Honda Working On Six-Cylinder Retro Motorcycle

With every bikemaker hopping aboard the retro-styled motorcycle hype train, Honda has also decided to get on with the bandwagon with a bonkers new motorcycle. Recently filed patent images suggest that the big red is gearing up to introduce a six-cylinder retro superbike!

While it could be easy to dismiss it as just another wild concept, some intricate details reveal a different story. The front end of the fairing houses circular cutouts on both sides of the headlight, probably to incorporate pilot lights. Look more closely and you'll notice ABS speed sensors on both wheels. Then you have the rear number hanger, pillion footpegs, side indicators and the six exhaust headers merging into a collector box, housing a catalytic converter, before being split up again. This seems like a lot of effort if Honda just wanted to display a prototype. Clearly the engineers have put in a lot of road-worthy details at this early stage of the design, suggesting that it may be well on the way to a full-fledged production motorcycle.

The rest of the prototype is standard retro bike fare. There’s the classic cafe racer-like design, clip-on handlebars, a round headlamp unit, bullet-shaped fairing, rear seat cowl and a solo seat. Safe to say, it will be designed to rival the Triumph Thruxton 1200 R and the BMW R nineT Racer.

From the looks of the engine, it seems to be of a larger capacity, probably a full-blown 1000cc. There are six cylinders instead of standard four, indicating that it should be ranked above its competitors in sheer numbers. This leads us to believe that Honda might revive its six-cylinder machine, the CBX, after almost 40 years.

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As we mentioned earlier, these are only rendered sketches with no specifications attached to them. For now, we can only put on our tinfoil hats and speculate. However, we can expect at least the concept to debut at this year's EICMA motor show.