka.

If you're 807cms tall, most bikes will be low for you. Have you considered a giraffe?

Haha, I did mate but kept sliding off the back.