Big Red Soft-Launches the Honda Hawk11 for the Japanese Market

The Honda Hawk11 made its public debut this past weekend, unveiled at the Osaka Motorcycle Show.

Thanks to spy shots and details that leaked ahead of the bike’s debut, there aren’t too many surprises to be found from this Africa Twin powered roadster.

In fact, the biggest surprise is not on the spec-sheet, as Honda is so far saying that the Hawk11 is destined only for the Japanese market, with nary a word from the European and North American subsidiaries about the bike arriving in those regions.

Depending on how the bike strikes you, that might be bad news, as the 1,082cc parallel-twin engine (curiously, 2cc less than expected) promises to be a torquey and powerful power plant for sporty street riding.

Borrowing a chassis from the Africa Twin though, the Honda Hawk11 misses on some of the better styling cues that we have seen in this segment from other brands.

However, that fact might be a byproduct of the Hawk11 equation, as Honda is clearly trying to keep costs down on the street bike by borrowing bits and bobs from the Africa Twin 1100 ADV bike and NT1100 tourer.

Despite all this, the Japanese brand is very tight-lipped so far on details (with perhaps more are to come at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show), but we would expect aggressive pricing for the Honda Hawk11.

What we do know is what we can see, which is that the Honda Hawk11 has a six-speed sequential gearbox, with no DCT in sight. That could change with a different trim option, but it keeps in line with the bike’s budget focus.

Similarly, the dash is a no-thrills LCD unit, brakes are by Nissin, and the suspension is from Showa (SFF-BP forks at the front).

The round dash gives away options for traction control and engine braking control (similar to the other 1,100cc twin bikes), with a variety of engine modes for the throttle response.

So far, Honda has made strong offerings from this versatile engine, so we have high hopes for the Honda Hawk11. The devil is in the details though, and in that regard we are lacking in information.

Hopefully more news about the Honda Hawk11 is coming soon.