Techno Cruiser
TECHNO CRUISER
Show-circuit tease or the next Honda VTX1800?
SECOND ACTS ARE A BITCH. Nobody wants to be a one-hit wonder. Just ask Debbie Boone, Billy Ray Cyrus and Iron Butterfly-and hey, how’s that for the Vegas Lounge Act From Hell?
So, what to do if you’re HRA, American Honda’s in-house design studio, and your last big concept bike actually made it from clay mockup to assembly line virtually intact? That would be the orbexploding Rune 1800, quite possibly the most outrageous motorcycle ever rolled onto a dealer’s showroom floor and sold to the general public-not to mention CW's unanimous pick as Best Cruiser of 2004.
How do you follow that?
Here’s how: the “VTX Techno Cruiser,” a futuristic take on the VTwin custom, powered by a chaindrive version of the current VTX 1800 shaftie and looking very, very production-ready.
Okay, first we’d have to get with the boys in the casting shop. See, huge unsuspecting blocks of aluminum were sacrificed for this showbike. Engine sidecovers, swingarm, trailing-link fork pieces and both wheels were all chucked up and CNC-carved from billet. Zoom in on that rear rim. Is that not the tastiest tread-carrier you’ve ever seen? There is no axle per se, just two stubs on each end of the arm, cinched from the inside. Needlessly complicated, you say, tougher tire changes? Get the hell outta here...
Starting with the Zodia concept cruiser of 1995, Honda R&D types have gotten all gooey about trailing-link front suspension. The Rune runs one and so does the Techno, this time angularly styled to match the bodywork’s sharp creases (origami lives!) and the carbon-fiber mufflers’ wedginess.
Twin shocks behind the headlight cowl handle damping. A monoshock mounts out back, controlling movement of a meaty 240/40-15 Metzeler.
Our usual sources at AmHon clam up tighter than a Southern Baptist quilting bee when we inquire as to engine displacement, but c’mon, it’s gotta be pushing 2K, or why bother?
Been mondo activity with the VTX 1800 as of late. First we spied that midshipsradiator bob-job undergoing high-temp testing in Death Valley. Then Honda handed chopper god Jesse James a motor and a Brinks truck load of moolah to come up with his “Red Rocker”
VTX caféracer. Now comes this, Son of Rune. Why all the 1800 hubbub? It’s no secret that Honda’s big Vee isn’t exactly bounding off the sales floor, a malaise that a proliferation of VTX models and various buyer incentives hasn’t alleviated. Sure, the Rune holds the high ground as Big Red’s cruiser flagship, but at $26,000 per (and not much profit margin even then), how many of those are they gonna sell? Honda needs a saleable V-Twin cruiser, one that appeals to conventional buyers and graying sport riders ready to retire their knee-sliders, but not quite signing off on the whole fringed-chaps/flngerlessgloves thing.
Techno Cruiser broke cover at the Chicago Cycle World Show earlier this year surrounded by clipboard-toting researchers.
It surfaced again at Daytona and then was on display for a week at the big Rockefeller Center Show in New York City. Who knows where we’ll see it next. Maybe a dealership near you? -David Edwards
Like what you see? Hate it? Want it built? Binned? Here ’s your shot. Log on to www. cycleworld.com. click on Letters to the Editor and let your feelings be known! We’ll print the best and send the rest to American Honda.
