11-21-2014, 12:23 AM
I hold that opinion too. With the caveat that many times they do something because a project just has to get done, on time, under budget, and they can't afford to muck with it anymore. Or it has to fit the most people in their target demographics.
Some companies are better it than others, but in this day and age, a company can't afford to let the public do the road testing.
In the case of the CB1100, they did an exceptional job at hitting their target. You may disagree with the target; but that is a different problem.
Now I think Honda did an exceptional job on this bike because I can't imagine many of the old guard still being around from the halcyon days of the 1970's that the young whipper snapper engineers could tap into that brain trust. NASA's engineers are trying to do that with the old Apollo engineers, most retired or dead. They are reviewing old F1 engines to noodle out how they were built; they simply could not and would be built the same way today. To replicate the feel of the old machines was a darn good feat.
Some companies are better it than others, but in this day and age, a company can't afford to let the public do the road testing.
In the case of the CB1100, they did an exceptional job at hitting their target. You may disagree with the target; but that is a different problem.
Now I think Honda did an exceptional job on this bike because I can't imagine many of the old guard still being around from the halcyon days of the 1970's that the young whipper snapper engineers could tap into that brain trust. NASA's engineers are trying to do that with the old Apollo engineers, most retired or dead. They are reviewing old F1 engines to noodle out how they were built; they simply could not and would be built the same way today. To replicate the feel of the old machines was a darn good feat.