NEW 2014: CB 1100, CB 1100 EX

[AzBob_imp]

I just spoke with a very nice, tight lipped, man at Honda in Torrence. I had inquired about the availability and MSRP of the '14 EX in the US. His response was "the EX is currently only a Japanese and European market bike; therefore no pricing is available. We appreciate your call and this inquiry will be sent to management. If enough interest is shown in NA through these types of calls, it could possibly encourage Honda to bring them stateside. The regular CB has exceeded sales expectations so this may help as well."

If this is true, and it's also true that the CB has exceeded sales expectations, I don't see any reason to think the '14 EX won't come here. Note that the Torrance man said the EX is "currently" only a Japanese and European market bike. Means nothing at this point, and until Honda corporate officially confirms or denies it, this is all just rife speculation. I suspect we'll know more by March, but even that is just speculation on my part until Honda makes an announcement, about any, uh, forthcoming announcements. Trying to discern what the inscrutable Japanese intend to do can be fun, but they rarely let their secrets out before they're ready to...

If it were August or September 2013, I would agree. However, if you've been following motorcycles for a couple of years or more, you know that all the manufacturers announce their entire line-up around November. Honda has already done that. The only bike they left a little later was the new Valkyrie, and even that was only a couple of weeks after everything else. The CB1100 is not coming to the U.S. for the 2014 model year. At this point, they would have had to submit specimens for various emissions and safety protocols to make it in time. There's no point in releasing a bike mid-summer, missing half the buying season.

I have to disagree with you there, AzBob. I've been waiting for Yamaha to announce what 2014 models of Super Tenere they'll be bringing in -- electronic suspension model/non-ES model, or both -- and it's common knowledge they'll be making the announcement in March. So while they have announced some of the their 2014 lineup, they haven't announced their entire lineup, not to mention there are some pretty credible rumors out there that Yamaha will be releasing 3 or 4 other all-new models in 2014, mostly based on their new triple. I think anyone who is categorically stating that the CB1100 won't be coming to the U.S. for 2014 is no more than guessing, like the rest of us.

I see on the EPA website that they only have 2 Honda models scheduled for compliance this year, so it's probably the case that unless a revised model has had changes made to the motor itself, it probably gets a waiver or something along those lines.

As to when manufacturers release models, sure, it makes more sense to release models before riding season starts, but Yamaha started shipping FZ-09s to dealers in October and November of 2013, so that's not always the case. It doesn't appear to have hurt sales of the FZ-09s at all, as I've heard they are still flying out of dealers showrooms.

That's one model of a bike that sells well already in the largest growing segment of motorcycling that's already been on sale for a a couple of years in the U.S.

Quote:As to when manufacturers release models, sure, it makes more sense to release models before riding season starts, but Yamaha started shipping FZ-09s to dealers in October and November of 2013, so that's not always the case. It doesn't appear to have hurt sales of the FZ-09s at all, as I've heard they are still flying out of dealers showrooms.
The FZ-09 released in Oct/Nov is a 2014 model. If anything, it gives it MORE time to reach forecast sales figures.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The only reason I can think of for delaying the announcement would be unsold inventory of 2013's. But even when the 2008-2010 CBR's were clogging up dealer showrooms, Honda never failed to announce the next model year's version in November.