Bat Man's bike or rebirth of the Aerial Leader?

[canuck750]

I saw on of these Honda NM4 bikes in a dealer show room on New Years Eve, it stops you in its tracks, not to my taste but I have to hand it to Honda for pushing the envelope with these new interpretations of two wheel transport.
 
I wonder how the Brits felt when the Aerial Leader hit the show room for the 1st time?

http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/honda-nm4-spending-time-with-hondas-anime-bike

Honda has a couple other bikes with hints of the Jetson styling, CTX1300, CTX700T, must be signs of my age but I much prefer what Guzzi offers with their new line up of retro.

[AMGeneral]

"It even has disc brakes!"

[C5Performance]

I try to be open minded but having spent 22 years as manager of a dealership, this will not be successful in the USA.
We (American riders) didn't buy the Honda Ruin, DN01, or even the NC700. We didn't buy the Yamaha GTS1000, or the Suzuki B-King.
Customers want something that looks and feels "familiar".

Hopefully I'm wrong. It is nice to see something different, even if I don't personally like it.
Good luck Honda!

[Sasquatch Jim]

  It'snot my style.

[rodekyll]

This bike was designed by the dungeon master to look like that guy in the hat and cape that used to patrol europe's urban streets providing honey bucket services to the pedestrians.  It was recently superceded by a disk brake-equipped porta potty when it was discovered that the potty had more character, cornered better, and actually attracted women.

[balvenie]

His tail-bone was on fire after 30 minutes. nuffsed

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

IMO, the Ariel Leader is a beauty queen compared to those Honda abortions.

[fotoguzzi]

reminds me of a Victory Vision.

[lomax]

Not sure if I would own one, but I like it when designers go a bit wacky and come up with interesting designs.

I one had a kid at the grocery store ask me if my Stelvio was out of a Bat Man movie.  ;-T

Marc

[boatdetective]

I read that it was a design study by two young people at honda and was intended specifically to appeal to non traditional buyers asa  means of expanding thier base. In that respect, I think it's inriguing. I saw one in a dealership and have to say it is original.

[centauro]

Well,
in typical marketing think, its yet another way to steal some sales from the scooter market, which is  becoming more and more popular and appealing to the other non-motorcycle people.

[mgfan]

The PC 800 was introduced to broaden their market base. Is history repeating itself yet again?  :BEER:

[azccj]

It sure is different looking ::). Personally I wouldn't buy one because it has no storage compared to my Burgman 650. And I don't like chain drives all that much. But someone who is just getting into motorcycling and doesn't want to learn to use a clutch and doesn't want to own a scooter, this might work.

[krglorioso]

I worked for an Ariel dealer in Mt. Vernon, NY when this critter was brought over to delight the American riders.  Ariel at the time had a lovely Red Hunter scrambler (with lights) a 500 single beautifully finished, and a Huntsman 650 Twin, which was a decent bike for the day.  Then, Ariel decided that if the production of the "LE" in the early 1950s could wreck Velocette, why not spend a fortune to create the Leader and wreck Ariel?  Well, it worked.

The Leader and its sporty counterpart, the Arrow, had their moments, but they really didn't measure up any more than any other British lightweights made the grade.  Fast forward a couple of years and the Honda CB-72 250 Hawk and CB92 Benly 125 twins came over and chased those awful Brit creations away, and their factories with them.

Ralph