The New Honda CB1000 Hornet is the Bargain of the Year

It’s coming up a whole year since we first saw the Honda CB1000 Hornet. The bike was revealed at EICMA 2023, and then…nothing. The 2023/2024 launch season came and went without the bike coming to market or the world’s motorcycle media having a go on it, but fast forward to today, and Honda is, at last, ready to reveal a price. It was worth the wait.

For the entry-level bike, you’re looking at just £8,995. For the SP version, it’s still under £10,000 (just), weighing in at £9,995. That’s Yamaha MT-09 money for a litre bike with a previous-generation CBR1000RR Fireblade engine, which makes the pokiest member of the growing Honda Hornet family astonishing value for money.

The 150bhp 1000bhp engine is tamed via four levels of traction control and three riding modes. There’s no inertial measurement unit, but one can’t really be expected for a rock-bottom price such as this. 

The chassis features an adjustable 41mm Showa SFF-BP upside-down fork, with a monoshock at the rear from the same firm. Braking is taken care of by 310mm front discs worked on by four-piston callipers, with a 240mm disc and a single-piston calliper at the rear. Upgrading to the SP switches out the shock for a fancier Öhlins TTX36 part and the front brake callipers to Brembo Stylemas.

Unlike the CB500 Hornet, which is a lightly restyled CB500F, the CB1000 Hornet gets an all-new twin-spar frame said to be 70 per cent stiffer than the CB1000R, a bike we suspect won’t be hanging around for long. There are also special engine mounts and “carefully shaped front mounting places” aimed at reducing vibrations, which is good news in a bike powered by a sizeable inline-four.

We’ll be riding the bike soon and will let you know if it’s worth £9k of your hard-earned cash.

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