New For 1990

NEW FOR 1990

Honda's best finally comes to America

HERE’S SOME GOOD ADVICE: IF you run across a sleeping bear, don’t wake him. Large, furry mammals with sharp teeth can be pretty grumpy in the morning, and that means anything can happen.

Honda hasn’t exactly been hibernating for the last year, but the company certainly hasn’t been growling in its usual form. New models were scarce in 1989 and the company seemed to be resting after a tough season. On the performance front, Honda looked particularly weak, with the mid-sized CBR600 its biggest U.S. sportbike.

Now, though, from the looks of the early 1990 models, Honda is wide awake and spoiling for a fight. The photos you see here were dropped on our editorial desks with a wink and a warning. Honda claims these are only hors d'oeuvres, and that the main dishes are still to come. And when you have possibly the best sportbike, the best sport-tourer and the best touring bike in the world as a prelude to something else, well, it’s going to be a very good year.

Still, none of these three early releases is exactly a surprise. In fact, the CBR1000F was already on the cover of Cycle World in July, 1989. We sampled the bike, which at the time was a European-only model, and proclaimed it to be “the mostversatile, most-complete big sportbike ever.” Now Honda offers it to America in silver-and-gray, a sort of “Gentleman’s Express,’’ or in the more-flamboyant, white-and-red paint scheme as seen on the Euro CBR 1000 that graced our July cover.

Then there’s the limited-production 750cc Honda RC30, a bike sampled in the February, 1988, issue of CW. Back then, we thought it was more comparable to most l 100s than to 750-class sportbikes. And now the machine is even more refined. The RC30 is closer to a full-fledged factory racer than any streetbike ever offered by Japan, and its long-awaited homologation in the U.S. opens the door to renewed Honda involvement in AMA Superbike racing.

And finally, Honda offers us a peek at the Gold Wing SE, a deluxe version of the bike which has an ironfisted grip on the touring category of Cycle Worlcf s Ten Best Awards. The SÈ takes the luxurious GL1500 and goes several steps farther, with a large collection of features.

So, while none of these machines is all-new, they are tantalizing. And Honda promises that these are only the first rumblings from a company that has been quiet too long. The roar is yet to come. B3