Ross Noble celebrating 500,000th Triumph

Two things seem certain to appear from the Honda stable for 2012. First is a production version of the Crosstourer V4 concept, giving the firm a rival to BMW's market-topping R1200GS, and second is a new sports bike.

While there's little secret about the V4 – the Crosstourer concept basically showed exactly what we can expect – the sports bike is a much harder machine to anticipate. Both the Fireblade and CBR600RR are overdue for replacement, so it's question of which bike will be updated first.

Some suggest the Fireblade is in line for replacement, as it's a better seller than the CBR600RR – indeed the Blade was the UK's best selling superbike last year, despite being far older than most of its rivals. Others would bet on the CBR600RR being replaced for exactly the same reason – it isn't selling so well, so perhaps a new version will be able to revive that market. Of the two, the CBR600RR is logically the model to replace; it's older, having been launched as a 2007 model (although it was very mildly revamped for 2009).

Either way there should be something for sports bike fans in Honda's list of 2012 models. More exciting still is the suggestion that Honda will revive the RVF brand for a V4 engined sports bike. Certainly, the firm has renewed its trademark on the RVF name, several patents have been filed showing a V4 engine with gear-driven cams (unlike the chain-driven cams of the VFR1200) and such a motor would provide a good basis for WSB success. But similar rumours have turned out to be dead ends in the past...

On the subject of V4s, the firm is also known to have already long-since developed a tourer to replace the Pan European, based around the engine and chassis from the VFR1200F. Originally it was expected as a 2011 model – so maybe it will make it into the 2012 range.