Honda’s finally revealed their long-anticipated Hawk 11 – and by the looks of it, we’ve just been given a retro café racer that promises bang for buck in the power sector without costing a pretty penny in maintenance.
The tongue-in-cheek mathematics of this prediction comes from the following facts:
- According to the report from MCN, the Honda Hawk 11 is “built around the same 1,084cc, liquid-cooled, eight-valve, parallel-twin that powers the Africa Twin adventure-tourer, the Rebel 1100 cruiser and the so-far-Europe-only NT1100 sport-tourer.” Given the popularity and quality of the Africa Twin and Rebel models, we’re pretty much guaranteed a bulletproof thumper capable of 101hp and 77ft-lb of torque.
- The frame was technically borrowed from the NT1100 tourer, though that model used the African Twin’s chassis – another solid that pretty much guarantees quality along with the retro style.
Add to this the 17-inch wheels, Nissin road-going brakes and Showa SFF-BP suspension (along with the aggressive ergonomic lean that comes with any café racer) and you’ve got yourself a very nice touring piece of pretty that can still take a decent lean and bear a respectable homage to its original namesake.
A heads up that this is no Euro5-compliant engine; as such, we’re not expecting an EU debut – not for a while, anyway. Pricing and production dates have yet to be doled out, but with the Africa Twin currently nipping the purse strings at $14,499 USD and the NT1100 valued at £11,999 / 15844.68 USD, we’re expecting a price somewhere between the two.
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*Media sourced from MCN, Asphalt & Rubber, Visordown, Global Circulate and Rushlane as well as Team-BHP*
