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This Week’s Honda V4 Superbike Rumor

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I have to admit, this rumor is more than a week old, as Japanese magazine Young Machine breathed new life into the Honda V4 superbike rumor mill about a month ago.

And of course, the reality is that this rumor is much, much older than this tiny fraction of time.

If you know your motorcycle news history, talk of a Honda V4 replacement for the CBR1000RR line has existed for almost two decades now…but hey, a broken clock is correct twice a day, right?

So what is new from the Land of the Rising sun that we haven’t heard before? The big eye-catching component to this story is that Honda has/had a two-stage upgrade path for the CBR1000RR, of which we are about to see the second phase.

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Rumors

Return of the Honda V4 Superbike Rumor

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Call it the rumor the refuses to quit. I say this because there has been some form of “Honda V4 Superbike Coming Soon” speculation in the mix for about as long as I can remember.

Mind you, this is something that has been in the ether well before Asphalt & Rubber took form, and news of a Honda V4 superbike seems to pop-up just about every year, usually fuel by some “inside source” at Honda being quoted by a European magazine.

So, it seemed that the debut of the Honda RC213V-S would finally satiate this desire for a proper V4 liter-bike, but the disappoint of the “new” Honda CBR1000RR re-ignited the interest in there being a worthy successor of the Honda RC45.

Since then, there have been rumors and promises of a more affordable version of the Honda RC213V-S offered on the alter of moto-journalism, usually by the same offending sources. If only we could will this story to be true.

Cropping up yet again, this bout of the V4 rumor finds its beginnings in Japan now, with the popular Japanese publication Young Machine, tipping the idea.

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A Honda RVF1000 V4 Superbike for 2019?

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Since before I started Asphalt & Rubber, the scribe’s at MCN have been predicting a MotoGP-derived V4 superbike from Honda – I think the original rumor started with a V5 power plant, if that gives you an idea of how long this story has been making the circuit.

The hands on the clock are finally starting to meet with reality though, and the British magazine now says that a more affordable version of the Honda RC213V-S could hit dealerships in time for the 2019 model year.

This information echoes similar news that we saw before the launch of the updated Honda CBR1000RR – that Honda was working in parallel on a new Fireblade as well as a V4 superbike project.

Though now, MCN now points to recent patents filed by Honda, as well as sourced information that the bike is a couple model years away.

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Bikes

New Honda Superbike for 2017, But Will It Be Any Good?

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It’s the worst kept secret in the motorcycle industry right now, Honda is finally updating its superbike offering for the 2017 model year – replacing the now extremely long-in-the-tooth Honda CBR1000RR.

The interesting part of that news of course is whether that new superbike will go by the name CBR or RVF, as there is a bit of a debate regarding what kind of engine will power the Honda.

Despite whether it is an inline-four machine like the CBR1000RR, or a V4-powered beast like Honda’s MotoGP bike, the new superbike will have big shoes to fill.

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Rumor: Honda Working on a 1,000cc V4 Sportbike

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Fanned by a recent article in Motorcyclist (and an earlier article in MCN from the same author), rumors abound that Honda is working on a 1,000cc V4 sportbike, likely to be called the RVF1000R. A supplement to Honda’s superbike offering, and not a replacement to the CBR line, the new RVF would be a more premium superbike offering, differentiating itself from its inline-four cousin in a similar manner as the Rc-45 and RC-51 motorcycles did in previous decades.

If rumors are to be believed, we could see the new Honda V4 as early as the end of this year, with the major differentiation over the CBR1000RR being both the RVF1000R’s price, performance, and exclusivity. If done properly, the new Honda superbike could be an opportunity for the Japanese company to build some brand value beyond making cheap & reliable motorcycles. While the Japanese manufacturers have a reputation for making quality bikes, their work has never been translated into lifestyle status brand value, which is something a premium superbike could help foster.

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