Honda Rune a True Collector's Item

[bornagainbiker]

 

[balkor2]

150k huh 

WOW

[shinyribs]

That's one thing I love about Honda. They love building motorcycles. So does KTM. 

 

Suzuki will give us a sport bike and sell it to us for the next 20 years. Kawasaki pumps out as many KLR's and 650 Ninjas as fast as they can. Sure, they kick out some winners now and then, but they typically just tow the line. Kawasaki has bigger interests. They were so uninterested in developing their own bikes that they started rebranding each other's bikes. That doesn't scream pride in your own brand to me. 

 

Honda also has older models that are grandfathered in ( XR650) , but they did finally give us a plated 450 dirt bike with a 6 speed. A plate and a 6 spd is two things Yamaha still won't give us in a WR450. 

Honda certainly has bigger interests than bikes as well, and somehow they've gotten the reputation of building boring motorcycles. I'll never get that. They were pumping out kickass V4's with rigid frames while Ducati was still peddling noodly framed air cooled twins with rattly clutches. Every generation of CBR has been a serious contender. The Blackbird , the 929 and 954 pretty much were instant legends. Honda offroad bikes have been legendary since even before the CR days. They've just always tried to give their riders more. Honda resisted the true 450 dual sport for reliability issues, but riders kept asking for it until Honda came out and said, "if that's what you really want, we'll build it for you. Btw, here's a sixth gear... you're gonna need that out on the open road".  

 

Honda has been so successful at building reliable bikes for so long that they've been able to make an absolute fortune, while other companies get by pretty good while spending a lot of money honoring warranty claims. So when Honda spends a ton of cash to give riders a limited run of Rune's just because they thought it would make their customers happy I don't see that as poor management. I take it as a nod of the head and a " Thank you for your business, please come again. We'll still be here". 

 

Meanwhile you have to pay KTM extra to unlock everything in the ECU that was available on the test ride, but later gets turned off when you actually buy the bike. 

 

My Honda fanboy is showing, and I don't care

[M. Hausknecht]

I think Honda makes the best street bikes. Well-engineering, well-built, and reliable. I love my '99 Blackbird. Fun enough on the twisties and able to cruise all day at well over 100mph, two-up and with hardshell luggage. But their street bikes turned into race bikes haven't been competitive for nearly 20 years. So ok, you can't have everything.

[klx678]

We had a Rune when they came out.  Incredible fit/finish.  We weren't overly fond of the look, but others were.   We sold it to a customer/friend of ours then.  Nice to know it has likely held value.  We also did an RC30 when they came out, sold it to another customer/friend.  I know he had a rake fall and dent the tank.  I hope he was able to fix it, he was a meticulous kind of person when it came to motorcycles.  I haven't seen him for a long time, so I don't know.   

Honda does provide excellent quality/fit/finish for the dollar and definitely in the years whe Soichiro Honda was alive the company wasn't afraid to take any risks when it came to motorcycles or any other kind of vehicle.

[shinyribs]

4 hours ago, M. Hausknecht said:

I think Honda makes the best street bikes. 

Yamaha won my heart with the new FZ/MT's , though Sold my XR's and CR's in favor of a WR as well. I've been waving the Yamaha flag for a long while now.

 

But this new 700 Hornet. Is it really gonna be a  MT07 with almost the hp of a MT09? I guess only a test ride will tell, but it's going to take something really special to peel my FZ09 grips from my hands. It took a FZ09 to get me to give up my FZ07. Even a FTR 1200 couldn't do that. And I'm still not sure I wouldn't be happier back on an 07. 

Yamaha's killing it right now. 

[shinyribs]

14 minutes ago, klx678 said:

We had a Rune when they came out.  Incredible fit/finish.  We weren't overly fond of the look, but others were.   We sold it to a customer/friend of ours then.  Nice to know it has likely held value.  We also did an RC30 when they came out, sold it to another customer/friend.  I know he had a rake fall and dent the tank.  I hope he was able to fix it, he was a meticulous kind of person when it came to motorcycles.  I haven't seen him for a long time, so I don't know.   

Honda does provide excellent quality/fit/finish for the dollar and definitely in the years whe Soichiro Honda was alive the company wasn't afraid to take any risks when it came to motorcycles or any other kind of vehicle.

Fit and finish is more important then we might think sometimes. I never could get over sitting on my 07 and having the plastics squeak when I eased in to the saddle. It really doesn't affect a thing and the bike was flawless. But it's a daily occurrence that eventually gets annoying, if a bit embarrassing at times  Straddling a proper metal tank and having a seat that's firmly attached to the frame goes a long way for me. 

[balkor2]

21 hours ago, M. Hausknecht said:

I think Honda makes the best street bikes.

 

16 hours ago, shinyribs said:

Yamaha won my heart with the new FZ/MT's

over the last 45 Years .....
Have ridden many different kinds of bikes. Street, Super Street, Dirt, Street/trail (dual), etc
When I decided to purchase another bike I had done some serious reading, looking, etc
Am by no means trying to say anything negative about anything.

Here is my conclusion:
Yamaha is the the number one Motorcycle. It is not perfect by any means also.
Yamaha has the least DOAs. For those of us whom are not Mechanically inclined or Intuit
     Honda and Yamaha switch back and forth as to which is best but at the time of making my decision Yamaha was number one.
Yamaha MT was the all around best for Cruise and Fun. When deciding, all the reviews came down to three bikes: Honda CB - Yamaha MT - Triumph Street Triple. After further detailing reviews and research, it was MT or Triumph -  but found the Triumph had a high (at the time of deciding) DOA compared to Yamaha.
Then the Price ... Triumph (at the time) was like 2+k more than MT - no brainer to me.

So Honda might be "better" but the question is honestly personal as to "What is better ?"  Price? Performance? reliability? Appearance? Function?  

Almost like   Honda versus Acura  or  Toyota versus Scion versus Lexus  or Infiniti versus Nissan

[cornerslider]

On 12/27/2022 at 5:34 PM, shinyribs said:

Fit and finish is more important then we might think sometimes. I never could get over sitting on my 07 and having the plastics squeak when I eased in to the saddle. It really doesn't affect a thing and the bike was flawless. But it's a daily occurrence that eventually gets annoying, if a bit embarrassing at times  Straddling a proper metal tank and having a seat that's firmly attached to the frame goes a long way for me. 

I bought a brand new Honda Goldwing GL1800 in 2003. It was sooo smooth, and quiet. It was actually too quiet..... All I could hear was all the plastic squeaking & creaking (LOTS of plastic on that generation Goldwing). As hard as I tried, I couldn't "not" hear it. I loved every other aspect of that bike!!! After 2 years, and 22,000 miles, I sold it. I replaced it with a 2005 Honda VTX1800F (minimal plastic). It was a much better fit for me. I owned the VTX from 2005-2019, and put 47,000 miles on it. Unfortunately I sold it. I loved it dearly, but found myself riding my 2016 FZ-07 much more than the VTX. I wish I still owned it -